When I made the loop through the Olympic Peninsula back in 2014, the one thought I kept repeating in my head consistently was, “My brother Don would LOVE this place!” We have always shared a similar love for the “beauty in the pathless woods” and the serenity of a “lonely shore.”
So although I had not planned on making the loop any further west than Port Townsend this year, once he decided to join me, I could not miss the opportunity to show him Continue reading
I leave the cool, clear, high elevation evergreen forests of Sequoia National Park where I have been running the heater every morning to take the chill off, and drive down over 6,000 ft to the Central Valley where it is hot, dry, and straw-colored. As if that weren’t shock enough to my system, all of California is suffering a heat wave this week. I’ve gone from snuggling under a down comforter to “hot, hot, Africa hot” in under two hours.
I am off to visit our newest National Park, Pinnacles, newly anointed in 2013. The road through irrigated farm land and nut orchards is pot-holed and heavily trafficked by trucks. It seems like I will never get to the turnoff Continue reading
After four quiet, serene nights in Kings Canyon’s Azalea campground where I enjoyed a spacious pull through with my entire passenger side windows and doors opening out into the forest, I move just 18 short miles “across the border” to Sequoia National Park. I figure as a self-proclaimed National Park junkie, I need to sleep in both camps.
But it’s approaching the weekend, and I read online that weekends come at a premium in Sequoia NP, so I go online and find Continue reading
Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks are two separate parks managed as one. They sit shoulder to shoulder along the edge of the Sierras. It’s tough to tell where one park ends and the other begins. In fact, it can be a bit confusing, as the first point of entry into Kings Canyon is Grant Grove, a large grove of sequoia trees, and home of the General Grant Tree, “third largest tree in the world.” To an analytical left brainer like myself, I think “Wait, shouldn’t you sequoias be over there in Sequoia National Park? 😉 Continue reading
As a final look at Yosemite National Park, no blog series would be complete without a tribute to one of it’s biggest advocates and most famous of residents, Ansel Adams. Of course, you know I have to do it, right? The tonality of the sheer granite cliffs is begging for it. The shadows and light demand it. Any self-respecting photography enthusiast has to do it…so forgive me, Ansel, while I play momentarily with your muse of monochrome… Continue reading
Regardless of whether you are a bucket list believer or a bucket list basher, everyone has a secret mental list of “things I wish I could do one day.” If you don’t, then you are not a dreamer. And if you are not a dreamer then you may as well be dead. But that’s just my opinion.
I confess to maintaining two bucket lists….those I think I can actually achieve, like Zion’s Angels Landing, or visiting all 59 of our National Parks. And then there is that “secret list” of things I wish I could do but Continue reading
Yosemite National Park sees four million visitors each year. It ranks in the upper half of our Top 10 most visited national parks. “No temple made with human hands can compete with Yosemite,” wrote John Muir, early conservationist who influenced the creation of many of California’s parks.
As I mentioned in the previous post, coveted campsites within Yosemite Valley sell out four months ahead within minutes of inventory being opened up. Continue reading
Roll the tape back to the night before I am to depart on the 9:00am ferry for the Channel Islands camping trip. I have just learned that what I thought was a simple gray water leak turned out to be my entire hitch and holding tanks hanging by a single bolt. I am pacing the floor trying to make a decision over whether to continue on with my last minute packing required to cover every conceivable need for the next three days, or bag the Channel Islands camping trip and stay behind to face my problem. I am having an anxiety attack. Literally. I cannot breathe. I am in the middle of a mini-breakdown when a “ping” comes in from Facebook Messenger. Continue reading
It’s not possible to move between the Channel Islands by way of commercial transportation. Only by private boat can one visit multiple islands in one boat trip. Otherwise, one must go back to the mainland and book another excursion with Island Packers. Which is precisely what I did.
So why would I do this after having spent three delightful, fulfilling days hiking, kayaking, and exploring Santa Cruz…really, all the best that the Channel Islands has to offer? What has Anacapa Island got that Santa Cruz hasn’t got?? Continue reading
The Channel Islands National Park is one of our least visited parks in the National Park system. Ranger Erin at the beautiful Robert J. Lagomarsino Visitor Center in Ventura Harbor tells me that of all the visitors that come to the center, only 10% actually travel by boat to set foot on the islands, as one need go no further than the mainland Visitor Center to get their National Parks Passport Stamp. Of those 10% who do take the boat trip, only a lesser percentage Continue reading