The Sierra Nevadas of California

Oh yeah, here we go with the second blog post in a week! I'm going to jump right in to continue our photo journey from Death Valley National Park...but first a preview...

Yosemite Valley

So as you know, we're wandering freely with only vague ideas and plans of what we want to do and see. We thought it'd be great to head southwest to Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks and then north through Yosemite into northern California. Well we didn't realize that we had to cross the Sierra Nevada mountain range to get to Sequoia & Kings Canyon, in winter. The three southern passes were all closed for the winter. Though understandable, this unfortunate development meant that we would have had to journey south all the way around the mountains and then back up to enter the park from the East. At this point we had already driven 17,000 miles since Anchorage and certainly weren't afraid of a few hundred miles-humph! However, we decided to skip 'em, the biggest factor being our desire to avoid people and population centers. We're allergic.

I was bummed to miss out on the massive groves of ancient Sequoia trees, but it all worked out a-ok. (By now I'm learning to trust that our journey, our lives, will unfold without our control, in the most beautiful- if not always easy- of ways. ) We ended up heading west from Death Valley until we reached the Sierra Nevadas. This mountain range runs 400 miles north-south and 70 miles across (hence the pass closures in winter) in eastern California. Has anyone ever been out here on the eastern side? What a sleeper spot!! Wow! The eastern Sierra Nevada mountains were awesome. We drove north through Owens Valley with the Sierras to our left and the smaller but beautiful White Mountains to our direct right. 

Several of the small towns we drove through- Lone Pine, Bishop- are jumping off points for adventurers and mountain climbers heading for Mt. Whitney at 14,505 feet (the highest in the contiguous U.S.). I guess a lot of old westerns were filmed in Lone Pine- it had that feel of an old western landscape with cattle grazing and lazy rivers- and lots of memorabilia to boot. I wouldn't be upset to end up in this area, that's for sure, particularly the town of Bishop. We didn't get to spend too much time here- just a couple of nights. It was snowy and foggy so unfortunately, our photos couldn't capture the magic we felt.

The eastern Sierra Nevada mountain range near Lone Pine, California.

I found a photo on Wikipedia of the area in the summer to prove how gorgeous this place is, just in case the photos didn't fully convince you...

Little Lakes Valley in the eastern Sierra Nevada,
courtesy of Wikipedia.

Have I talked you into visiting the eastern Sierras yet? If not, it gets better! We ended up rolling through mountains and forests to spend the night at Benton Hot Springs after a vague recommendation. Boy did we hit the jackpot. We were the only ones in this small campground where we rented our own hot springs-fed hot tub. Did I mention it was a beautiful setting and a full moon? It was well worth the hour drive to find this more remote spot that is apparently a local gem. The timing was great because we were a little sore from our backpacking trip in Death Valley just a couple nights earlier- nothing 6 hours of soaking couldn't handle. :-)

Our personal cedar hot tub along a meandering hot river with a sweet fire pit.

Benton Hot Springs

Benton Hot Springs area

Heading out of the hot springs we met back up with the Sierras and headed north to Mono Lake and clear skies.

Mono Lake with the northern Sierras in the background.

Tufa formations at Mono Lake

Apparently the U.S. govt. tested missiles and weapons on the shores
 of this beautiful lake several decades ago. Shocking?

Whew, are you convinced to visit the eastern Sierras yet? I act like I'm getting paid if you go there... hey wait, is there a way I could work that out for some extra cash??

From Mono Lake we crossed the mighty Sierras heading east whereupon we headed south to the entrance of Yosemite National Park (which is in the Sierras, along with Sequoia & Kings Canyon parks too, wow Sierras...) In fact, I think that a map would be helpful at this point in the narrative:

Central-ish California map with national parks

Notice we chose to avoid Vegas (last place I'd ever want to go), L.A. (the allergy again- sorry to miss you Debbie & John) and Joshua Tree National Park (if only for lack of time). Because the Sierras are so tall and snowy in the winter, travel is a bit difficult. The three central parks are all accessible only from the west side in the winter.

Of all the national parks we'd visited, Yosemite was off the charts stunning, just as John Muir noted and Ansel Adams showed. And on that note, I'm passing the computer to Andrew for a bit...

So I must admit that I haven't posted here in quite a bit. Many thanks to Kristy for putting in the effort to keep everyone up to date. Our journey into Yosemite NP was pretty breathtaking. Yosemite valley looks a little like what one might imagine heaven on earth to be like. See for yourself...

We began our stay in the park by visiting a grove of giant sequoia trees. (Turns out there are groves outside of Sequoia NP, though only in eastern California.) Neither Kristy or I had ever seen a sequoia and we were both overly impressed by these giants. In fact, sequoia trees are the largest living things on earth, past or present. Pretty wild!

Here's one pic that gives a slight view of the actual size of these ancient trees

A woodpecker at home in the trees

On top of a fallen giant.

Kristy was so enthralled with this one she actually crawled inside. She thought it would make a good house!

Kristy shot this photo from inside the downed sequoia trunk.

Yosemite valley

We unintentionally followed this bobcat along a popular trail.  Like most of the animals in Yosemite, it had no fear of us. We were approached by coyotes and a raccoon too. Luckily no bears were interested in us, though they do ransack people's cars in the summer for an easy meal.

The famed Half-Dome peak in Yosemite Valley

Berenstein bear treehouse... that limb on the left side has a diameter of 7 feet. Diameter people!

The above tree is in the Mariposa Grove. It's the Grizzly Giant and is estimated to be between 1900 and 2400 years old. It is so huge there's no way to capture the size with a camera! The circumference of the trunk at the base is 92 feet and the diameter 30 feet!

Another Mariposa grove sequoia giant

We spent about four hours touring the grove. Our pictures don't really do the trees justice. They are huge and very inspiring to be around. We saw many 'young' sequoias as well with ages anywhere from 50 to 500 years old. Crazy to think that these trees will continue to grow for another two or three thousand years! 

It was hard to leave the park and the trees, but alas, it was time to get back truckin' on. We came down from the mountain into what seemed like minor chaos - California and I-5. I'm always amazed at how many people can drive 85mph and not get themselves killed on a four-lane highway. Regardless, we were back in the land of people and continued on our way to Oregon. But first we made a brief visit in northern California which will be the subject of our next post. Here's a small preview...

Th-th-th-that's All Folks!!!

A Lot of Catching Up To Do...

Shoooot, it's proving very difficult lately to stay up-to-date with this blog. The thing is, generally we need about 4 hours of uninterrupted internet time plus that much energy to pump out a post. It's the photos that take all the time really. We've been making our way around northern California and Oregon the past couple of weeks. But we still haven't told you about or shown you some gorgeous photos of Death Valley, Yosemite or the Eastern Sierras. Sigh. So that's our goal for this post- get as far as we can...

From the Grand Canyon we headed west into California, no wait, we went south! I almost forgot all about Sedona. Alright, let's sum it. BEAUTIFUL!!

The drive into town even is amazing.

We scrambled up to a vortex on the top of rock mountain.

Can you spot Waldo?

I'm ok letting the photos of Sedona speak for themselves. We spent two nights there, the second of which was alongside a forest service road in the desert. It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere and yet I was able to have a great conversation with my sister huddled around a campfire. Ha!

Ok, so from Sedona we headed west to California!! Woo hoo! Death Valley in the eastern part of the state was our first stop. I wasn't expecting much to be honest. Fortunately, I was very pleasantly surprised.  This was the first stop of an incredible California visit. Death Valley is the hottest, driest, lowest place in the country. And actually, one spot in particular- Badwater Basin- is the lowest spot in North America at 282 feet below sea level. Interestingly, Mt. Whitney, only 84 miles to the northwest is the highest point in the Lower 48 states.

Heading in to California.

Approaching Death Valley National Park.

So we had the craziest experience with this coyote. Naturally when we saw him (or her?) standing along the road we stopped, fully expecting him to run off. Well we sure were surprised when he hung around. So we took a few pictures and then just visited with him. Our visit included Reiki (from a distance folks, relax), chanting and more intimacy than we ever expected from a wild animal. He liked Reiki so much he just laid right on down. Interesting to note that a day or so earlier in Sedona, coyote energy was recommended to me. Since then coyote kept coming up, even in physical form obviously! You know: trickster coyote, laughing at himself and everyone else. In hindsight we realized this guy was probably just accustomed to being fed by passing tourists.

After camping for a night and driving the length of the park- I understand it's the biggest block of wilderness outside of Alaska- we decided to check out the moving rocks. You've heard of these rocks, right? They remain one of the mysteries of the natural world. No one knows for sure how they move, but their tracks clearly indicate that they have in fact moved. (Of course I'm curious if anyone has ever officially tracked them moving over time, even if they've never seen it happening directly.) Anyway, the road to the "Racetrack" with the moving rocks involved a long exploration on a dirt road and a quick stop at Teakettle Junction.  

We were tempted to take one of the kettles- I mean some of them were in pretty
 good condition. Maybe one with a message from Oregon? Nah, didn't want to jinx ourselves.

So the Racetrack is a very flat dried lake bed, a playa they call it. When it rains you're not supposed to walk on it because your footprints can apparently last for years. Death Valley only gets a couple inches of rain a year so I guess you don't have to worry about this very often, though we did see a few footprints... 

Playa close-up

This playa is several miles long and reminded us of the scene in Star Wars Episode I when Anakin races the pod. I think George Lucas might have actually been inspired by this area for that scene. Apparently another part of the movie was filmed in Death Valley... I digress. The moving rocks were wild!! See for yourselves, there were lots of them with long tracks indicating movement in different directions:

Apparently scientists think that when it rains and the surface of the playa becomes slick, the wind is able to slide the rocks along the ground. Pretty unlikely if you ask me, but there's not any other great explanation. Andrew and I think they move as a result of the earth's magnetism. But it's just a guess!  If you notice the photo two up you can see that some of the rocks appear to have slid from the base of a rocky foothill. How could rocks get blown from the base of a hill though- there's no way wind could be at their back??

So after spending some time with the mysterious rocks, we decided to backpack an area just south called Lippincott Pass. Our idea was to check out the road condition to see if we could take a short cut out of the park the following day. You can see below that 4 wheel drive is recommended. (We only have 2 wheel drive so hence the preview.) There are lots of old mining "roads" in Death Valley. Kind of fun to explore I imagine if you have an old off-road 4x4 truck to beat up!

Eh, maybe not a good idea we realized pretty quickly.

Lots of mining in those Death Valley mountains. Copper mineral trace?

Fire man Andrew had organized our brush collections into 9 precise piles. Seriously.

Wow full moon!!! We took this photo through our binoculars!

Cool pokey plant.

Death Valley was designated a National Monument in the 1930s! The area was later expanded and turned into a National Park by President Clinton in the 90s. 

So that's our visit to Death Valley National Park! We both loved it there and wish we could have had some more time to explore the mountains. The landscape was very striking and the mountains had a strong feel. We highly recommend a visit if you have the chance- though with summer temperatures up to 120 degrees you might want to make it a winter vacation. (We enjoyed temperatures ranging from the 30s at night to the high 50s during the day!)

We're heading to Portland this weekend hopefully so we'll try to post again soon to bring y'all up to speed with our travels. Before we sign off though, we'd like to wish a very happy February birthday to: Michele Simmons, Lindsey Tyler, Beth & Matt Davis, and Ashley Newell!! Love you guys. :-)

Arizona's Crown Jewel

Sorry it's been a couple of weeks since our last post. We've been making our way from northern New Mexico through Arizona to the Grand Canyon and then Death Valley and California's gorgeous and varied landscapes, including Yosemite. Wow! What an incredible two weeks it's been: three very dramatic national parks, our 4-month roadtrip anniversary, several close-up visits with wild animals (a bobcat, there it is, I couldn't hold it in), and some serious hot springs! And did I mention about 2,000 photos? Right, so it's taking a lot of time to sort through and select ones to post for you. We're working on it piecemeal. Here is the first part from New Mexico through to the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona.

We spent the day at Canyon de Chelly (sounds like "d'shay") just a short hop west from Albuquerque. The canyon was beautiful, along with the weather that day, and we were able to hike to the bottom pretty easily to check out some sweet ruins. Pretty amazing that people have inhabited the canyon for thousands of years, different groups of native people, in fact. Currently the canyon is in Navajo country. We were amazed that the canyon floor is pretty large. There's a river, of course, but ample space for farming.

Canyon de Chelly

White House ruins

White House ruins closer view- can you see the two levels?

So after our hike down and back up, we drove south just an hour to a small town still on the Navajo Reservation (it's pretty huge) to visit our friends from Bethel, Louis and DezBaa. They live on-site at a hospital in a cute house that after only a few months is so infused with their personalities. (Dez is a dentist and Louis a mental health clinician.) This was great considering Dez was out of town for the weekend visiting family. We were glad to at least soak in her sweet energy for a night! Many thanks to Louis for cooking good food for us and taking time to just chat. Turns out we share a lot of interests that we never even realized in Bethel. One of the highlights of our short visit was getting to see beautiful wedding photos from their Navajo ceremony last year. Wow!

Louis lounging in their living room hammock chair.

From the res, we made our way to the grandest of all canyons...

And we were not disappointed! This was a first visit for both of us. The Grand Canyon is much more vast than I ever could have imagined. It's about a mile from the rim to the bottom where the Colorado River runs, and roughly ten miles across- from the South Rim to the North Rim. We spent three days checking out the South Rim (access to the North is closed in winter) from several viewpoints and we even hiked a couple miles into the canyon, despite icy conditions. Here are a few of the thousand or so photos we took. Mostly they all look the same. Ha!

Looking out from Hopi point. Can you see the Colorado River?
It's only visible from a few spots and it looks so tiny!

The colors of the canyon were constantly changing with the sunlight. Very impressive.

Cooking a late breakfast after watching the sun rise. Other visitors, mostly Japanese tourists,
were very impressed with our set up. Notice our fairly new Jerry Garcia sticker on Black Beauty.
Andrew held onto that sticker for nearly 10 years.

This was the lookout we hiked down to. Not too bad considering all
 the trails into the canyon are super steep, as you can imagine.

Lookout from Cedar Ridge on the South Kaibab trail. Only 2 miles into the canyon. The trail to the bottom is 9 miles down. Next time we really want to camp at the bottom for a few days!

Kristy sliding down the first of 8 icy switchbacks on her butt!
Safety first, kids. Take it slow.

The easy way down and back. Not for us young, spry hikers. Plus,  let's be real- we're cheap. :-)

Can you name this bird- Michele, Kevin or Eileen?

Whew, I'm exhausted and we've just drank 3 cups of tea each at a cafe in Mt. Shasta. Just a few more posts to get up to speed. Happy Valentine's day friends! And now we're off on the short drive to Oregon. Our in-person interview for the farm internship is tomorrow in Williams!! We feel really good about it but would certainly appreciate your good energy and prayers. Til next time...