Tag: Parks

it was quite  warm last night and we enjoyed a good nights sleep without a heater.  After we got going we started the day by touring the Golden Canyon.  It was a short walk but quite nice.  Even at 8:30 it was starting to warm up a bit.

Next we went to the Devils Golf Course.  It is on the valley floor and consists of thousands of small humps with salt deposits on the top.  It was interesting but a little disappointing for Ron as he was expecting something with more of a golf theme.

We had visited Artists Point on our first visit about 10 years ago.  We had enjoyed the drive so were looking forward to visiting again.  This time Ron was a little disappointed with the drive.  Ton pointed out that the light was much better in the evening and the last time we had been there in the evening.

The last thing we planned was to take the Titus Canyon road.  This is about a 25 mile drive thru the Grapevine Mountains on an unimproved road.  The last time  we did it in a car so we thought it would be a relatively simple drive.  It turned out to be much rougher than it must of been last time, because I do not think we could have gotten a car thru the road as it was today.  Still it was  great fun and Ton wore out the battery on her camera taking pictures, and Scout handled the road very well.

We are getting used to the drive from Joshua Tree to Death Valley as this is the fourth time we have done it in the last couple of months.

On the way out of Joshua Tree we stopped at Skull Rock.  The Skull Rock Trail is a short trail that highlights the non-cactus plants in the desert.  Skull Rock really does bear an amazing resemblance to a skull.

We drove from Joshua Tree to Death Valley on a back road that passes thru Mojave National Preserve and  Baker California.  We were planning to fuel up in Baker as it had the cheapest diesel in the area  last trip. Despite fuel prices dropping everywhere else on this trip, the fuel in Baker had actually risen to over $4 per gallon so we passed and drove on towards Death Valley, if we were going to pay an exorbitant amount for fuel we decided we would rather do it in a small desert community, then a large community right on the interstate.

Today we visited Dantes Peak in Death Valley which is an overlook above the main valley.  From 5000 feet you are looking the length of Death Valley and can also see for miles back towards Las Vegas.  We stayed up for sunset and Ton got some nice shots.

Today we reached our target to begin exploring instead of driving.  We arrived at Anza-Borrego about 1:30 after driving about 250 miles.  Enroute we stopped at a California Visitors Center in Yucca Valley to arm ourselves with some information about the park and other things in this part of California.  While there we ran into a Canadian couple in a truck camper who had just come from Anza-Borrego.  They told us to stop at the visitors center as the building  was incredible.

When we arrived we made a bee line for the visitors center.  Ton was not as impressed with the building as the Canadians, but she did enjoy the cactus garden.  At the visitors center we asked for the best place for sunsets and they sent us to Fonts Point.  The location was incredible overlooking the mountains, some serious badlands and a valley that stretched all the way to Mexico.

The sunset was indeed incredible, though initially spoiled by a group that decided to hold a cocktail party at the overlook.  After the sun set behind the mountains the cocktail party broke up, and Ton and I were the last ones left at the viewpoint.  Ton mentioned that it would be a nice place for sunrise too, so we are now camped in the  parking area for Fonts Point to be ready for sunset.  

On a whim we checked the TV reception not expecting much, but were surprised that it found 17 channels over the air.  When we started cycling thru the channels they are all from Mexico.  As I write this we are watching the Patriots v Colts championship game in High Definition with Spanish commentaries.

Started heading home as we have a date on Sunday for a Christmas Party and our sons are coming home next week so we have some preparation to do.  Had to make an emergency run onto the Marine Base to buy a replacement power cord for Ton’s Mac as hers died the night before.  

We basically doubled back the way we came thru Mojave NP and heading north towards Reno, but instead of heading straight to US 95 we decided to run thru Death Valley NP as the main road thru the park parallels US 95.

We made a couple of stops including the lowest point in North America.  Near there we ran across a couple of Coyotes who decided to pose for Ton, the first one even responded to her command to heal as she had not finished taking his picture!  They both seemed pretty healthy and not at all skittish about people.

We had never seen Scotty’s Castle in the North end of the park so we made that our target for the day.  We arrived just a little too late to take the last tour of the day, but got to walk the grounds.  The grounds are pretty impressive and the back story is interesting as Scotty was basically a con man who got the money to build the castle by duping people into investing in gold mining operations when there was no gold.

Tonight we spent the night in Mesquite Springs campground which is nice and by a dry creek, that apparently was not dry last week.  A flash flood came down the creek and flooded about a quarter of the campground,, but everything seemed back to normal.

Tomorrow will be a long boring driving day heading home.

Last night was spent in a great campground in Joshua Tree called Ryan where we were surrounded by granite rocks that make the park famous.  We woke up early to the sound of rain and were worried as we had a busy day planned.  Luckily the rain quit very quickly and did not amount too much for the day.

Our first stop was to Keys view.  On our way up we passed thru a Joshua Tree Forest that Ton really enjoyed.  We had been told by the Ranger at Mojave that the Joshua Tree’s here were a different sub-species than the ones at Mojave.  Ton says she can see the difference, the trees here are taller and have less branches than the ones in Mojave.  When we got to the top we had climbed into the clouds so Keys view was limited to about 50 yards.

Heading down we continued to enjoy the Joshua Trees and the drive.  The next stop was the Geology Loop Road which is an 18 mile self guided loop that shows you the different rocks and the San Andreas fault.  The park service says it is a difficult 4wd drive road, but in fact it is not bad at all and Scout did not even need to leave 2wd the whole way.  We had the entire valley to ourselves for the entire trip which was fun.

Next stop was the Cholla Cactus garden which Ton loved.  The Cholla Cactus is a Colorado Desert plant and the Joshua Trees are Mojave plants to show the impact of the two deserts coming together.

The next stop was the Marine Corps Base at Twentynine Palms where we stocked up on food and did some shopping at the store.  The last stop was the Indian Cove campground for the night.  The campground is also a training base for beginning rock climbers so we got to watch some folks climbing, and even scrambled up a couple of simple rocks ourselves.  

Ton commented that the campgrounds at Joshua Tree were among the best we have seen in the park service.

Today we visited Mojave NP.  The Preserve has three of the four desert environments in the western US with sections of the Great Basin, Mojave, and Colorado deserts coming together in this area.

Woke up early to catch sunrise, but between the cloud cover and the location we were a little disappointed.  Headed out on Wild Horse Canyon Road which was a pretty well developed dirt road.  Ton got some nice photos of the area.

Next we headed towards the Clio uprise which is a granite uplift.  It is really not noticeable but it makes for a perfect environment for Joshua Trees.  Ton loves the trees and loved the area.  We did a little offroading to get deeper into what is supposed to be the biggest Joshua Tree forest in the US.  Scout as always handled the trails very well.

We next went back to the visitor center to look at the museum.  Most of the museum is dedicated to the railroad days with a little bit on the desert.  We talked to the ranger for a while and he steered us over to the Kelso Dunes.  The Dunes were over 600 feet tall and extend for about 40 miles.  We climbed pretty well to the top and took some pictures and Ton tried to make a holiday message in the sand.

Pulling out of Kelso Dunes we were heading back towards the Joshua Tree forest to a spot we had scouted for a rough camp.  Ron did some calculations and said it would take an extra 30 minutes  to get to Joshua Tree NP from where we were.  Well 90 minutes later we pulled into Joshua Tree NP.  More to follow tomorrow.

Well the nice thing about the truck is flexibility.  We were originally heading towards Joshua Tree NP but a combination of the weather and some research about Mojave had us talking about going there.  A couple of hours into the drive and some reprogramming of the navigator and we were heading towards Mohave National Preserve.

We arrived about 3:30 and headed towards the headquarters which is located in an old Union Pacific Railroad Station in a rail stop.  We got some ideas for tomorrow and headed up into the mountains to a campground. We arrived at Hole in the Wall campground about 30 minutes before dark and had the place almost to ourselves.

Today we were invited to spend the night with our friends in Northern California Pae and Supachai.  We were feeling a little “grangjai”(a Thai word that is hard to translate) as this would be our third visit to them this year and we were afraid we were overstaying our welcome.  But Pae assured us we were more than welcome and really encouraged us to come.

As we dropped down from Yosemite we were once again going thru the gold rush country on California Highway 49.  We realized between our last two trips to California we had spent a lot of time on this highway.  It is a pretty road through an interesting mix of the Sierra foothills, small towns with interesting names (Angels Camp, China Camp) and wineries.

We decided to retrace out steps to Calaveras Big Tree State Park to look at the Sequoia grove there.  As usual the trees were spectacular, and California did a good job describing the reasons the remaining trees are protected.

After that it was a short jump to meet Pae and Supachai and enjoy some good company.

Today we started the day by visiting Bodie SP.  Bodie is a ghost town not far from US395.  It was a gold mining boom town founded in 1878 and reached its peak population of about 10,000 in 1884.  By then the gold was starting to play out and the town started to lose population.  There was enough gold left to sustain a commercial goal mining operation so the town survived until the mine was closed during WWII.  At that point given the harsh conditions around Bodie and the lack of any other source of employment the town was shut down and left in the desert.  There are a couple of hundred buildings left more or less as they were in the 1940’s and because of the arid climate they survived in pretty good shape until the state made it a park.  

We then headed over the Tioga pass into Yosemite.  We had missed this part of the park when we visited in the spring because the road over the pass was still closed.  Today we  enjoyed our third pass thru the Sierra Nevada’s this week.  Of the three as you would suspect this one had the best views, though they all had some points that were very spectacular.

The plan was to camp in one of the valley campgrounds as we assumed given the late part of the year and mid-week that we would be able to get a spot, but when we arrived  at 2:30 pm there was no room in the campgrounds in the valley.  The only park campground available was Hodgson Meadow near the Northwest entrance to the park.  So for the second time this year we are at Hodgson.

The day started with a bear encounter by Ton.  After a slow start in the morning we had pulled into the dump station at the camp ground.  While Ron was fiddling with the dump Ton was on the phone with Pae our friend from Sacramento when a black bear crossed in front of the truck.  Ton was so startled that she could not get the camera out in time to take a picture, and Ron was so intent on the dump station that he did not notice the bear. 

After the early excitement we headed over to Devils Postpile National Monument.  It is a very small national monument near Mammoth.  Originally included in the boundaries of Yosemite NP the area around the monument was cut out of Yosemite in the early 1900’s to allow mining.  The main formation at the monument is fascinating and worth the trip.

After finishing up at the monument we headed out to find some fall colors.  After three days we were finally rewarded with some nice fall foliage around Convict Lake and in McGee Creek Canyon.  We were surprised to still find any leaves had survived the windstorm from the day before, but the leaves were still there and quite beautiful.

We next headed over to Mono Lake.  We stopped by the visitors center to see what the lake was all about.  After a visit there we headed over to the south Tufa preserve to check out the Tufa’s there.  Tufa’s are formed by springs in the lake bubbling up and calcifying to make these neat formations.  The trail was fun and informative about the efforts to preserve the lake.

We ended up spending the night at June Lake after the ranger at Mono Lake discouraged us from driving in to Yosemite for the night.  It was another forest service campground where we shared a beautiful sunset with a couple from Zurich next door.

When we left Folsom in the morning we thought we needed to be in Portland on Thursday, but when we checked we found out that the appointment had been delayed.  Ton suggested that we go to Yosemite instead of heading North.  So after turning Scout around on the freeway, we ended driving backroads all the way to Yosemite.  Driving thru the California gold rush country was new to us and even though California is in quite a drought it has rained just enough in the last three weeks to green up the grass so the scenery was quite nice.  We passed thru Calaveras County which is the place that inspired one of Ron’s favorite Mark Twain short stories, the Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.

We had last visited Yosemite about 20 years ago so our memories of how spectacular it is had faded.  It is easy to understand how John Muir and so many others were inspired by this place.  Our timing was a little off as this was the first day that on line reservations could be made for the park, the ranger we spoke to at the entrance said that they were nearly empty over the weekend, but today every spot was full.  He had mercy on us and assigned us a tent camping spot, and told us just to park Scout in the parking area for the tent campers and sleep there.

Today we would be going into new territory heading down the Pacific Coast Highway.  Past trips had taken us as far south as Crescent City California, so the next few hundred miles will be new for us.

Today we were focused on visiting the Redwood National and State Parks in Northern California.  We had made a day trip down into Northern California on a previous trip to Southern Oregon and had seen enough of the Redwoods to really wet our appetite to see more on this trip.  Unfortunately the weather was not fully cooperative and it was raining and gray most of the day.

The Redwoods did not let us down.  We stopped at a couple of California State Parks to look at these trees.  The Coastal Redwoods are really magnificent sometimes topping 300ft tall and 70 ft. in circumference.  The highlight of the day was the 32 mile Avenue of the Giants in Humboldt State Park.  This park contains 3 of the 5 tallest Coastal Redwoods in the world, though we did not find any of them.  We did find a fascinating drive with trees that defy my ability to describe them.  We also stopped by one of the obligatory tourist traps where you drive your car thru a Redwood, but Scout would not fit, and Ton was unimpressed with the stuff in the shop.

After that we followed PCH over a coast range and along some high cliffs over the Pacific to Fort Bragg for the night.  Another ho-hum 40 miles of magnificent views.