Finally made it to the 9th (in terms of my visits) National Park in California in November. Little guy was super excited to take a Boat to an Island (possibly because his hero is Moana…), and Santa Cruz seemed the most accessible for families and this time of year. We took the Island Packers excursion to Scorpion Ranch. Although the primary purpose of the trip is the crossing to the islands, they do stop if possible for wildlife, and we were rewarded for stopping a few minutes mid-trip to see two humpback whales surface near the boat. At Scorpion Ranch, we had a delicious picnic lunch I had ordered from Channel Island Provisioners (all packed up in re-useable/sustainable packaging and delivered to the dock in Ventura prior to our outing — a great option for traveling!). We immediately got to see the Channel Island Foxes, sadly because dumb people (like the kid old enough to know better at the table next to us) don’t heed the warnings about not feeding them, but they were still pretty cute if not totally wild. From Scorpion Ranch, we hiked the Cavern Point Loop up to the bluffs above the ranch, extending the hike a little by walking part of the way to Potato Harbor. The walk offered great views of the cliffs and caves down below as well as a few more whale sightings.
Crossing to/from Santa Cruz:
Channel Island Foxes:
Hiking Around Scorpion Ranch:
Passport Stamps:
Sun setting behind Santa Cruz Island from Santa Barbara:
By the time I found about about this year’s solar eclipse, sometime last February-ish, the entire state of Oregon appeared to be booked already, so I looked along the path of totality for other interesting spots. I never made it out to Great Smoky Mountains NP when I lived in North Carolina, so seemed like a good time to correct that!
We spent several nights near the park, the first few in Townsend, TN. This was a great location just outside the park near Cade’s Cove, a rural valley that preserves some of the park’s settlements. There wasn’t too much in the way of concessions in Townsend, but it was definitely more my speed than Gatlinburg, a bustling tourist town sort of like a boardwalk in the mountains. We spent a morning driving the Cade’s Cove Loop, and stopping to look at the historic structures & mills, etc.
Great Smoky Mountains turned out to be an awesome park to visit with a toddler, but really would be great for anyone. On the not-so-toddler-friendly end of the spectrum, you could hike the Appalachian Trail, but for the under-two crowd, there are numerous “quiet pathways” and nature trails that are shorter in distance that still let you get out of the car and into nature. You don’t have to go far to find rivers, waterfalls, fun insects, and rocks to put down your shirt.
We had a few missed opportunities ~ here was the best sighting of a black bear we had (he’s in there, I swear!) and the view from Clingman’s Dome on the day we tried to hike that:
But the highlight of the trip was getting to see the total eclipse in Bryson City, NC. Dad had to go home early, so little guy and I stayed on our own a few nights. We had a great time riding the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, throwing rocks in rivers, and watching the eclipse! If/when I go back to the park, I would definitely make Bryson City my base if not camping inside the park – we stayed at a little inn with great hospitality (including the other guests!), and the town has restaurants and shops to serve the park crowds without being overwhelmingly touristy like some of the towns in TN. As for the eclipse, it was totally worth traveling alone with a toddler, even with the unplanned overnight in Asheville due to aircraft maintenance ~ it was an amazing sight!
Another one from the archives ~ two years ago this week, we made a drive-through visit of Everglades and Big Cypress en route from Miami to visit family in the Marco Island/Naples area on the gulf coast of Florida. While our visit was brief, it was, shall we say, one of our more memorable national park visits.
Being July in Florida, we were not keen to spend extended time outdoors, but we made a few stops as we drove across the state. It is not long before you start to catch glimpses of alligators in the waterways alongside the road ~ maybe you get used to that if you live in Florida, but pretty crazy in my opinion! We made sure to get an early start to catch a morning tram tour at the Shark Valley Visitor Center. While the trail can be walked or biked, the tram tour takes you a few miles in to an observation deck with greath views of the classic “prairie” landscape then loops back to the visitors center. This guided tour is a great way to cover some ground and get an interpretive view of the flora and fauna when you want to avoid the heat and alligators… or so we thought.
Ahinga
Our first alligator sighting at Shark Valley
Hawk of some kind
Another alligator
There were a lot of alligators.
Baby alligator!
Baby alligator
Dead alligator
Turtle
Heron
View from the observation deck
In addition to the stop at the observation deck, the tram also stopped along the path to allow us to get a closer look at the periphyton that forms the ground cover in this ecosystem [a complex mixture of algae, bacteria, microbes, and detritus that is attached to submerged surfaces ~ yes I had to just look that up]. Due to a late start to the rainy season, our guides suggested we could take a look at the canals that were dug in the area to form the elevated road. As our tour group gathered on the banks, we could see alligators 50-100 yards away in either direction. Suddenly, we heard a roar that sounded a bit like a freight train coming from behind us. As our group scattered in either direction, a 10-12 foot alligator came charging out of the bush snapping his jaws. I’m glad I was not in the back of the group closest to his original exit point, but even as we scattered, he couldn’t have been more than 4-5 feet away. Once there was a clear path to the water, the alligator went on his way, no longer feeling threatened. I was glad to have enough sense of self-preservation to wait until we were safe to try snapping photos. I think this was a bit of a closer call than the tour guides intended and definitely a reminder that even when utilizing he more developed features of the parks, you’re still in the wild. When we got back to the visitor center, we saw a few busloads of school-age children lined up for the next tour ~ pretty sure they didn’t get to make the same stop.
Our guide scoping out the area.
Oops, missed one.
The look of people who just got charged by an alligator
Hey look! An alligator!
Our new friend.
After that excitement, we continued through the Everglades and into Big Cypress National Preserve. We didn’t get off the main road, but did stop at Kirby Storter Roadside Park to do a quick walk along the boardwalks to check out the trees and spot a few woodpeckers. Once we hit the other side of the preserve and state, we stopped at the Gulf Coast Visitor Center of Everglades NP. Some nice coastal views, but really only an outpost for some of the park concessionaires offering boat tours.
And thus ended our short – but memorable – visit to these FL parks! I can’t wait to tell little guy how mommy had to fight off an alligator at 6 months pregnant – only a slight exaggeration.
The past few days, various apps have been reminding me of our trip to Olympic National Park exactly 4 years ago. This 2-day whirlwind tour of the park was definitely full of highlights and in spite of the short time, may still be one of my favorite National Park visits. I will certainly want to return to this park sometime.
To start our tour, we took the ferry from Seattle and spent our first night in the delightful town of Sequim (pronounced “squim”) — in a B&B where all the rooms are refurbished train cabooses! After an excellent breakfast in the dining car, we checked out the lavender capital of the world before heading through Port Angeles and to our first stop in the park, Hurricane Ridge.
The winding road up to hurricane ridge brings you to one of the more dramatically placed visitor’s centers you will ever see. There are great views of the Olympic Mtn range and a number of hikes that start from the area. At the advice of a ranger, we took the Hurricane Hill trail to try to spot some Olympic marmots, which can only be found in this area. Even in late June, we had to crunch through some snow and experienced springlike weather on one side of the ridge, and foggy mist on the other. For a while, I was afraid we might just miss the marmots, but eventually, we found them! I admit, I was a little obsessed with the marmots.
After the hike we took a driving tour, stopping at Lake Crescent, the beach (because who doesn’t want to hike through snow and sand on the same day!), and ending up at the Lake Quinault Lodge. I think when we originally stayed there, I thought it fit my criteria for historic inns: “If it was good enough for Teddy, it’s good enough for us”, but I now find out it was President Franklin Roosevelt who had visited.
The next morning, we took a walk through the Quinault Rain Forest, which is partly in the National Park and partly National Forest. Whichever part we were in, we saw lots of banana slugs (though they are not as banana-y as the ones at home) and a pileated woodpecker along with plenty of other flora and fauna.
Okay, so kinda dropped off there for a while, but I’m trying to get back into writing about my visits to the National Parks. Especially since the National Parks are apparently part of the resistance these days…
My most recent visit was to Haleakalā NP in Maui, Hawaii. We selected Maui for a family trip since it’s a direct flight, contains a National Park, and is a good size for a short visit (plus, you know, Maui!). Next time, maybe we’ll hit up the Big Island and Hawaii Volcanoes NP. I’ll admit, we spent a good portion of time watching whales (!) and turtles (!!) out our condo window, but we did take a day trip to the Haleakalā summit.
It’s pretty crazy going from literal sea level (with the turtles to prove it) to over 10,000 ft in less than 2 hours on the road, but that’s what a volcano will get you. Following the recommendation of our neighbor on the plane, we stopped in Makawao on the way up the mountain for pastries at the 100-year old Komoda Bakery (their guava pastries were amazing and may have contributed to our rental car ant problem…) and a tasty cup of coffee at Sip Me. We also grabbed lunch supplies at the market as there are no concessions in the park.
You can stop in the small headquarters visitor’s center, where I got my Passport stamps, a few miles before the summit. At the summit itself, there is a small shelter with a panoramic walk around. We could see the snowy peaks of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on the Big Island. I was a little disappointed the observatory complex is not open to the public, but since the terrain was similar to what I imagine Mars to be like, maybe we don’t need to look to the stars! It is supposed to be one of the best viewing areas in the world, however, if you do.
Now that we have a toddler on our hands, it’s fun to watch him explore the parks. Little guy walked the path from the parking to the summit himself so that we could tell him he summited a volcano (I think this was his third volcano, but first trip to the beach… priorities!). He also immediately took an interest in the red volcanic rocks on the ground. To cover a little more ground, we pulled out the hiking carrier and walked the first little bit of the Sliding Sands trail, which follows a long arc into Haleakalā crater. Interesting, the crater was carved out by water, not a volcanic blast as you might expect. It was a pretty cool site, with lots of colors contrasting with the stark landscape.
On our way back down the mountain, we stopped at Hosmer Grove, where there is a nice nature trail of the perfect length for toddlers to explore! The area was full of local birds ~ we saw at least ‘amakihi and ‘i’iwi, and I learned it is harder than usual to identify and take pictures of birds with toddlers in the mix. We also saw non-native chukar and pheasant in the park, but didn’t run across any nene.
In September, we took a vacation up to the Seattle area and, of course, hit up some of the area’s National Parks. Glacier-covered Mount Rainier is the highest mountain in Washington (and an active volcano!). Even though we were there over Labor Day weekend, we still managed to get a room in the park for Sunday night, so off we went!
On Saturday, we drove down to Mt. St. Helens National Monument (managed by the U.S. Forest Service) and started our volcano viewing. Although Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier don’t look too far on the map (and both are ~2-3 hours from Seattle), it takes some time to get between them as each mountain is quite a ways off I-5 and there’s no direct connector. However, it gave us a good opportunity to approach via the southern Stevens Canyon entrance station. The plan was to get a passport cancellation at the Ohanapecosh Visitor’s Center, but I didn’t realize that it was in the campground before the entrance station. By the time I realized my mistake, we didn’t feel like driving back out of the park – oh well. We did stop just inside the entrance to hike down to Silver Falls. This was a lovely little hike to a waterfall that even in September was still going pretty strong. We took the intermediate approach from the Grove of the Patriarchs trailhead (0.5-0.6 mi), but the falls can also be accessed via shorter or longer hike from Rte 123 or the campground.
Approach to Silver Falls
Eastside Trail
My awesome view 🙂
Silver Falls
Silver Falls
After hiking down to the falls and back, we continued on to Paradise. We managed to get a few glimpses of the mountain on the road, but by the time we reached Reflection Lake for a photo op, the clouds had moved in. Once at Paradise, we had to take one big loop before finding parking (but don’t worry, the NPS is currently paving Paradise to put up a parking lot – or at least improve one), and more and more fog had moved in in the meantime. We had the dilemma of whether to hike to Myrtle Falls or take the Nisqually Vista Trail in spite of the clouds and fog. We decided to take our chances with the vista, thinking the clouds might clear, and if not, we still would get a nice walk. Well, it turned out to be the latter, but we still had an enjoyable walk through the subalpine trees and meadows, where we even were treated to some straggler spring/summer blooms and saw a pond full of tadpoles!
Nisqually Vista Trail
“Vista”
Not our kids
Tadpoles! (also not our kids)
Toadstool
That night, we stayed in the National Park Inn in the Longmire Historic District. The cozy inn was your typical national park lodge, with a mix of rooms with and without bathrooms (ours ended up being shower only, so we still had to use the guest bath for the baby). Reading over the guest info, I learned what to do in case of lahar (volcanic mudslide). I somewhat doubted my ability to climb the 1000+ ft elevation trail across from the inn in the middle of the night to get to high ground in time, but luckily we didn’t have to test that hypothesis. In the morning, we collected my passport cancellation at the Longmire Museum and walked the short “Trail of the Shadows” interpretive loop around the meadow. The loop brings you past beaver dams and the original spring that spurred the settlement.
National Park Inn
Spring
Signs of Beavers
Can’t remember if this is a replica or original
Trail of the Shadows
Trail of the Shadows
This cool caterpillar turns into a kinda boring moth
I believe there was another passport cancellation at the Nisqually entrance station, but the line of cars trying to get in discouraged us from looping back around on our way out – that’s two missed cancellations for this park!
Let’s catch up, shall we? I’m not quite as behind on my Centennial 12 Parks/12 Months Goal as it might appear. Back in May, a good friend was visiting from Norway, and I thought if anything could impress someone from the beautiful land of the fjords, with towering glacier-carved walls and waterfalls, it would be Yosemite! Since it was her first visit and we only had one full day, we opted to go into Yosemite Valley. Even though I know it will be crowded, I do still feel like people have to see Yosemite Valley. And it wasn’t just my friend’s first visit, but my baby’s first visit as well!
We headed out from theBay Arealate Sunday morning, stopping at Altamont Brewing in Livermore to further impress my Norwegian friend with the concept of a growler of beer. Lodging can be expensive and somewhat sparse near the park, but we found a nice cabin to share at the Spinning Wheel Yosemite, down a dirt road off of 120 outside the Big Oak Flat entrance. They had a handful of cabins varying in size, including some new since the property was affected by the Rim Fire, and the owners were super nice. Good bird watching by the pool as well.
Monday we headed into the park, battled the crowds for parking (even on a Monday before school was out), and started out for the Upper Yosemite Falls Trail. The plan was to hike the first mile or so of the trail to a nice lookout and call it a day. However, in my continuing theme of Lowered Expectations — with Baby!, we didn’t even make it to the trailhead when I decided to call it. We had gotten a later start than intended, and while we have a good soft carrier for the baby, I think we need a backpack-style carrier for more intensive hikes. So, we diverted ourselves to the accessible Lower Yosemite Falls Trail, a short walk up to the base of the tallest waterfall in North America! And there was actually water in it — on top of the drought the past few years, we tend to visit Yosemite in the late summer or fall when many of the falls have dried up. Little guy, of course, slept through the waterfall.
Valley Loop Trail – a pleasant hike not involving going up any cliffs
From Yosemite Falls, we weren’t quite ready to stop for lunch, so we walked back behind Yosemite Village tackling a little section of the Valley Loop Trail. It is actually pretty amazing how easily you can leave the crowds behind, even in Yosemite Valley. We weren’t the only people on the Valley Loop, but we definitely had some space to ourselves on the trail. It may not be climbing Half Dome, but the Valley Loop Trail is a pleasant wooded amble past some of the park’s most iconic sites – not bad!
After a picnic lunch, we had the dilemma whether to go deeper into the Valley to walk to the Vernal Falls footbridge (Mist Trail was definitely not in the cards!) or head to one of the groves of giant sequoias on the route out. We opted for the latter as the Sierras are the only place in the world one can see giant sequoias, and little guy seems to enjoy looking up at trees while we hike. I thought he might be impressed (and I could be projecting my own feelings, but I think he was!) We hiked down to the Tuolumne Grove, which has 2-3 dozen mature trees — not as many as the Mariposa Grove in the south part of the park, but not as many people either, and certainly enough to get a taste of these awesome trees. They are just so ridiculously massive compared to other trees around them! The hike itself was pretty easy on a wide trail, but you do have to do the uphill on the way back.
Little man IS impressed
So, all in all, a successful first trip to Yosemite — my Norwegian friend is ready to return someday, and we got Little Guy out into the Park, where he saw some cool trees! I also got the NPS Centennial Stamp for Yosemite, and met a nice lady in Park HQ trying to get the 125th anniversary stamp I missed last year (but misremembered which one I needed and got a stamp of the 150th Anniversary of the Grant Act, which I already have – oops!)
Haven’t done much camping this year, so even though I had my doubts at sleeping in a tent at seven months pregnant, decided to go for it and take a weekend in Redwood National and State Parks. This is a string of parks in far Northern California co-managed by the NPS and CA state parks. While we spent most of our time in the state park sections, I can now say I’ve been to all but one of the full-fledged National Parks in California (Channel Islands is a little tougher to do on an extended weekend from the Bay Area with the boat ride and all, but I’ll get there eventually).
Since it’s a long drive to the almost Oregon border, we took off Thursday night and drove half-way, stopping at a motel in Willits, CA, the “Gateway to the Redwoods” on highway 101. Willits has enough motels, restaurants, and shops to make it a good stop, and the best part is that it is a depot for the “Skunk Train”, a historic railway that follows the Noyo River through redwood forests from Willits to Ft. Bragg on the coast. We took the half-day roundtrip from Willits to the midpoint, Northspur, a small picnic area where you are encouraged to buy lunch (burgers & hot dogs, but there was at least a 3-bean salad, fries, and root beer floats to hold over this vegetarian until we got back to town). While we lunched at Northspur, the train went on to drop off campers at “Camp Noyo”, a private campground only accessible by the train. A little pricey for camping, but could definitely be a fun excursion to keep in mind for future family trips… camping AND trains!
From Willits, it was another 3-4 hours to Mill Creek campground in Del Norte Redwoods SP. This was definitely one of the nicest campsites we’ve had at such a large campground (with one unfortunate exception). We were at Site #93, and like most of the sites in that loop, the campsite was beautifully nestled amongst the redwoods. Although they we were close, we couldn’t see our camp neighbors — a group of college kids on one side and a religious family from Utah on the other — but guess which ones we could hear playing drinking games and being generally loud late into the night? It’s never a good sign when you pull into camp to hear your neighbors blasting Spice Girls and attempting to play the game Catchphrase but only “succeeding” by frantically spelling out the answers (i.e. cheating)… I guess avoiding this is why I need to give backpacking another try in the future. As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one type of campout at which flipcup is appropriate, and it’s one where you leave with Duke basketball tickets in hand!
The next day, we stopped at the Visitor’s Center in Crescent City, from which it was just a mile or so to get to the beginning of one of the scenic drives, Howland Hill Road, a dirt road that winds through Jedediah Smith Redwoods SP. It’s a great drive through the tall trees, and there are some trailheads off the road to get out and do more exploring. We opted for the Boy Scout Tree Trail, since it was supposed to be relatively easy in terms of elevation
The trees aren’t the only thing that are extra-wide around here!
(because believe me, you feel every inch of gain when you’re lugging an extra 30 lbs under your already fatigued abs!). The full trail is ~6 miles, with an optional spur to see the Boy Scout Tree, but we decided to turn around after stopping for lunch at about 2.5 miles (right about where the spur to the tree should have been, but we didn’t see it). Still, we didn’t miss out on impressive trees. The coast redwood is the tallest tree on Earth, and even though I know the giant sequoias are wider and more massive, some of these trees were pretty ginormous at ground level! While I couldn’t cover as much ground as I would have liked, I was pretty proud of myself for getting a 5-mile hike in, and fellow hikers on the trail were very encouraging!
Enderts BeachCrescent Beach
Howland Hill Road lets you out on the other side of Jedediah Smith park, near that park’s campground, the Smith river, and the Hiouchi visitor’s center. From there, you can loop back around (on a real road this time) to Crescent City, with some other options to stop and explore if you want. On our way back to camp, we also stopped at the Crescent Beach overlook, with access to Endert’s Beach, even spotting some Roosevelt Elk!
Mouth of the Klamath River
On our way out on Sunday, we took the Newton B. Drury scenic drive to get a last taste of the redwoods, stopping for a short walk at “Big Tree Wayside” and at the Prairie Creek SP Visitor’s Center. Supposedly this is a good area to see the Roosevelt Elk, but not so much in the late morning. We also stopped at the overlook of the mouth of the Klamath river, a good spot to see migrating whales from land, but again, not the best time of year. On our way home, we stopped at the Lost Coast Brewery & Cafe in Eureka for some lunch (and beer for Jason). All in all, a good visit to some beautiful scenery.
I got three of the standard passport stamps at the visitor’s centers in Crescent City, Orick, and Hiouchi, and Prairie Creek had their own take on stamps at their visitor’s center. Supposedly there may have been some at the Jedediah Smith campground as well, but we didn’t stop there.
Admittedly, this was more of a lazy resorty-beachy vacation for me than National Parks exploration, but when considering islands in the Caribbean to spend some time relaxing by the beach/pool, of course I picked St. John in the US Virgin Islands, 2/3 of which is Virgin Islands National Park.
St. John is the smallest of the 3 US Virgin Islands, which also include St. Thomas and St. Croix. While St. Thomas is the major cruise stop and shopping location, St. John is where you will find the sites of Virgin Islands NP and Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument offshore (which I didn’t get to see since I think it requires a boat and/or diving capabilities). St. Croix also has NPS sites associated with the island’s history but is only accessible from within the Virgin Islands by plane from St. Thomas. St. John is just a short ferry ride from St. Thomas, although it’s not without its challenges if you opt to drive – they drive American-style cars but on the left side of the road, and the car ferries only load/unload from one end, making it necessary to back onto the boat for loading! I still found it worthwhile to have my own wheels as opposed to relying on the island’s “taxis” (imagine the front half of a pickup truck with the back half of an amusement park tram – probably quite convenient if you aren’t prone to motion sickness on windy mountain roads, but not for me)
Virgin Islands NP has a number of relatively short hiking trails, but most were not short enough for me in the near 90F tropical sun. We did take the 0.5-mi nature trail at Cinnamon Bay, which starts at the ruins of an old sugar plantation and is a shaded walk through the trees with interpretive signs. Even on that short walk, we managed to find some interesting fauna, including the native anole (plus numerous smaller lizards scattering every time I stepped it seemed), millipedes, termites’ nests, a crab, a mother and baby deer, and birds such as the pearly-eyed thrasher.
Of course one of the biggest highlights of the park is the gorgeous beaches. The one day we managed to get out of the hotel early enough to avoid the crowds and heat, we spent a couple hours at Trunk Bay, which has facilities including rental equipment as an underwater snorkel trail. From the clear, turquoise water to the white sands, it really was a beautiful beach. I had fun watching a pelican dive amongst the swimmers accompanied by an opportunistic laughing gull. In the water, we could see several types of fish and the occasional ray. As I was wading, I even got face-to-face with a group of fish hopping in and out of the water around me.
There was definitely more to explore, but we also enjoyed some time napping, in the pool, and seeking out brunch on the other side of the island, where some of the quirkier home-spun bars and restaurants can be found. Guess we’ll just have to return sometime!
Escaping the heat in Joshua Tree – hey is that snow??
Earlier this month, I made my second visit to Joshua Tree National Park during a weekend in Palm Springs. Despite being March, it was in the low 90s in Palm Springs, so we were more than happy to head to the higher elevation and different climate in Joshua Tree – a beautiful 75 degrees!
As we only had so many hours in the park, we stuck to a driving tour with brief stops for some short walks. As I observed on my last trip, Joshua Tree has an abundance of short nature walks, but with not a lot of shade and no water available in the park, very few longer hikes. I think Joshua Tree might be more of a climbing/bouldering paradise than hiking… but maybe I need a SoCal native to show me how it’s done.
Hidden Valley
On our loop, we hit up the Hidden Valley Trail, the Cap Rock Nature Trail, and the Arch Rock Trail. The Hidden Valley Loop is a nice little introduction to the terrain of Joshua tree. The ~1 mile loop circles a valley previously used as a grazing area by cattle smugglers. We saw a couple signs of spring with blooming yucca and a single cactus.
Cap Rock
The Cap Rock interpretive loop is very short, but there is a picnic area and an -um- interesting story our hotel manager told us to look up regarding the death of musician Gram Parsons.
Our favorite little walk of the day was the loop to Arch Rock, the trailhead for which is in the White Tank Campground. The trail takes you to some interesting natural rock formations, but my favorite part was that we saw lots of lizards, including two chuckwallas. Chuckwallas can live up to 40 years and grow to something like 15 inches long. We saw an adult male, with the characteristic orange body and black head, and a female (or perhaps a juvenile?) with a greenish brown pattern and a striped tail.
On our way out of town, I did stop in at the Indian Cove ranger station to pick up one of the passport cancellations I didn’t yet have for the park. Is it cheating if I didn’t stay at the campground? Oh well.
but guess which ones we could hear playing drinking games and being generally loud late into the night? It’s never a good sign when you pull into camp to hear your neighbors blasting Spice Girls and attempting to play the game Catchphrase but only “succeeding” by frantically spelling out the answers (i.e. cheating)… I guess avoiding this is why I need to give backpacking another try in the future. As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one type of campout at which flipcup is appropriate, and it’s one where you leave with Duke basketball tickets in hand!
we saw lots of lizards, including two chuckwallas. Chuckwallas can live up to 40 years and grow to something like 15 inches long. We saw an adult male, with the characteristic orange body and black head, and a female (or perhaps a juvenile?) with a greenish brown pattern and a striped tail.
On our way out of town, I did stop in at the Indian Cove ranger station to pick up one of the passport cancellations I didn’t yet have for the park. Is it cheating if I didn’t stay at the campground? Oh well.
