I left this out of the Yosemite post because it is just too unique.
The first morning in Yosemite we were heading into the Valley, windows rolled down, smelling the morning's new, clean air. Then suddenly my partner, out of nowhere, starts yelling, "Ow, my back, ow!" She hadn't felt anything except a sharp pain. We searched the car and found nothing.
This is what it did, whatever this phantom thing was. We reasoned it was a bee, but couldn't find it.
Later that afternoon, on our way to the overlooks, with windows still down, I heard something fly past my head and hit the back windshield. My companion says, "What was that?" I offered a nervous chuckle and said, "I think it may have been a bee; it sounded big. But it's fine, the back windshield probably killed it."
Then the bee flew into the front seat and rested on my seat belt. As fast as possible I pulled the car over, ripped off the seat belt and jumped out of the car. Then, after a moment or two, I searched the car again but couldn't find it. No stings this time.
We weren't allowed to keep the windows down anymore.
8.22.2011
California, Round 2, Part 2
We arrived back to the mainland around 5:00 p.m. but did not want to camp in the Los Angeles area again. So we decided to try to make it to Sequoia National Park. We got lucky and they had camping just inside the park border.
Sequoia National Park
We woke up on Day 31 in Sequoia National Park. Our plan was to quickly move through it as well as Kings Canyon National Park and head to the western boundary of Yosemite National Park, where we had reservations for the following three nights.
Sequoia was fun, and it smelled amazing! It was great to be back in the forest again (the first time since Rocky Mountain NP). We completed a few short hikes and the drive through the park. Like canyons, forests are difficult to photograph during the day. I'll leave you with the largest tree in the world.
Kings Canyon National Park
We moved quickly onto Kings Canyon. The Kings Canyon Scenic Byway was one of the coolest drives I have done so far, except the cool part was outside the park boundary in Giant Sequoia National Monument. It didn't make any sense. The roads within the park itself with rather boring. Thus, I am going to consider Giant Sequoia National Monument to be part of the park when I consider it in lists at the end of the trip. Here's a photo of the canyon (although not in the park).
Unfortunately, I've downplayed these parks a bit. We went fast and I was anxious to get to Yosemite. They are both deserving of national park status (if you can reach the canyon through backcountry trails in Kings Canyon). They are certainly overshadowed by their monstrous neighbors: Yosemite and Death Valley.
Yosemite National Park
We made good time getting to the park, but we could not find our campsite (in Sierra National Forest just outside the park). We had to go into the park to get directions. It turns out there isn't a single sign for the campground. Couple this with its four primitive sites on the bank of the Merced River, and you get a really cool campsite.
About Yosemite
Yosemite is a very large park with an array of landscapes. The Valley is by far the most popular, attracting 90% of all guests, or 14,000 people every day in the summer. But its alpine meadows and forests enable visitors to not be overwhelmed by crowds.
Day 32
With two full days to visit Yosemite (a rarity for me on this trip), we had trouble deciding what to do first. Because to experience Yosemite, you must be part of the mall-like atmosphere in the Valley, while also gettting out to remote locations. We landed upon going to the valley first.
To avoid finding parking spaces at every destination, we parked and hopped on the shuttle. We took a short, paved trail to Mirror Lake, which, in the summer months, dries out and loses its mirroring ability. We also took the popular and short stroll to Lower Yosemite Falls.
These two hikes ended up taking up most of the morning and early afternoon. We wanted to spend the next day in the alpine meadows, so we decided to do the overlooks before heading back to camp. The first overlook, the most popular Yosemite panorama, is Tunnel View. The other was Glacier Point.
I forgot to mention I have been to Yosemite and Death Valley before. I was 16 years old. What I remembered most about Yosemite was Tunnel View and Glacier Point. I've had a panoramic of Tunnel View hanging on my wall ever since. Are these views breathtaking the second time around? No doubt they are. We sat at Glacier Point, which many claim to be the best view in the Western Hemisphere, for quite awhile, knowing we had to get back to camp, but not wanting to (even with an Asian language being continually spoken loudly right behind us). Nothing I have ever seen (from a landscape perspective) has compared with Glacier Point. I'd built it up to an extreme in my head since my visit as a kid. Yet, it still lived up to my expectation.
On the way to these overlooks, we spotted a black bear.
Day 33
You may have noticed the tent at this campsite is different than the others. This is true. I purchased another, larger tent for when it was necessary (rainy days, long stays, etc.).
On Day 33, I was awoken by my partner, who said, "There's a hole in your tent." I went back to sleep. Fifteen minutes later, "[redacted], there's another hole in your tent!"
I got up and looked at the two holes. They weren't manufacturer's mistakes, they were chewed. It seemed as though we were camping with a tent-eating squirrel. Unfortunately, we did not eat squirrel for dinner that night.
We spent the morning in Tuolumne Meadows, just hanging out. The afternoon we did much the same, except we moved to Tenaya Lake. There isn't too much more to say about that day. We spent most of it out of the car, which was exceptionally nice. And it was very relaxing. Without a doubt, it was one of the best days of the trip so far (minus the tent-eating squirrel).
In the evening we sat on some rocks by the Merced River in our swim suits. The valley had actually reached 90+ degrees these two days, so we were going to take a dip. My companion made it all the way in; I got to my waist. But a small, water-filled divot in a rock did serve to keep my beer colder than my cooler was.
What Remains
We spent a lot of time in California. I still feel as though there is much to see in the gigantic and beautiful state. What is still missing is Bodie State Historic Park and Death Valley National Park. I may or may not complete these in the morning. If not, stay tuned; I'll finish them next week along with Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Feel free to make your way through the entire album until then.
California Album
Next Post: California, Round 2, Part 3
Sequoia National Park
We woke up on Day 31 in Sequoia National Park. Our plan was to quickly move through it as well as Kings Canyon National Park and head to the western boundary of Yosemite National Park, where we had reservations for the following three nights.
Sequoia was fun, and it smelled amazing! It was great to be back in the forest again (the first time since Rocky Mountain NP). We completed a few short hikes and the drive through the park. Like canyons, forests are difficult to photograph during the day. I'll leave you with the largest tree in the world.
Kings Canyon National Park
We moved quickly onto Kings Canyon. The Kings Canyon Scenic Byway was one of the coolest drives I have done so far, except the cool part was outside the park boundary in Giant Sequoia National Monument. It didn't make any sense. The roads within the park itself with rather boring. Thus, I am going to consider Giant Sequoia National Monument to be part of the park when I consider it in lists at the end of the trip. Here's a photo of the canyon (although not in the park).Unfortunately, I've downplayed these parks a bit. We went fast and I was anxious to get to Yosemite. They are both deserving of national park status (if you can reach the canyon through backcountry trails in Kings Canyon). They are certainly overshadowed by their monstrous neighbors: Yosemite and Death Valley.
Yosemite National Park
We made good time getting to the park, but we could not find our campsite (in Sierra National Forest just outside the park). We had to go into the park to get directions. It turns out there isn't a single sign for the campground. Couple this with its four primitive sites on the bank of the Merced River, and you get a really cool campsite.
About Yosemite
Yosemite is a very large park with an array of landscapes. The Valley is by far the most popular, attracting 90% of all guests, or 14,000 people every day in the summer. But its alpine meadows and forests enable visitors to not be overwhelmed by crowds.
Day 32
With two full days to visit Yosemite (a rarity for me on this trip), we had trouble deciding what to do first. Because to experience Yosemite, you must be part of the mall-like atmosphere in the Valley, while also gettting out to remote locations. We landed upon going to the valley first.
To avoid finding parking spaces at every destination, we parked and hopped on the shuttle. We took a short, paved trail to Mirror Lake, which, in the summer months, dries out and loses its mirroring ability. We also took the popular and short stroll to Lower Yosemite Falls.
These two hikes ended up taking up most of the morning and early afternoon. We wanted to spend the next day in the alpine meadows, so we decided to do the overlooks before heading back to camp. The first overlook, the most popular Yosemite panorama, is Tunnel View. The other was Glacier Point.I forgot to mention I have been to Yosemite and Death Valley before. I was 16 years old. What I remembered most about Yosemite was Tunnel View and Glacier Point. I've had a panoramic of Tunnel View hanging on my wall ever since. Are these views breathtaking the second time around? No doubt they are. We sat at Glacier Point, which many claim to be the best view in the Western Hemisphere, for quite awhile, knowing we had to get back to camp, but not wanting to (even with an Asian language being continually spoken loudly right behind us). Nothing I have ever seen (from a landscape perspective) has compared with Glacier Point. I'd built it up to an extreme in my head since my visit as a kid. Yet, it still lived up to my expectation.
On the way to these overlooks, we spotted a black bear.
Day 33
You may have noticed the tent at this campsite is different than the others. This is true. I purchased another, larger tent for when it was necessary (rainy days, long stays, etc.).
On Day 33, I was awoken by my partner, who said, "There's a hole in your tent." I went back to sleep. Fifteen minutes later, "[redacted], there's another hole in your tent!"
I got up and looked at the two holes. They weren't manufacturer's mistakes, they were chewed. It seemed as though we were camping with a tent-eating squirrel. Unfortunately, we did not eat squirrel for dinner that night.
We spent the morning in Tuolumne Meadows, just hanging out. The afternoon we did much the same, except we moved to Tenaya Lake. There isn't too much more to say about that day. We spent most of it out of the car, which was exceptionally nice. And it was very relaxing. Without a doubt, it was one of the best days of the trip so far (minus the tent-eating squirrel).In the evening we sat on some rocks by the Merced River in our swim suits. The valley had actually reached 90+ degrees these two days, so we were going to take a dip. My companion made it all the way in; I got to my waist. But a small, water-filled divot in a rock did serve to keep my beer colder than my cooler was.
What Remains
We spent a lot of time in California. I still feel as though there is much to see in the gigantic and beautiful state. What is still missing is Bodie State Historic Park and Death Valley National Park. I may or may not complete these in the morning. If not, stay tuned; I'll finish them next week along with Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Feel free to make your way through the entire album until then.
California Album
Next Post: California, Round 2, Part 3
California, Round 2, Part 1
My long-time followers know about my first trip to California which encompassed most of the northern part of the state. This round was to focus on the southern portion of the state.
Joshua Tree National Park
We had a bit of a dilemma: we had to catch a ferry the next morning to Channel Islands National Park, so we had to be in good position the night before. We decided to visit Joshua Tree National Park in a drive-through manner, and continue to the Los Angeles area.
Joshua Tree National Park splits the Colorado and Mohave Deserts down its center. We entered from the east, driving through the Colorado Desert first. At one point it reached 110 degrees. By the time we were on the main road in the park it was all the way down to the mid-90s. Neither one of us had any idea what to expect from the park, but we were pleasantly surprised. The Joshua Trees tower over all the other, low-lying desert vegetation. And no two Joshua Trees look the same. In addition, boulders sit in the middle of these flat lands, completely out of place. The boulders are super-grippy and, thus, super-fun to climb on.
We would have liked to give the park more time, but we had to continue. We found out later the park's attraction of containing nearly-equal parts of the two deserts is really the main attraction. And it is a stark difference (although I don't have any photos of the Colorado portion to show you). I do believe it deserves park status, but Joshua Tree is a bad name. There are Joshua trees all throughout southern California and Nevada. We read it was going to be called something like Desert Flowers National Park. Perhaps something along the lines of Desert Vegetation NP would have worked. It's a cool park with a bad name.
Camping In Los Angeles
Don't do it.
We found a campsite in Ventura, near the harbor that was first-come, first-served. Then we got there and saw there was a county fair right next to the campground! This bumped the tent sites (at which you could not park your car next to) up to $55 for one night. We declined and paid a few dollars more for a quiet hotel nearby.
Channel Islands National Park
There are three national parks in the lower 48 which require a ferry. I've chosen to omit two of them, Channel Islands being the exception. There is a big problem here. NPS does not run the ferry's directly. Therefore, they are expensive and communication is often lacking.
Although we booked our reservation a month prior, we were without a confirmation email. We were also without proper directions on reaching the harbor. We made it (with minutes to spare) to the building with matches 100 neighboring buildings on a street that makes several turns but maintains the same name. The lack of signage is a bit ridiculous considering the company's essential monopoly on Channel Islands ferry rides.
We had awoken around 6:00 a.m., the sky was overcast, and it took us twice as long as it should have to find the ferry. It was a rough start.
But it was still exciting to be going to camp on an island. When we arrived, about 3/4 of the people on the ferry exited, while the rest remained. We wondered what they were doing, but didn't ask.
When we exited the ferry we were greeted by an older gentleman, a park volunteer, who said we were the only ones camping on the island. Apparently everyone else was leaving that day. However, I saw the park ranger with a big pack and assumed she was staying. I also didn't trust the man because everything he said he either read from a paper or was factually incorrect. But it was an exciting idea anyways.
Channel Islands Overview
There are eight islands that make up Channel Islands. Five of the eight are part of Channel Islands National Park. The closest to the harbor is Anacapa Island, where the majority of those who leave the ferry visit. Anacapa is made up of three islets, only one of which you can walk upon. The island is essentially a plateau jutting out of the ocean, all sides of which are 300-500 feet sheer cliffs. We had to climb a ladder to get on the island. And the particular islet we could walk about walk about 2-2.5 miles long and about 0.5 miles wide.
Our Island
We hiked 0.5 miles to our campsite and set up camp. We decided if we were to be the only folks on the island later (those who got off the boat were leaving mid-afternoon), we should wait to explore the less-than-4 miles of trails. So we hung around camp for awhile.
At 3:00 p.m., the ferry returned and picked up everyone. Everyone. Except us. We checked the ranger station and, yes indeed, we were the only people on the island. Until 3:30 p.m. the following day. We explored the island on this overcast day for a few hours in the afternoon.
Wildlife
There was a lot of wildlife on the island. Up top, it's mostly seabirds - seagulls and the endangered brown pelicans. The pelicans are nice and quiet but the gulls are boisterous! And they never stopped. It was not easy sleeping. Below, the island supports Sea Lions and California Seals. We could see them from up top but couldn't get close.
The Sun
After exploring for a few hours, we returned to camp and rested in the tent for a bit. Almost immediately, the sun appeared, giving us a beautiful sunset (from Inspiration Point).
I could go on and on what it's like to have an island to yourself for 24 hours. It's incredible. No matter how bad the island smells.
This was the day I introduced my camping partner to Tortilla Stuffers, the greatest camping dinner ever.
The Ferry Back
I was very worried about the ferry returning. They told my partner it would be back at 3:30 p.m., but I wasn't so trusting. There was no one to check with. We waited nervously for about an hour, but it arrived right on time. We later found out we were famous - the captain announced they were going to the island to pick up two campers. When we got on the ferry, people's faces were pretty hilarious. Wow, they had that island all to themselves. That's really cool! A few passengers approached us about our experience and made up stories about how they would be interested in doing the same.
On the ride back to the mainland, the captain first took us around to the back of the island to view the sea lions closer. We were also able to go through two schools of dolphins. What I mean is he drove right over where they were swimming (an in-board motor won't hurt the animals). We were standing at the front of the boat at that time, watching the dolphins swim. They even seemed to be racing the boat at one point. What a cool experience. Here are a few dolphins.
California Album
Next Post: California, Round 2, Part 2
Joshua Tree National Park
We had a bit of a dilemma: we had to catch a ferry the next morning to Channel Islands National Park, so we had to be in good position the night before. We decided to visit Joshua Tree National Park in a drive-through manner, and continue to the Los Angeles area.
Joshua Tree National Park splits the Colorado and Mohave Deserts down its center. We entered from the east, driving through the Colorado Desert first. At one point it reached 110 degrees. By the time we were on the main road in the park it was all the way down to the mid-90s. Neither one of us had any idea what to expect from the park, but we were pleasantly surprised. The Joshua Trees tower over all the other, low-lying desert vegetation. And no two Joshua Trees look the same. In addition, boulders sit in the middle of these flat lands, completely out of place. The boulders are super-grippy and, thus, super-fun to climb on.
We would have liked to give the park more time, but we had to continue. We found out later the park's attraction of containing nearly-equal parts of the two deserts is really the main attraction. And it is a stark difference (although I don't have any photos of the Colorado portion to show you). I do believe it deserves park status, but Joshua Tree is a bad name. There are Joshua trees all throughout southern California and Nevada. We read it was going to be called something like Desert Flowers National Park. Perhaps something along the lines of Desert Vegetation NP would have worked. It's a cool park with a bad name.Camping In Los Angeles
Don't do it.
We found a campsite in Ventura, near the harbor that was first-come, first-served. Then we got there and saw there was a county fair right next to the campground! This bumped the tent sites (at which you could not park your car next to) up to $55 for one night. We declined and paid a few dollars more for a quiet hotel nearby.
Channel Islands National Park
There are three national parks in the lower 48 which require a ferry. I've chosen to omit two of them, Channel Islands being the exception. There is a big problem here. NPS does not run the ferry's directly. Therefore, they are expensive and communication is often lacking.
Although we booked our reservation a month prior, we were without a confirmation email. We were also without proper directions on reaching the harbor. We made it (with minutes to spare) to the building with matches 100 neighboring buildings on a street that makes several turns but maintains the same name. The lack of signage is a bit ridiculous considering the company's essential monopoly on Channel Islands ferry rides.
We had awoken around 6:00 a.m., the sky was overcast, and it took us twice as long as it should have to find the ferry. It was a rough start.
But it was still exciting to be going to camp on an island. When we arrived, about 3/4 of the people on the ferry exited, while the rest remained. We wondered what they were doing, but didn't ask.
When we exited the ferry we were greeted by an older gentleman, a park volunteer, who said we were the only ones camping on the island. Apparently everyone else was leaving that day. However, I saw the park ranger with a big pack and assumed she was staying. I also didn't trust the man because everything he said he either read from a paper or was factually incorrect. But it was an exciting idea anyways.Channel Islands Overview
There are eight islands that make up Channel Islands. Five of the eight are part of Channel Islands National Park. The closest to the harbor is Anacapa Island, where the majority of those who leave the ferry visit. Anacapa is made up of three islets, only one of which you can walk upon. The island is essentially a plateau jutting out of the ocean, all sides of which are 300-500 feet sheer cliffs. We had to climb a ladder to get on the island. And the particular islet we could walk about walk about 2-2.5 miles long and about 0.5 miles wide. Our Island
We hiked 0.5 miles to our campsite and set up camp. We decided if we were to be the only folks on the island later (those who got off the boat were leaving mid-afternoon), we should wait to explore the less-than-4 miles of trails. So we hung around camp for awhile.
At 3:00 p.m., the ferry returned and picked up everyone. Everyone. Except us. We checked the ranger station and, yes indeed, we were the only people on the island. Until 3:30 p.m. the following day. We explored the island on this overcast day for a few hours in the afternoon.
Wildlife
There was a lot of wildlife on the island. Up top, it's mostly seabirds - seagulls and the endangered brown pelicans. The pelicans are nice and quiet but the gulls are boisterous! And they never stopped. It was not easy sleeping. Below, the island supports Sea Lions and California Seals. We could see them from up top but couldn't get close. The Sun
After exploring for a few hours, we returned to camp and rested in the tent for a bit. Almost immediately, the sun appeared, giving us a beautiful sunset (from Inspiration Point).
I could go on and on what it's like to have an island to yourself for 24 hours. It's incredible. No matter how bad the island smells.
This was the day I introduced my camping partner to Tortilla Stuffers, the greatest camping dinner ever.
The Ferry Back
I was very worried about the ferry returning. They told my partner it would be back at 3:30 p.m., but I wasn't so trusting. There was no one to check with. We waited nervously for about an hour, but it arrived right on time. We later found out we were famous - the captain announced they were going to the island to pick up two campers. When we got on the ferry, people's faces were pretty hilarious. Wow, they had that island all to themselves. That's really cool! A few passengers approached us about our experience and made up stories about how they would be interested in doing the same.
On the ride back to the mainland, the captain first took us around to the back of the island to view the sea lions closer. We were also able to go through two schools of dolphins. What I mean is he drove right over where they were swimming (an in-board motor won't hurt the animals). We were standing at the front of the boat at that time, watching the dolphins swim. They even seemed to be racing the boat at one point. What a cool experience. Here are a few dolphins. California Album
Next Post: California, Round 2, Part 2
Arizona, Round 1 (Grand Canyon)
Grand Canyon National Park North Rim
Left Vegas the morning of Day 27 (August 11) with my new traveling companion and headed for Grand Canyon National Park's North Rim. We knew prior to leaving the North Rim campground was full, so our plan was to find a site on the way in, visit the park, return to camp for the night and head for the more-popular South Rim the following day.
It was a long drive from Vegas, especially after a later start, and we were left with only about an hour to visit the park. This turned out to be just fine as the North Rim really is not so spectacular. The North Rim sits about 1,000 feet higher than the South and the views we had were facing into the sunset. We left, unimpressed-but-excited for what the South Rim would have to offer.
Grand Canyon National Park South Rim
We entered the South Rim section of the park from the east and stopped at the first turn out.
My Grand Canyon Thoughts
Before I continue with the stories of the day, I would like to give you my overall thoughts on the Grand Canyon, as I believe they will help your interpretation of my mood in telling my stories.
Grand Canyon (note the lack of The) is massive, or grand. Walking up to the first overlook blew me away (different from took my breath away). The size in itself is really what makes it what it is. Does it look large in the photo? Well it's about a million times larger in real life. As I may have stated before, I like to think of what people on foot or horseback or boat had to go through before these nice, paved roads. The South Rim is funny because you are essentially driving through a forest and then BOOM, dead end. Early Spanish explorers could not find a way to the canyon floor.
Again, the size of the canyon is what makes it what it is.
Many of the photos I had seen of the canyon showed it as vibrant. But the combination of summer haze and an increasing concentration of air pollution from Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Mexico (because of air flow) makes the canyon somewhat dull (or simply not vibrant) in color and decreases visibility distance. Couple this with the precursors I'd had from people I know, and the overlooks become downplayed. Still overwhelming in size, not so breathtaking in nature.
Continuing
We hung out and had a picnic at the first overlook. While my friend did a watercolor painting of the canyon, I dove into my new book, The Waste Lands. We were sitting here, which was well off the path. We thought as though we had clearly established our picnic area; which is when I said, "See, you can find relative solitude in a place overrun with tourists."
That's when a group of Europeans, two-by-two walked right in front of us (in the sight line of the painter's view) and took a photo. A few even asked me to take their photo for them. The funny thing about it is the rim is wide open. The view was exactly the same ten feet to their right. But we had picked the best spot on the entire South Rim to sit. We were interfering with the public's rights.
This is when I thought of a character in a book I've recently read. This character's name is Jack Mort, and his hobby is pushing people to their deaths, be it in front of a train or oncoming traffic (yep, it's a mighty fine read). I could only think of how Jack Mort would have a field day at Grand Canyon.
Soon thereafter, we left the picnic spot and headed toward our reserved campsite. We were setting up the tent when my companion noticed a man running through the woods toward our somewhat-secluded site. I stood up and was ready to yell at him, when he said in a French accent, "There's a moose in the campground; I've been running around the entire park following him." He was doing a fine job of not approaching wildlife. I turned to my companion and said, "Take the camera and see if you can get it. Maybe it will have antlers!" I was running to the car to grab the zoom lens when it suddenly dawned on me, I'm in Arizona. It was an elk. Score two for the Europeans. We got a good photo anyways.
After setting up camp, we left to catch the shuttle (necessary to tour the western side of the South Rim). If Zion has a bad shuttle service, Grand Canyon has a horrendous service. It is a short route, like Zion, but has far more visitors. They have it figured so the most efficient way to run it is to send an empty shuttle every few shuttles. They aren't meeting the demand and it's retracting from visitors' experiences. We had to wait about 30 minutes to board, while listening to the park ranger with a girlish lisp say, "Okay, people, now there are like a bazillion people that want to see The [sic] Grand Canyon, so what the shuttle guys do sometimes is send an empty shuttle so those bazillion people can get off and on more easily. He he he he." Then a European boy cut in front of us in line.
We hiked the rim trail for awhile. It was quite lovely. Then we got beer. It was more lovely.
Grand Canyon Album
Next Post: California, Round 2, Part 1
Left Vegas the morning of Day 27 (August 11) with my new traveling companion and headed for Grand Canyon National Park's North Rim. We knew prior to leaving the North Rim campground was full, so our plan was to find a site on the way in, visit the park, return to camp for the night and head for the more-popular South Rim the following day.
It was a long drive from Vegas, especially after a later start, and we were left with only about an hour to visit the park. This turned out to be just fine as the North Rim really is not so spectacular. The North Rim sits about 1,000 feet higher than the South and the views we had were facing into the sunset. We left, unimpressed-but-excited for what the South Rim would have to offer.Grand Canyon National Park South Rim
We entered the South Rim section of the park from the east and stopped at the first turn out.
My Grand Canyon Thoughts
Before I continue with the stories of the day, I would like to give you my overall thoughts on the Grand Canyon, as I believe they will help your interpretation of my mood in telling my stories.
Grand Canyon (note the lack of The) is massive, or grand. Walking up to the first overlook blew me away (different from took my breath away). The size in itself is really what makes it what it is. Does it look large in the photo? Well it's about a million times larger in real life. As I may have stated before, I like to think of what people on foot or horseback or boat had to go through before these nice, paved roads. The South Rim is funny because you are essentially driving through a forest and then BOOM, dead end. Early Spanish explorers could not find a way to the canyon floor.
Again, the size of the canyon is what makes it what it is.
Many of the photos I had seen of the canyon showed it as vibrant. But the combination of summer haze and an increasing concentration of air pollution from Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Mexico (because of air flow) makes the canyon somewhat dull (or simply not vibrant) in color and decreases visibility distance. Couple this with the precursors I'd had from people I know, and the overlooks become downplayed. Still overwhelming in size, not so breathtaking in nature.
Continuing
We hung out and had a picnic at the first overlook. While my friend did a watercolor painting of the canyon, I dove into my new book, The Waste Lands. We were sitting here, which was well off the path. We thought as though we had clearly established our picnic area; which is when I said, "See, you can find relative solitude in a place overrun with tourists."That's when a group of Europeans, two-by-two walked right in front of us (in the sight line of the painter's view) and took a photo. A few even asked me to take their photo for them. The funny thing about it is the rim is wide open. The view was exactly the same ten feet to their right. But we had picked the best spot on the entire South Rim to sit. We were interfering with the public's rights.
This is when I thought of a character in a book I've recently read. This character's name is Jack Mort, and his hobby is pushing people to their deaths, be it in front of a train or oncoming traffic (yep, it's a mighty fine read). I could only think of how Jack Mort would have a field day at Grand Canyon.
Soon thereafter, we left the picnic spot and headed toward our reserved campsite. We were setting up the tent when my companion noticed a man running through the woods toward our somewhat-secluded site. I stood up and was ready to yell at him, when he said in a French accent, "There's a moose in the campground; I've been running around the entire park following him." He was doing a fine job of not approaching wildlife. I turned to my companion and said, "Take the camera and see if you can get it. Maybe it will have antlers!" I was running to the car to grab the zoom lens when it suddenly dawned on me, I'm in Arizona. It was an elk. Score two for the Europeans. We got a good photo anyways.
After setting up camp, we left to catch the shuttle (necessary to tour the western side of the South Rim). If Zion has a bad shuttle service, Grand Canyon has a horrendous service. It is a short route, like Zion, but has far more visitors. They have it figured so the most efficient way to run it is to send an empty shuttle every few shuttles. They aren't meeting the demand and it's retracting from visitors' experiences. We had to wait about 30 minutes to board, while listening to the park ranger with a girlish lisp say, "Okay, people, now there are like a bazillion people that want to see The [sic] Grand Canyon, so what the shuttle guys do sometimes is send an empty shuttle so those bazillion people can get off and on more easily. He he he he." Then a European boy cut in front of us in line.We hiked the rim trail for awhile. It was quite lovely. Then we got beer. It was more lovely.
Grand Canyon Album
Next Post: California, Round 2, Part 1
Nevada, Round 2
For a quick clarification, rounds break up states by collective visits (being in the state without leaving), while parts break up stories within one round. If I was only going to be in a state one time, I left out the round in the post title. This will be done moving forward (didn't title Utah and Colorado as such).
I can't find the story or photos from Nevada, Round 2. I think I left them in Las Vegas.
Next Post: Arizona, Round 1
I can't find the story or photos from Nevada, Round 2. I think I left them in Las Vegas.
Next Post: Arizona, Round 1
Utah, Part 2
I loved the campsite in Canyonlands and desperately wanted to stay. But I wanted more to see the remaining three parks in Utah, so I packed up and left. I was okay with the decision to leave when it was 90 degrees by 9 a.m.
I took UT-95 through Glen Canyon toward Capitol Reef National Park. As good as the drive into Arches NP was, this was better! It cut through a deeper canyon (Glen Canyon National Recreation Area) with equally brighter colors but more dramatic views. There are a handful of photos in the album from this drive. Here is one of the better ones.
Moving north to Hanksville, to reach Capitol Reef NP, I needed to move west on UT-24. After filling up at a gas station carved out of a rock, I made the turn. Weirdly and instantly, the landscaped changed. It went from bright red rock canyons to industrial greys and maroons. It gave me a funny feeling, For awhile I thought it was industrialized land and then I realized it was real. And it's freaky.
Capitol Reef National Park
The part of the park located on UT-24 was really cool. Here's a cool photo. But the park had a weird set up and gave me even weirder feelings.
First of all, the scenic drive through the park was closed. Second, the park has about 20 miles of paved roads and perhaps 100 miles of unpaved roads. You need a high-clearance 4x4 to really explore the park. I don't think a Nissan Sentra fits that category.
After driving the mile or two of the scenic drive, I was a bit freaked out. The park just gave me this feeling of not belonging here on Earth. The colors are funny. Now I look back at the photos which turned out well, and it looks really beautiful; but for some reason it scared me at the time, so I left.
I wasn't planning to make it to Bryce Canyon National Park that day, assuming they wouldn't have camping available so late in the day. But I tried anyways. Once again, I got lucky. I found a pretty nice campsite.
Bryce Canyon National Park
After arriving, I just hung out at camp, as it was already dinner time. I decided to spend the entire next day exploring the park.
I began Day 22 reading my bible and thinking about how to attack the park. Like several other parks, the books said Bryce is best experienced by hiking. I read in the park's guide the Queen's Garden/Navajo Loop Trail is the best 3-mile hike in the world. I thought I'd try it out, but add another spur to make the hike 6.6 miles and hopefully take up a little more of the day.
The book was absolutely correct about hiking to see the park. The roads of the park are located on the canyon's rim, while many of the trails go into, and later, out of, the canyon. Seeing the canyon from any angle above is fascinating, but once you've seen one overlook, you've seen them all. So I got down in it.
And it was amazing! The light and bright, orange-colored rocks made an impeccable contrast with the sky. Camera's can be good at exaggerating the color of the sky. But not here. This was the bluest sky I have ever seen. I made it to the bottom of the canyon and Queen's Garden.
I continued on my hike, except I read the map wrong and made a wrong turn. I ended up on a horse trail, but by the time I realized I was going the wrong way I was back at the top of the canyon!
It had probably only been three miles, and I wasn't ready to quit for the day. It was a great workout getting back to the top of the canyon and I wanted to complete the world's best 3-mile hike. So I went back down the Queen's Garden trail again!
I finally found the Navajo Loop and began to climb back up the canyon. That was a workout, but it was an awesome climb. Here's a photo from the bottom of the climb and one from the top. It climbed about 300 feet in a half mile. There are steeper trails out there, but this was still a workout.
I can't argue the park's boasting of the hike. The only hike I have completed so far which comes close is the Hidden Lake Trail at Glacier NP. This leaves a good point for a couple asides.
Demographics and Generalizations
I, certainly unlike some, realize the fine-line between generalization and racism; and I find the most important part of a generalization is to realize it's never always (love using opposite extremes together) the case. But this summer has been a funny one in that regard. Here are a few things I've found.
National park visitors are 99.9% either white or Asian. What I hadn't experience until I reached Bryce Canyon was the number of Europeans. I would find this in many of the following parks in Utah and California as well as Grand Canyon. I reason this is because August is vacation month for Europeans and also these parks are close to large airports. But unlike the parks before this, where Asians and white Americans seemed to be somewhat equal in number, Bryce Canyon was almost entirely European.
This led me to reflect on two ideas, or perhaps questions. The first is the simple Why? The best answer I can think of is because these parks are that great - they must be some of the best preserved, most accessible landscapes in the world. And also, there are many more foreigners than there are Americans. Suddenly, it makes sense.
My second idea was I wonder how many Americans live their entire life and are never able to see these spectacular landscapes. Perhaps some simply don't want to or don't care about the landscape, while others may simply choose their vacation time (if they even have the means to vacation in the first place) on more resort-like spots. This has given me a great perspective on what I am doing out here, has made me appreciate it even more and has provided me with an ever bigger realization for what several people have had to sacrifice for me to be able to do this. Thank you to all who have had an impact.
And for a quick generalization: While the typical American tourist hikes in their 1990s jeans and tennies with a tucked-in, cotton t-shirt, the typical European woman hikes in a bathing suit top or rolls their shirt up, while men often don't wear shirts at all. If you look at the left side photo from the top of the Navajo Loop climb, you'll see a bathing suit lady. I eventually asked the lady to take my picture. She tried to do so backwards and upside down. This gave me a good laugh and reminded me of an opposite experience I had two years ago at Mount Rushmore when I handed my other camera to an older gentleman who tried to look through a viewfinder that didn't exist to take my photo. He missed me completely. And this is why I don't like to ask people to take photos of me.
Two Cool Plaques
The first one is a Lyndon B. Johnson quote, which read:
If future generations are to remember us with more gratitude than sorrow, we must achieve more than just miracles of technology. We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created, not just as it looked when we got through with it.
Well-stated. Not many people maintain this type of thinking. We tend to think the solutions or inventions we create are the correct ones, when undoubtedly there are consequences to come of which we have not yet thought. The national park system is a great system for that reason: it leaves the landscapes as they were (with a few exceptions).
The second was a Paiute Indian Legend:
Before there were any Indians, the Legend People, To-when-an-ung-wa, lived in that place. There were many of them. There were many kinds - birds, animals, lizards and such things - but they looked like people...For some reason, the Legend People in that place were bad. Because they were bad, Coyote turned them into rocks. You can see them in that place now; all turned into rocks; some standing in rows, some sitting down, some holding on to others. You can see their faces, with paint on them just as they were before they became rocks...
Note this is a legend and not a geologic fact.
Before I move on to the next park, I'll leave you with a photo of another Inspiration Point. A little better than Grand Tetons?
Zion National Park
I began Day 23 by moving on to Zion National Park. I was planning to move through the park quickly and on to Las Vegas to meet my parents for dinner.
Zion was beautiful. It still is. But I didn't have a great experience. Zion had more than 2.6 million visitors last year (Yellowstone is around 3 million), and it is significantly smaller than many of the other popular parks. It felt packed. They have a decent system where you have to park and take a shuttle into the canyon. But there are two problems with this system. First, the visitor center does not have adequate parking. Second, the lodge is in the canyon. Both of these equate to a shuttle system much too crowded.
I couldn't find a parking spot and had to drive clear through the park and park in town to take a different shuttle and later transfer to the canyon shuttle. I lost a lot of time doing this. I also ripped my new day pack, which didn't help my experience.
Zion is no doubt beautiful, but within the canyon it doesn't change all that much. Therefore, many of the short hikes are very similar. The longer hikes are supposedly amazing, but I did not have the time to complete them. I left the park later than I had wanted to, frustrated with the poorly-executed shuttle service, excessive crowd and that I didn't have a great experience because I know how beautiful the park is. But given its proximity to Las Vegas, I'll be back (and in the fall when it is much cooler).
Utah Album
Next Post: Nevada, Round 2
I took UT-95 through Glen Canyon toward Capitol Reef National Park. As good as the drive into Arches NP was, this was better! It cut through a deeper canyon (Glen Canyon National Recreation Area) with equally brighter colors but more dramatic views. There are a handful of photos in the album from this drive. Here is one of the better ones.Moving north to Hanksville, to reach Capitol Reef NP, I needed to move west on UT-24. After filling up at a gas station carved out of a rock, I made the turn. Weirdly and instantly, the landscaped changed. It went from bright red rock canyons to industrial greys and maroons. It gave me a funny feeling, For awhile I thought it was industrialized land and then I realized it was real. And it's freaky.
Capitol Reef National Park
The part of the park located on UT-24 was really cool. Here's a cool photo. But the park had a weird set up and gave me even weirder feelings.
First of all, the scenic drive through the park was closed. Second, the park has about 20 miles of paved roads and perhaps 100 miles of unpaved roads. You need a high-clearance 4x4 to really explore the park. I don't think a Nissan Sentra fits that category.
After driving the mile or two of the scenic drive, I was a bit freaked out. The park just gave me this feeling of not belonging here on Earth. The colors are funny. Now I look back at the photos which turned out well, and it looks really beautiful; but for some reason it scared me at the time, so I left.I wasn't planning to make it to Bryce Canyon National Park that day, assuming they wouldn't have camping available so late in the day. But I tried anyways. Once again, I got lucky. I found a pretty nice campsite.
Bryce Canyon National Park
After arriving, I just hung out at camp, as it was already dinner time. I decided to spend the entire next day exploring the park.
I began Day 22 reading my bible and thinking about how to attack the park. Like several other parks, the books said Bryce is best experienced by hiking. I read in the park's guide the Queen's Garden/Navajo Loop Trail is the best 3-mile hike in the world. I thought I'd try it out, but add another spur to make the hike 6.6 miles and hopefully take up a little more of the day.
The book was absolutely correct about hiking to see the park. The roads of the park are located on the canyon's rim, while many of the trails go into, and later, out of, the canyon. Seeing the canyon from any angle above is fascinating, but once you've seen one overlook, you've seen them all. So I got down in it.
And it was amazing! The light and bright, orange-colored rocks made an impeccable contrast with the sky. Camera's can be good at exaggerating the color of the sky. But not here. This was the bluest sky I have ever seen. I made it to the bottom of the canyon and Queen's Garden.I continued on my hike, except I read the map wrong and made a wrong turn. I ended up on a horse trail, but by the time I realized I was going the wrong way I was back at the top of the canyon!
It had probably only been three miles, and I wasn't ready to quit for the day. It was a great workout getting back to the top of the canyon and I wanted to complete the world's best 3-mile hike. So I went back down the Queen's Garden trail again!
I finally found the Navajo Loop and began to climb back up the canyon. That was a workout, but it was an awesome climb. Here's a photo from the bottom of the climb and one from the top. It climbed about 300 feet in a half mile. There are steeper trails out there, but this was still a workout.I can't argue the park's boasting of the hike. The only hike I have completed so far which comes close is the Hidden Lake Trail at Glacier NP. This leaves a good point for a couple asides.
Demographics and Generalizations
I, certainly unlike some, realize the fine-line between generalization and racism; and I find the most important part of a generalization is to realize it's never always (love using opposite extremes together) the case. But this summer has been a funny one in that regard. Here are a few things I've found.
National park visitors are 99.9% either white or Asian. What I hadn't experience until I reached Bryce Canyon was the number of Europeans. I would find this in many of the following parks in Utah and California as well as Grand Canyon. I reason this is because August is vacation month for Europeans and also these parks are close to large airports. But unlike the parks before this, where Asians and white Americans seemed to be somewhat equal in number, Bryce Canyon was almost entirely European.
This led me to reflect on two ideas, or perhaps questions. The first is the simple Why? The best answer I can think of is because these parks are that great - they must be some of the best preserved, most accessible landscapes in the world. And also, there are many more foreigners than there are Americans. Suddenly, it makes sense.
My second idea was I wonder how many Americans live their entire life and are never able to see these spectacular landscapes. Perhaps some simply don't want to or don't care about the landscape, while others may simply choose their vacation time (if they even have the means to vacation in the first place) on more resort-like spots. This has given me a great perspective on what I am doing out here, has made me appreciate it even more and has provided me with an ever bigger realization for what several people have had to sacrifice for me to be able to do this. Thank you to all who have had an impact.
And for a quick generalization: While the typical American tourist hikes in their 1990s jeans and tennies with a tucked-in, cotton t-shirt, the typical European woman hikes in a bathing suit top or rolls their shirt up, while men often don't wear shirts at all. If you look at the left side photo from the top of the Navajo Loop climb, you'll see a bathing suit lady. I eventually asked the lady to take my picture. She tried to do so backwards and upside down. This gave me a good laugh and reminded me of an opposite experience I had two years ago at Mount Rushmore when I handed my other camera to an older gentleman who tried to look through a viewfinder that didn't exist to take my photo. He missed me completely. And this is why I don't like to ask people to take photos of me.
Two Cool Plaques
The first one is a Lyndon B. Johnson quote, which read:
If future generations are to remember us with more gratitude than sorrow, we must achieve more than just miracles of technology. We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created, not just as it looked when we got through with it.
Well-stated. Not many people maintain this type of thinking. We tend to think the solutions or inventions we create are the correct ones, when undoubtedly there are consequences to come of which we have not yet thought. The national park system is a great system for that reason: it leaves the landscapes as they were (with a few exceptions).
The second was a Paiute Indian Legend:
Before there were any Indians, the Legend People, To-when-an-ung-wa, lived in that place. There were many of them. There were many kinds - birds, animals, lizards and such things - but they looked like people...For some reason, the Legend People in that place were bad. Because they were bad, Coyote turned them into rocks. You can see them in that place now; all turned into rocks; some standing in rows, some sitting down, some holding on to others. You can see their faces, with paint on them just as they were before they became rocks...
Note this is a legend and not a geologic fact.
Before I move on to the next park, I'll leave you with a photo of another Inspiration Point. A little better than Grand Tetons?
Zion National Park
I began Day 23 by moving on to Zion National Park. I was planning to move through the park quickly and on to Las Vegas to meet my parents for dinner.
Zion was beautiful. It still is. But I didn't have a great experience. Zion had more than 2.6 million visitors last year (Yellowstone is around 3 million), and it is significantly smaller than many of the other popular parks. It felt packed. They have a decent system where you have to park and take a shuttle into the canyon. But there are two problems with this system. First, the visitor center does not have adequate parking. Second, the lodge is in the canyon. Both of these equate to a shuttle system much too crowded.
I couldn't find a parking spot and had to drive clear through the park and park in town to take a different shuttle and later transfer to the canyon shuttle. I lost a lot of time doing this. I also ripped my new day pack, which didn't help my experience.
Zion is no doubt beautiful, but within the canyon it doesn't change all that much. Therefore, many of the short hikes are very similar. The longer hikes are supposedly amazing, but I did not have the time to complete them. I left the park later than I had wanted to, frustrated with the poorly-executed shuttle service, excessive crowd and that I didn't have a great experience because I know how beautiful the park is. But given its proximity to Las Vegas, I'll be back (and in the fall when it is much cooler).Utah Album
Next Post: Nevada, Round 2
Utah, Part 1
The entrance into Utah did not, again, give me a new state. For those who have been following since the beginning, you'll recall on Leg 1 we connected US-50 with I-70 in Utah on our way home, stopping quickly at Arches NP.
I wanted to give Utah adequate time (at the time, I had no idea what that meant), but I also had the first date I had to meet (had should really be wanted to). My parents were taking a trip to Las Vegas, while my best friend was flying to the same city a day after my parents left to join me on a 12 day loop in Nevada, Arizona and California. So I had about 3.5 days. Here's what I did.
Arches National Park
Arches sits just below I-70 between US-191 and UT-128. US-191 is recommended; it is the fastest way to get into the park. But I had already been on that road, and UT-128 was dotted ("scenic").
It was a good choice. The road wound and wove; it rose and fell; it twisted and turned. It did so with the change in landscape (as opposed to grading the road for maximum speed); so I couldn't move to fast (i.e., why it is not recommended as a means to reach the park quickly. But a few miles in it enters a bright red canyon alongside a river. Because it was only a two-lane road, the shear walls of the canyon rose a few feet away from the car on one side or the other, depending on which side of the river I was driving. I thought, Wow, this road will definitely compete for my "Best Drives" list. Here's a photo (don't worry, Mom, I got out of the car to take this one).
I reached the park later than I wanted to the morning of Day 20 (August 4). I had planned to squeeze Arches NP and Canyonlands NP into the same day. So I didn't have a lot of time in the park. Therefore, what I tried to do was drive the 14-mile road quickly and take photos of a different perspective than my visit a month before. Depending on the sun's location, this park can be extremely photogenic (not sure my adverb choice works there). It's easy to photograph. So I wasn't all that impressed with mine.
Leaving the park within 2 hours of entering was bittersweet. The paper in my left hand read, This park deserves at least an entire day, if not two, while my right hand's paper read, The next park is Canyonlands, another new park! And you are going to come back here some day. And I will; and I'll tell you why later.
So I moved on to Canyonlands NP.
Canyonlands National Park
I'm sorry if you feel there is a gap here, I had to take a break. I just got off the phone with Executive Producer Steven Spielberg. The conversation went something like this:
Redwing41 (R): Hello, this is [redacted].
Stevie (S): Hi there [redacted], this is Steven Spielberg.
R: That's hilarious.
S: No, I'm serious.
R: Okay.
S: Listen, I'm sorry to hear about your right arm.
R: It was the left, Stevie.
S: Yes, my mistake. I keep mixing you up with-
R: I know; it's fine.
S: Well anyways, I just wanted to say I'd like to make a movie out of your story.
R: Go on.
S: I'm not sure how good it can be. For one thing, you told people where you were going to be. For another, You realized no one would find you anyways, so you only waited 41 hours. For a third, you had a real Leatherman. And for a fourth, we'd have to find a better actor than James Franco. But I think I can do it.
R: Okay.
S: The only problem is it definitely won't be considered the best film of the year because I heard Aaron Sorkin is writing an intentionally-fictionalized-yet-still-entertaining story of Google Plus. And he got Justin Timberlake; AGAIN!
In case you are concerned, my left arm is still in tact. What I can say about the park is as much of an idiot as Aron Ralston is, it's really fun to climb around on the rocks in Canyonlands.
The park is divided into four sections, but really only two of them, The Island in the Sky and The Needles, are easily accessible. And even with the accessibility of these two sections, the main attraction to the park is its backcountry experience. You have to travel outside the park for 2+ hours to get from one to the other; none of the sections are connected within the park.
I knew this going in, and I knew I was pressed for time. And after hearing how great Bryce Canyon and Zion are, I wanted to get there sooner than later. So, what I decided to do was to visit The Island in the Sky then move on and try to find some camping (I had read in my bible camping fills by mid-morning).
The road into the park was pretty, but nothing like the trip into Arches. In fact, The Island in the Sky is basically a large prairie. It's interest to visitors lies in its overlooks into The Needles section.
When I got there, it was relatively deserted (to my surprise, considering how crowded Arches is). Here's some perspective: Arches is closer to The Island in the Sky than The Island in the Sky is to The Needles, but Arches had 1,014,405 visitors last year while Canyonlands as a whole had 435,908. I equate this simply to Arches having the benefit of acting both as a destination park as well as a pass-through park (proximity to the interstate).
I'm not sure if I've mentioned this or not, but when a park road is a spur and not a loop, I like to drive to the end and work my way backwards. That way I decided what looks like the coolest things to do, and I can judge my time much easier. However, of all the parks set up like this, my bible suggested this type of route for Canyonlands, but had not for any of the other parks (yet). I thought it must be a really good starting place then.
It was.
That was a zoomed-in view of the overlook named Grand View. By this point in my trip, I can't say I was tired of overlooks, but I wasn't so excited for them anymore. That is why this one caught me by surprise. There's that word (not love), Breathtaking. I forgot the word meant a real thing; I had been using it as a synonym to really cool or awesome. But I lost my breath for a moment standing at Grand View.
There are only five simple tasks you need to continually perform to stay alive.
So I started breathing again. But I couldn't move; I just stood in that spot for 10 or 15 minutes before taking a photo. Now I know the photo doesn't look like much but that's what happens at overlooks sometimes. The panoramic of it should be pretty good.
I was going to show you this photo while pointing out the lines the stormwater takes. Then I got to another overlook and read the plaque which told me it is a road. Look to the right of the canyon, you'll see it. About the time Moab, UT began flourishing, people moved into the Canyonlands area to mine. That is where many of roads like this come from. The park service is leaving many of these roads turn back into wilderness landscape. the problem is, when you destroy a desert plant, it's not guaranteed to return. Many of these plants only have the opportunity to germinate every handful of years. These roads will be here for a long time.
Guess what moved me out of The Island in the Sky? Correct. So I began driving down US-191 toward Capitol Reef NP, looking for a campsite. That's when I saw this. I found it hilarious at the time. Not only is the rock painted and pointing to a hole in the rock, but it's written HOLE N" THE ROCK. The cleverness of leaving an I out is downplayed when you aren't sure what to replace it with. But it was a good try; it is Utah, after all.
What I failed to mention earlier is that The Island in the Sky still had camping available (to my surprise). But that put my too far away from where I wanted to be on Day 21. Plus there was a thunderstorm. But I thought, What the heck, I still have time today, why not check out The Needles section. If it would have not had camping, at least I still would have seen something new and cool.
But they did have camping and it should easily make the best campsites list. Here is a view looking just one way from the site. I was setting up my tent and then looked to my left. There was a giant rock formation that looked easily climbable. So I jumped up, and kept going, and kept going. Soon enough, I had an entire 360 panorama from the campsite. It was incredible. Here's me the next morning, somewhat happy about that climb.
I went to fill up on water and dilly-dallied just a bit. When I was over near the toilet, I read a posting (No!) that said the number one natural killer in Utah in lightning. And sure enough a storm was close by. I learned what to do in such a storm. Glad I know how to read.
But I took so much time that when I came back, the sun was setting. And it was beautiful. So I took some photos from the campsite; but then I climbed back up on the giant rock. The combination of the setting sun and the active storm helped me capture this, perhaps the best photo I've taken to date. It was rewarding, not just because I was in the right place at the right time, but because I really had to work at this photo. I was at that tree for 10 or 15 minutes playing around with camera settings until I finally got it right.
Exploring the park the next morning, I stopped near the end of this road and parked behind a white van. I was walking around for a few minutes then looked up and saw a park ranger behind my car with its lights on. I shrugged and kept taking photos. So she turned on her siren. Then I returned to the park. She said, "Can you see this?" and pointed to the ground.
I said, "No, hang on, let me find my magnifying glass." Then I realized No Parking was written in white, 12-point, Arial font on the side of the road. She told me RVs can't turn around and my car would get hit. I said, "Usually I look for yellow lines, or a sign saying I can't park." She told me they are working on getting a sign. So I held my comment about how you can make a sign with a dead tree's branch and a piece of paper and about how she is a pretend police officer.
Newspaper Rock
After leaving the park, I came across Newspaper Rock. There were a few people there, and this guy in his fifties says the following, in a redneck accent:
Last time I came here was 30 years ago. You was able to walk right up then. But they done moved her back. They had ta; them hippies kept coming up here and drawing peace signs on it.
I knew it was going to be a good day.
Utah Album
Next Post: Utah, Part 2
I wanted to give Utah adequate time (at the time, I had no idea what that meant), but I also had the first date I had to meet (had should really be wanted to). My parents were taking a trip to Las Vegas, while my best friend was flying to the same city a day after my parents left to join me on a 12 day loop in Nevada, Arizona and California. So I had about 3.5 days. Here's what I did.
Arches National Park
Arches sits just below I-70 between US-191 and UT-128. US-191 is recommended; it is the fastest way to get into the park. But I had already been on that road, and UT-128 was dotted ("scenic").
It was a good choice. The road wound and wove; it rose and fell; it twisted and turned. It did so with the change in landscape (as opposed to grading the road for maximum speed); so I couldn't move to fast (i.e., why it is not recommended as a means to reach the park quickly. But a few miles in it enters a bright red canyon alongside a river. Because it was only a two-lane road, the shear walls of the canyon rose a few feet away from the car on one side or the other, depending on which side of the river I was driving. I thought, Wow, this road will definitely compete for my "Best Drives" list. Here's a photo (don't worry, Mom, I got out of the car to take this one).
I reached the park later than I wanted to the morning of Day 20 (August 4). I had planned to squeeze Arches NP and Canyonlands NP into the same day. So I didn't have a lot of time in the park. Therefore, what I tried to do was drive the 14-mile road quickly and take photos of a different perspective than my visit a month before. Depending on the sun's location, this park can be extremely photogenic (not sure my adverb choice works there). It's easy to photograph. So I wasn't all that impressed with mine.Leaving the park within 2 hours of entering was bittersweet. The paper in my left hand read, This park deserves at least an entire day, if not two, while my right hand's paper read, The next park is Canyonlands, another new park! And you are going to come back here some day. And I will; and I'll tell you why later.
So I moved on to Canyonlands NP.
Canyonlands National Park
I'm sorry if you feel there is a gap here, I had to take a break. I just got off the phone with Executive Producer Steven Spielberg. The conversation went something like this:
Redwing41 (R): Hello, this is [redacted].
Stevie (S): Hi there [redacted], this is Steven Spielberg.
R: That's hilarious.
S: No, I'm serious.
R: Okay.
S: Listen, I'm sorry to hear about your right arm.
R: It was the left, Stevie.
S: Yes, my mistake. I keep mixing you up with-
R: I know; it's fine.
S: Well anyways, I just wanted to say I'd like to make a movie out of your story.
R: Go on.
S: I'm not sure how good it can be. For one thing, you told people where you were going to be. For another, You realized no one would find you anyways, so you only waited 41 hours. For a third, you had a real Leatherman. And for a fourth, we'd have to find a better actor than James Franco. But I think I can do it.
R: Okay.
S: The only problem is it definitely won't be considered the best film of the year because I heard Aaron Sorkin is writing an intentionally-fictionalized-yet-still-entertaining story of Google Plus. And he got Justin Timberlake; AGAIN!
In case you are concerned, my left arm is still in tact. What I can say about the park is as much of an idiot as Aron Ralston is, it's really fun to climb around on the rocks in Canyonlands.
The park is divided into four sections, but really only two of them, The Island in the Sky and The Needles, are easily accessible. And even with the accessibility of these two sections, the main attraction to the park is its backcountry experience. You have to travel outside the park for 2+ hours to get from one to the other; none of the sections are connected within the park.
I knew this going in, and I knew I was pressed for time. And after hearing how great Bryce Canyon and Zion are, I wanted to get there sooner than later. So, what I decided to do was to visit The Island in the Sky then move on and try to find some camping (I had read in my bible camping fills by mid-morning).
The road into the park was pretty, but nothing like the trip into Arches. In fact, The Island in the Sky is basically a large prairie. It's interest to visitors lies in its overlooks into The Needles section.
When I got there, it was relatively deserted (to my surprise, considering how crowded Arches is). Here's some perspective: Arches is closer to The Island in the Sky than The Island in the Sky is to The Needles, but Arches had 1,014,405 visitors last year while Canyonlands as a whole had 435,908. I equate this simply to Arches having the benefit of acting both as a destination park as well as a pass-through park (proximity to the interstate).
I'm not sure if I've mentioned this or not, but when a park road is a spur and not a loop, I like to drive to the end and work my way backwards. That way I decided what looks like the coolest things to do, and I can judge my time much easier. However, of all the parks set up like this, my bible suggested this type of route for Canyonlands, but had not for any of the other parks (yet). I thought it must be a really good starting place then.
It was.That was a zoomed-in view of the overlook named Grand View. By this point in my trip, I can't say I was tired of overlooks, but I wasn't so excited for them anymore. That is why this one caught me by surprise. There's that word (not love), Breathtaking. I forgot the word meant a real thing; I had been using it as a synonym to really cool or awesome. But I lost my breath for a moment standing at Grand View.
There are only five simple tasks you need to continually perform to stay alive.
So I started breathing again. But I couldn't move; I just stood in that spot for 10 or 15 minutes before taking a photo. Now I know the photo doesn't look like much but that's what happens at overlooks sometimes. The panoramic of it should be pretty good.
I was going to show you this photo while pointing out the lines the stormwater takes. Then I got to another overlook and read the plaque which told me it is a road. Look to the right of the canyon, you'll see it. About the time Moab, UT began flourishing, people moved into the Canyonlands area to mine. That is where many of roads like this come from. The park service is leaving many of these roads turn back into wilderness landscape. the problem is, when you destroy a desert plant, it's not guaranteed to return. Many of these plants only have the opportunity to germinate every handful of years. These roads will be here for a long time.
Guess what moved me out of The Island in the Sky? Correct. So I began driving down US-191 toward Capitol Reef NP, looking for a campsite. That's when I saw this. I found it hilarious at the time. Not only is the rock painted and pointing to a hole in the rock, but it's written HOLE N" THE ROCK. The cleverness of leaving an I out is downplayed when you aren't sure what to replace it with. But it was a good try; it is Utah, after all.
What I failed to mention earlier is that The Island in the Sky still had camping available (to my surprise). But that put my too far away from where I wanted to be on Day 21. Plus there was a thunderstorm. But I thought, What the heck, I still have time today, why not check out The Needles section. If it would have not had camping, at least I still would have seen something new and cool.
But they did have camping and it should easily make the best campsites list. Here is a view looking just one way from the site. I was setting up my tent and then looked to my left. There was a giant rock formation that looked easily climbable. So I jumped up, and kept going, and kept going. Soon enough, I had an entire 360 panorama from the campsite. It was incredible. Here's me the next morning, somewhat happy about that climb.I went to fill up on water and dilly-dallied just a bit. When I was over near the toilet, I read a posting (No!) that said the number one natural killer in Utah in lightning. And sure enough a storm was close by. I learned what to do in such a storm. Glad I know how to read.
But I took so much time that when I came back, the sun was setting. And it was beautiful. So I took some photos from the campsite; but then I climbed back up on the giant rock. The combination of the setting sun and the active storm helped me capture this, perhaps the best photo I've taken to date. It was rewarding, not just because I was in the right place at the right time, but because I really had to work at this photo. I was at that tree for 10 or 15 minutes playing around with camera settings until I finally got it right.
Exploring the park the next morning, I stopped near the end of this road and parked behind a white van. I was walking around for a few minutes then looked up and saw a park ranger behind my car with its lights on. I shrugged and kept taking photos. So she turned on her siren. Then I returned to the park. She said, "Can you see this?" and pointed to the ground.I said, "No, hang on, let me find my magnifying glass." Then I realized No Parking was written in white, 12-point, Arial font on the side of the road. She told me RVs can't turn around and my car would get hit. I said, "Usually I look for yellow lines, or a sign saying I can't park." She told me they are working on getting a sign. So I held my comment about how you can make a sign with a dead tree's branch and a piece of paper and about how she is a pretend police officer.
Newspaper Rock
After leaving the park, I came across Newspaper Rock. There were a few people there, and this guy in his fifties says the following, in a redneck accent:
Last time I came here was 30 years ago. You was able to walk right up then. But they done moved her back. They had ta; them hippies kept coming up here and drawing peace signs on it.
I knew it was going to be a good day.
Utah Album
Next Post: Utah, Part 2
8.21.2011
Colorado, Part 2
Great Sand Dunes National Park
I reached the gate of Great Sand Dunes National Park late on Day 17 after driving through a rainstorm (7 p.m. is late in terms of finding a camping spot). The sign at the gate said the campground was full. But I knew the park only had one campground and it was 3 miles inside the park, so I decided to check it out anyways. The park is so small I figured if there was no camping, I'd take my photos and leave.
The campground arrangement was unusual compared to many of the other parks I'd been in - there was a parking area and a ranger at a pay station. Two young guys approached the station and asked for a tent site, to which the ranger exclaimed, "Yes! I have one tent site available."
Great.
I asked anyway. The ranger said, "Oh, you're not with them?" I replied, "No I am, I just don't like them and would like a different tent site." Actually, I replied, "No." The ranger then told me to check out a site to see if it was empty (yeah, right). I did anyways. It was not empty. I came back to the station, prepared to leave when the ranger said I could have an unreserved group site to myself for the price of a normal site! I took it.
I played around on the dunes for about a half hour in the morning of Day 18 and then headed out.
Great Sand Dunes National Park is an interesting park. It's known for it's recreation on the dunes and its mountain backpacking. There are only about 5 miles of paved road in the entire park. My guess would be it attained official NP status based on its number of visitors every year, but I find it undeserved. I believe it should be a national monument or a national recreation area.
There is one cool thing. The road into the park is 14 miles long and faces the dunes nearly the entire time. At first, they look really small. But once you are on them, they are gigantic!
Mesa Verde National Park
The next stop was Mesa Verde National Park. They, fortunately had plenty of camping. Unfortunately, it was the most expensive camping I'd had yet and was not impressive.
Going into the park, I had no idea what it was really about; although reading about it gave me a funny feeling - it doesn't operate like a normal park. I found out the reason for this is because the park focuses on the Ancestral Puebloans' cliff dwellings and outright ignores the landscape except when it is applicable to tell the story of the Indians. To really experience the park, you have to buy a tour ticket for the cliff dwellings. They were only $3, but it's unique among the parks I've visited.
The cliff dwelling was awesome! We climbed, in a thunderstorm, down a path on the face of the cliff. Then we had to climb up a ladder to get into the dwelling. To leave you have to crawl through a tunnel and then up another ladder. It was fun watching people freak out. Here's another angle of the entry ladder; I took this from inside the dwelling (you can see a girl with a black sweatshirt near the top of the ladder). It was a really cool tour. You can browse through some of the photos via the link at the end of the post.
I've tried to make the focus of my trip landscapes. To use wilderness would not be necessarily appropriate. So this stop felt a little weird; more educational. It was a nice change of pace.
BUT, Mesa Verde should not be a national park. During my many long hours in the car, I've contemplated what I think the definition of a national park should be. And while I have not completed my set of standards, I have thought of one: a national park should focus upon something natural. Several of our parks have ruins, petroglyphs, ghost mining towns, etc. But all these other parks focus on the landscape first. This landscape is no doubt fascinating, but it was completely ignored.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
Have you ever heard of this park? Well, apparently neither has the rest of the world. But that made it fun for me!
The better part of Day 19 was spent in this park. When I arrived, I was informed camping was available on the rim and in the canyon. This park, like Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon keeps its roads on the rim of the canyon. So I thought I'd try to get to the bottom to camp. The five-mile dirt road to the bottom has a 16% grade! If that means nothing to you, consider it three times steeper than typical grades. Unfortunately, the campsites at the bottom were boring. Although the river was cool.
I spent most of the afternoon hiking and riding the rim road, checking out overlooks. I was forced back to camp by a thunderstorm (five days in a row). I got to my tent and continued with The Drawing of the Three. I had read the warnings (preposterous!) before camping and saw notices for a bear that likes to hang around camp. Just as the rain stopped and I was about to get out of my tent I heard something. And I kept hearing it. And I was worried. And then I realized it was people setting up a tent. And later the camp host told me they were old signs and he needed to replace them. Yep, a month's worth of work in my estimation.
I liked Black Canyon mostly because it was deserted. Developed and deserted; my summer experience of choice.
And I liked Colorado. It's fascinating how many different landscapes there are within the state. Although it shouldn't come to much of a surprise, given it is more than 100,000 square miles of property.
Colorado Photo Album
Next Post: Utah, Part 1
I reached the gate of Great Sand Dunes National Park late on Day 17 after driving through a rainstorm (7 p.m. is late in terms of finding a camping spot). The sign at the gate said the campground was full. But I knew the park only had one campground and it was 3 miles inside the park, so I decided to check it out anyways. The park is so small I figured if there was no camping, I'd take my photos and leave.
The campground arrangement was unusual compared to many of the other parks I'd been in - there was a parking area and a ranger at a pay station. Two young guys approached the station and asked for a tent site, to which the ranger exclaimed, "Yes! I have one tent site available."
Great.
I asked anyway. The ranger said, "Oh, you're not with them?" I replied, "No I am, I just don't like them and would like a different tent site." Actually, I replied, "No." The ranger then told me to check out a site to see if it was empty (yeah, right). I did anyways. It was not empty. I came back to the station, prepared to leave when the ranger said I could have an unreserved group site to myself for the price of a normal site! I took it.
I played around on the dunes for about a half hour in the morning of Day 18 and then headed out.
Great Sand Dunes National Park is an interesting park. It's known for it's recreation on the dunes and its mountain backpacking. There are only about 5 miles of paved road in the entire park. My guess would be it attained official NP status based on its number of visitors every year, but I find it undeserved. I believe it should be a national monument or a national recreation area.There is one cool thing. The road into the park is 14 miles long and faces the dunes nearly the entire time. At first, they look really small. But once you are on them, they are gigantic!
Mesa Verde National Park
The next stop was Mesa Verde National Park. They, fortunately had plenty of camping. Unfortunately, it was the most expensive camping I'd had yet and was not impressive.
Going into the park, I had no idea what it was really about; although reading about it gave me a funny feeling - it doesn't operate like a normal park. I found out the reason for this is because the park focuses on the Ancestral Puebloans' cliff dwellings and outright ignores the landscape except when it is applicable to tell the story of the Indians. To really experience the park, you have to buy a tour ticket for the cliff dwellings. They were only $3, but it's unique among the parks I've visited.The cliff dwelling was awesome! We climbed, in a thunderstorm, down a path on the face of the cliff. Then we had to climb up a ladder to get into the dwelling. To leave you have to crawl through a tunnel and then up another ladder. It was fun watching people freak out. Here's another angle of the entry ladder; I took this from inside the dwelling (you can see a girl with a black sweatshirt near the top of the ladder). It was a really cool tour. You can browse through some of the photos via the link at the end of the post.
I've tried to make the focus of my trip landscapes. To use wilderness would not be necessarily appropriate. So this stop felt a little weird; more educational. It was a nice change of pace.
BUT, Mesa Verde should not be a national park. During my many long hours in the car, I've contemplated what I think the definition of a national park should be. And while I have not completed my set of standards, I have thought of one: a national park should focus upon something natural. Several of our parks have ruins, petroglyphs, ghost mining towns, etc. But all these other parks focus on the landscape first. This landscape is no doubt fascinating, but it was completely ignored.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
Have you ever heard of this park? Well, apparently neither has the rest of the world. But that made it fun for me!
The better part of Day 19 was spent in this park. When I arrived, I was informed camping was available on the rim and in the canyon. This park, like Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon keeps its roads on the rim of the canyon. So I thought I'd try to get to the bottom to camp. The five-mile dirt road to the bottom has a 16% grade! If that means nothing to you, consider it three times steeper than typical grades. Unfortunately, the campsites at the bottom were boring. Although the river was cool.
I spent most of the afternoon hiking and riding the rim road, checking out overlooks. I was forced back to camp by a thunderstorm (five days in a row). I got to my tent and continued with The Drawing of the Three. I had read the warnings (preposterous!) before camping and saw notices for a bear that likes to hang around camp. Just as the rain stopped and I was about to get out of my tent I heard something. And I kept hearing it. And I was worried. And then I realized it was people setting up a tent. And later the camp host told me they were old signs and he needed to replace them. Yep, a month's worth of work in my estimation.I liked Black Canyon mostly because it was deserted. Developed and deserted; my summer experience of choice.
And I liked Colorado. It's fascinating how many different landscapes there are within the state. Although it shouldn't come to much of a surprise, given it is more than 100,000 square miles of property.
Colorado Photo Album
Next Post: Utah, Part 1
Nebraska & Colorado, Part 1
Hello again! It seems as though we have a significant amount of catching up to do. Let's get to it.
I have broken up Colorado, Utah and California into separate parts. I have so many parks to talk about that I didn't want to put up a bazillion posts (as one Grand Canyon park ranger would say), but I also don't want to leave you with novels for each state.
Nebraska
Day 15 began with a trip to Nebraska, state 21, for a visit to Chimney Rock National Historic Site. It looks cool. It's so cool (how cool is it?), it's probably the coolest thing in the entire state. And that's a big state. The museum charged an entrance fee even with my annual pass. I saved my $2 after learning everything I cared about (regarding the rock) in my bible. I took my one photo and left.
I then visited Sydney and the other Cabella's! I was out to get a good backpacking (small and light) tent as a replacement to my broken Wal-Mart tent. I was successful - found a $90 tent for $40.
If you followed the link above, you've exhausted the Nebraska photo album.
Colorado
I wanted to make a little more progress to make sure I could get a campsite at the popular Rocky Mountain National Park the following day. I ended up in Shawnee National Grassland. It's about as exciting as it sounds. They have grass.
This was the night of my worst mosquito experience thus far. Have you ever had an awful mosquito experience? These mosquitoes seemed to be attracted to Deet. I was in the tent early that night.
I just reviewed my journal entry for July 30 to see if I left anything out. I did not; the entry is about 10 lines long and ends with "Boring Day."
Rocky Mountain National Park
I knew Rocky Mountain National Park was a popular park, but I expected it to be slightly less crowded than Yellowstone. It felt more crowded. It's the only park I've had to wait in line to enter. A big part of this was because it was a Sunday and the park is a conceivable day trip for nearly anyone in the Denver area.
Trail Ridge Road in the park is supposed to be one of the most spectacular drives in the country, but it was just to crowded to enjoy thoroughly. In addition, the only campground with sites still available was on the other end of the park, about 50 miles away. Fortunately, spots were still available. And it turned out to be a pretty cool campsite.
But I was still frustrated with the crowd. So I tried to get away. I left the east side of the park and visited Arapaho National Recreation Area. I found a bench with a relatively quiet and cool view by a lake where I caught up on journal entries and played a the guitar.
Day 17
Had a big thunderstorm last night; the second night in the new tent. It held up nicely. I forgot to mention two things previously. First, Colorado is not a new state; I drove I-70 East on the way home from the first leg. Second, It had rained on the way to Pawnee National Grassland (which will come into play shortly).
I woke up in a neutral mood with a plan: I was going to move quickly from camp, drive Trail Ridge Road again to get the full experience and then leave from the east side of the park. I was hopeful, but still expecting a crowd. I rolled my sleeping pad and packed my sleeping bag (not quiet activities), unzipped the tent and stepped outside.
An elk was staring me in the face, perhaps 20 feet away. I shifted to peripheral vision; there were five elk total (none with antlers; otherwise I would have been back in the tent quickly). But the one who had been staring at me put her head back down and continued to eat grass. Since they obviously weren't offended by my presence, I invited myself a seat at my picnic table and just watched. At one point a smaller elk walked right by the table and started eating grass about 10 feet away from me! Apparently I was being super stealthy because when I got up from the table to get my camera from my car, the elk jumped backwards and said, "Huh?" Then she kept eating. Perhaps you think elk are about the size of deer. Think again.
After taking photos for a few minutes, I saw the elk begin to move away from the campsite. I was okay with it because I wanted to eat my breakfast but didn't want to approach the wildlife. Just as I was walking back to my picnic table I saw another elk come out of the brush across a creek about 150 feet away. I put my head down and walked to the table.
I looked at the elk again.
It was a moose, again looking right at me.
So the day began on the right hoof and I was excited to drive the road again. And I was still able to break camp early enough that the road was not too crowded (plus it was a Monday).
I left the park on the east side, through the town of Estes Park. My father called me when I was in the town and, in the least creepy way possible, said, "You're in Estes Park."
"Yes," I replied, "I am."
He called to inform me the hotel which inspired The Shining is in Estes Park. He said it has a red roof. I told him I just drove by a building with a red roof. I was right in front of the hotel when he called.
The rest of the day consisted of me driving to Great Sand Dunes National Park, with a Wal-Mart pit-stop; a Wal-Mart with a McDonald's inside nevertheless. Hooray America!
Colorado Photo Album (contains photos from other Colorado posts)
Next Post: Colorado, Part 2
I have broken up Colorado, Utah and California into separate parts. I have so many parks to talk about that I didn't want to put up a bazillion posts (as one Grand Canyon park ranger would say), but I also don't want to leave you with novels for each state.
Nebraska
Day 15 began with a trip to Nebraska, state 21, for a visit to Chimney Rock National Historic Site. It looks cool. It's so cool (how cool is it?), it's probably the coolest thing in the entire state. And that's a big state. The museum charged an entrance fee even with my annual pass. I saved my $2 after learning everything I cared about (regarding the rock) in my bible. I took my one photo and left.
I then visited Sydney and the other Cabella's! I was out to get a good backpacking (small and light) tent as a replacement to my broken Wal-Mart tent. I was successful - found a $90 tent for $40.
If you followed the link above, you've exhausted the Nebraska photo album.
Colorado
I wanted to make a little more progress to make sure I could get a campsite at the popular Rocky Mountain National Park the following day. I ended up in Shawnee National Grassland. It's about as exciting as it sounds. They have grass.
This was the night of my worst mosquito experience thus far. Have you ever had an awful mosquito experience? These mosquitoes seemed to be attracted to Deet. I was in the tent early that night.
I just reviewed my journal entry for July 30 to see if I left anything out. I did not; the entry is about 10 lines long and ends with "Boring Day."
Rocky Mountain National Park
I knew Rocky Mountain National Park was a popular park, but I expected it to be slightly less crowded than Yellowstone. It felt more crowded. It's the only park I've had to wait in line to enter. A big part of this was because it was a Sunday and the park is a conceivable day trip for nearly anyone in the Denver area.
Trail Ridge Road in the park is supposed to be one of the most spectacular drives in the country, but it was just to crowded to enjoy thoroughly. In addition, the only campground with sites still available was on the other end of the park, about 50 miles away. Fortunately, spots were still available. And it turned out to be a pretty cool campsite.But I was still frustrated with the crowd. So I tried to get away. I left the east side of the park and visited Arapaho National Recreation Area. I found a bench with a relatively quiet and cool view by a lake where I caught up on journal entries and played a the guitar.
Day 17
Had a big thunderstorm last night; the second night in the new tent. It held up nicely. I forgot to mention two things previously. First, Colorado is not a new state; I drove I-70 East on the way home from the first leg. Second, It had rained on the way to Pawnee National Grassland (which will come into play shortly).
I woke up in a neutral mood with a plan: I was going to move quickly from camp, drive Trail Ridge Road again to get the full experience and then leave from the east side of the park. I was hopeful, but still expecting a crowd. I rolled my sleeping pad and packed my sleeping bag (not quiet activities), unzipped the tent and stepped outside.
An elk was staring me in the face, perhaps 20 feet away. I shifted to peripheral vision; there were five elk total (none with antlers; otherwise I would have been back in the tent quickly). But the one who had been staring at me put her head back down and continued to eat grass. Since they obviously weren't offended by my presence, I invited myself a seat at my picnic table and just watched. At one point a smaller elk walked right by the table and started eating grass about 10 feet away from me! Apparently I was being super stealthy because when I got up from the table to get my camera from my car, the elk jumped backwards and said, "Huh?" Then she kept eating. Perhaps you think elk are about the size of deer. Think again.
After taking photos for a few minutes, I saw the elk begin to move away from the campsite. I was okay with it because I wanted to eat my breakfast but didn't want to approach the wildlife. Just as I was walking back to my picnic table I saw another elk come out of the brush across a creek about 150 feet away. I put my head down and walked to the table.
I looked at the elk again.It was a moose, again looking right at me.
So the day began on the right hoof and I was excited to drive the road again. And I was still able to break camp early enough that the road was not too crowded (plus it was a Monday).
I left the park on the east side, through the town of Estes Park. My father called me when I was in the town and, in the least creepy way possible, said, "You're in Estes Park."
"Yes," I replied, "I am."
He called to inform me the hotel which inspired The Shining is in Estes Park. He said it has a red roof. I told him I just drove by a building with a red roof. I was right in front of the hotel when he called.The rest of the day consisted of me driving to Great Sand Dunes National Park, with a Wal-Mart pit-stop; a Wal-Mart with a McDonald's inside nevertheless. Hooray America!
Colorado Photo Album (contains photos from other Colorado posts)
Next Post: Colorado, Part 2
8.11.2011
Keeping You Posted
Hello Everybody!
Here's some advice for you: don't book a hotel for two nights in Vegas and expect to be able to update your blog. It didn't work.
I wanted to keep all those following posted on what's going on. I spent the last two weeks in Nebraska, Colorado and Utah, and they were amazing! Today I'm leaving from Las Vegas to hit Arizona and Southern California. This includes a quick drive through Zion, along with (hopefully) sufficient visits to Grand Canyon NP, Glen Canyon NM, Joshua Tree NP, Channel Islands NP, Sequoia NP, King's Canyon NP, Yosemite NP, Death Valley NP and, of course, Bodie, California.
I had my hopes set on Love, but came to find out it was out of town. Fortunately I was able to book a show for the end of this loop on August 20. Now, assuming Vegas doesn't happen a second time, you can expect to see an update of all photos and stories by mid-day, August 22. Actually, I'll guarantee this - I'll have no money left by that point.
Hope you are all having an enjoyable summer. Goodbye from Las Vegas.
Here's some advice for you: don't book a hotel for two nights in Vegas and expect to be able to update your blog. It didn't work.
I wanted to keep all those following posted on what's going on. I spent the last two weeks in Nebraska, Colorado and Utah, and they were amazing! Today I'm leaving from Las Vegas to hit Arizona and Southern California. This includes a quick drive through Zion, along with (hopefully) sufficient visits to Grand Canyon NP, Glen Canyon NM, Joshua Tree NP, Channel Islands NP, Sequoia NP, King's Canyon NP, Yosemite NP, Death Valley NP and, of course, Bodie, California.
I had my hopes set on Love, but came to find out it was out of town. Fortunately I was able to book a show for the end of this loop on August 20. Now, assuming Vegas doesn't happen a second time, you can expect to see an update of all photos and stories by mid-day, August 22. Actually, I'll guarantee this - I'll have no money left by that point.
Hope you are all having an enjoyable summer. Goodbye from Las Vegas.
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