Posts from the ‘State Parks’ Category

Oct 13

Valley of Fire State Park

Following our failed visit to Zion National Park in Utah, Kelly and I headed west into Nevada – our destination being Valley of Fire State Park. A few months ago I was channel surfing and stumbled upon a TV show showcasing the park. At the time, I didn’t think much about it other than to make a mental note that one day our visiting the park might make for a nice side trip.

Well, as things turned out, Kelly and I found ourselves in the neighborhood with a few extra days to kill before heading back to HMB. This being the case we decided to re-watch that Valley of Fire TV episode (click here to view) in order to refresh our memories of the park’s offerings and then decide whether or not to visit. Rather quickly we agreed to check it out.

Overall the park is awesome and I’m really glad we stopped there.

Only 40 miles from the Vegas strip (easy interstate driving), this park is clearly a hidden jewel. Any visit to Vegas should include a dash of sanity that this park can readily provide. Rather than sip drinks at some cheesy poolside hotel bar all day, I’d suggest venturing over for a day nature … then return to the strip to scratch that nagging gambling itch.

Another added plus for anyone opting for the overnight stay – the sites are HUGE. Just make sure to arrive early in the day as all sites (about 70 across two campgrounds) fill first-come, first-serve. We arrived early Thursday afternoon to an almost full campground, but did manage to snag a perimeter site with awesome, unobstructed views. By dinner, all sites were taken.

Our site #36

Sunrise

Dusk view from our site

Within the park there are a number of easily accessible sights – many being “vehicle tourist friendly” at 0.5 to 1-mile hiking from various parking lots and turnouts. Kelly and I strung together a number of smaller hikes in order to create a few longer 3 and 4 mile hikes.

Duck Rock

Poodle Rock

Elephant Rock

For those interested in as much, there are a few historical sites/attractions to view – some old, others historic.

Cabin remains

Petroglyph markings

One thing I really appreciated about the park is the variety of colors throughout. My pictures definitely don’t do things fair justice – you will need to witness for yourself.

Much of the park is what I imagine Mars to look like, Btw, I’m not alone in that description – many movies have been filmed here – principally due to the unique terrain. At least that is what the Visitor Center literature would have you believe. In fact, fans of Star Trek: Generations (1994) might be interested to know that numerous scenes were filled at the park. In fact, the fight scene where Captain Kirk dies (sorry for the spoiler) was filmed in the area below.

Star Trek movie landscape

Not being a big Sci-Fi type myself, I don’t get too excited about the Trekkie factoids, but I do give this park a big thumbs-up.

Probably my favorite hike was the 9-mile (out and back) starting near the Visitor Center, ending at the touristy north end of the park. Kelly, Lilly, and I wandered into this unmarked, non-maintained, mostly empty trail and over a four-hour period encountered only four people. As evidenced within the pictures below, the hike is awesome. Lilly was in heaven scrambling up and down the rock and was completed exhausted afterwards.

One of the unmarked / non-maintained trails

Yep, that’s the trail

Following the wash area

Crazy erosion patterns everywhere

One tired doggie

If you seek two or three days of low-key camping in a mostly un-crowded park, Vally of Fire State Park just may be your ideal place.

Note: For those who care … working remotely would be easy here – using my Wilson Sleek for data amplification (connected to the roof antenna), I was able to secure 4G LTE on Verizon. By contrast, AT&T was worthless. Cellular is finicky in the park campground, but when using the Sleek I, secured a good signal sufficient for calls. However, without amplification boost, forget it.

Jul 6

Portola Redwoods State Park

Portola Redwoods State Park is great park located about 30 minutes from our home in HMB. We had not yet visited, so Kelly and I took Lilly there to explore the area today.

Welcome to the park

Like other California state parks, most of the trails are off-limits to dogs, but fortunately dogs on-leash are permitted on paved roads. This is not one of California’s giant parks which if you’re a dog owner I think is an asset. Most of the roads are quite narrow and open mostly to park vehicles, effectively making them more like a path in the woods. Utilizing a retractable leash, Lilly was able to easily access plenty of interesting things to sniff.

Giant Redwoods

This particular park is mostly a tent campground, although there were some smaller RV’s and trailers present. The park literature suggests that no trailers longer than 20′ enter the grounds. I do think that a few sites could accommodate our 27′ trailer, but I would not even try as navigating through the park with a trailer of that length in tow would be a real challenge. It’s times like these when a pimped-out Class-B would be perfect.

Water tank

In our case that is not an option, so I think we will return with a tent and partake in some really nice car camping.

I’ll also note that there is absolute no voice or data coverage – the giant Redwood trees block all access. Consequently, don’t come here if you’re looking to work remotely and need connectivity.

A giant banana slug – very common on the park

All in all, this is a really nice park, especially given the close proximity to HMB. There are a number of really interesting trails and if dogs were allowed, this place might be perfect for us.

Lilly and I crawling atop a felled tree

Kelly being Kelly

Campground amphitheater

Abandoned ranger house

Abandoned fire fighting equipment

One of the park’s bridges

This guy has seen better days

May 27

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McArthur-Burney Falls State Park and the Pacific Crest Trail

The plan yesterday morning was to visit McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park (MBFMSP), which is located about 20 minutes from our current BLM location. MBFMSP is California’s second oldest state park, its main attraction being the whitewater falls of Burney Creek.

Anticipating holiday weekend crowds, we arrived around 9am which is crazy early for park standards. The combination of a Sunday morning and campers operating on “park time”, things were eerily quiet while we had trails and other popular lookout points mostly to ourselves. Like most large parks, there are a few “must see” attractions at MBFMSP. Here, the main event is the waterfall and I understand why. Unlike many waterfalls, the majority of the water does not ‘fall’ over the edge. Rather, a significant amount of water is routed through underground channels which end abruptly at the wall of the falls, sending 100 million gallons daily cascading below.

Water descends 129ft at Burney Falls.

The popular Burney Falls loop trail seems to be a common route for most visitors – it is short, focused on the falls, and conveniently located to the parking lot. Seeking a bit more walking, we opted for the lengthier trail which continues another 1.5(ish) miles towards Lake Britton.

The river trail to Lake Britton

Lake Britton

As was the case earlier this weekend, all this calm water had me bemoaning my lack of canoe or kayak. A park concessioner does offer rentals, but the steep fees coupled with our time constraints quickly squashed any illusions of a morning paddle I had swirling in my head.

Suffice it to say, we continued to walk.

Returning from the lake, we chose to continue back to the truck by way of the main park road. Because the park was so empty, we enjoyed a nearly car-free saunter, making a point to enjoy our surroundings as we viewed the area. Eventually we reached the main campground, which only served to reinforce how fabulous our BLM location was in comparison. Unlike this relatively crowded state park, our 10-acre campground contained only 7 sites (plus one for the host).

Kelly, practicing her balance routine

Kelly missed the landing

On a whim, we decided to visit the General Store before leaving the park. Not surprisingly, the selection was mostly junk, but I was struck with the beauty of a handmade bench outside the main door. Too awesome to be sat upon, I could only reflect on its exquisiteness.

The bench of all benches

As a general rule, dogs are not allowed in California state parks … at least not on any of the interesting trails (yet another reason this state drives me crazy). This being the case, following lunch back at the trailer, we made plans for an afternoon hike with Lilly – our destination being a trailhead along the Pacific Crest Trail. For those who don’t know, the PCT is a single continuous walking pathway extending through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington.

Other than its close proximity to our camping site, the section we visited wasn’t anything overly impressive. It seems that the more time we spend in nature, the higher our expectations bar continues to rise. Oh how we’ve come so far. Back when we were living in Chicago as urban condo dwellers, I’m quite certain Kelly and I would have found this particular trail to be amazing. Now it is simply a nice location to walk the dog.

That said, we love being outdoors and time spent in nature’s playground is always a precious treat.

Wild flowers in bloom along the Pacific Crest Trail

Relaxing and snacking under the shade-cover

Overlooking the Pit River Valley

Transporting hydroelectricity power from the Pit River

Jan 2

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Nearing the End

Sadly, today is our last day in the desert – tomorrow we are departing this lovely place we’ve come to like a lot. We have an appointment early Saturday morning in Los Banos, some 430 miles to the north. In order to break the drive into more manageable chunks, we’ve decided to begin the trek in the morning. My guess is we’ll drive at least half way, perhaps a bit more … there is no rush, so the day will end whenever it feels right doing so.

In an attempt to squeeze one last gasp of fun into our time here today, we wandered into the eastern portion of the park to checkout the Vista del Malpais area.

Access road

The road in from the highway follows the desert floor along a series of short washouts before approaching serious steep descents into a wash section. We drove into the modest wash sections, but decided not to push our luck with the more serious off-road sections. Unlike the recreational off-roading commonplace to the area, we need the truck to pull our home … getting stuck or risking damage is simply out of the question.

End of the drive, we hike from here.

No matter, we hiked into the canyon floor with Lilly.

Lilly loves to climb

As you make your way into the more pronounced sections of the wash floor, the sand is quite thick and the walls become more and more vertical around you. From what I could tell, it would be quite accessible hiking in the bad-land off-shoots anywhere along the way.

Washouts eroding the valley walls

Desert flora eventually succumbs to erosion as well

Desert flora eventually succumb to erosion as well

The place is very cool and I definitely would have loved to have a more capable 4×4 vehicle to use for deeper exploration. Maybe some day.

The view from above the washouts

Kelly and me enjoying the views and warm weather

Once we returned back to camp, a few departure preparations were completed before Kelly and I had dinner with Tim & Amanda one final time.

Making time for my weekly haircut

We drank some champagne (which was originally intended for New Year’s Eve but never consumed) and a potluck style array of eats. It’s been great spending some extended time with and getting to know more about the Watsons – they are both good eggs for sure. A super casual evening in the company of really nice people.

Full-timing since April 2015 … Dave, Kelly, and our dog living and traveling full-time in our Airstream trailer.

Posts from the ‘State Parks’ Category

Valley of Fire State Park

Portola Redwoods State Park

McArthur-Burney Falls State Park and the Pacific Crest Trail

Nearing the End

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