Death Valley National Park

Death Valley National Park

As I’ve been working on planning little guy’s first camping trip, I’ve been remembering my adult self’s first camping trip in Dec 2012. I have fond memories of camping at Sunset Beach with my girl scout troop as a kid, but there was a pretty big gap thereafter in which the only time I spent in a tent ended in the receipt of Duke Basketball tickets. Of course, what better place to get your feet wet (figuratively) than Death Valley!? It takes about 8 hours to get to Death Valley from the Bay Area as you have to go down and around the Sierras, but the long drive even after leaving I-5 behind certainly makes you feel the remoteness. En route, we discovered the roadside town of Tehachapi, the “Land of Four Seasons” and your best (only?) bet to stop for food east of Bakersfield. The muted desert colors and expansive landscape were impressive from first approach into the valley.

We spent two nights camping at Furnace Creek Campground in the park. The campground was very nice, although since there are not really trees, there is not much privacy, which can be especially annoying when you’re surrounded by RVs in a little two-person tent (since then I always try to reserve tent-only or generator-free loops in campgrounds). Our first night went very well except that I had to pull a rogue camp chair out of the fire (and I was the one nervous about having a fire in the first place!). The second night the wind picked up even more, and I learned the lesson to always have a backup no-cook meal plan in case, for example, you can’t keep your camp stove lit long enough to boil water. We could hear the wind swirling around the valley all night long, and every so often, it would hit the tent and rattle it like it was a spaceship about to take off. Not the greatest night sleep, but kind of fun. For our third night, we stayed in the Panamint Springs Resort, a little off-the-grid motel with a decent beer selection near the edge of the park.

For hiking, we hit up a few trails, including hiking the Golden Canyon to Gower Gulch loop with the add on loop to visit Zabriskie Point. I didn’t actually realize you could drive all the way to the point by tour bus, but I like to think the view is nicer when you get there on your own two feet! This loop was a really great way to see some of the cool layered rock formations, and I learned what a gulch is! [a narrow V-shaped canyon containing a small stream or rock fall] For another hike, we explored Titus Canyon by hiking in from the valley side. It is popular to drive through the slot canyon from the Nevada side. Clearly not everyone headed the advice that a high clearance vehicle was recommended, but we didn’t want to risk it with my Ford Focus — plus it’s fun to hike!

Of course we visited some of Death Valley’s famous sights, including Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the United States at over 300 feet below sea level. The Badwater salt flats were a dramatic landscape, further highlighted by late-afternoon shadows. We also drove up to Scotty’s Castle, a fun piece of desert history and 20s architecture. If I recall, Death Valley Scotty conned rich New Yorkers, who basically went with it and established an elaborate desert retreat.

As usual, I’d love to spend more time in Death Valley National Park ~ maybe I’ll have to start planning for the next superbloom! I’m super curious to visit Racetrack Playa to see the “mysterious” moving rocks (yes, I know they confirmed the way the rocks move, but it doesn’t diminish the sense of intrigue regarding self-moving rocks).

In spite of a few slight mishaps, this was definitely a great re-introduction to camping for me. Here’s hoping for similar luck first time camping as a family with a toddler!

 

Olympic National Park

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.

San Juan Island National Historic Park

I realized I never postedĀ Park #7 from 2016, a visit to San Juan Island National Historic Park on San Juan Island in WA last Sept. This was the final unique park I visited in 2016, but if I count repeat visits to Golden Gate National Recreation Area and NPS-affiliated sites (such as the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience in Seattle where we saw a temporary Bruce Lee exhibit on this same trip), I think I could claim to have met my goal of 12 parks last year šŸ™‚

After visiting some friends in the Seattle area and visiting the local volcanoes, we hopped a ferry to the San Juan Islands. The ferry rides alone provided awesome scenery, and we arrived in Friday Harbor on a picturesque day — and were greeted by a friendly harbor seal, who I suspect makes a regular appearance near the fish market.

The historic park commemorates a mid 19th century stand-off between British and American garrisons on the island involving the matter of a pig. The two sections of the park encompass the English Camp on the north end of the island, and the American Camp further South. We first stopped at the English Camp on a drizzly afternoon. We walked up the officer’s hill, checked out the recreated English garden, and watched some more adventurous hikers head off around the point.

We next drove down to American Camp, of course spotting a bald eagle along the way. Spent some time checking out a red fox foraging on the side of the road as well. Our little dude fell asleep in the car and it was still raining, so I popped into the visitor center to get my passport cancellations and watch the video about the incident of the pig. We decided to come back the next day to explore the rolling hillsides and reconstructed camp, a lovely walk with some great views.

I had read that nearby Salt Point State Park is a good place to spot orcas from shore, so we decideā€‹d to head there before returning to American Camp. We noticed a few cars stopped at a pullout on our way into the park, and sure enough, there were several orcas active in the water, just offshore, close enough that we could hear the snorts and splashes as the surfaced! Don’t tell little guy, who slept through the whole thing.

Orca!

After that, it was appropriately time to hop the ferry to Orcas Island, where we made a brief stop in Moran State Park, before heading back to the mainland. We had great views of Mt. Baker from the ferry.

This site had several passport stamps, including some bonus stamps which are cool except when you’re rapidly using up all the extra space in your passport book!