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Posts from the ‘National Parks’ Category

Oct 15

Day 4: Mirror Lake

I slept like a champ last night.  The air is cool, crisp and smells just like a world famous park should … so loving it here.

After breakfast, Kelly and I took Lilly for walk to Mirror Lake.   The hike is quite pedestrian in nature – gigantic trees loom overhead, creating a neat canopy effect .

Walking to Mirror Lake

A subtle bear reminder

Bikes are plentiful in the park

Mirror Lake, sans water

This time of year, Mirror Lake is bone dry, which is pretty interesting.  On the one hand, it’s a bit odd to see a lakebed completely dry knowing that in a few months time will be full, encompassing a quite large area.  On the other hand, it’s cool to see the lakebed itself.  Walking the area, one is able to see up-close how the water affects the natural surroundings.  Small rocks and giant boulders alike are very smooth to touch.  I cannot help but wonder how many of these water/no water cycles have occurred over the years, manipulating the size and texture of any item caught-up in such an occurrence.

Venturing onward, the path next brought us past an easy-to-miss collection of rock cairns.  It’s not too uncommon to come across a cairn on hiking trails, but I’ve never seen a collection quite as large as this – pretty cool.

Peaceful times in the rock cairns

Rewarding anyone taking the time to venture a bit further down the trail is the most spectacular vantage of Half Dome.  Today was the first-time I’ve seem the famous rock up-close and I was blown away.  Not to sound dramatic, but Half Dome is so impressive.  The sheer size of the face is something I cannot sufficiently describe.  Its dominance is it’s beauty – thousands of years of geology at work creating a perfect rock.  Awesome.

Half Dome

After marveling at Half Dome for some time, we needed to make our way back to the Airstream and await Chris’s arrival.

Chris arrived without incident, but not without having spent about 11 hours driving here.  We took the afternoon pretty nonchalantly – letting Chris relax, catching-up, and talking over options for our first big day hike tomorrow.

Oct 14

Day 3: Arriving to Yosemite National Park

Our campground check-in time was 12-noon and we were only about 40 minutes away so we took our time getting moving today.  That said, we were anxious to make our way into the park, so before too long we were hitched and once again rolling.

Yosemite park entrance

I’ve seen and read a lot about this place, but nothing compared to actually seeing the park up-close.  It really is majestic.  The scale of the park is nothing I’ve ever seen before; it really is beautiful.

Arriving a bit too early to check into our site, Kelly and I killed some time exploring the area known as Yosemite Village.  Essentially, this is ground zero – the place where gift shops, restaurants, grocery stores, and campgrounds all collide.  A place that is both convenient and horrific at the same time.  Some of the Rangers tell me that the park is quite empty this time of year, particularly on weekdays.

River running through our campground

How far down is the drop …

One of many sheer rock faces in the valley

Interestingly enough, the campgrounds are all quite full.  The real crowds are those visiting the park for day visits.  I’m quite surprised at the amount of parking throughout the broader Village.  Incredibly, during summer months, what looks like ample parking today is often woefully inadequate.

Anyway, our day was mainly about getting settled, reading up on day hikes and reminding ourselves how lucky we are to be  in this majestic setting.

Tomorrow Kelly’s brother Chris arrives with his dog Katie.  Neither of us has seen Chris in a while and we are really looking forward to spending some time with him this week.

Sep 7

Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail

It was another hot one here in Ashland today.  Consequently, I was inside the Airstream most of the day.  While comfortable in the confines of air conditioning, by the time my work day ended, I was more than ready to get myself outside and into a change of scenery.

At Kelly’s suggestion, we decided to explore a nearby trailhead and see where it would lead.  Unbeknownst to us, the expansive Pacific Crest Trail sat quietly just down the road from where we’ve been parked these past few days.  The PCT proved to be just perfect – it was close, was not too steep, and afforded us lots of tree cover to block any direct sun.

To my surprise, the trail itself was exceptionally well marked.  We covered only a few miles, but we must have passed a dozen trail markers.  The trail is maintained primarily by the US Forest Service and I’d be curious to know if the entire  system is so well marked.

One of many trail markers

We had a nice walk and per usual, Lilly was out front the entire time.

Lilly, always ready to keep moving

All in all, a great walk.  We arrived back to the Airstream just in time to capture a nice sunset and enjoy a late dinner.

Tomorrow we begin the trip back to Half Moon Bay.

The Airstream

The Airstream

Sep 2

On the Road Again – Finally

Having spent the past five weeks living full-time in the Airstream, Kelly and I used the Labor Day holiday as an excuse to hit the road and let the Airstream stretch her legs. We’ve been parked for far too long without a trip and were really excited to get away. Of course, we chose Oregon as our initial destination … southern Oregon to be specific. Odds are good we’ll land someplace near Ashland. We’ll see what happens.

For now, we’re parked in a beautiful place – Brandy Creek campground near Whiskeytown, CA. We’re traveling I-5 in order to make decent time. I also wanted to get our truck/airstream combo weighed which essentially limits us to the interstate where semi-truck mega stop are plentiful. Have yet to weigh our set-up, I was anxious to verify whether or not we are loaded with too much stuff. (UPDATE – we were not … in fact, we had lots of room to spare, but our weight distribution needs some refining).

Brandy Creek is a bit out-of-the-way – about ten miles, but the detour was worth it. There are no hooks-ups, which was fine with us because we needed/wanted to test drive our new Yamaha generator. All went well I happy to report.

There were about 30 total sites, of which about half were taken. Of course, the people next to us thought it would be cool to be loud — too loud I thought. Who decides to wait until 10:30pm to set-up tents? Is the 40 foot RV and the monster generator not enough? Good grief.

Apparently – as you can see in the pictures below – the deer were not annoyed. Food is food and the knuckleheads next to us had seemingly unlimited supplies of bread to toss on the ground. The deer seemed quite satisfied.

 

In addition to its namesake creek, there is a great beach and mountain lake, but I forgot to grab my camera, so no pictures.

Tomorrow we’re off to Oregon.

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