Capital Reef, Arches, Canyonlands, Denver, Alpharetta, and home again.

September 22^nd

We woke up and packed up the car/camper fairly quickly. We decided to hit a detour on the way to Moab. We figured out that only going 30-45 minutes out of our way we could make sure we hit all 5 of Utah’s National Parks. It is about a 2.5 hour drive from Bryce to Capitol Reef, and another 2 to 2.5 hours to Moab.

The route between Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef is not a very well-traveled one, by people at least. We passed by farmlands most of the way. There was a paucity of fences, as every animal seemed to be free ranging from cows to sheep to chickens, all of which seemed to think the road was a very convenient place to walk. We also got very lucky and saw a Golden Eagle enjoying some nice roadkill, only a few feet from the car! The unlucky part of the wildlife was the poor bird who decided to fly into our bike rack, and then camper….

We got to Capitol Reef and stopped at the Welcome Center to grab a map.

There is essentially one road that runs into the actual protected lands, and few hikes off the road. We were running short on time, so we did not get the chance to do any hiking in the park. We did take the scenic drive, elegantly named the scenic drive. As we did not have time or a 4 wheel drive vehicle, we only drove the paved 8 mile road and then turned around. We did stop to get out and take pictures a few times, and talk about which cliffs and boulders we thought we could climb if allowed. We did splurge on the self-guided tour pamphlet so we would sort of know what we were looking at.

We learned that Capitol Reef was names that because the first people who arrive to the area felt like it looked like a coral reef, although it is in no way geographically similar. It was actually formed as a wrinkle in the Earth’s crust call a Waterpocket Fold. It is a 100 mile long uplift in the layers of the surface. This area is prone to flash floods and has several “washes” in the area. This cycle of erosion is still continuing.

Some of the first settlers to the area in the late 1800s were Mormons. They irrigated the valley and planted orchards. After the land was taken over by the park service and settlers moved away the orchards have been maintained, and can be used by park visitors. We stopped to pick some apples for our drive. We had a lot of fun picking our own apples and enjoying them in the orchards.

After our scenic drive we stopped by the Gifford House Store and bought some locally made queso and a fresh made cinnamon roll to share for lunch.

We then had to restart our drive to get on our way to Moab, as we actually had a date.

My really good friend, Ryan, and his twin brother, Andrew, were planning to meet us in Moab. They live in Denver, and both took the day off to enjoy the weekend exploring with us. They also enjoying hiking and camping. Ryan, I met in residency, and is a sassy family medicine physician. His twin, is a PhD software engineer, so I thought he would be excellent company for Greg, and I was not wrong.

The drive to Moab, was very desolate desert and very minimally populated. Thankfully however we had no more herds of roadblocks, and I didn’t hit any more wildlife along the way.

We got to our campsite, at another fancy private campground, and started getting set up. We were still getting set up when Ryan and Andrew dropped in. They had actually arrived to Moab first, but due to construction from a parade, and a grocery store stop they showed up a little later to the actual campground. They got their tents set up as we finished our camper. The campsite had approximately 20 square feet of grass on which they had space to set up their backpacking tents next to our picnic table. The two cars and camper exactly filled the gravel parking space. This was definitely one of our least scenic campgrounds, but unfortunately the campground in Arches was closed for road construction.

After a few minutes/possibly hours of catching up we decided to go check out Arches. We all piled into Ryan’s Prius and headed the 10 minute drive to the park. We weren’t able to stop by the visitor center as it was already closing for the day. We were able to grab a newspaper with a map.

Arches is a relatively small National Park with essentially one main road from the entrance, to the back of the park. We drove about half the length of the park, and decided to make our first stop the Delicate Arch. The Delicate Arch is the arch featured on the Utah license plate. There is a trail that allows you to walk right up to it, or you can essentially drive to the bottom and enjoy from the overlook. We opted to walk up to it. This an easy 3 mile roundtrip trail. As it was approaching sunset, a popular time to photograph the shifting colors on the arches, it was a relatively crowded trail. The landscape was very reminenscent of a an alien dessert landscape like Mars or Tatooine.

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We waited out the tourists until we were able to get a picture with just the four of us and the arch, selfie style. Then we walked around the back and enjoyed the views in a little more solitude. On our way back towards the car we did stop at some pteroglyphs, near the parking lot.

We got back in the car and decided we still had plenty of light left to do another shorter trail. We opted to do the Windows trail, an easy 1 mile loop trail taking you passed the windows which look like a pair of glasses at the right angle. This trail was easy and essentially empty on the return trip as we took the slightly longer loop around the back. We were greeted with a stunning sunset on our walk back to the car.

There was no more sunlight and we were hungry so we headed back to the campsite for dinner. I believe we made some grilled pizza with leftover pulled pork, and it was delicious. Then we enjoyed some beers and games with known company for the first time in almost 3 months.

September 23, 2017

We got a slow start Saturday morning. We had decided to spend the day in Canyonlands. This was about a 45 minute drive from Moab to get to the entrance we were looking for. Canyonlands is park made up of the intersection of the Green and Colorado Rivers emphasizing its diverse desert landscape which includes the obvious canyons, but also mesas, buttes, fines, arches, and spires of the high desert. The park is divided into 3 sections, The Needles, The Maze, and Island in the Sky. Island in the Sky is most accessible and features more of the mesas and high dessert with overlooks down into the Needles and Maze sections below. You might recognize some of the scenery as it was heavily featured on the HBO show West World, which is awesome and highly recommended if you have never seen it before.

The Island in the Sky section of the park features two main roads essentially forming a Y shape mimicking the junction of the Colorado and Green Rivers. After our stop at the visitor center to fill our water packs we headed along the road in search of some hiking and sightseeing opportunities. There are a couple of big hike options, but we ultimately opted to see more of the park with a selection of shorter hikes at more viewpoints along the way.

Our first stop and hike was heading to Mesa Arch. This Arch is perched on the precipice of the canyon and allows breathtaking views below. It is a ½ mile loop trail, that anyone would be remiss if they skipped. We could see the La Sal Mountains out in the distance, beneath a heavily clouded sky.

Our next stop was a walk up onto Whale Rock, which allowed us a couple of hundred feet of elevation gain and even more impressive views than we originally had. This was an easy 1 mile loop trail up a sandstone dome that is shaped like the back of a giant whale, or for any Dune fans out there of a giant sandworm.

After that we headed towards the end of one part of the road and explored the Upheaval Dome, which is less dome and more giant pit in the ground. This “Dome” continues to confound scientists as there is still active debate as to if it a collapsed salt dome or remnants of an asteroid crater. We walked along the dome counterclockwise towards the second overlook. We stopped here to have lunch with stunning views from our elevation. We picked such a good spot, that many others soon flocked to mimic us eventually crowding us away and back towards the car. This was about a 1.5 mile trail, again very easy and flat.

From there we started heading back along the road towards the other fork and additional overlooks. We stopped at the Green River Overlook, I think. We then continued towards the Grand View Point Overlook. Per our handy guidebook, we opted to take the less traveled White Rim Overlook trail. This is a 1.8 mile easy out and back trail. It allowed for views of the Colorado River, Monument Basin, and the La Sal Mountains. This time when we were able to see the Mountains, we were able to see that the impending clouds that were swirling around them were actually coating them in snow! This was a relatively uncrowded trail with some pretty incredible views of the basin below, highly recommended.

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We finished our day with a quick stop at the Grand View Point Overlook, but opted to skip the trail as it seemed similar to what we had just experienced. We drove out of the park, and debated trying to stop at another state park on the way out, but in general were feeling unmotivated. We drove the hour back to the campsite to enjoy another delicious dinner and drinks.

The clouds that had been threatening all day finally hit after we had gotten back to the camper. We enjoyed some rain, followed by hail, and then were greeted with a double rainbow. Ryan and Andrew enjoyed being able to wait out the hail in the luxury of the camper, but I must say they did a good job setting up their tents as a quick survey of the handful of other tents in the campground showed that theirs were the only ones that didn’t start to crumple, fly away, or leak.

September 24^th

We had been unable to get the Meintzes to commit to checking out Arches again before they drove back to Denver before we went to bed. So when we woke up we continued to pester them to try to get in a more thorough hike than we had demonstrated the day before. They ultimately decided to pass since they had a six hour drive and both had some errands to get in before heading back to work the next day.

So we all woke up, had a good breakfast, and packed up. We parted ways, with plans to meet up in Denver in the next couple of days.

Greg and I headed towards Arches. We took the camper and drove to the farthest parking lot along the scenic drive to go see Devil’s Garden. We had planned to do the Primitive Trail, which is 7.2 miles roundtrip and listed as difficult but mainly just for distance as it had almost no elevation change.

The primitive Trail passes along some of the most well recognized features of the park including Landscape Arch, the world’s longest Arch. 

We also checked out Partition Arch,

Navajo Arch,

and the Double O Arch (My favorite by far).

This was another trail where we spent a lot of time touching rock and saying “I could climb that”.

It ended up being a beautiful day with perfect hiking weather and bluebird skies. We didn’t take the side trail to the Dark Angel Pinnacle or to the Private Arch since we were running low on time. We had plans to meet with my brother Jeremy for dinner in Denver. We managed to high tail it on the trail and finish within 2.5 hours or so.

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We bid adieu to our last National Park of the trip with hearts full of and wonderful memories, healthy tanned fit bodies after months of daily hikes and heads trepidation about returning to normal life and responsibility.

Somberly, we then started on the long drive to Denver. This is where we got familiar with our new constant companion, I-70, the highway that would take us back to the East Coast. We stopped to get an oil change along the way as well.

We really enjoyed looking at the aspens and appreciating the brilliant colors that changed as the road crept up in elevation. It even started snowing on us when we got towards the ski resorts and passed through the Eisenhower Tunnel!

We made it to Jeremy and Brandy’s house in time to change for dinner and jump back in the car. We ended up meeting with Tara and Frank (Brandy’s sister and brother in law) and Brandy’s cousin and fiancé. We enjoyed some delicious Hibachi and being able to brag about all our adventures and climbing to other climbers (Tara and Frank). Then we headed back to the house and spent some quality time together.

September 25^th

We got to sleep in, in real beds, inside of 4 walls for the first time in 3 months with running water, electricity, wifi and company! It was quite the luxury. Jeremy made us some gourmet French press coffee and pancakes for breakfast. Greg and I caught up on some reading and chilling time. After we all got ready we headed to the Aquarium and again met up with Brandy’s cousins. We walked around and enjoyed to fish and reptiles and even tigers. Her cousins had to return to the airport, and we had to go grab some snacks before dinner.

We ended up stopping at a brewery to grab a beer and some snacks. Then we headed back to the house for a little while. We ended up meeting Ryan again for dinner at an awesome burger joint.

Again we enjoyed a relaxing night in good company. I apologize for not remembering more details.

September 26^th

We woke up early to get in as much driving as we could across the Great Plains. We said our goodbyes with the Moncktons and hit the road. We spent the whole day driving on I-70 with the goal to make it to St. Louis before we stopped. We spent the time in our usual way, chatting, blogging, reading interesting facts aloud from Wikipedia (Greg), crosswords, singing, and mostly comfortable silence.

We were waylaid by having a flat tire somewhere in the middle of Kansas. Through teamwork and good fortune, we were able to replace the tire, find an air pump, fill it with air, get to a tire shop, and get 2 new tires for the pop-up, and get back on the road all within an hour or so.

We made it just shy of St. Louis, by about an hour. We stopped for the night at a motel around 10pm, after our longest day of driving to date, 780 miles give or take.

September 27^th – 29^th

We got up fairly early, first ones to the continental breakfast. Then, too soon, we were back on the road, aching from a whole day of nonuse. Our goal for the day was dinner with our friends, Alyssa (my maid of honor) and her husband Chris, in Alpharetta Georgia.

Again, not much to say about the drive itself, thankfully it was uneventful. We did start looking for jobs for Greg and reading out job postings aloud. I now have a slightly better idea what exactly he does for a living.

We arrived for dinnertime. We ended up stopping by Publix to grab some food to cook for dinner. Alyssa and Chris are new parents. They welcomed a new addition to their family while we were on our trip, Lily. Lily was almost 2 months old when we visited, which is to say Alyssa and Chris were very tired.

We had mostly relaxing time enjoying each other’s company, and enjoying holding and caring for Lily. Greg also made ample use of their hot tub, which is his favorite part about their house. We had a couple of ventures out into the world like a trip to Top Golf one day and a lunch outing meeting up with Dan and Kristen on the next. It was awesome getting to spend so much time together and seeing Lily for the first time.

September 30^th

We had to go home.

 

So we went.

It was exceptionally anticlimactic. We arrived in the mid-afternoon to our beautiful, but large, empty house without any fanfare. We started unpacking the contents of our minimalist lives, talking about how if we did it again we would bring even less with us.

Lauren and Lee met us there a few hours later. They brought months’ worth of mail, my car, but most importantly, our sweet dog, Mocha. Even Mocha was in shock to see us, and took a few days to realize we weren’t going to leave her again.

We cooked dinner in our full size kitchen and enjoyed the company of our best friends, and tried to ignore reality a little longer.

 

Our Honey Popping 11-week-long all-outdoor National-Park-full camper-life honeymoon extravaganza was at an end.

We were more in love than ever, confident in our ability to face any challenge together. We had and have no major regrets. To this day, we cannot recommend highly enough taking a similar trip of your own. We still have a ton of pictures to go through and edit before we share them. I still have editing to do on the blog before I put it into book form. More than anything, we are still struggling with the fact that we are no longer dirtbags, that we are contributing thoughtful members of society, who pay a mortgage and go to our 9 to 5s. Acceptance is coming with time.

We are unequivocally excited about what trips and adventures the future holds for us, and know that our camping and exploring days are just beginning.

Grand Canyon North Rim and Bryce Canyon

Part 16 – Grand Canyon North Rim, Bryce Canyon

September 17^th, continued

After leaving Zion Park, we drove the 2 or so hours to Kaibob National Forest, our campground for the night. We quickly found our campsite and set up. It was a very nice National Forest campground, with a surprising number of sites. It also had very clean, and clearly recently built pit toilets. We would highly recommend this campground. The reason we ended up here, is that there is only one campground in the National Park, and it has reservable sites so it fills up pretty quickly, and we were not as on top of it as we were with other stops on our trip. The National Park entrance was only about 10 minutes from the campground we stayed at, so it really wasn’t bad at all. National Forests are also notoriously cheaper than Park campsites, so don’t forget to look at those sites if you are ever planning a trip.

We got all set up by 5 o’clock or so, which left us time for some exploring. We headed towards the Grand Canyon so that we could get maps and trail information so we could plan for the next couple of days. We were able to grab a map from the outside of the closed entrance hut then decided to drive around a little bit. We ended up driving towards the Grand Canyon Lodge and Visitor Center. The Visitor Center was still open, so we stopped in and looked around a little bit. We had already essentially planned which hike we were going to do by the time we got there so we didn’t have too many questions. We headed over to the Lodge just to look around and see if we could have dinner some night during our stay. We opted to schedule a late dinner Tuesday night, as late dinner was our only option. After making our reservation we went out onto the back patio for a couple of minutes as it was around sunset, and this is THE spot to watch it from. We didn’t decide to stay to watch that night as our stomachs were a little too rumbly and we had not brought our jackets with us. We drove back to the campsite and cooked some dinner. After the sun went down, the temperature dropped pretty quickly, so we did our cooking inside. We planned out our next two days, played some card games and headed to bed.

September 18^th

For the first time, we slept in on a big hike day. We knew that we wanted to hike down into the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, all of the books and guides we looked into recommended not going all the way to the bottom and back up in a single day, because “it is more difficult than running a marathon”. We also realized that if we were to do it from the North Rim, it takes a full 14 miles to go from the Rim to the Colorado River. We opted to go to the farthest point that they recommended in a day hike from the North Rim, Roaring Springs. They say that the Roaring Springs Day Use Area has 3280 feet of elevation loss on the way down, with the same amount of gain on the way back up. It is approximately 4.7 miles long each way. They believe that it will take between 6-9 hours to complete; obviously we were hoping to do it in less. As I recall, it was a little after 11am by the time we got to the trailhead. It had a nice parking area, with outhouses, and fresh water for filling your packs. We used the hottest part of the day to go downhill, which ended up being a really good idea.

We also passed some Grand Canyon Buffalo and some wild Turkeys on our way in. The Grand Canyon Buffalo looked like little babies compared to the ones we saw in Yellowstone. These ones just looked like fuzzy brown cows.

You pass several look out points on your way down the canyon, although the view from almost anywhere on the trail was pretty incredible. The three notable stops also serve as turn-around points for less ambitious hikers. They are Coconino Overlook, Supai Tunnel, and Redwall Bridge. Each of the stops also includes additional water filling stations and pit toilets except for Redwall Bridge. The biggest draw back to the whole trail was that the famous Grand Canyon mules share the North Kaibab Trail from the trailhead down to the Supai Tunnel 2 miles in. The mules keep the ground much softer and torn up, and also much stinkier. While all humans are required to carry out all of their own waste, the same requirements are not held for mules. The trail was covered in mule droppings, and smelled like it. Like a lot of popular trails, the farther we went, the less people we saw. We passed a lot of people headed back up as we were headed down.

We took our time going down, as I was trying to reserve my energy for the entirely uphill walk on the way back out. Greg started to get a little worried about the amount of time we had before dark the last mile or so to the Roaring Springs area. All of our guide books told us that it takes usually twice as long to go back up as it does to go down. For some reason we took this heart, even though we have a really good idea of how long it takes us to hike up hill (about 1 mile in 35 minutes with 1000ft of gain) and how long it takes us to go downhill (1 mile in 20-25 minutes). We also know that it takes us longer to go out than it takes us to come back because we purposely take more time to enjoy the scenery and take most of our pictures. We have long since learned that if you think something looks cool now, take the picture because it might be completely different the next time you see it. Anyway we discussed our pacing once we got to the bottom, and both felt reassured that we could hike at our usual pace and still most likely take no more than 6 hours total.

At Roaring Springs, there wasn’t much to look at as you passed the Springs way before you got to the actual day use area. We sat and enjoyed our snacks. Refilled our packs, not that we had drank too much given that the temperature was pretty perfect, and the trail was partially shaded. After our rest, we started our trek back up the canyon.

It was easier than I expected, at least back to the Redwall Bridge. Then you get to the first of many, many switchbacks. I was mentally prepared for the first couple miles of switchbacks. I was not mentally prepared for the last two miles of the trail, which as I already mentioned were the mule shared section of the trail. You definitely get a strong eau du mule when you are dodging piles of grass heavy stool and pungent puddles of urine. In addition to that magnificent benefit, the mules are kind enough to take a nice hard packed trail and make it entirely sandy; because all uphill climbs are better with more resistance. Thankfully it was neither overly long nor overly steep and we were able to make it up to our car within an hour or two. We did end up taking more rests at this part of the uphill section due to the sandy smelliness. The sun had raced us up the canyon, and thankfully the sun won. So we got to enjoy the entirety of the hike in the shade. We would actually strongly recommend anyone doing this hike to start the same time we did, because for once, later was less crowded and less hot.

After our hike we headed back to our campsite to chill out and make some dinner. We made a fire and drank hot cocoa. It was a perfect fall night, although a couple of days before actual fall.

September 19^th

We wanted to make this a very relaxing day. We slept in, again, ate a nice breakfast, and then headed into the park. Our goal was to see as much of the park as possible, and not really go on any super long hikes. We started off the morning by heading up towards cape Royal. We decided to stop and get out at a few sites along the road. We stopped at Roosevelt Point and looked around; this was a particularly windy view point.

FYI Roosevelt is the favorite president to honor if you are in the National Park System, because he established four new National Parks but more importantly helped sign the Antiquities Act into law which allowed him and future presidents to designate land of historic or cultural significance as national monuments and place them under federal jurisdiction.

Then we stopped and decided to walk the Cape Final Trail. This was a 4.2 mile roundtrip trail with essentially no elevation gain. It followed the edge of the canyon for the second half of the trail, with the first half being in the forest. In the forest we were able to catch our first glimpse, of what we thought was a skunk and later determined to be North Rim Squirrel. Essentially all national parks have their own species of squirrels. This was another trail that had very few other people on it. We were able to enjoy the view point in solitude, and we had 270 degrees views. We could see up to 100 miles away. We were very grateful to enjoy smoke free skies. We strongly recommend this trail, and were surprised it was so empty given how easily accessible and easy to do it was.

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From Cape Final we drove to the end of the road towards Cape Royal. We took the easy paved half mile or so trail to Angel’s Window and the overlook at Cape Royal and took some more pictures. Then it was time for lunch and we got to enjoy it at a picnic table, just next to their wedding site.

Then we took the long drive back towards the other view point at Point Imperial. Point Imperial is the highest elevation in the Grand Canyon at 8800 feet. This also gives you an overlook of the only area with climbable rock.  Unfortunately it was a trad climbing only route, and so we didn’t get to do any climbing. The approach also looked a little questionable.

After we felt like we had our share of sweeping vistas, we headed back towards the Lodge. We stopped by the Visitor Center again, to ask some more specific questions about the lodging options at the bottom of the canyon, and what we needed to do the next time we came so that we would be able to hike the Rim to Rim Trail. From there we took the quick walk out to Bright Angel Point, the best place to see the South Rim and down to the bottom of the canyon where we were hiking the day before. We decided to walk the loop from Bright Angel over to the General Store and back to the parking area. We stopped at the General Store, where I bought a pair of shorts and Greg got a T-shirt on clearance.

Back at the car, we dropped off our purchases and changed clothes for dinner. We went to check in at the lodge even though we were still a couple of hours early, just in case they had a cancellation. They didn’t. We ended up grabbing some chairs out on the patio and watching the sun set. It was incredibly beautiful. We also started chatting with the couple next to us, since they were also from Charlotte! We had grabbed some beers, we had stored in the car and enjoyed them while the sun set. Our neighbors were enjoying their bottle of wine.

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With the sun down, it kept cooling down. We were cold despite our jackets, so we decided to head inside to the sun room. Since it was getting later, most people had filtered out or had already been sat for dinner. We eventually did check in and get seated, although we did enjoy some more time reading on our Kindles before we did.

We were ravenous by the time we sat down. We had ordered delicious appetizers and inhaled them. Greg believes he got elk and I got scallops for dinner, but I honestly can’t remember. He insists it was because it was very unmemorable food. I think it may have had something to do with the bottle of wine we shared. It was during dinner we found out that all the employees at most national parks, those who aren’t rangers, are usually contracted with the outside contracting companies and all of those jobs are listed on coolworks.com.

We were happy and satiated after dinner, and headed home to curl up in the warmth of our camper.

September 20^th

We didn’t have to wake up too early, since Bryce Canyon was only a 3 hour drive. We were able to enjoy breakfast, and then pack up. We got on the road and headed north. We pulled into Ruby’s Inn Campground and got set up. Like our campsite at Zion, this is a luxury campground with all the fixins. It had a pool, hot tub, bathrooms with free showers, water hook ups, electric hook ups, optional cable hook ups, free wifi, and shuttle service into the National Park.

Since we got in pretty early in the afternoon, we decided to see as much of the park as we could, since we only had one and half days at Bryce. This would be our shortest scheduled stop so far. We headed in the park and went up the scenic drive. Bryce is a very small park, and is much longer than it is wide. The scenic drive covers the length of the park, 18 miles. We drove all the way to the end at Rainbow Point. We walked the Bristlecone Trail, about a mile long and very easy. It takes you along several viewpoints, most of which are unoccupied. We stopped by several of the points of interest along the drive on the way back towards the entrance.

We were having trouble finding Greg’s camera. We couldn’t remember packing it that morning. We realized we hadn’t seen it since the night before, on our way to dinner. When we got phone signal, we called the Grand Canyon Lodge. They had the camera, and would be happy to mail it, as they dealt with lost and found items multiple times per day. We had them mail it on to Lauren and Lee’s house, but we felt significantly better knowing it was found. Greg would have to get by with just his cell phone and my old point and shoot camera.

We made our way back towards the Bryce Canyon Amphitheater. Here we realized we still had a couple of hours before dark, and so we decided to walk from Sunrise Point down Queen’s Garden Trail up the Navajo Loop Trail, through Wall Street, up to Sunset Point. It ended up being a 3.4 mile loop with 600 feet of elevation change. I was initially hesitant, as I am at the start of most hikes, fighting with my innate laziness and being overly concerned we would not have enough time. However, I am so glad that we went on this hike as it was so beautiful, and hit a lot of the most photographed places in the canyon. It also was the hike I remember most clearly from doing the similar trip with my parents when I was younger.

Hiking back up to Sunset Point we were reminded how lucky we were to be in good shape, and be acclimatized to the altitude, as there was one man who’s struggle to walk up the switchbacks was painful to watch. We made sure that he did eventually make it to the top.

After our hike, the sun was already down, so we headed back to the camper to enjoy some dinner and games.

September 21

We knew we wanted to see as much as possible of every place we visited in the time we were allotted, this obviously included Bryce Canyon. Our plan was to get in a big hike, to explore the section of the amphitheater we hadn’t seen the day prior. The Fairyland Trail was our objective. It was a 8 mile trail with 1700 feet of elevation gain, but was the only strenuous trail that explored the most southern aspect of the park, it also managed to avoid any horse trails.

It truly was a spectacular trail and like most strenuous trails was not very crowded, especially first thing in the morning. Despite the beautiful trail, that morning was still a struggle for me because my stomach was not on board the activity train. My stomach had a strong preference for lying around all day, in bed, not hiking 8 miles. However, when In Bryce Canyon, you go see Bryce Canyon, so lying around was not an option. I did mandate additional stops, and opt out of the offshoot towards the Tower Bridge.

We really enjoyed the section of the trail that was closer to Fairyland Point, as it seemed to have a ton of impressive formations. The section closer to Sunrise Point was a lot plainer, particularly after you passed the Tower Bridge.

We wrapped up the hike by heading to the Lodge to use the bathrooms and check out the gift shop. We thought about stopping to eat lunch at their restaurant, but my stomach wasn’t really on board for that either. We headed to the camper, and decided to make use of all the available luxuries. We went and enjoyed the hot tub and listened to some streaming music. We had also made use of our electric hook-up and finally utilized the slow cooker we had packed with us. We had an awesome pulled pork shoulder waiting to be enjoyed for dinner after our nice soak.

Overall, we loved the park, but were pleasantly surprised to find out that a day and a half was probably enough time to enjoy the vast majority of the sights. Most people spend about 4 hours in the entirety of their trip to the park, which is definitely not enough time. Next time we would consider back packing the Under the Rim Trail and taking our chances at getting a first come first serve campsite within the park.

 

Up Next:

Capital Reef, Canyonlands, Arches, and the long drive home

Zion Canyon

September 15^th

We woke up early as we had to drive from Sequoia, in California, through Nevada and part of Arizona up into Utah to get to Zion. Google predicted almost 9 hours of just driving time, which usually translates to at least 11 hours of in the car time if not longer. We de-popped and got on the road without any hitches. We stopped and grabbed gas and breakfast after about an hour or so of driving. No breakfast first thing in the morning helps us shave off quite a bit of time in the packing up process. The drive through Southern California offered a lot of views of orchards and grape vines. Yet again, we were impressed at how much grapes love dry weather. The eastern edge of the state through Nevada and Arizona is all desert. You do get to drive along the edge of the Mojave which is pretty cool, but still desert.

We did stop in Las Vegas for our next tank of gas and lunch. We opted to grab some Asian fusion burgers at a delicious little spot called Bachi Burger. It was nice to enjoy a not drive-through lunch. We got back on the road and drove on. Like previous stretches of drive we spent a lot of time looking out the window appreciating the view and debating if we could climb anything on the landscape. We had also started spending a lot of time on Wikipedia learning about the places we were driving through.

We pulled into the Zion Canyon Campground and were pleased that it was less than a mile from the entrance along the main road, and the campground backed up to the river which marked the boundary of the park. You could see a fair amount of beautiful rock formations from throughout the campground.

We got all set up, made some dinner, and then walked around the town a little bit. I instantly fell in love with Springfield which is the small town right outside of the park. It has the main road going through town with little shops, restaurants, and hotels along the side. It runs a free shuttle service along the main drag throughout most of the day, and the shuttle takes you all the way to the entrance of Zion. Once you get to Springfield you have no need of a car, which provides a pleasant respite for those who have spent hours in their car most days over the last 2 months!

We headed to bed after a shower and enjoying an awesome storm roll in.

September 16^th

We woke up to a very dismal looking day weather wise. Our initial plan was to wake up early to avoid the rain, but it was already raining by 6am. So we turned that alarm right off, rolled on over, and slept til 8 am. We made ourselves a lovely breakfast and with full stomachs and undue optimism we packed our backpacks for the day, grabbed our rain gear, and headed out. We took the bus to the entrance, and then walked through the pedestrian entrance. We then took the free Zion shuttle to the Emerald Pools Trailhead. We figured we could start on a short trail so that if the storm started getting worse we could either turn around or finish our trail quickly. It also had the option, if weather improved, for extending the hike. Because of the rain and more notably the lightning potential, it made the option of Angel’s Landing much less appealing. It also increased the flash flood potential to “Expected”, so that the Narrows was closed for safety reasons.

It rained for the first few minutes of the hike but then stopped, and so it was just a very overcast day. We got off on the The Grotto stop, and took the Kayenta Trail to the Upper Emerald Pools. We stopped and took a few photos there, then worked our way down to the Lower Emerald Pools.

I believe we passed the Middle Emerald Pools, but technically they were shut down at the beginning of the season from a mudslide or something on the trail. From here we could see that a waterfall had actually started flowing down to the Upper Emerald Pool since we had walked away! The rainfall finally caught up! We then walked across the Lower Emerald Pools and down to Zion Lodge. Overall this was a fairly crowded trail because it was so short and easy (ie paved), totaling 3 miles, I think.

We stopped in at the Lodge to use the bathrooms, look around, and sit to eat lunch. The weather was holding out so we decided to try Angel’s Landing. We walked the 1 mile easy Grotto Trail to get to the Trailhead.  The trail itself is 5 mile round trip, this is an out and back trail so it is 2.5 miles each way. It is comprised of predominantly switchbacks, but generally makes a U shape back towards the center of the valley. The switchbacks are called “Walter’s Wiggles”. Walter was the first superintendent for the park and constructed the switchbacks back in the 1920s. They weren’t too bad, but one of us (me), did need to take a rest to get all the way up. After the Wiggles you get to Scout Lookout which has some really horrible smelling pit toilets, but is the start of the chained section of the trail that is so popularly photographed. By the time we got to the Lookout, the sky was clear and bright blue. We had awesome views the rest of the way up. A lot of the trail from the Lookout to the top is essentially single file so it can take a while because of the number of people who are on the trail, but luckily I think the weather kept it from being crazy crowded. Greg of course was not at all intimidated by the trail itself, and gloated that he didn’t even need to use the chains at any point. I definitely did get a little scared in sections, but I think it was because I felt like I was supposed to and that something terrifying would be around every turn. The drop offs were definitely not the worst that we had seen, and generally it really was a solid wide trail compared to my expectations.

We were able to stay up at the top long enough to get in some great views, but clouds did start to roll in, with potential lightning so we then started working our way down to get off the exposed rocky bits. At the Lookout we took a little break for snacks. We walked the rest of the way back to the bus stop, and actually the weather improved.

We took the bus to the end of the canyon, and got off at the river walk area and walked around for a while. Then we got back on the bus and took it back to the visitor center. We went in the Visitor Center to ask questions and look around. Afterwards, we walked back to the campsite. It ended up being a very full day with some excellent sights.

Back at the campground we were actually pretty spent so we made dinner, and made plans for the rest of our time at park if our weather cooperated.

September 17^th

This day we were more successful at waking up a little bit earlier to start our day. We were at the trailhead by 8am or so, but we had definitely noted a lot more traffic heading into the park. The bus system in Zion works exceptionally well with buses every 10-15 minutes, usually with space for more passengers. It should be the model on which all the other parks base their bus systems.

Our trail for the day was Observation Point. A strenuous 8 mile trail, out and back, with 2148 feet of elevations gain. This starts at the Weeping Rock stop, and you can get an overlook of Weeping Rock early on into the trail. This actually ended up being my favorite trail while we were in the park (Yes, more than Angel’s Landing or the Narrows). It was a much sunnier day, so definitely got a lot warmer. We passed through beautiful slot canyons on the way up. Then you get to see some overlooks of not only Zion Canyon but also looking more towards the east side of the park.

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You start at the base of the canyon near the red orange rock, the orange rock slowly transitions to yellow rock, and then continues to lighten to white that’s nearly blinding in the midday sun.

I would highly recommend this hike.  The views from the top looking across the canyon were incomparable. We half jogged our way down the last mile of switchbacks out of boredom and urinary urgency.

After this we headed towards the museum to check out some exhibits of early people and settling of the area. We had also headed out of the canyon to try to get signal so Greg could try calling the manager at his old job at Nascent to see if the position was still available, but no answer.

We ended up just calling it an early day and leaving the park. Immediately outside of the park is a little brewery called Zion Brewery. There are a lot of unusual alcohol laws in Utah. For instance if you want to have an alcoholic beverage in a restaurant you must order food, if it is a bar this does not hold true. Grocery stores cannot sell beer or wine over 4% ABV, so a lot of breweries make special “Utah Version”. Do not purchase this beer; it is watered down beer, just drive to the nearest liquor store where they will carry the normal beer and wine. We shared an appetizer of loaded Irish Nachos and each enjoyed a beer. I had a Hefeweizen and Greg the Red Ale, the trick to enjoying a 4% beer is choosing a beer that would have been low ABV anyway, not a “Utah” IPA. After our food we spent some time going in and out of different shops to find a good shirt for Greg, but couldn’t find exactly what he was looking for.

We ultimately landed back at our campground with plenty of time to make dinner and hang out.

September 18^th

We decided to make today a climbing day, as there was a wall Greg could not live his life without climbing: The Namaste Wall in the Kolob area. So we woke up early and drove the hour north to the Kolob Canyons section of the park. This is at a higher elevation as the base of the canyons start at 5100 feet with walls that stretch two to three thousand feet taller than that. The Kolob Canyons were a later addition to the park. They are significantly less traveled but easily accessible off of I-15. It is also a little bit cooler temperature wise here from the elevation so it can be a nice respite if you travel during the hot summer months.

The wall we were headed towards is essentially along the South Fork of Taylor Creek. We walked about 45 minutes along this trail to get where we were headed. The trail was not often well marked and went through some creek beds. It was clear that we were the first ones on it that morning. This is when I realized that although we had climbed outside a bunch of times, it makes me anxious to do so. I start thinking very irrationally and it goes downhill quickly. I display this anxiety by walking slower and getting very grumpy on the way to the walls. Basically the morning before we actually get to the climbing is not a pleasant experience for either of us.

We eventually got to the wall and set up to start climbing. It was an awesome looking canyon with sport climbs on both sides. One wall is overhung and the other wall is a slab. We started on a long overhung 10c route that even Greg got pumped going up (Half Route). You get to climb cool huecos which are essentially holes in the wall, some of which are big enough to sit and rest inside of, and we both took the opportunity to do so. By the time I got started another group had showed up and started climbing. I took a long time getting up this route, for a lot of reasons, but mainly because I let it get into my head. It’s hard to climb well when you are scared. Controlling your emotions and building confidence is a very important skill if you actually want to climb well. It can be hard to do so in new environments, trying new moves, or trying different types of rock than you are used to. Greg usually does pretty well, and because I am usually on top rope I have essentially nothing to worry about from falls, but it still can get to me.

We then climbed a slab wall route to reset and rest our upper bodies a bit (Sand Surfing, 10b). Then we went back to the Namaste wall and Greg got to climb another route that was super overhung and like 100 feet long, Dost Mitra an 11b. We talked with some cool folks while we were setting up and cleaning up. We always enjoy talking with other climbers (Exception Mark and Jess, curse their names). One of the kids was in the process of applying to medical school, and I may have tried to convince him to go to PA school instead.

We walked back out of the canyon and for the first time that day finally took off our jackets, as the high walls kept the area shady and cool! We drove the 2 miles down to the end of the scenic drive where there were bathrooms, a picnic area, and a little scenic overlook trail. We ate lunch walking around the picnic area as the yellow jackets were rabidly attacking our food, and I was worried Greg had an allergy given how big his arm got from his last bite. The overlook was also super beautiful, and crazy easy to get to, as the retiree bus was passing us on our way back to the car. We stopped at another overlook on our way back out of the park to take some more pictures. I would definitely recommend spending a day in this area to anyone who plans to spend time in Zion.

We got back to our campsite, and decided to chill in the pool for a while since we could! Then we walked around town a little bit and grabbed some ice cream. We made dinner and started packing up.

September 19^th

We had to do the Narrows. There was no way we could skip one of the most hyped hikes in the National Parks. So we packed up the camper and drove into the park. Then we grabbed the shuttle to the Narrows stop. There were already quite a few people in the park, so we had to wait a few minutes for an empty shuttle. It takes a little over thirty minutes to drive the length of the canyon, so it was almost 9 am by the time we got to the Temple of Sinawa stop to start our hike. Our plan was to go as far as we wanted and then turn around, and hopefully get all the way to the Wall Street section.

The Narrows is a slot canyon formed by the North Fork of the Virgin River. You walk through or to the side of the river during most of the hike. It has a mile long paved trail that leads to the start of the Narrows. At the end of the paved area is an open area with stairs leading down where most people double check all of their gear, or start drying off on the way back.

The outfitters in the Zion area have recently started making a killing by renting gear to tourist specifically for this hike. They will rent you a hiking stick, intense canyoneering shoes, Neoprene socks, the whole shebang. So this is what most people use. They use all of the rental gear because these stores make Narrows Hiking Guides that are free and easily found throughout the town that “STRONGLY ENCOURAGE” you to use this type of gear. We did not listen. We wore our regular socks and our old hiking shoes since we had kept them stored in the car since we purchased our new ones back in Montana. Since it had been a few days since it rained the water level was expected to be fairly low and the internet said our regular hiking poles would be okay. We each brought one hiking pole to use as a walking stick. Greg wore a bathing suit and a quick drying shirt. I wore a bathing suit, running shorts, and a quick drying shirt. We each brought our rain jackets with us as well and pretty much kept them on the entire time, as again high walls kept the temperature pretty cool. We had one backpack packed with snacks, water bottles, towels, and flip flops for when we finished that were stored in a dry bag. We didn’t bring a camera, just one cell phone wrapped in a Ziploc kept in Greg’s waterproof pocket. Overall we were happy with our apparel choices. Less clothes is definitely better if you are going to be soaking wet all day, so I would not recommend pants or anything that would take a long time to dry.

There were not too many people when we started, which was awesome. Sometimes we could look forward and back and not see anyone else with us. We had a lot of fun romping through the water and seeing all the canyon walls. It is hard to tell based on the maps provided by the guide stores just exactly how far you are into the canyon, and if you actually are at the landmarks they use to guide you. Greg asked if we had gotten to the Orderville Canyon as we walked passed a small opening, and I was like no way that is way too small. We kept walking straight then approached a group of disgruntled hikers who stated they had to turn around because ahead there is an area you would have to swim to traverse, which they were not prepared for. We decided to walk until we got to this point. We found the spot most people decided was too high to cross and agreed that we also were not in the mood for a swim. We sat and snacked then turned around. We did determine that we likely had gotten all the way through the Wall Street section, but weren’t sure how much past it we got.

 

On the way back we did go up into Orderville Canyon to hike around a bit as well. We loved this section and thought it was definitely comparably beautiful, if not even more so than the more traveled sections of the hike. We didn’t go too far this direction, again turning around when it seemed convenient to do so. We passed more and more people the closer we got to the Lower Narrows. We came up with a brilliant idea next time we end up in Zion, bring Tubes. We think it will be the next big money making tourist trap. Hike up the Narrows and then tube down, hit as many tourists as you can! We are investigating to see how the NPS will feel about this idea. Seeing the number of people that were clogging the lower area, we were very happy we had gotten an early start and had gone far enough in to get some solitude.

We toweled off and threw on flip flops when we got out. Then we walked the mile back to the bus stop. Took the bus back to the car, where we changed into fully dry and clean clothes and ate some PB and Js. It was now mid-afternoon and we started our scenic drive towards the North Rim of the Grand Canyon only a couple of hours away. On the way out of the park, we drove the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway which has some very cool tunnels with excellent views on either side. We also got to see some more Bighorn Sheep, which made our day!

Next Up: North Rim of the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon

Sequoia National Park

Part 14 – Sequoia National Park

September 9^th

It was a typical travel day: Wake up, breakfast, de-pop, drive. We didn’t get up terribly early as we only had to go about 4 hours. We did have to detour a longer way around, as the south exit to the park was closed due to fire in the area. We stopped for groceries and lunch along the way as well. It took us closer to six hours to actually arrive at our campsite.

We were staying at Potwisha Campground which is just inside the western entrance to the park, the Foothills Entrance with associated Visitor Center. We did stop by the Visitor Center quickly to see if they had any hiking recommendations or weather/fire updates. This was the least helpful Visitor Center we had come across.

We drove in to the campsite and got all set up by this time it was mid-late afternoon. We realized that there was a little trail going out of the backside of our campsite. After further exploration we realized it quickly led down to a small slow-moving river, Middle Fork of the Kaweah River. We decided to change into our bathing suits, grab a beer, hop in and officially call it a chill day.

The rest of the day was spent planning our time in the park, cooking and eating dinner, and reading books. During the cooking and eating portion of the night we discovered that the campsite was rife with yellow jackets that swarmed at the smell of food. We quickly tired of their aggressive pursuits and ultimately ate dinner in the camper.

One night while I was stirring a pot, Greg swatted me with the fly swatter on my thigh. He claimed it was killing a yellow jacket. He repeated the gesture immediately. Again he swore he got and killed a second yellow jacket. Before he could finish apologizing he swatted me again, in the exact same spot! This time he pointed out all three dead yellow jackets. We then started cooking inside, while I was nursing my swattes leg.

September 10^th

We opted to spend the day pursuing the typical Sequoia tourist activities. We drove to the General Sherman Tree Trail Parking lot. We then walked down to the tree. General Sherman is famous for being the largest tree in the world, based on volume as there are trees taller (Coastal Redwoods), and trees that are wider (Cypress Trees in Mexico). General Sherman is considered to be the largest living thing on the planet, and also the fastest growing living thing. Every year it grows enough to spawn new wood to form the equivalent of a 9 foot tree. It weighs an estimate 1385 tons with a diameter of 36 feet at the base spanning 275 feet tall. It was certainly a most impressive and magnificent tree, but only minimally more so than the other monstrous trees by which it was surrounded. The whole forest is full of giants, hence its name, The Giant Forest. This is just one of several groves of old growth Sequoia’s within the park’s boundaries. Thankfully, unlike Redwoods, the wood of Sequoias was found to be too brittle to be useful and so suffered significantly less during the logging boom. It also fell under national protection much earlier than the redwood forests. Sequoia National Park was actually the second National Park, established in 1890.

From General Sherman we followed the trails along the Giant Forest Trail System to the Giant Forest Museum. We snacked at the museum and gift shop then headed back. The guide book was on point here, letting us know that as soon as we passed General Sherman the crowds would die out. We saw almost no other hikers in the morning, but then saw a few other hikers on the way back once we joined back with the Congress Trail.

I’m afraid that neither words nor pictures will do any justice to the trees or the forest. Take the time to go appreciate these trees and nature in their natural habitat. They are nothing short of massive majestic monoliths.

SAMSUNG CSC

SAMSUNG CSC

After our hike we headed towards the Lodgepole Visitor Center. Here we actually sat and enjoyed a late lunch. We perused the gift shop and other facilities. After our respite we got back into the car to head back to the campsite. It was an hour drive back to the campsite with some road construction and innumerable switchbacks. We did not drive into Kings Canyon National Park as it was still another hour’s drive north, although the two parks share multiple borders and are co-managed.

At our campsite it was essentially a repeat of the prior afternoon with a dip in the river and relaxing with our books in the shade of the adjacent hill.

September 11^th

Big hike day! We drove down to the more remote section of the park called Mineral King. This is an hour and half drive away from the campground on predominantly unpaved twisting curving bumpy roads. Greg had fun driving, while I struggled with car sickness. On the drive through the small cabin clusters in the mountains I saw my third black bear. He was just chilling chomping on some flowers in a little gully. When we arrived at the visitor center to ask about trail conditions and use the restroom it looked like there was a storm rolling in. The ranger however reassured us about the timidity of the local bears and that the trail we were choosing would be safe even in the event of a storm.

As we stepped foot on the trail it seemed like the skies cleared and the sun illuminated the whole untouched valley. This section of the park was a later addition in the seventies, after conservation efforts were successful in blocking the development of a Disney Ski Resort in the area. While I do believe that a Disney Ski Resort would no doubt be a wildly successful business venture, it would have been a shame to destroy this pristine wilderness.

The hike started at the west end of a valley and you work your way up the southern slopes towards a lake. We did the Eagle Lake trail, as the Mosquito Lake had a less appealing name. It is listed as a 6.8 mile moderately steep trail, which I felt accurately described the 2100 foot elevation gain. The grade would be steep for a few switchbacks then flatten out again while cresting a hill. It was slightly exacerbated by the elevation, starting at around 8000 feet of elevation and peaking around 10,000, which can certainly help you feel out of shape. Along the way you pass a sinkhole which seems to absorb all the run off from a creek running down the mountain. The first ¾ of the trail weaves between meadows and forests with frequent sweeping views of the valley. The last one quarter of the trail was crossing through a boulder field then over exposed bedrock until you finally get a view of the small lake. The clouds that were white and fluffy for our first hour had slowly started growing darker and coalescing. It started sprinkling just as we got to the lake.

We got to use our rain jackets, rain covers, and Greg used his rain pants. We took a few pictures and sat to eat our lunch snack. The rain started building and so we decided to head down for the tree covered slopes opposed to the exposed rocky summit. We heard thunder a few times, but never saw any lightning. The rain stopped during our hike down, and again by the time we were back in the valley the sun was burning us up.

On our way down the hill we stopped at the cabin rental resort for showers and ice, and while expensive were the nicest facilities we had seen in a very long time. The drive down was much more tolerable for me, and Greg enjoyed being able to stay in first gear or second gear the majority of the slope downhill.

We went back to our books, as we were both heavily into the Codex Alera at this point. Dinner and hanging out.

September 12^th

This was the day I had reserved a tour at the Crystal Caves. It was scheduled for 11am so we had a slow morning with laundry and hanging out. We left around 9:30 to make sure that we would get there in time. We got there in plenty of time to wait around for thirty minutes swatting gnats from our face. Like the Oregon Caves all tours are guided, to prevent damage to the caves. During the summer you can participate in a more in depth caving experience with crawling and headlamps and the whole deal, but these were no longer running. Like the Oregon Caves as well, this was a marble cave. This was a much older cave with more elaborate and developed stalagmite and stalactite growth. We enjoyed our 45 minute walking tour, although it was over a much shorter area of cave (1/2 mile) than the Oregon Caves (1 ½ miles). It had a super cool structure that looked like a Dragon in flight. Cool, but we had our fill of small caves with this one.

After the cave we headed over to Moro Rock since the skies were pretty clear of smoke for the last day or so. Moro Rock is a large granite dome that overlooks much of the Sequoia portion of the park. It is easily accessed with a .25 mile trail that is essentially just a set of 400 stairs guiding you to the top. We were able to watch a helicopter with a bucket of water help smother a fire on the eastern edges of the mountain, that we had seen while driving up to the caves that morning. The fire sparked as a result of the storm the day prior. On our way down we went to explore a climber’s trail that extended around the base that our cave guide had told us about. It led to a couple of sport routes, but the guide had only known about one fun 5.8 sport route. The route was really easy to get to and seemed like a fun easy slab. We went back to the car to grab our climbing equipment.

Greg went first and led the route without any problems. He thought it was fun. I was irrationally nervous about belaying and climbing. In order to fight down irrational fears I climbed up after him and cleaned the route without any problems. The bugs were terrible so we only did the one route, and we couldn’t see the anchors for the routes on either side. So we headed back to the car and the hour drive back down the mountain to the campsite. We knew by the time we got back that the sun would have set enough to be hidden behind the hill to shade our campsite. Prior to being shaded the site is almost unbearable, often in the 90s.

That night we prepped everything for getting an early start the next morning. We cooked our dinner and hung out in our usual fashion. That night we sat in our chairs and enjoyed a lovely view of the stars.

We headed to bed and went to sleep!

Up Next: Zion!

Yosemite

September 2^nd

We entered the park on California 120 through Tioga Pass. This was an exceptionally beautiful stretch of road. 

You climb quite considerably on the road to an elevation of 9943 feet. I would definitely recommend driving this road at any point that you can or whenever you plan to be in Yosemite. This road then leads you through the Tuolumne Meadows section of the park. This is still at a higher elevation than the valley so the weather is much more pleasant during the summer months. It is also les traveled and less well known than Yosemite Valley, but still definitely worth a trip. We were driving through just after 1pm so we pulled off at the eastern part of Tenaya Lake to have a little picnic.

One thing is important to know, Yosemite is covered in granite: Granite domes, granite boulders. There is granite in the northern part of the part. But the well-known granite, the granite monoliths of Half Dome and El Capitan, are in Yosemite Valley. I’m going to employ my already overused phrase of “climber mecca”. This is “Big Wall” mecca. For example El Capitan, the largest granite monolith in North America, soars 3000 feet above the valley floor, with astoundingly easy access routes. This wall is climbable. It takes most people 3-5 days, but some professional climbers set the record at 2 hours and 23 minutes. Please attribute my knowledge of these facts to my recent marriage and recent listening of Alex Honnold’s autobiography/biography.

All of that, to say, there are granite domes in the northern half of the park along the meadows that are lovely.

After lunch we drove the hour and a half to the valley to get to our campsite. Upon entering the valley floor we came to 2 realizations: one that our campsite was not in the valley, and two that smoke would be a huge issue for views and air quality during our stay. The smoke was not the surprise. Because we were showing up to Yosemite Valley during Labor Day weekend campsites were sparse, although they are often sparse in the valley. When I say sparse I mean, we knew the exact minute that campsite became available, and still didn’t get what we wanted. We were actually on a camping trip at the time and had to use patchy phone reception to make the reservation so it may have taken me two minutes to hit the reserve button, but there was nothing available at that time. We were planning to stay in Yosemite for a week, and in order to have a campsite the whole time we were there, we needed to go to three separate campgrounds during our stay. Greg and I had both recalled having reservations at the three different valley campgrounds, but double checking showed that our first reservation was back north at Hodgdon Meadow.

So we did get out for a minute or two to walk around and ask some questions at a Ranger station down in the valley, but then hopped back into the car to get to our actual campground. Our four hour drive from Tahoe to Yosemite ended up being closer to 8, campsite to campsite, but nothing we couldn’t handle. We had done our grocery shopping back in Tahoe as we had learned that shopping in the parks or not in actual cities comes at quite a price premium.

We made dinner, read our books, and went to bed. We decided to make the most of our time out of the valley. It actually worked out that we explored other areas of the park during one of the busiest weekends of the year.

September 3

In typical Robyn and Greg fashion, we woke up early to go for a hike. We headed to the Hetch Hetchy area of the park to walk the Wapama Falls Trail. It is a 5 mile round trip trail, rated moderate, with less than 1000 feet of elevation gain. You can choose to walk as far as you would like along the Reservoir all the way to Rancheria Falls and on past back to the Tuolumne section of the park, but after a point you have to backpack it. We walked past the Wapama Falls, which were lovely. There are also Tueeulala Falls prior to the Wapama Falls along the trail, but these are not flowing at the end of the summer. We probably walked about 4 miles before we decided to stop. We stopped when we got to an overlook that allowed us to see then end of the Reservoir.
The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is a unique story. The O’Shaughnessy Dam was started in 1914 after legislation passed in 1913 allowing the dam to be built on National Protected land. This was the only time a dam was built after land had been recognized as National Park land, and was a warning tale for other battles in the future. It is the water system that delivers drinking water to the San Francisco Bay area; it also provides some renewable energy for public works. The thing I found interesting and frustrating is that it is not filtered water, meaning that no people were allowed to go into the water. It is taken directly from the reservoir to tap in the bay area. This means that when I had to pee I had to do my darndest to make sure it was going to go into the water. Since the entire trail merely followed along the northern edge of the reservoir the struggle got real. I’ve tried to learn my lesson about not drinking coffee on trail days, but if I did that I would never drink coffee. I eventually found a spot that was far enough away from the edge and over dirt enough and not exposed enough to pop a squat. After this, my hike got a lot more enjoyable.

The only other deterrent to fun on this hike was these terrible annoying bugs. They seemed to almost swarm your face, most noticeably your eyeballs. These were likely gnats according to my Google search of “terrible flying bugs Yosemite”. There were several sections of the hike that actually did have trees and shade, but these areas were savagely protected by hordes of these gnats. We literally jogged through them on the way back to avoid the plundering of our eye juices.

We passed the falls again on the way back. As opposed to the peaceful solitude of the rushing water on our way out, this time the falls were packed with not merely onlookers, but predominantly waders. Yes San Franciscans, people are putting their sweaty bodies all up in your unfiltered drinking supply. We tried to be good stewards and just splashed water up at our faces. We then headed all the way back to the dam and read the signs regarding it’s history. It really was a marvel of construction at its time, but unfortunately did flood a valley that John Muir once called “a wonderfully exact counterpart of the great Yosemite.”

We headed back to our campsite to relax for a couple of hours.  It turns out campgrounds in very popular tourist areas are essentially empty and very pleasant during the peak hours of the day. So we sat and read outside enjoying the shade, breeze, and surprising solitude. Greg and I do our best to try to avoid the crowds whenever possible, by showing up early, choosing less popular trails, exploring more remote areas, and it usually works out. We usually pass much more people back at the start of trails right as we are headed in, and we strongly prefer it that way. Nature is best enjoyed in solitude.

After a few peaceful hours we decided to hit up one of the three sequoia groves in Yosemite. We knew we were headed to Sequoia National Park following our week in Yosemite, so we didn’t feel like we needed to spend too much time on it. The largest grove, the Mariposa Grove, in the southern part of the park was closed for the season for restoration, and likely would have been closed to access from the fires in that part of the park anyway. We headed to Tuolumne Grove, which was close by, and a short walk.

We hoped we got there late enough, around 5pm, to avoid crowds, but we weren’t so lucky. We did get to see a baby bear (later clarified to be a yearling by a Ranger) on our walk down to the grove, so that was exciting, since it was far enough away to not be scary and close enough to watch and take pictures. It is a one mile walk downhill to the grove, with a half mile loop through the grove, and a one mile walk back to the parking lot uphill. It was interesting to the see the giant sequoias especially after our recent trip to see the coastal redwoods. They are both in the same family of trees, with Coastal Redwoods being the tallest trees on the planet reaching over 300ft, and the Giant Sequoias being the largest trees on the planet in mass. The sequoias are much thicker trees with diameters greater than 50 feet at the base. The grove had only around 20 to 30 trees which seemed like a home garden in comparison with a national park full of the trees.

After that we headed back to the camper for our usual night time activities.

September 4^th

We decided to still avoid going down to the valley on Labor Day and check out the other parts of the park. We opted to head back up Tioga Road and try to find some rock climbing to do. After a lot of searching on Mountain Project we decided to try some bouldering near Tenaya Lake. We did not drive all the way back up to the Tuolumne Meadows to do hiking up there, but it is on our to do list next time we are in the park. We wanted to have a rather minimal activity, notably minimal hiking, day as we were planning to hike Half Dome the following day.

We were able to park in the parking lot for Tenaya Lake, then just cross the street and start climbing some boulders within a five minute walk, which is always nice. Sometime you have to walk up to an hour or more to get to good rock climbing. Bouldering is exactly what it sounds like, climbing boulders. You usually have a pad, or two, on the ground beneath you to cushion any falls in addition to a partner who can help spot you. You still wear your rock climbing shoes to maximize traction on the walls, but no need for any harness or ropes. Most routes are about 10-15 feet high, and you can usually find an easy way down the back of the boulder that you can essentially walk off of. There is also “High Balls” which is the same principle just on boulders that are 20 feet tall or higher, and so the risk is significantly higher. Don’t worry Mom, we usually keep it on the lower end in the 12 foot range, we really aren’t trying to get hurt.

We found a few boulders to mess around on, and then decided to walk back to the car. From there we grabbed some food in a backpack for a picnic and walked around the lake. It is an easy 2 mile walk to circle the lake. We stopped on the opposite end for our picnic. We had also brought our bathing suits and towels in case we wanted to swim. We decided not to swim because it was a little on the chilly side once you sat down for a while. I was tempted to swim since we had long since established that while camping childhood cleanliness rules apply: If water touches your body that day you are clean and no shower is needed.

After our walk around the lake we headed back to the car and drove back down Tioga road stopping at some viewpoints along the way and ending up back at our campsite. We spent the night trying to get everything ready we could for the next day.

September 5^th – Half Dome Day

Unfortunately the way our reservations worked this was also the day we had to switch campsites, so we had to pack up the pop-up and drive the 45 minutes down to the valley. We were trying to get to the trailhead before 6am per the recommendation of the ranger. Half Dome was going to be our biggest hike so far, by a lot, especially from the vertical feet aspect. We had to climb 4800 vertical feet up to the summit, and then back down. The Hiking Project lists it as a 14.7 mile hike, black diamond grade of difficulty.

So we woke up around 4am, de-popped, and got in the car. We ate our yogurts in the car on the drive. We did manage to get to the trailhead parking by 5:30am. Then we got our bags all together, threw on some headlamps, and were walking by 5:45am. It seemed like most people got started right around the same time we did. Most days the trailhead parking lot fills by around 7 am, and if it fills up you have to park at the Half Dome Village which adds even more walking to your hike.

We had to walk from the trailhead parking at least a half mile to the actual trailhead near the Happy Isles Nature Center. By the time we got to the trail the first dawn light was starting to come through so the head lamps were not as necessary. The trail starts off steeply, but blessedly paved. You pass two waterfalls heading along the trail, Vernal Fall and Nevada Falls. Both of these falls are some of the most beautiful falls we had seen throughout our trip and you essentially hike right alongside of them on your way up. There are two ways to get past the falls the Mist Trail and the Muir Trail. The Mist Trail is shorter and therefore steeper and is accomplished through hundreds of stairs. The Muir Trail is longer, an extra mile each way, and less steep, but eliminates the necessity of stairs and replaces it with switchbacks. Many guides recommend going up the Mist Trail and back down the Muir Trail. They recommend this for safety purposes as the Mist Trail actually does have quite a bit of mist along the trail, making rocky steps potentially treacherous and they also recommend it to save your knees, as it would be very irritating for anyone with any arthritis or tendinitis. We decided to go up the Mist Trail and decide how to come down when it came time to make that decision.

It really was very lovely seeing the falls in the early light and having such beautiful views on such a strenuous hike. The stairs made me feel like I was crushing the elevation change early on, which in my mind meant less uphill hiking later on. Another nice thing about the trail is the plethora of bathrooms along the way. There was a bathroom at the trail head, at the base of Vernal Falls, at the top of Vernal Falls with a water filling station, and another bathroom at the top of Nevada Falls. As someone who gets a nervous stomach, and who gets nervous about testing their physical limits, I really appreciated the option to go as often as I like, but even I didn’t need to use them all. At the top of Nevada Falls you have climbed 2000 of the 4800 feet and have gone somewhere between 2.4 to 2.7 miles. These were an aggressive 2.5 miles.

We sat at the top of the falls and had a snack. There were several other groups here doing the same. Unlike many of our hikes, this one we were solidly in the middle of the pack. We were faster than some, but we definitely got passed by even younger couples. From our rest point we were sitting beneath a granite dome, which gave me hope that we were doing very well and would be to our summit shortly. Until the map dashed my hopes and let me know that we were looking upon Liberty Cap, which is significantly shorter and closer than half dome. We still had about 5 miles and 2800 feet of gain to go.

After the falls you get a flat stretch for about a mile along the river until there is a fork at a ranger station. You start heading left and the elevation starts kicking in again, but at a fairly sustained moderate pace. This is through forest so thankfully you are in the shade for a lot of it. This is about a 2 to 3 mile stretch that seems to pass by quickly. You eventually get to the base of half dome at an overlook that I’m sure has a name. We stopped here for official snack number two and some photo opportunities. 

We later read that this is where the trail for climbers starts veering off for those who plan to scale the face, rock climbing. That means that the climbers also have to walk 5 miles carrying a ton of heavy equipment before even starting their multi-day summit attempt!

After that viewpoint it is just a little bit farther before you start getting into more exposed rocky hiking. You cross over one little dome then you are greeted with MORE STAIRS! IN SWITCHBACK FORM! Great. The struggle got real at this point, but also because we tend to limit our breaks. By the struggle, I of course mean my own personal struggle as Greg was greeting me with encouraging phrases like “I’m not even breathing through my mouth”. It is times like these when I wish my husband wasn’t so physically inclined and just had to try a little bit (read a lot bit) harder so I didn’t feel like such a slug. He will never understand the struggle of being a recovering fatty.

At the top of this super fun section you walk across slab until you actually cross over to the eastern base of half dome to get to the start of the cables. It turns out that there was no ranger checking cable permits that day, but usually there is. You need to have a permit to use the cables, and there are two ways to get one. You can enter the lottery online 6 months before hand, this is the option we chose, and happened to win, or you can go to the permit office 2 days beforehand to obtain a walk up permit. There are usually around 200 permits done through the lottery with an additional 50 available for walk up. Since there was so much smoke in the valley the day we went up there were closer to 150 walk up permits available. They started using a permit system to limit the traffic on the cables as I’m sure without this artificial limitation there would be thousands of people trying to go up during peak season, which honestly seems less safe and less fun.

So we throw on our gloves. I used my biking gloves and Greg used our newly acquired belay gloves for climbing. Most people buy cheap gardening gloves and bring those along, but there was also an impressive pile of gloves at the bottom of people who left them after using them for anyone who may have forgot. Gloves aren’t necessary just better to help with gripping the chains and keeping hands clean, and I’m sure on hot days to prevent them from burning.

So then we got to start up the chains. When looking across at the cables going up the face it looks like they are nearly vertical, this effect diminishes only slightly when you actually get to the base. There is a horizontal piece of wood every 10 feet or so to help prevent your feet from back sliding. This means that essentially people go up one section at a time from piece of wood to piece of wood. You can only go as fast as the slowest person ahead of you. Sometimes there are also people coming down simultaneously. Some of these people are cruising down saying going down is way easier, and some are having a panic attack that they are going to fall to their death. The piece of advice we got was that if looking down the slope is scary just turn around and back down like climbing down a ladder.

The cables take a while to go up because they are so steep and so terrifying. This was definitely the scariest hiking I had ever done. I was impressed by the variety of people making the hike. There were a couple of different grandpas with their grandsons, some groups of out of shape middle aged folks, other young couples, and some single foreigners out to enjoy the American experience. (In general in the national parks there seems to be about 50% international tourists, if not higher in some places, just to give you an idea of how awesome our national park system really is.) So there was a grandpa and an overweight woman ahead of us, so Greg eventually got antsy to slip around them and sprint at the top, while I was grateful to be going slow enough so I wasn’t gasping for breath. We got to the top.

The summit of half dome is quite large, the size of a couple of football fields; so there is plenty of room for hundreds of people to move about. It seemed like we got there right around the same time as everyone else at 11am. Again I was impressed by every single person who made it up that mountain, as I know it was the hardest physical thing I have ever done, and can expect the same from some of them. If you ever want me to be awed by your physical prowess, tell me that you climbed half dome.

We took in the amazing views of the smoke. That’s all we could see. We couldn’t see the oft written about beauty of the Yosemite Valley. We could see nothing. We took pictures none the less, and sat to eat some lunch. We walked around the whole top looking around then headed back down the cables.

I did well enough facing forward at first, until my feet slipped once. Your feet slipping doing down a slope is terrifying. I opted to no longer stare at the prospect of me sliding to my death, so I turned around and back it on down the slope. You use the same principles going down of trying to go from wood plank to wood plank. If no one is going up you are able to grab the cables on either side which definitely improves stability, but you have to cling to one side when passing people. Most of the way down we didn’t have to worry about passing people, but there were a couple of tricky spots as groups were headed up. Greg is practically skipping down, while my forearms are cramping from the death grip I have on the cables. We made it down in one piece as I clearly live to write about it.

We then started the long walk down back to the valley. It did start raining not long after we got off the dome, with some dark clouds rolling through. I’m glad I was not on the top of a giant lightning rod at this point. Thankfully no lightning actually came of it and the rain let up quickly. By the time we got back to the top of Nevada Falls and had to decide to take the Muir versus the Mist trail back down we were quite tired. We decided that although it may be steeper walking a mile less was totally worth it, and we walked the Mist Trail back down. Even my patellar tendons were screaming at me by the time we had descended the hundreds of stairs. We even half jogged the last paved mile just to utilize our downward momentum and employ different, less tired, muscles. We then had the pleasure of walking that half mile back to the parking lot. It took us right around 10 hours to do the whole thing, although at times it felt like longer. My legs could barely hold me up by the time we got back to the car.

We had a very short drive to the campground, less than a mile. We checked in and got the camper all set up. We then grabbed our shower stuff and headed to Half Dome Village to clean ourselves. This ranked as the best shower of the trip with hot water, unlimited time, and disgustingly necessary. We treated our newly scrubbed skin to take out for dinner. There was a pizza place right around the corner. We put in our order for a large pizza, and then shared a Half Dome Hefeweizen while we waited. We sat a table with another couple while we waited. We got to talking. Our new best friends were planning to do Half Dome the next day. They were also on their honeymoon as they had gotten married in May. They were from Nashville. We instantly loved them. Our pizza was ready, and we each snuck a piece or two to prolong the conversation without dying of starvation. Hunger eventually got the best of us so we took our pizza back to the campsite to eat and said goodbye to our new friends. Unfortunately my cell was dead so something got mixed up in the exchange of numbers, so we never got to meet up the next night as planned.

We inhaled the entirety of the pizza, enjoyed another beer, and then quickly decided it was time to sleep.

September 6^th

Let’s call this our rest day. We tried to limit our activities due to aching muscles and related apathy. We had a very slow moving morning. We eventually headed over to the visitor center area around noon. WE checked out the museum, visitor center, shops. WE got signal for the first time in a little while so we checked in with friends and family.

Then we went to a Ranger Program, Ask a Climber. It was a young woman around our age who was spending her first year as a climbing steward, essentially meaning that she was a volunteer who helped maintain routes, but was not a full ranger. She does work as a professional climbing guide most of the time. We got there around the same time as another group who were all very impressed with climbing in general. We asked her a couple of questions each and then used the telescopes to look at a group of climbers on El Capitan. Greg and have a long way to go before we can even think about climbing something like that. Most people take 3-5 days to climb it and spend the night on the wall. We would need to learn how to place gear for traditional climbing but also, likely, how to aid climb, so using things like ropes to get over nearly impassable flat sections of wall. We like to spend a lot of time pretending that we will have the ability to do these crazy things at some point.

We checked out Bridal Veil Falls next. The falls were still flowing but the stream had gotten thin enough that it swayed back and forth depending on the gusting of the wind. This is an easily accessible viewpoint essentially right off of the main valley loop. We have also come to the conclusion that most parks have a Bridal Veil Falls, very common name choice.

We finished driving the Valley Loop and ended up back at the camper for more relaxing. We made dinner, and I kept wishing that our new friends would call. I even attempted to hunt them down with the Google, but no such luck. So after dinner we went back over to Half Dome Village to grab a drink, just to see if they were there. We never saw them. We did meet another couple who had just hiked half dome and enjoyed chatting with them. They were in their early fifties, but looked amazing, and were in pretty good shape. The female (name utterly forgotten) even taught us about a new extreme sport that she was looking forward to trying called wing walking. After our beer and conversation we headed back to the camper for a chill night. We did end up doing this walk essentially in the dark since we forgot headlamps. But it was nice to be able to walk over.

September 7^th

This was an early morning, waking 5:30 am or so. Our goal was to catch the sunrise on Glacier Point. Glacier Point is a vista on top of the valley walls that can be accessed via road or strenuous trail. WE had our fill of strenuous trails for a couple of days, so we drove to the top. It was about an hour long drive, made longer by traffic delays for construction. We did appreciate that they were trying to do road work at night instead of during peak hours like other parks seemed to enjoy doing. We were excited to do the drive since the road had previously been closed due to smoke form the fires. Even though the road was open, we had the smokiest section of road I had ever drive for about 2 miles. Because of the traffic delays we were worried about missing the sunrise, but we made it just in time to catch it. The pictures we managed to get did not do it justice. In general the smoke had cleared quite considerably, so compared with our views of the valley the day we were on Half Dome, we could see everything.

While we were up near Glacier Point we walked down another little trail called Taft Point. This is a two mile out and back relatively flat trail that gives you an awesome view of the western edge of the valley including incredible views of El Capitan.

 We debated finishing the loop that Taft point makes with Sentinel Dome for another overlook however my bladder was prohibitive in allowing this to occur. We drove back to the campsite to have second breakfast and hang out for a while.

At noon we had to switch campsites from North Pines Campground to Upper Pines Campground, because I am a terrible reservation obtainer. It was again less than a mile between campsites. Both sites were pretty good as far as distance to the bathroom and size of the site; however our neighbors at Upper Pines were less than desirable. They had children, a dog, and voices that carried, in addition to seemingly always sit outside. Camping is very neighbor dependent.

We got settled into our site then headed over to a climbing area called near the Visitor Center and Camp 4 called the Swan Slab. We decided to get in some climbing in Yosemite Valley, because you have to. We tried a group of three routes called the penthouse cracks. This gave us some practice with crack climbing, literally climbing up a crack in the wall. Cracks can vary in size between ones that can fit the tips of your fingers to ones you can fit most of your arm or whole body into. These were predominantly finger and hand cracks. While we were on the wall a camera crew shows up. The camera crew is a TV anchor with a camera guy, a director, and a couple of other people helping with positioning. He has also brought a professional climbing guide with him and they are filming an interview. We find out this will be a segment on trains (of all things) that will air on BBC. In it the anchor is trying activities in Yosemite Valley, this time repelling. I’m the one in the background cursing at the wall and Greg is the one gracefully going up the routes.

Nice and sweaty from our climb, we stopped at Cathedral Beach, adjacent to the Merced River, to soak our hands and feet. Refreshed, we headed to the campsite for our usual nighttime activities.

September 8^th

We decided to spend our last day in the Yosemite climbing. We actually headed out of Yosemite Valley to an area called the Upper Merced Valley. This area had a few more sport climbs in our range to choose from. Most of the climbing in the valley is trad climbing because it is so perfect for it. After scouring mountain project we opted for Five and Dime Wall which had a little bit of everything we were looking for. We did a lovely little 5.8, that Greg led (he leads all of them). Then we jumped over to a 10a/b with some funky moves on the arête. Then Greg was able to finish an 11d, which was super exciting. Then we went around the other side of the crag to try some crack climbing as opposed to our more familiar face climbing. There was a 10a route that I decided to try before finished up and then walking off of a 5.8 corner. What actually happened is the 10a off-width kicked my ass for thirty minutes before I made my way down (in tears). Then Greg hopped on, and the struggle was real for hip as well, but he made it to the top. I had used all of my effort on climbing the last route so we opted not to do the easy corner and just call it a day. The area is actually pretty easy to access with a quick walk off of a pull out right after the tunnel, but the walk was the most gnat infested area we had ever been through. We were quite literally swarmed. We had to use one hand just to keep a constant swat going. Thankfully the belay stations and the wall itself were not nearly has thick with them.

We prepared for the river this day and brought our bathing suits to use in the Merced River. Greg put his on, but I preferred to just soak my hands and feet again. We had stopped at the same area, Cathedral Beach to cool down and eat lunch.

We rested for a while back at the camper before doing more exploring. We drove over to the Majestic Yosemite Hotel. We parked and explored the inside, which was very cool to look at. Then we headed to the Yosemite Falls. There is a trail that leads you to the bottom of lower falls which is flat and like a half mile roundtrip that we walked around.
 While standing at the bottom we were serenaded by a cool dude playing saxophone from the top of the lower falls. We realized he must have hiked up the trail with his saxophone for that moment, and it was totally worth it. Satisfied with our Yosemite explorations and experience we called it a day and headed back to the camper for dinner and packing. We have a lot more climbs and hikes planned for our next trip.

El Cap we are coming for you.

Up Next: Sequoia National Park

 

California Part 2: Napa and Tahoe

August 27^th

We had arrived in Napa Boothe State Park and gotten all set up. We had learned three startling facts on our drive into Napa: 1- everything closes at 5 or at the latest 6pm and 2- all tastings are expensive and 3 – it’s a billion degrees outside in the middle of a heatwave. One thing the internet recommended to circumvent the expensive was to track down some coupons. There are several sites on the web that were offering “great” deals at tons of wineries, but you had to pay $40 up front to join there club. Other websites more helpfully recommended heading to the Napa Visitor Center in Napa where they had some coupons that they will provide. There are also a number of apps that promise to send you to the best places and send you money. The temperatures were expected to hit 107 for the next couple of days we were there so we decided to try to spend as much time inside as possible while the sun was awake.

We followed the websites recommendation at headed towards the Napa Visitor Center to gather information and utilize their air conditioning. This gave us the opportunity to drive the remaining length of the Napa valley and to just take in how many grapes were being grown there at an astonishingly large number of vineyards. The Visitor Center is located in downtown Napa and we went to go park in a parking garage, when we heard a thud. This is how we were unceremoniously reminded that our bikes now live permanently on the roof of our car, and we no longer are under 8 foot clearance. We backed right up and gave a solid high five to the swinging sign for a second time, and then parked on the street.

The Visitor Center was actually very nice. It was full of exceptionally helpful people with maps and guides and coupons. I also really would recommend checking it out if you ever plan to head to Napa and haven’t been before or felt a little overwhelmed. Per her recommendation we did start using one of the apps the internet recommended, Winery Finder, which also would get you coupons if you checked in on social media with their information. I have no hang ups about using social media to gets coups, I feel like it is accurately representing to the world what I am about. She also let us know that tasting rooms generally stay open later than the vineyards themselves which is part of why they exist.

As we were leaving it was getting close to 4 o’clock or so. We didn’t really plan on coming all the way back to the city of Napa again so we checked out the Oxbow Public Market. We did a little loop around the public stalls looking at little restaurants and boutique stores and markets. We stopped and did a tasting at Napa Valley Distillery, the obvious first choice in the heart of wine country. They had really good liquors and mixers, and they looked fancy. We were very tempted to join their mailing club, and actually plan to do so in the future, you know once we have jobs and stuff. We did walk away with a bottle of ancho chili bourbon that’s what’s up.

Then we stopped at the brewery in the corner of the market, because honestly when it comes down to it, we both love beer. It was called Field House Brewing I think and they had a really good IPA that we shared.

The Oxbow Public Market shares a parking lot with the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) Copia. CIA is one of the foremost schools chefs in America go to train, and Napa is ripe with Michelin star rated restaurants. So we headed over to check it out and think about maybe making reservations there later in the week. We ended up going into the gift shop first. I actually found a gift for someone who is going above and beyond while I was away, Lauren, and purchased it. That somehow got us free tasting tokens for little stalls set up in the main reception area.
 We headed over to one stall and started chatting with the lady, she’s like I’ll pour heavy if you both use your tokens here. So we obviously did. We both got at least half a glass of very nice red wine from a winery we will never remember. Then we walked around a little bit and headed into the bar at the restaurant. There we finished our drinks an ordered an appetizer of toast with tomato and sardines which was pretty tasty.

By the time we got back to our car it was fast approaching six o’clock so most things were closing. We decided to go to Priest Ranch to do a tasting since they stayed open a little later. We used our little winery finder app to get a 2 for 1 tasting. We did a tasting and chatted, still enjoying the air conditioning. It was good and we enjoyed all of the wines we tried, but I can’t tell you what exceptional wine would be. After that per our server’s name at the tasting room we headed next door for some avocado mash parmesan fries, which were very good as well.

By that time it was a little after 7 and the sun had cooled off enough for us to head back to our pop-up camper. We made dinner, read our books, and thought about some plans for the next day.

August 28^th

Since there isn’t tons to do in Napa Valley other than eat expensive delicious food and drink wine, we didn’t get an early start. *Note we did not get reservations at the French Laundry, so we opted to try to avoid expensive delicious food*

Thankfully, Napa Valley is essentially a desert so the temperatures drop pretty well at night and leave the mornings cool. We lounged around. Greg read his book and I blogged. Even in Napa Valley we didn’t have phone reception at our campsite so blog posts are either not uploaded or don’t’ have pictures. We noticed it warming up around 11:30 so we got ourselves together and headed out into the valley. We started off at Mumm.

I was excited for Mumm since they specialize in sparkling wines and know that I have had some of the champagne before. We had a very gracious server and went to town with the tasting. It was awesome. I can tell you what exceptional champagne tastes like, and they have several. I think I will likely be buying a lot of their wine in the future. They were also much more reasonably priced that Stromsburg, which is the Ferrari of champagne vineyards.

After that we headed towards Rutherford Hill. We decided that even though we had a coupon for a regular tasting we wanted to do their cave tour, happy birthday to us! It didn’t start for almost 2 hours so they gave us some tasters in the interim. We initially headed outside to check out their picnic area and eat lunch. 

We were able to stay outside for about 45 minutes but even the shade felt like we were melting. Then we decided to try to read inside the tasting room, but ended up just talking with the employees for a while. We did our tasting and got to explore the grounds and the caves a little bit. The caves were a lovely temperature and pretty cool to walk around in.

After that tasting, given Greg’s general lack of enthusiasm for the cost benefit ratio of wine tasting and the time approaching 5 we decided to just go somewhere we could grab a drink and sit while we waited for it to cool. It took some driving around, Google searching, and then decisiveness, but we eventually ended up at Pizzeria Tra Vigne. Here we had a beer and split a small pizza to kill time.

We headed back to the campsite and did our usual, play games and miss our puppy. 

August 29^th

We had a repeat of the prior morning. Sleeping in, slow breakfast, walk around the campground, blogging, and reading until it got too hot to move. The heat wave was starting to back off so we were able to stay at the campsite even longer, till noon. After that we headed to Santa Rosa which is just over the ridge in Sonoma.

We headed there to test out Russian River Brewing which makes the hallowed Pliny the Elder double IPA which is exquisite. Greg and I can’t really taste the difference in adequate wine, good wine, and great wine and likely can’t even tell you what type we are drinking, but friends will attest that we are beer snobs. By day 3 in Napa we accepted this and indulged. I tried a couple of their sour beers, but ultimately got a pint of Pliny. Greg looked utterly contented when he was finally able to say aloud, “I’ll have a Pliny, please,” and even more so when he could take that first sip. We shared some lunch of some Pliny bites and a chicken sandwich. We started talking to the couple next to us towards the end of lunch and really hit it off. They were also on a road trip, but staying in hotels and had hit a lot of the same spots, just spent shorter time at each one. We did our best to convince them that not only is quitting your job the way to go, but so is camping.

After lunch, we headed to Barnes and Noble since it was across the street and the vast majority of our time in Napa turned out to just be killing time till the sun went down. I ended up buying a new game for us to play at night, since about half our nights we play a game and half of them we just read next to each other. I also bought a book of crosswords since I had run out of crosswords to do in the car and we still have to drive all the way back to North Carolina.

Then we headed to Target to buy some groceries with wedding giftcards. After Target we got some gas, and tried to find another place to either do a tasting or something before we headed back home. At this point I had given into the fact that there is no point in paying 30 or 40 dollars each if we don’t know or really care what the hell wine we are drinking and we were quickly approaching 5 pm like it seemed we always were. We ended up going to Calistoga Inn, Restaurant and Brewery. We each enjoyed a beer and the air conditioning.

Since the heat wave was passing it got cooler earlier that day and we were able to head back around 6pm. We had dinner, played our new game, Flux – the Firefly version, and went to bed.

August 30^th

Greg’s Birthday!

Unfortunately for Greg we had to spend at least some of his birthday driving, but we only had to go about 4 hours so we weren’t in a rush. We woke up and de-popped still fairly early, like by 9 am, and got on our way. We hit some traffic near Sacramento but otherwise an uneventful drive.

Since it was Greg’s birthday he got to decide what we did, other than the already agreed upon driving to Tahoe. Greg decided that we would listen to Alex Honnold’s Biography on Audible on the drive to “get hyped” for Yosemite climbing. It really ended up being interesting. Alex writes excerpts for the book and the rest is some historical climbing information and the rest is information the biographer provides based on his and other’s interviews with Alex.

We got to Tahoe and set up camp.

 After that we grabbed our bouldering pads and threw them in the car. Greg directed us to a pull off right of the road, where we grabbed our pads and shoes and headed off into the forest in search of boulders. We did not follow a path down, just headed in the right direction, making the terrain a little more treacherous. I slipped using a log to cross the creek. I slipped just perfectly to send my first leg forward over the edge into the water causing my back leg to lost traction off the shore and also go into the water. I looked quite a mess and was more than a little grumpy about it, loudly blaming Greg’s choice for going off path.

We got to the boulders and messed around for a while. Unfortunately Mountain Project did not include much detail about what routes existed and which boulders were the best to climb but we had fun anyway.

After that we tried to go back across the creek and adjacent small valley on a better path, but weren’t really finding one. We made our way across eventually and even drily. Then we hopped in the care and drove to South Tahoe, which is the largest city abutting the lake. We tried out a brewery there that I haven’t remembered the name to. Greg had an IPA and I had Mr. Toad’s Wild Rye, because apparently I’m predictable and chose the one with the silly name, both were very good and we debated getting a growler but decided it wasn’t the most practical choice.

Then we went to Greg’s choice of restaurant for dinner, also a name I can’t remember, but they made tacos. We ate an impressive amount of tacos, all of which were delicious, interesting, and reasonably priced. We would absolutely go back next time we go to Tahoe.

We stopped by the grocery store on the way back to the campsite. Then we played games until we went to bed.

August 31^st

This was the day we decided to do a big hike. We decided to climb Mount Tallac, the tallest peak on the south side of the lake, or something like that. The peak is at 9700 feet and you start at 6000ft. It is an out and back hike totaling 10 miles. We needed to get our hiking legs back since our hike up half dome was right around the corner.

The hike started on a bad note for me since there was no toilet at the trailhead, and I always feel better if I can start a hike on empty. With several deep breaths and some mind over stomach we started our hike.

Within the first few hundred feet of our journey, I hear Greg yell, “HEY BEAR!” This is what you are recommended to yell if you see a bear. I could tell by the excitement in his eyes that he actually did see one. Looking over his shoulder, I catch a glimpse of a big ole black bear lumbering away throwing shade back at us as if to say, oh fine I’ll get off your stinking trail. Since the bear did not seem to be in too much of a hurry to clear out and we were certainly in no rush to meet back up with said bear, we waited a few minutes before we restarted our hike. Greg had already determined that the hike was a success as seeing a bear was on his road trip bucket list.

The hike felt harder than it should. We came up with all kinds of reasons for this, like the alcohol we drank the night before, the couple weeks of rest since our last big hike, and the time we had spent at lower elevations. We felt like we were getting our butts kicked, but since we never admit weakness, we kept going and going.

Towards the top there is a large boulder field that you essentially do switchbacks through. We were overall pleased with this part of the trail because none of the rocks seemed slippery or to roll out from our feet. It takes you over to the left side of the peak and then you trudge up the ridgeline and get some views of the southern part of the mountain range. Then you keep walking past the peak, because I assumed that the trail was essential encircling the peak to attain the easiest approach. I realized after significantly more walking that what we thought was the peak, was not the peak at all. There is almost nothing as disappointing as a false summit.

We eventually caught a view of the true summit several hundred feet higher in elevation and a half mile further. I decided I needed to take a break before I could get the whole way up. After my little ten minute sit in the shade I felt significantly improved and slogged the rest of the way to the top. It truly is worth it to go all the way up to get exceptionally beautiful 360 degree views of Lake Tahoe and the surrounding mountains. There wasn’t too much smoke around, at least compared with other days of our trip. We enjoyed to the view and some lunch on the top.

Our trip down was uneventful, just hot and long. It was notable for being the rockiest trail we had been on throughout our trip. There were essentially no grass or dirt sections, just varying sizes of rocks underfoot. This eventually takes a toll on your lower body and we were very ready to finish our hike. We had packed our swim suits in case we wanted to stop at one of the two trailside lakes on the route down, but we opted to hold out to finish our hike. We didn’t want to hike wet, or extend the duration of the hike. We finished alive and well, with a bear sighting to boot.

To celebrate we headed to South Lake Tahoe to head into the lake. It was a Thursday night, and apparently all Thursday nights throughout the summer they have a little street festival with live music and vendor carts with food and wares along the lakeside road. We showed up right as everything was getting set up. We took a little swim to get a least one layer of sweat and dirt off. Then we sunned ourselves dry listening to the conveniently located live band.

Once dry we got back into the car and started driving. We took this opportunity to finish the loop around the lake. It’s about 70 miles total to circle the lake. You have to change roads several times, but they all keep you within a couple miles if not a few hundred feet of the shore line. You also drive through the Nevada portion of the coastline.

In predictable fashion we stopped for a victory beer at a brewery in Tahoe City on our drive back. After a delicious beer we finished up the loop back at the campsite to cook up some dinner.

After dinner we both opted to read our books. We had both been devouring the same series of books The Codex Alera by Jim Butcher, and often choose to read instead of interact with one another.

Shortly after it started getting dark we heard shouts of “HEY BEAR” and horn honking. Great, there was a bear in the campground. We actually moved our food from our car to the bear box to decrease the chances of any damage to the car. I pretty much fixated on listening for sounds of the bear roaming around to different campsites and getting yelled at, honked at, or opening empty bear boxes. I was disproportionately terrified. I did not sleep well, but the bear did eventually move on to other waters or head to bed after a couple of hours. Greg was underwhelmed by the entire scenario as he felt very reassured by the bear spray we had moved from the car to the camper. Luckily for Mr. Confident, he got to be my bathroom bodyguard.

September 1^st

We decided to have a relaxing day. We slept in and had a lazy breakfast. My morning was filled with laundry, reading, and blogging.

Our plan was to head over to the Truckee River around noon or 1 pm to float down it. We drove to the put in area and inquired at one of the rafting companies about a ride back, if we could pay to get on their bus but use our own raft. They said no, and if you float by yourself that you are responsible for your own ride back. We drove to the public put in area, which was very nice and recently redone. We pumped up our inflatable Kayak and put our things in a dry sack. After checking the phones we found that the area had both Lyft and Uber so we planned to Uber back to the car when we were done.

We got into the river and started floating. The kayak worked perfectly. We eventually deflated the two chairs we normally sit in and lounged around the inside of the raft. We would either jump out of the boat or splash water on ourselves if we were getting too hot. We snacked and generally just relaxed the next couple of hours. There were a couple of areas with some fun little rapids, that were made easier because our raft floats very high making it very difficult to get stuck on any rocks.

We got to the pull out and got out of the river. We started to put everything away and dry off when we realized that Greg left his phone and wallet in the car, we only had our car keys. It was a little over 3 miles back to the car. We decided that we had a couple of options: 1. Try to hitchhike back to the car, 2. Borrow a strangers phone to call a cab/uber/lyft, or 3. Go to the restaurant nearby to see if they would call us a cab that we would pay once we got back to the car. We went with option 2. We started talking with a couple groups of people who either didn’t have a phone on them or had to leave immediately. Then we met another couple who were also looking for a way back to the same place, they mentioned that the city bus stopped at the restaurant and then at the parking lot for the river. They were afraid that they missed the last bus. We decided to combine forces to find a way back. We ended up going to the restaurant who directed us to the front desk of the hotel to call us a cab. While we were waiting for the front desk staff to show up the other couple said that there should be a bus coming in 10 or 15 minutes right out front and that they would pay our $2 fare instead of paying the $30 cab ride. We took them up on their offer and went to the bus stop. We met a couple of other groups waiting for the bus and let them know about our honeymoon trip. Everyone was exceptionally nice, talkative, and full of advice.

The bus did show up in a timely fashion and when it did, the machine was broken so everyone’s ride was free! Luck was on our side! It dropped us off in the same parking lot as our car within a couple of minutes.

We headed back to the campsite to make dinner and read our books.

Again the campground was frequented by some large furry friends. This time someone thought to call the cops. So the cops showed up to chase the bear, which I found entertaining, and reassuring. We had heard from the camp host that morning that the bear has been around since June and is no longer scared by car horns, which I did not find reassuring. In any other park we had been to, if a bear was coming by almost nightly, that bear would have been relocated, scared away to high heavens with lots of ranger applied bear spray, or put down. Lesson of the trip: Tahoe DGAF about bears.

I eventually fell asleep to dream of bears all night. Greg was again underwhelmed.

September 2^nd

The usual: Wake up and de-pop. This time we were driving south to Yosemite. We had to make some route adjustments (read long detours) to avoid smoke and fires on the way, but we made it to Yosemite by early afternoon. We were very excited as this was easily number 2 place we were most excited to see on the whole trip, right behind Glacier!

 

Up Next: Yosemite

 

California Part 1: Weed and the Redwoods

August 23^rd

^{We woke up to a beautiful view of Mt Shastina from the campsite.} 

After talking with the campground host we had been given multiple recommendations as to what to do with our day in Weed and the surrounding areas. There were quite a few options for day hikes around as Mount Shasta loomed right over the campground and that was surrounded with multiple Buttes you could also hike. She also made a recommendation to check out a little waterfall and a local burger joint. We had debated going to Lassen National Park which was only 1.5 hours away, but opted out to minimize driving.

We followed her recommendations. We started out with a hike up Gray Butte to allow us an excellent view of Mount Shasta. In order to get to Gray Butte you essentially drove most of the way up Mount Shasta and then took a trail off of one of the campgrounds.

 It ended up being a surprisingly clear day given the amount of smoke and fires we had just driven through. It was a nice 4 mile out and back with around 600 feet of elevation gain out to the top of Gray Butte. Once we got to the top we were able to see a little bit of smoke in the valley and off in the distance but it was our best view since Mount Rainier.

Mount Shasta is a pretty incredible looking mountain. It has a little sister mountain, Mount Shastita, which appears to share the same base, but otherwise rises from a flat valley floor without any neighboring mountains. The closest other mountains in the Cascades are off in the distance and dwarfed in comparison. Mount Shasta is almost as tall as Mount Rainier at 14000+, and is the second tallest mountain in the cascades. Greg thinks it is actually more impressive looking than Mount Rainier because it has a higher prominence from anything else nearby. I would disagree because I loved all the glaciers and meadows and old forest on Mount Rainier, but I will not hesitate to tell you that it was quite stunning and definitely worth a visit.  It, like Mount Hood, is on National Forest land and so is more open to development. There is a ski area on this mountain as well, and you can see an old ski bowl which has been turned into trails.

While we were certainly disappointed to be missing out on Crater Lake we were grateful to have stumbled upon the beauty of Mount Shasta and be able to enjoy a smoke free day climbing outside.

From there we drove over to the little waterfall our host had recommended. It was just off the road in a little town called Dunsmuir. We walked around the path for a little bit and then headed over to grab some lunch. 

Our host had recommended a place called Yaks on the 5, also in Dunsmuir. They specialized in burgers. We specialize in eating burgers. It was a perfect match. We googled them before we went and they had been rated one of the best burgers by Yelpers, and we would agree. It was a cute family owned restaurant full of hospitality. They start you off with a teaser of a ¼ of their homemade sweet rolls, which were to die for. Then they brought us our gigantic burgers that we obligingly devoured. Fortunately too full to consider taking any sweet rolls home. I got a Cilantro bomb burger and Greg got a Jalapeno Crunch. They make everything they can from scratch including their buns and all of their sauces, and you can tell. We very harshly judged the next table that showed up to order salads and dry gluten free burgers, because you can do that anywhere.

After that we headed over to another state park called Castle Crags. We were interested in checking this place out because “crags” is what climbers call rock formations, so it seemed like there might be some climbing to check out. We had looked it up before we went and learned that in order to get to the crags themselves you had to hike up to 2 hours to get to the base. We were not about to do that, so we were content to just look and check them out. There is a vista that you are essentially able to drive all the way up to get a view of the crags and of Mount Shasta. To burn off some of the burger we did a little 1 mile each way hike out to a creek on flat terrain. Our full stomachs kept our pace very casual which helped us to enjoy the beautiful day and scenery.

After our hike we headed back to Weed to do some grocery shopping then head back to the campground. At the site we showered, made dinner, and hung out the rest of the day. We decided to go ahead and drive to the Redwoods a day early and hope to find a campsite nearby. As our trip has continued I have developed more faith in spontaneity and that we will be able to find a place to stay without a reservation. Prior to starting I felt that we needed reservations at all scheduled stops as I had serious reservations about showing up without a plan.

August 24^th

Our usual start: breakfast, de-pop, driving. We, annoyingly, had to drive back north from the way we came to go further west to get to coast and the Redwoods. We made the most of it, and stopped at the Oregon Caves National Monument. All tours of the cave are guided to limit vandalism and wanton destruction of the area, but that means that you often have to wait for a tour. We had to wait a little over an hour for our tour, so we had a little picnic in the interim. The caves were pretty cool, nothing nearly as impressive as Carlsbad or Mammoth, but neat enough.

After our tour we hopped back in the car and headed south. We drove back into California and hopped on the 101, which made me sing the Phantom Planet song for the next hour, and is dubbed the Redwood Highway along the northern portion of the state. Redwood is a National and State Park, a joint effort of the California State Park System and the National Park System. The park has grown piecewise over the years based on donations and conservation efforts from the Save the Redwoods League. The League developed as logging destroyed significant portions of the Redwood habitat. Up to 95% of the original old growth redwoods were logged. Most of the remaining lands are now preserved in public lands. There are 3 state park areas, Del Norte Coast Redwoods, Jedediah Smith Redwoods and Prairie Creek Redwoods, and one national park area composing the park.

We had reservations for the next two nights at the campground at Del Norte Coast so we thought we would try to camp there that night as well. You are unable to make a reservation within 48 hours online using the now national reservation system, ReserveAmerica, and the new California system, ReserveCalifronia, so we tried calling. They weren’t able to help us over the phone either, so we drove to the campground. There was a sign up front saying it was full, but we decided to drive down and ask if they would be able to tell us if the other campgrounds had availability. It turned out that the campground was not full and we were able to get a spot for the night, which was a very nice surprise.

We got all set up and made some pizza for dinner. It was not my best work, as I was a little heavy handed with the strong flavors: garlic pesto, prosciutto, blue cheese, and onion.

August 25^th

We started out the day with a hike along Damnation Creek Trail, which was highly recommended and not far from our site. It was ideal because it started it old growth forest for most of the hike and then steep decline down to the beach. The last 0.1 miles of the trail was closed due to a bridge failure, however it turns out the creek didn’t really NEED a bridge so we took the initiative of going the last 0.1 miles to the beach. It was a 4.25 mile trail with 1100 feet of elevation loss on the way out and gain on the way back. The beach was beautiful with the fog and the rocks and cliffs and the forests. Pictures will hopefully do it some justice.

One thing we definitely learned is that Coastal Redwoods thrive on constant air moisture, which is why they love Norther California with the daily morning fog. Greg and I do not thrive on constant air moisture AKA high humidity; this is part of why we left Florida. We also learned, that also like Florida, mosquitoes love that humidity, so we struggled the most with mosquitoes during the day and night at this park.

After our hike we headed back to the campground to check out/in to a new site. We did have to take the camper down and set it back up, but we did so in record time since perfection was not important. We grabbed some lunch and headed up to Jedediah Smith State Park to drive the scenic Howland Hill Road and stop along the Stout Grove. Scenic road is code for windy, unpaved, one lane road, but it was kind of fun to drive. It was so dry up in this area that the dust kicked up from the driving cars covered the lower 10 feet of the trees making them look like ghosts of logging past. The Stout Grove that we got out to check out is full of the 300 foot monoliths that are hundreds if not thousands of years old.

From there we headed back into town at Crescent City for some groceries and ice and cell reception. On the way back to the campsite we took one last stop at the pier on Anchor Way since our map had a picture of a sea lion here. They were quite easy to find bathing themselves along the floating decks set up for their pleasure. The first deck had a mixture of sea lions and seals all napping in one brown grey heap. The next deck was all napping lions. The last deck had the most activity with some sea lions trying to play and fight which was fun to watch.

We got back to the campsite for our usual nightly routine reading, dinner, chilling, and I think we also took showers.

August 26^th

Today we decided to head south towards the Prairie Creek State Park. We took another scenic drive, this one paved and essentially straight. We stopped at the visitor center to look at some maps and decide our trail for the day. We opted for a smaller 4 mile-ish loop of South Fork to Rhododendron to Brown Creek Trail. We encountered another easily circumvented bridge failure situation. It was a lovely forest and the smoke in the area made some very cool light rays, but it was 110% humidity, at least. In the middle of the trail there was a cool memorial grove with several labeled old giants. By the end of this trail Greg and I were soaked with our own sweat and not too thrilled about it since the weather said a high of 60 (lies).

We ate some lunch then headed to the Klamath River Overlook as there was a whale icon here. We met a local who was able to point out some bald eagles and grey whales for us to watch. He was a member of the local tribe who spends many days on the lookout and a wealth of local knowledge.

We headed back to the campsite for the usual and some laundry with our Scrubba bag.

August 27^th

Usual leaving day: eat, pack, de-pop, drive. We drove through several more groves of Redwoods on the drive south although the groves got smaller and farther apart. We didn’t have a terrible drive that day, only a couple hundred miles and a few hours. We were able to get to Napa by 2 or so.

Up  Next: Napa!

 

Oregon

August 17^th

Given the fact that we discovered we were at the polar opposite end of the Columbia River Gorge from Hell’s Canyon, the place we kind of hipped to check out in the gorge,  we decided to check out a different literal and figurative direction. We went to Mount Hood. Mt. Hood is the tallest point in Oregon and is owned by the National Forest Service, which is awesome because this means it allows for some development on the mountain, including ski resorts. You can actually ski or snowboard on Mount Hood 12 months out of the year. One of my friends she even went to summer camp there for downhill skiing! Unfortunately during the summer you ski on the upper part of the glacier, which is black diamond level, so not as much for us. During the winter months once they start getting snow you ski on the lower parts of the mountain. In order to summit Mount Hood the easiest way to start is to take the ski lift to the glacier and hike up from there, which I personally think is a great way to start.

So we drove an hour or so towards Mount Hood. We found a little hike in the National Forest. It was a pleasant maybe 3 mile mostly flat loop trail. It actually crossed another little sno-park/ski resort area. All of the meadows that we crossed were just ski slopes without snow! It was a nice easy little trail, as we still were in recovery from Mount Rainier, mentally and physically.

On the way back we decided to hit up a couple of attractions on the way back. I had seen a sign for a lavender farm and definitely wanted to go there to take some cool pictures. I don’t know if they turned out, but it was still a nice stop.

Then we decided to hit up one of the many wineries in the Columbia River Gorge. We chose one that looked appealing from the side of the road, Wy’east, the Native American name for Mount Hood. We did a little tasting there and were actually very pleasantly surprised by the Pinot Gris, so we bought a bottle of that to take with us. At the winery, we learned that in Hood River they had a few breweries. Of course we headed that way. We opted for Double Mountain Brewery, grabbed a pizza and a couple of beers. Greg was underwhelmed, I was whelmed.

Then we headed back to the campsite for dinner and relaxation with a couple more beers.

Pretty chill day, and Hood River seemed like a cute little town that seemed worth exploring if you are in the area. We have plans to come back to Mount Hood for snow activities when my skill set improves!

August 18^th

Wake and De-Pop. It was my turn to drive, but it was a pretty short jaunt over to Smith Rocks State Park. Smith Rocks is another climbing mecca for both sport and trad climbers with thousands of routes all with relatively easy access and close together. We arrived a little around 930 and gathered our supplies and started heading towards the climbing area of the park around 10ish. Greg had been poring over the guidebook for the last few days to weeks to plan the best routes to try. I hadn’t really asked any questions, because he knows what I’m capable and not capable of climbing. The only thing he kept telling me is how close together everything was.

So we started walking. Then we kept walking. Then we approached a pass. The route we wanted was directly on the other side of the pass, so we could climb the stairs and scramble over or walk all the way around. Well in hopes of shortening our time we climbed the stairs and attempted to scramble over. We were successful at eventually scrambling up the pass, but not back over the other side. There was no clear way across and we were a little off balance given our large packs and regular sneakers. We opted to choose safety so we walked around. Then we kept walking.

It was at this point in the morning that Greg and I realized that I was hungover. Greg had his suspicions for the preceding several hours, but I was in denial. Until I felt like our car, going uphill, towing the camper. I was moving incredibly slowly but was predominantly irritated that this wonderful place of climbing with routes everywhere and everything was “so close” together made me walk an hour and a half to get to my route. We passed so many things to climb along the way, it didn’t make sense, and I was bitter.

We finally reached the ends of the Earth, I mean the base of the route Greg wanted to climb. Well apparently Greg wanted to climb it and so did everyone else. We had a group who was still waiting to start in front of us, and there were several groups on the walls in front of them. We had arrived at “Wherever I May Roam”, a five pitch route that gets you to the top of these giant walls, and was 5.8 and 5.9 the whole way up.

After thirty minutes of waiting or so we finally got to get set up to start our own ascent. Greg led every pitch. The first couple of pitches we still were waiting on the group ahead of us before starting our next section. The first route was an easy, shorter route to the top of a large boulder. Second pitch was diagonal/half traverse that had a lot of exposure, and a lot of trust in the chalk from the prior climbers. Third pitch was also quite exposed and had some interesting reaches around the corner. The fourth pitch was a little more comfortable, but still quite long. Fifth pitch you really wanted to be a 20 foot walk up the slab, but then had a couple of real moves right at the end. I don’t know how Greg did it, but he sent the whole wall without any takes or falls. He looked awesome, at least on the parts of the wall that I could see him. I only had one take and no falls, so that was super exciting for me too.

We got to the top and enjoyed the fruits of our labor, the view. We also took a few precious moments to sit with our shoes off. We both love our climbing shoes, for the gym, but need better shoes for all day climbing outdoors. The sun had just started hitting the wall on our last section and was really glaring on the top. Then we had to repel down in four sections. This took a long time because again the two in front of us really struggled. Apparently their rope wasn’t long enough in one section. They eventually got it sorted out, but it just really took a lot of time. We were at least at belay stations in the shade for most of the waiting. We were even serenaded with a random neighbor in the houses below playing French horn for the canyon to enjoy.

By the time we got back down it was around 4, meaning we spent 4 hours on this route! Which is a very long time for that amount of climbing. At that point we were hot and hungry, so we snacked, then headed back to the car. The walk back took significantly less time than the walk out, as I had climbed out all the hangover toxins (please note hangover toxins were not a thing, it was merely water and the tincture of time that allowed me to feel better).

We decided to head into Bend to get phone reception and a celebratory beer. We were very pleased at our first multi-pitch together (without a guide) and I had also found out that I passed by Sports Medicine Board Exam. Look who has two thumbs and is CAQ certified…. This guy *points to self*.

We stopped at Deschutes Brewing. We sat in the beer, grabbed a beer, and then decided we were hungry enough and tired enough to just order dinner as well. It was all delicious, the beer, the food, particularly the calamari app we ordered with this crazy good pineapple jalapeno sauce.

From there we needed to go find our campsite. When we went to reserve a campsite, there was nothing available as far as online-reservable state parks or forests in the area as it was the weekend of the eclipse and Bend was in the line of totality, with Madras 20 miles or so north with max time in totality. So the campsite I reserved was in a state forest about an hour south of bend, which was a bummer for the amount of time we would be driving.

On our way to our campsite we passed several other Deschutes Forest camp areas. We finally decided to see if any of them had available sites, as it was about 30 minutes closer to Bend and therefore Smith Rocks. We found one, for $10 a night. We parked it and set up shop. We cancelled our other reservation, as we surprisingly had signal at this campsite.

By the time we had finished setting up, it was pretty late, we had already eater, and so we were ready to plan for the next day and go to bed.

August 19^th

This was another day of climbing, but we had decided to be nice to ourselves and sleep in. We opted to look for some afternoon shade and show up to the park later in the day. So we had a very relaxed morning. Eventually we started heading north and stopped at a Walmart on our way to the park. Then we got to Smith Rocks. Afternoon shade goals also meant that we could pick walls closer to the entrance, therefore making the walk much shorter and actually the “so close” that I was promised.

Greg climbed a couple of routes on the Picnic Lunch wall. I eventually made my way up one behind him, but the second one was significantly harder so I skipped that. We had a lot of attention at this wall because it was right along the hiking path. Look for us in the background of stranger’s vacation pictures. It’s quite an ego boost having everyone stop and watch and be like oooooo how scary!

After those routes we headed over to the Zebra Wall, but as the guidebook stated it was crowded, it would be a long while before we were able to get on any route there, so we headed over to the Peanut Wall. This was again a time that we regretted not bringing our stick clip with us. The first route has a very tricky, boulder style start so it took Greg a while to get it, but he did. Again he went the whole day without any falls which is awesome. We did a couple routes there then headed to check out Zebra wall again.

This time it was even more crowded than before so we went in search of one more route before we finished for the day. We found one that we were looking for, Dancer, but someone was just starting on it. It was an easy 5.7 so after looking around at some other stuff close by, we elected to just wait for these two people to finish. This was a terrible mistake.

The guy leading it, Mark, got stuck at the top one move away from the anchors. We wasn’t physically stuck, he just got scared. Please note that he was not in any danger. We later learned that it may have been a couple of years since he had done any lead climbing outside. After Mark eventually made it up, then it was time for his partner, Jess, to go up, and she was also clearly less experienced. She took her sweet, sweet time getting up this route, enough time to allow the sun set during the process.  She didn’t even clean the route at the top, so their friend was going to go up a side route to do it.

We eventually got on the route, as at this point we had invested a freaking hour of our lives waiting for it. Greg cruised it in maybe 5 minutes. He was also kind enough to grab their gear and bring it down for them. Then it was my turn. Now it was solidly darkening and it was a race against time so I could see the equipment enough at the top to get it down. We of course cleverly left our headlamps in the care, as we had no intention of climbing this late in the day. The approaching dark was the most motivating thing for me to climb. I couldn’t see my feet and I could barely see my hands on the wall, but I did it. Thankfully it really was one of the easiest routes in the whole park. . I also flew up the route.  I got to the top, cleaned it, and was quickly belayed down. We then headed back to the car with our phone flashlight to guide our way.

The whole walk back we cursed Mark and Jess, the world’s slowest climbers.

Back to the campsite to plan my birthday!

Tonight was an exciting night as we planned to cook ramen. Don’t get me wrong, ramen was both exciting and delicious, but thanks to Mark and Jess it was inhaled still scalding hot at 1030 pm which is less than desirable. Also this was the start of a love affair with bagged salads, because sometimes your body just craves convenient raw veggies. 

August 20^th

My 30^th Birthday!

Greg asked me what I wanted for my birthday I said a massage and not to go climbing. I got both. He gave me a massage after I woke up which was lovely and much longer lasting than his usual 30 seconds of shoulder squeezes accompanied with heavy sighing on his part. We ate breakfast and lazed around for a good part of the morning.

We then started my birthday celebration with a flight at Sunriver Brewing in Sunriver. This looked to me like the Celebration of Bend, very planned and structured.

Then we decided to get some culture, and headed to Lava Rocks National Monument and planned to see the Lava River Tube as well. We walked around Lava Rocks on a self-guided little trail then opted out of the shuttle ride to the top of the cone since it was quite smoky and would inhibit our view anyway.

Oh yeah, side note, still super smoky here too. There were multiple fires in the Three Sisters area that was west of Bend and still causing a lot of smoke particularly in conjunction with the smoke from fires everywhere else as well. The smoke was present every day in varying degrees depending on location and time of day.

Then we headed toward the Lava River Tube. We had already gathered that it was more crowded than usual for these attractions, likely because of the solstice tourists gathering in the area. It was impossible to find decent parking, and we weren’t heavily emotionally invested in seeing it, so we kept driving.

Then we headed to REI to find a birthday present. Greg decided that I needed a new rain jacket, since mine was a large, heavy city jacket that doesn’t make any sense for backpacking. So I found one on clearance and we got it! After that we started checking out a few more of the local breweries.

The next one we went to, Crux, had a great outdoor space with lots of food trucks and they served solid barrel aged beers. Then we headed to Boneyard Brewing. I liked Boneyard because it was clearly started and run by some punk rockers, and they only served tasters which is cool when you just want to try a couple of things anyway. They gave us free birthday koozies so that was nice too.

Then we headed to Lowe’s to pick up supplies to make a new bike rack for the roof of the car so we didn’t have to keep loading the bikes on and off of the camper every time we get to a new site. We had not been biking much since the last time we did it seemed to bother Greg’s back more than it was worth, but nothing to worry about.

After Lowe’s, we headed back into Bend for one more brewery and then dinner. This brewery was just done the street from dinner, so it was perfect. It was Bend Brewing Company, and I like their beers the best from the ones we had tried. We had reservations at 900 Wall. We were able to get sat immediately. We ordered a delicious charcuterie plate for an appetizer, and I got a flight of Rose to drink (Lauren encourages this type of behavior). Dinner was good but not great.

After dinner we headed home and went to bed early, because that what you do when you are in your thirties.

August 21^st

Eclipse Day! We knew it would probably get crazy around town for the Eclipse, so we wanted to get an early start. Since the Eclipse would start around 915 with totality at 1020 and finish around 1130 we got up around 6 so we could hopefully beat traffic. We were not so lucky. Our plan was to go back to Smith Rocks and climb a little before and after the eclipse while having a great viewing area. They wouldn’t let us pack at the State Park so we had to park on the street about a mile away, which was annoying but essentially expected.

Thankfully it seemed like by the time we got to the walls that most visitors were spectators and not climbers and so more of the routes were open than the prior days. We were able to get on Zebra Wall and do a couple of routes I had been looking forward to, like 5 gallon buckets and the two routes to the right of it. We got about 1.5 routes in then opted to watch the eclipse as it was nearing totality. We did bring our eclipse sunglasses that we had purchased all the way back at a Teton visitor center.

I’m sure most people got to see the eclipse at least in partiality, but I will say that it was cool. The sun stayed bright right up until totality it just seemed to get less warm, then it got very twilight during totality, and definitely got much cooler overall. We had about 1 minute and 40 seconds of totality which passed very quickly. Then the sun started peaking back out and we got back to climbing before it got super hot, and so we could eclipse climb!

We finished the three routes we wanted to do on the Zebra Wall, and by that time the sun was back to baking us. My arms were no longer doing an adequate job of pulling me up and towards the wall so I called it quits. Greg wanted to do one more route, and really test his abilities. We walked over to Blue Light Special an 11b. We rested in the shade and then Greg go on it. Thankfully today we did remember our stick clip, so he was able to safely start. He was able to get all the way up on his first try, without any falls! He’s a climbing master!

After that we said our good-byes for now to Smith Rock State Park and headed back to the campsite. There was some traffic on the way back as everyone was heading back from Madras to everywhere else in the world. We grabbed some Taco Bell and then did our best to avoid the worst of the traffic.

We did some chores around the camper like washing the rope and some clothes. We did this in the coldest river! It felt like my feet had immediate frostbite. Thankfully everything dried and warmed up quickly in the dry air.

We had a chill evening then headed to sleep.

August 22^nd

Today we headed to Crater Lake, again a fairly short drive, so we were a little more cavalier about our packing and driving. I had decided to take a slightly longer route to our campsite in the national forest southwest of Crater Lake and drive through the park itself.

At the entrance to Crater Lake we were greeted with the sign “Lake obstructed by smoke”. Great. They were not kidding, we drove through some very dense smoke along the western rim of the lake, so much so that it wasn’t worth getting out at the pull offs that were still open. There was considerable construction on this road as well since the heavy snow year had caused quite a bit of damage.

We decided to get out and check out Rim Village at the 6 o clock position on the Lake and walk around. You could just barely discern the difference between cloud and lake at its closest edges.

 You could not see across the lake, and just barely see the top of the Wizard Island. Here we found out that there were two, fairly large, definitely active fires within the park that had been started on August 19^th from some lightning. The smoke had gotten really heavy the night before and had stayed since that time. The air quality index was borderline hazardous. The air quality dissuaded us from doing much of any little hikes during the day.

We then decided to check out our campsite to see if it was tolerable.  It was not. At that point you could only see a few hundred feet before smoke obscured your views, and everything reeked of campfire. We decided to cancel our reservations, put Crater Lake on the to-do list, and drive until it wasn’t smoky. That’s what we had told the Campground Host, who laughed and said “where are you driving, Southern California?” We certainly did not plan to do so.

We drove, and googled our options as we did. It appeared as though air quality would improve dramatically south of Medford toward Ashland. So we tried going there. In order to help us decide if the air quality would be tolerable enough we opted to stop at a winery, have a drink, and make our decision. There were swans and good wine to help clear the mind. 

We decided to try a state forest campground just a little further south and a few miles off of the road. Well those few miles off of the road happened to be up a mountain road past a small ski resort into a backcountry campground. It would not have fit the pop-up, and was still most definitely very smoky.

So we (Greg) turned the pop around and headed back down the mountain. Then we headed further South to California. We drove until air quality improved, which according to the AQI/smoke map would happen around Weed. So about 10 minutes out we called an RV park to check for availability, which they did for a non-electric site.

We pulled in around 7pm to the Friendly RV Park in Weed California instead of to Crater Lake, but hey that’s life.

We made dinner, decided to stay two nights at the campground, see what was around, and plan for the next couple of days.

Up next:

Weed and Redwoods

Mount Rainier

August 13^th

It was scheduled to be another big day of driving, 620 miles and at least 11 hours in the car. So we did our usual routine: Wake up early, eat yogurt, de-pop the camper, and get on the road. Our routine usually takes us an hour from alarm to road, but we have started to shave off minutes here and there. Our drive was essentially uneventful. We had plans to stop at a Walmart on the border of Idaho and Walmart to restock on essentials, and we did so without anything really exciting to talk about. We did pass quite a bit of road construction and one lane roads, but unfortunately this has also become our usual.

We did find several things surprising on our drive. Northern Idaho is exceptionally beautiful, at least the hour of which we saw from the car. 

We take an obligatory selfie in each state for a photo map… Here is Idaho. And yes, sometimes Greg actually does wear glasses!

Western Washington is shockingly plains-y. Washington doesn’t start looking how you picture it until you get out of the rain shadow of the Cascades along the Eastern half of the state. We passed through a valley just west of Yakima, the Tieton Valley, that we commented on looked like you could rock climb it. We looked it up on Mountain Project and in fact you could climb it, and it even had sport routes which was cool to know. We even saw some climbers on the wall and sent them some good vibes. We continued along past the very pretty Rim Rock Lake and eventually got to Mount Rainier. (I swear I will remember how to spell Rainier without spell check prompting me by the end of this post. It’s Rain, but more rain, so it’s Rain-ier. Not more ran, Ran-ier.)

We had lost phone signal about an hour and a half before we got to the park. We had the campground we had reservations at written down, but not the site number. So when we got there we had to drive around until we found the spot with our last name scrawled on the reservation card, luckily this happened very quickly. We got our camper set up and everything situated, and it was still only 630 or 7 pm, which was pretty good.

We decided to explore a nearby attraction and short hike, The Grove of the Patriarchs. This is as very easy 1.2 mile loop into old growth forest featuring ancient trees and a little suspension bridge. When I say old growth forest, this was by far the oldest growth we had come across on our trip. Some of the trees were over 1000 years old. These were beautiful, massive, towering giants, an amalgam of spruce, fir, and hemlock. I already decided it was my favorite forest we had been in so far. I love old growth; the smell, paucity of undergrowth, and the feeling of being very small and inconsequential.

We headed back to camp to make some dinner and plan for the next day.

August 14^th

This is the day we decided to go to Paradise. This is a humbly named section of the park with sub-alpine and alpine meadows approaching the southern face of Mount Rainier. It is also the site of one of the trails that will take you up to high camp, should you wish to summit the Mountain. The Mountain itself is 14410 feet tall. It is a sleeping volcano, with a cone at the center. There are permits and fees involved to attempting to submit, but most importantly, you need alpine knowledge and gear. Crampons and Ice Axes are mandatory in addition to rope, ascent boots, and snow gear. You also need at least 3 days in general to climb to high camp, ascent and descend back to high camp, then descend from high camp. So you also need to bring plenty of food and methods for obtaining water through purification and snow melt. Greg and I like to think we can do anything, but summiting Mount Rainier is a thing that you can’t do without significant planning, so we have now placed it on the to-do list.

We alternatively opted for the much more common and doable Skyline Loop trail. This was 5.5 miles round trip with 1700 foot of elevation gain, plus a little extra we climbed at the top. We went up extra at the top in order to play on the end of the Muir Snowfield. We got to see more than our fair share of marmots who we had grown familiar with during our time at Glacier.

Thankfully, a storm had rolled in during our drive from Glacier to Rainier. This meant we drove through a lot of wind and rain and mainly intimidating clouds, but that the air had cleared around the summit.

 For the first time in a month we had smoke-free views. This allowed us to see the summit throughout our stay and get views of the surrounding volcanic summit of Mount Adams.

One of my favorite parts about this trail was at the visitor center at the bottom they had a wildflower guide which included every flower with pictures that I could possibly see on the trail. WHY HAD NOONE GIVEN ME THIS BEFORE???? It was everything and perfect and fit in my pocket. For some reason I really wanted to know the names of all the flowers, and now I do! So YAY!

My least favorite part of this trail was how badly I needed to pee at the end of this trail. I started thinking about bathrooms about 2 miles before the end. With a half mile to go it was all I could think about. Unfortunately it was too populated and open of a trail to politely pop a squat. Of course we also passed several trickling waterfalls in the last mile which while beautiful were a true test of mental and pelvic floor fortitude. I did a very cute little run-walk shoving the elderly and children out of my way the last 1000ft so I didn’t pee my pants, because I’m a lady.

After I could think clearly, we wandered the lodge and gift shop and headed back to the car. We then headed farther southeast in the park towards the Longmire section of the park. We had parked there and checked out that visitor center and museum. We did a little 1 mile loop around some hot springs and learned some history of the first European entrepreneurs who had built up the area as an equivalent to a modern day medical spa.

That concluded our activities for the day. Just dinner, handing out, reading at the campsite after that.

August 15^th

If you recall, due to poor weather on our hike to Sperry Glacier Greg was unable to walk on a glacier. Greg needed, NEEDED, to walk on a glacier. It was my job to support him in his goals. Today was the day we were going to do it. Thankfully Mount Rainier has the highest concentration of glaciers in the lower 48, with 28 glaciers within the park, primarily on routes to the summit. There are of course some dangers in trying to walk on or to a glacier, especially since in late summer the edges are rapidly melting and we did not have crampons, but we did our best to mitigate those risks.

We had already determined that we were going to check out another part of the park this day, Sunrise in the northeast corner. We had deduced there were likely two ways to get to a glacier in this part of the park: heading form the end of Emmons Moraine Trail up to Emmons Glacier or heading up from the end of the Glacier Basin camp towards the other high camp along the Inter Glacier. We tried both.

We parked at the White River Campground, as directed, then headed along the Glacier Basin Trail. We took the first turn out to Emmons Moraine Trail after 0.9 miles. Emmons Glacier is the largest Glacier in the lower 48. A moraine is the mass of rocks and sediments carried down and deposited by a glacier at its edges or lower extremities. So we were walking on a hill made by the glacier look over its edge down at the ends of the glacier itself. We later discovered, at the visitor center, that ends of glaciers actually extend longer than the ends you can visualize as they continue underground beneath the superficial rocks. So we walked along this trail, at the end of the trail it had a sign stating trail no longer maintained. We continued to see how well we could follow the trail. After about ten minutes I felt like the trail was not going to be nearly maintained enough to follow all the way to the glacier itself. We also were the only people we had seen on the trail so if something happened to one of us, we would be SOL. So I convinced Greg to turn around and that I promised we would walk on the Glacier Basin trail until we officially walked on a glacier.

We back tracked the half mile back to the trail and got started again. It was 2.2 more miles to the base camp at glacier basin. It was a nice, predominantly shaded, predominantly forested trail, with only 1700 feet of elevation gain, our new normal.

At the base camp, there was a sign for “Toilet”. After the pee-mergency the day prior, I decided to play it safe and use the toilet. Toilet described an individual septic plastic tub with a toilet seat on top, with several pieces of plywood in front, for privacy. It was surprisingly liberating, and given the endless ventilation, not too malodorous.

After a snack we headed up the mountain. Again, we passed a sign informing us the trail was no longer maintained. This time I was more assured knowing this was a more populated trail as it was one of two routes to the summit, and a Boy Scout troop had just gone along the same trail. We quickly passed the Boy Scout troop but stayed within their sight throughout our hike, so I felt much safer. The trail was well defined for the first mile or so until it got to a boulder field. This is where we had just a super awesome fun time scrambling up the rocks. At first a “path” was marked with intermittent cairns, however these dwindled towards the top of the field. We were aiming to get up the boulder field/seemingly endless scree up to a ridgeline where we could traverse over to some snow/ice pack we felt was the lower part of the inter glacier. We/Greg felt sure there would be a well-defined trail once we got higher up, unfortunately, this was not the case. We eventually stopped attempting to go higher and just moved left towards the lower aspects of the snow field.

We got to the glacier, took glacier selfies, and ate a celebratory snack. It was mildly anti-climactic as the grade of the slope prevented us from seeing all the way up to the main part of the glacier or the summit while we were on it.
Then we had the unsavory task of working our way down 1000ft of scree. Along the way we met a group that was headed to high camp. They let us know that we had essentially followed the trail correctly, there was no trail going over the ridgeline, and you do have to start just walking on snow from where we were. So that was nice to know that we did as well as we could without gear.

We got back to glacier basin, used the facilities, and ate more snacks. Carbs are the life source of hiking. You burn 30-60 grams per hour, so eat up friends, guilt-free. Usually I can only palate Clif Bars after we finish the most strenuous parts, so I eat mine later than desired.

It was an easy hike down as it was all downhill, shaded, with lovely old growth forest and a couple small waterfalls. We made excellent time. After our successful excursion, we think close to 10 miles and 3500ft+ of elevation gain we headed to the Sunrise Visitor Center.

Again it was a pleasantly crystal clear day and we were able to get some great view of the mountain, including of the glacier we just hiked on! Exhausted we headed back to the campsite to plan our coming days.

August 16^th

Our original plans had Mount Saint Helens as our next stop. This was a stop I had added on later to the itinerary as I felt it was iconic, and we needed to see it. Greg acquiesced. However, on our drive from Glacier I had decided that maybe I didn’t need to climb to volcanic mountains back to back, especially one that had no old growth forest or beautiful alpine meadows. So we had cancelled our reservation and opted to spend a couple of nights at the Columbia River Gorge. Parts of this gorge are deeper than the Grand Canyon, apparently not the parts we were going to.

Thankfully it would be a short drive, only 3 hours to our next destination so that left us some playing room with what to do with our day. We could hike at Mount Rainier again, make extra stops along the way, or get to the River Gorge early and try to find some activities there. We were looking at the maps of the quickest route to our next destination when we realized we had to back track all the way to Yakima before heading south. We would have to pass along the lake and through the same valley again.

**** Divine Inspiration ****

New plan: Wake up and de-pop. Head to the Teiton Valley and go climbing then head to Yakima for a stop at a brewery and laundry before continuing on to the Columbia Gorge.

We followed the plan. We headed to the Teiton Valley, had to go far enough to get signal to download the actual mountain project section telling us where the climbing routes were. Go back to Mark’s Wall and park the camper. We were able to park in a pull off right below the wall we wanted to climb. The approach would be so simple. But nay, it was very vertical. It might only have seemed very vertical to our sore calves, but it was still a short but strenuous approach. Once we got to the top we decided to climb Children of Lesser Chaos first, an okay route. Then we followed it with a super fun stem route Age of Consent. Fun climbing, but a super brutally hot day and we were not on the morning sun side of the canyon. So after just two routes we headed back down to the car.

While baking in the sun we had been eyeing the Teiton River below. By the time we got to the bottom of the valley, a swim in the river was mandatory. We had full on embraced our dirtbag lifestyle at this juncture, and stripped down to our skivvies and trotted on down to the water. It was a fairly shallow river, and shockingly, take-the-breath-out-of-your-lungs, cold. We had to essentially belly flop down to submerge ourselves, which we eventually did. It only took a couple minutes to feel oh so refreshed in that water. It was also our first shower in days. #Multitasking

We then dried off, which went very quickly in the 90 degree 0% humidity weather, and got back in the car. Unfortunately no breweries were open until 3 or 4 pm so we settled on a Google approved Tavern. This hole in the wall bar was operated by a lovely woman who could live next door or be your grandma. She made us the most deliciously greasy bar food that was oh so necessary.

Appetites satiated we headed into town to do a load of laundry then hit up the grocery store. Greg’s Kindle had also broken the week prior, and just wouldn’t do anything, so he got the early birthday present of a new Kindle from Best Buy. Chores done and necessities obtained we headed on to the Columbia River Gorge.

We got to our campsite, which was the anti-thesis of our Mount Rainier site. It was small, with one tree, squished by its RV neighbors, surrounded by children, and well-lit from the bathroom but it did have many luxuries such as electricity, water, showers, and no bears. Still tired from our previous day’s hike and that morning’s climbing we just explored the camp grounds, prepared dinner, and planned for the next day.

Coming up next: Oregon

Glacier Part 2

August 9^th

We woke up fairly early, let’s say 630ish, to de-pop and get on our way. We had to get over to the outdoor center outside of the park to park the car and trailer. We only had to drive like 15 minutes, max, to get there, so we were pretty casual about the packing. We got there with plenty of time to meet our ride, the Sperry and Granite Chalet Shuttle Service. We were picked up and appropriately dropped off at the Sperry Trailhead by 9am. Our only obligation for the day was to make it up the trail by 5pm for dinner.

Our driver had worked for the park on and off for thirty-plus years and most of that as a back-country ranger so she had some useful bits of knowledge. She said that in all of her time there she had never encountered a bear, which I particularly found reassuring. She said we would just have the best time up at the Chalet and all of the trails coming from there were just gorgeous. She told us her favorite parts of the park, The Belly River and Two Medicine areas. Both of which are primarily enjoyed via back-packing to get a true back-country experience. We asked about the smoke, she said that there was a fire in the park from some lightning a couple of nights before but it had been quickly squashed with help from helicopters using lake water to fight the fires. She did comment that the whole area just a giant tinderbox, and very susceptible to lightning strikes. They hadn’t had significant rain since at least June. She wished us well on our way.

We started off our trail with no issues. We passed a couple of groups fairly early on. Then we ran into another very friendly Mule Deer, this time it was a male deer with a lovely rack. At the same time one of the supply trains for the chalet was heading past us. Their supply trains were usually twice weekly and composed of usually around 7 horses and mules to bring them food and take down their laundry and trash, this we had also just learned from our driver. The deer had briefly passed into the brush while the horses passed, then popped back out again. He did eventually part ways after a couple hundred feet.

Since we had plenty of time we found a rock we presumed was about half way up and sat to have some snacks. By this time we had passed a few groups coming down from the Chalet, all of whom appeared to be in good spirits. We kept going after a brief respite. Thankfully, most of the trail was in the woods and therefore shaded, by the time the canopy ended it was to give full view of the mountain peaks, valleys, waterfall, and chalet which was quite hard to complain about. The trail did have quite a bit of elevation gain at the end, with less shaded cover, but still not too bad. We were pleasantly surprised at how easy the trail felt, considering it was the trail with our most elevation gain thus far at 3400 feet.  We got to the Chalet right around 1pm, and were hoping to catch some lunch at the dining room. We were welcomed with friendly smiles and the most refreshing glass of lemonade we had ever had. We just ended up eating some of the snacks we brought with us for lunch, cliff bars and tuna, the usual.

We got to check out our little room. It was very cute with a private balcony. It was composed of a double bed, a couple of night stands, hooks on the wall and a couple of director’s chairs. It was quaint, but more than expected and more than adequate. After relaxing for an hour or two we decided we were up for some exploration. We asked for recommendations and told to check out Lincoln pass, about ¾ of a mile farther up the trail, and ¼ scramble up to Lincoln Peak for incredible 360 views. We followed the recommendation and were not remiss. It was stunning, although views were limited by smoke to the south and west. It was at this point we definitely had found our park.

We had already passed a couple of mountain goats on the trail up and one casually napping on the entryway to the chalet. However our closest encounter was on our scramble up the peak. Once we had started to go up the peak we saw there were two mountain goats down at the pass and joked about them following us. Then further up, they too decided to come up the mountain. They of course, took the easiest way up, the trail, right behind us. By the time we were half way up they had gained all of the distance and were very close behind. So we paused, got off the path to let them by. The leading one, whom we determined was mother goat, passed very closely and then paused right next to us, we presume for National Geopgraphic pictures. Then she really stared at us and started towards us a couple of times, which was a little disconcerting. She did eventually continue along after some more than gentle shooing.

We made it back down the peak without any further incident and were even lucky enough to spot our first pika, but not so lucky as to grab a picture. We had some time to relax and clean up a little before dinner. At dinner, we were sat with two other couples and served a lovely three course meal of which we enjoyed every bite. After dinner we opted to read until coffee hour. Coffee hour was held back at the dining room, where there were hot drinks available, and the naturalist in residence was giving a talk on the ptarmigan. We had already been lucky enough to encounter a ptarmigan on our hike to Amphitheater Lake. We stayed and enjoyed the learning experience and took the opportunity to ask some questions that had come up during our hike about different rocks or trees.

We headed to bed around 10pm, “Quiet Hour”, and had to wait for everyone to actually get quiet around 11pm so we could sleep. The walls were quite thin despite being made of burly wood.

August 10^th

We met everyone for breakfast down around 7 am. We enjoyed our made to order breakfast, again every last bite, and grabbed our pre-made lunch bags. Then we got all ready to start our hike up Sperry Glacier.

We were very excited about this hike as it would be the first time either of us had seen or walked on a glacier. It is a 4 mile one-way hike with 1800 feet of elevation gain, not bad. We seemed to be the first group out as we did not see anyone ahead of us, and so took our time. We are both very competitive, so when we see other groups we tend to subconsciously pick up the pace so that we do not get passed. We stopped to take pictures along the way of rocks that were exceptional, more mountain goats, and the beautiful landscape.

I saw of rocks that were exceptional, but all rocks at least in this part of Glacier are exceptional. They were one of the most interesting and beautiful parts of all of our hikes. They are made of mud rock, and are either green or purple in tint depending upon the available oxygen in the water when they were deposited. The patterns that are made are incredible. I know that it sounds weird but there rocks were seriously stunning and well worth the hikes in and of themselves.

We got to the top of the pass which is a set of stairs carved into the mountain side along a narrow corridor, which was incredible cool, and a little intimidating. Once we got over the top we were greeted with a snow field. To get to the glacier we had 0.75 miles of alternating snow fields and rock fields, but we made it! The glacier looked much icier and thicker than the surrounding snow fields. The lakes beneath it were turquoise as opposed to the clear blue of snow melt from glacier sediment. We were taking pictures when Greg mentioned that he wanted to walk out onto the Glacier a little and then down to the turquoise lake.

It was at this point that I looked up as it had grown cloudy. The forecast had called for chance of isolated thunderstorms. I noted that it looked like a storm front was approaching and we were on this very exposed area very high up with no tree cover, not ideal. So I told him, no and pointed to the sky. Thankfully, he was in full agreement that neither of us wanted to risk getting caught in a storm if there was any chance of lightning developing. So we very quickly hurried back the way we came so that we could get over the pass before the storm broke.

Clad in our rain jackets, packs covered in waterproof layers, we made it through the pass as the first drops started to fall. We also were able to note that the skies on this side of the mountain were much less daunting. Grateful that it did not appear that worse weather was headed our way, we still hurried back down the mountain given the presence of rain. It didn’t rain heavily or longer than thirty or forty minutes. We were able to take off our extra layers and stop for our picnic lunch about half way back.

The rest of the walk down was pleasant and relatively easy going. We got back to the chalet and rested for a little bit before committing the rest of the day. We had discussed trying to hike down to Lake Ellen Wilson which was further along the Gunsight trail as we heard it was quite beautiful but that we would miss it going back down the Sperry Trail.

I rallied and consented to going on a second hike that day. This one was much shorter and easier, about 2.1 miles to the overlook with some elevation gain and then loss. Again we were well rewarded with some stunning views. We loved our hikes on these days as there were times we were sure we had entire valleys to ourselves in this pristine wilderness. It was enough to convince us that we probably should start backpacking if this is what the back country holds in secret. We still made it back with plenty of time before dinner at 6pm.

Dinner again was delicious. We sat with the same couple we had dinner and breakfast with already. She was a radio-ecologist, a person who studies the effects of radioactive substances, not radio waves, on ecosystems, and he was into motorcycles. They were super chill.

During dinner it had gotten much darker and louder than it had the previous night. By the time it got to introductions, the staff even commented that it looked like a storm was blowing in and recommended we all do a rain dance. The wind was howling and the lights needed to get turned on early. After introductions the room quickly emptied with people heading back to their rooms and getting their bathroom runs in before the storm got serious. Most people ended up hanging out on the back porch of the chalet and watching the lightning roll in. There were some close hits but the storm moved quickly. It only brought a very small amount of rain with it, so no one got soaked. There were some honeymooning backpackers from the adjacent campground who had joined us for dinner who watched the storm with trepidation that they did not do a good enough job staking down their tent. After the storm moved through, they were able to go check on the tent, which was exactly where they left it prior to coffee hour.

For coffee hour, the naturalist was not giving a talk, so it was a little less crowded. A few groups sat enjoying hot cocoa while playing games like Greg and I. Our game of war was interrupted when the manager rushed into the dining room and called all the staff to the back to speak in hushed tones. The rest of us all traded looks of worry while trying to eavesdrop. At this time one of the adjacent tables looks out the window to find the answer, smoke on the mountain. There was a fire.

Within minutes the staff came to give a report that a small fire had been spotted on the mountain, but around the corner from the chalet. We were all to be safe for the night, but the trail up would be closed for the foreseeable future. We should all also plan on leaving in the morning, as a recommended evacuation, down Gunsight Pass.

Greg and I were probably the least affected by this news. We had debated going out that way anyway, and were certainly able-bodied enough to do so. We also would get our full planned stay at the Chalet. Many others were not so lucky. Some had just come up the 13 mile pass not more than 3 hours before, to be told they would have to go back the same way in the morning. There were also older couples and younger families who had definitely planned to go down the easier, shorter, Sperry Trail. Many had planned to stay another night.

It took even longer that night for the chatter to die down and for us to get to sleep. We had also packed our bags in case of any more emergent evacuation should be necessary.

August 11^th

We were able to get essentially a full night’s sleep without any further interruptions. We were the first ones in for breakfast so we could get an early start. We inhaled our food, grabbed our lunches, and got on our way. Again we were motivated to get an early start knowing it would take at least 2 hours after our hike to get back to our car. The plan was to hike down the trail which deposits you about 75% of the way along the Going to the Sun Road, take the series of three shuttles, then at the West Visitor Center call the shuttle service to pick us up to take us to our car, get the car, drive the long way around Glacier, get groceries and gas, and set up camp at St. Mary’s the far east side of the park, about a 15 minute drive from where the trail ended. Busy day.

Our hike started very strong, we got the early start we wanted. The weather was lovely. We met up with two other young couples who had been backpacking and hiked partway with them. We enjoyed the waterfalls at the north side of Lake Ellen Wilson, some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Pictures do not do this area justice. We enjoyed the view from the pass of Lake Ellen Wilson Lake and Jackson Lake. We enjoyed the first half of Jackson Lake then it went downhill. It went downhill literally, which we liked, but through very overgrown scrub and berry bushes which we did not like. We were hiking solidly through bear country, and it felt like the bushes were constantly grabbing at us. We obviously got through it, and we were unscathed, just annoyed. Then we went around the end of the lake and started on through the lower elevation half of the trail. This was also very overgrown for a large part. It got warmer and warmer as the day went on and we descended elevation. The only redeeming part was our little lunch break and some views of a couple more glaciers along the way.

We made it, covered head to toe in sweat and dirt, very grateful that at least we got to do it downhill. We made good time, and clocked in at the bus stop a little after 2 pm. Then it took two and a half very long hours to navigate the shuttle system down to the welcome center. It then took 15 very frustrating minutes to get a hold of the shuttle service that had our car. After we got a hold of them, they showed up quickly with snacks and Gatorades. In that moment, this woman was my favorite person on Earth. Her car had air conditioning and a dog willing to cuddle. It was a very pleasant drive back. She is also the woman who runs the other chalet and so was able to confirm that the fire was still burning but that no one was in any danger, neither was the Chalet itself.

We got back to trailer, exhausted, but far from our campsite. We drove on. We eventually, over some surprisingly poorly kept and narrow roads, got to St. Mary’s. We stopped to grab dinner before we went in, as neither of us was in a mood to cook. Unfortunately, due to an upcoming holiday, there were no alcohol sales on the reservation that is adjacent to the east side of the park. We made do with pizza.

We grabbed some exorbitantly expensive groceries (think 2-3 times what you would normally pay), and trudged to our campsite. We got set up, and essentially put ourselves to bed in very short order.

August 12^th

We had big plans for this day, but that was prior to hiking Gunsight Pass Trail. We had hiked 50 miles in Glacier by this point, and were not up for another big hike, despite the recommendations of the guidebooks that we should really see Many Glacier and hike Grinnell Glacier. We have also realized that limiting driving the day before a big driving day is always appreciated, and so we did that too.

What we did instead was sleep in, casually eat breakfast, eventually drive what remained of the Going to the Sun Road, Get out at a couple of stops, take pictures, go on a short walk down to a waterfall, immediately return to the car, eat a picnic, check out a visitor center, head back to the campsite, take a glorious shower, make dinner, and chill.

Mainly we just relaxed and it was everything we could have hoped for.

 

Coming Up:  Mount Ranier