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:
Catching up on 2017 trips, we took another Southern California trip to Ventura right after Thanksgiving (and before the terrible fires that swept through the region in Dec). The primary purpose of the trip was to visit the Channel Islands, my last full-fledged National Park in CA, but we also did some hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains on a very warm (90 degree) November Day. We stopped in the Visitor’s Center at King Gilette Ranch, then headed to Paramount Ranch to take a short hike starting from a fake Old West village (complete with mustachioed sheriff). It has been used as a set in several movies and TV shows, and did seem oddly familiar.
We also visited the Satwiwa Native American Cultural Center in the Rancho Sierra Vista area. The quarter mile from the parking lot to the center was all the hiking we did since little guy was on foot, but we observed the nice gardens and found a great view of the mountains from the replica of a Chumash home structure. Our toddler enjoyed exploring the kids exhibit inside the center (at his age, perhaps not so much for the historical/cultural significance as for being a table of things he’s allowed to touch…)
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!
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).
Coyote
Road Runner
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!
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.
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!
We’re back! After a little hiatus to welcome in the next generation of Parks & Lex, I decided I needed to celebrate the National Park Service Centennial in 2016 by visiting at least one NPS site each month this year. Of course, making this resolution the last week in January with a three-month-old at home (and with “Super Bowl City” potentially disrupting traffic in/through San Francisco) didn’t leave me too many options. But, it turns out that the southernmost portion of Golden Gate National Recreation Area is practically in my backyard in San Mateo County at Phleger Estate.
The estate, which was turned into a park in 1995, is a second-growth redwood forest with creeks running through it. There are a limited number of trails: two leading in from either edge connecting to a loop in the far corner. The directions to access the park suggest entering via Huddart Park, which connects to the Miramontes Trail. We opted to enter from Skyline Blvd., parking at the Purisima Creek parking area and walking to the Estate via the Skyline trail, which parallels the road. It’s about a half mile to Phleger Estate and another half mile to Kings Mountain. From there, we turned down the Lonely Trail. Once we turned away from the road, the trail was quite quiet –lonely, if you will — other than the occasional airplane overhead. The Lonely Trail then heads down the hillside, eventually meeting up with the other trails.
Since this was my first time hiking with the baby (on the outside), we went another half mile to the creek and turned around, trying to pace ourselves for the walk back up the hill. I think it was about a 500-ft elevation change, but it felt like more to me! We also learned a lesson in dressing a baby for a fairly cold day in the redwood forest: While he was generally warm snuggled up against me, his legs and feet got pretty cold hanging out of the carrier. We went home and promptly ordered him some merino wool baby tights for the future, so we’ll see how those perform.
Banana slug for scale. I thought it would be too cold for them, but spotted this guy on the side of the path.In the time it took us to walk the 0.5 miles down to the creek then back up, the banana slug (by the log) crossed the trail.
While we just barely qualified for my goal of 12 parks in 12 months, my favorite part of the hike was introducing the park to the little one. When I’ve taken him on walks around the neighborhood in the stroller, I’ve noticed him eying the trees as we passed by, so I couldn’t wait to show him the big (even the “young” ones) redwoods. I might be projecting my own enthusiasm, but I’d say he was impressed – and even spent some time cooing at the trees. Here’s hoping it’s the start of many future adventures!
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.
I’ve always enjoyed hiking, and camping is something I’ve rediscovered over the past few years after a rather long hiatus since my girl scout days (but I still remember those camping trips to Sunset Beach!). However, never have I combined the two in the form of backpacking until earlier this month. We’d been talking about it for a while — after all, this is a skill that will let me see more of the national parks — and some good friends, much more experienced outdoorspeople, had offered to help us through our inaugural experience.
Starting point at Wright’s Lake – beautiful day!
First stop was REI to use up our member coupons and dividends to procure new camping backpacks and a few other essentials. Good thing about going with experienced friends was that we didn’t need to buy all the gear, but we did get some good quality insulating layers since the forecast was calling for temperatures in the 20s and our own water filter (trust me – you don’t mess with giardia, giardia messes with you!). Next stop: the Desolation Wilderness in the El Dorado National Forest near South Lake Tahoe. Side note: I took my first non-scout camping trip in Death Valley and first backpacking in Desolation Wilderness – I’m sensing a theme here.
Our doggie guide makes sure I’m still coming.
Our friends truly tried to take it easy on us on this single-night camping trip: We started from a parking lot near Wright’s lake, where the forest service has a seemingly nice summer campground facility, and hiked the ~5 miles or so into the Desolation Wilderness to Twin Lakes. Not a long hike, but the elevation went from 7000 ft at Wright’s Lake to ~8200 ft at Twin Lakes. I tend to need a day or so to adjust to higher elevations, so between that and some other extenuating circumstances, I was really struggling with the uphill. Add in the dropping temperatures and nerves about backpacking for the first time, and I was admittedly pretty miserable the first day (I was missing the Final Four for this?). In my defense, I still contend that the term “leisurely hike” is relative when you’re talking about trudging through snow and ice to get to a frozen lake… The scenery could not be beat, however!
Desolation Tree
A single cloud
Snow on the trail
Sunset from camp
Water flowing from the lake
Pizza dinner!
We set up camp next to a large boulder near the outlet to the lake. Our trusty guides had brought along a few extras to help deal with the cold temps, including an extra sleeping bag, battery-powered heated gloves (amazing!), and the makings of warm backcountry pizzas cooked up on the little backpacking stove. I was quite impressed by the pizzas – campmade dough and everything! The nighttime brought cold winds, but I stayed fairly cozy in the the sleeping bag(s) and tent. When I had to get up in the middle of the night, there was definitely snow crunching underfoot, but it didn’t stick through to the morning.
Let’s face it, a lot of that smile is because I’m back at the parking lot
In the morning, we said goodbye to the lake – it really was quite an amazing site all frozen and covered in ice! Fueled up with hot cocoa and oatmeal spiked with dried apples and trail mix, we headed back down to the car. I only fell on my butt once while trekking over the fresh ice, and in general I was able to appreciate the hike and the landscape a lot more on the way down. That being said, I was pretty excited to make it back to the car, even more excited to reach 4G range to find out Duke was going to the NCAA finals, and even more excited to reach a veggie burger in Placerville. So, perhaps my first backpacking experience was not completed with as much ease as I had hoped, but under some slightly different circumstances, I think I would have really enjoyed this hike. I’ll definitely have to give it another go and (very) slowly work my way up to being a backcountry camper!
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!
