This is the 4th of a series of semi-regular articles chronicling the 2017 road trip my youngest and I took to Wisconsin and back again. The next major stop on our trip was the Black Hills of South Dakota. After Yellowstone, we drove the next morning into Grand Teton National Park. It was sort of a drive by and the weather was awful, thunder, lightning and hail and we got out of there as quickly as possible. I did get some shots, which I'll probably post later, but it's probably not worthy of a separate post. The other eventful thing that happened there was on our way out, we had to drive slowly around a downed tree that had evidently been hit by lightning probably about 15 minutes prior to us getting there. The rest of the day was devoted to driving across Wyoming. You don't realize how big Wyoming is until you're driving across it. I mean, it's just a big rectangle, but it just goes on and on and on. So, we ended up in Rapid City, South Dakota later in the evening. The next morning, Mt. Rushmore was on the agenda. I've been to Mt. Rushmore previously, as an early teenager, so some of my memories have faded over time. They're in focus again. I have to say, I'm really glad we got an early start to our day and were able to make the entrance gate to the memorial right at 9:00 AM. Had plenty of parking, so we were just able to pull into the huge parking facility and park anywhere we wanted. There were very few people around at that hour and so we walked the entrance leading up to the memorial. There are pillars on each side with the flags of all of the states of the United States on either side framing the sculpture. It doesn't get more American that this. Once out on the observation area, you have a pretty much unencumbered view and I took lots of shots. I wish there had been some clouds in the sky as I think I would have been able to have some more dramatic shots than the ones I took, which I think are pretty average.
After walking up to the viewing area, we decided to hike the Presidential Trail, which gives you different outlooks of the sculpture. I would highly recommend this trail, no matter what time of day, but the early morning hour that we took it meant that we pretty much had the trail to ourselves. We could linger and observe the sculpture without being interrupted by hordes of visitors that I'm sure walk the trail later in the day. By the time we got back from the trail back up to the observation deck, it was probably a little bit after 10 in the morning and the observation deck was crowded, very crowded - think Disneyland type of crowds. We walked into the visitors center and walked around in there, then ended up near the entrance and decided that it was time to take our leave and head down to Custer State Park and Wind Cave National Park. All in all, I'm glad we went. And I can't believe how lucky we actually were. We got there at the perfect time and were able to leave at a good time to avoid the crowds. I can't imagine what the place would be like during the afternoon when the majority of people come to visit any attraction like this. I can't stress this enough. Come as early as possible.
This is the 3rd of a series of semi-regular articles chronicling the 2017 road trip my youngest and I took to Wisconsin and back again. This is something that, after you read this, think to yourself, "don't do Yellowstone in just one day." The first time I visited Yellowstone National Park, I think I was 12 or 13 and we spent at least a week there. The second time, I was newly married and my wife and I spent 3 days. This time around, my youngest and I spent just a day in the park, driving in from Idaho, then driving back out later that evening at dusk. There is no way, that's nearly enough time for anything, but we packed as much as we could into the day, hiking, sightseeing and geocaching. We came in through the West Yellowstone entrance and then headed toward the geyser basins. The first major stop was at the Grand Prismatic Spring seen in the first shot. This alone is worth a partial day visit. I wish there was a way I could convey the colors, the smells and everything about this, but I just can't. This photo is close, but I don't think it does it justice. And we didn't even get around to the other side. There's a trail on the hillside that gets you at elevation above the spring so you can see how truly grand it is and how large it is. That, in and of itself, gives me another reason to go back and spend more time there. It's the largest hot spring in the United States and third largest in the world. It measures 370 feet in diameter and is 160 feet deep.
After the spring, it was on to the Old Faithful area. All I can say is check the geyser schedule somewhere ahead of time. We got there at noon, about 10 minutes before eruption and it took us 15 minutes to find a parking spot. Because we were day tripping in the park, we didn't really have a choice as to when we were going to be there. Needless to say, we didn't see it erupt that time, but watched it erupt twice more that afternoon, once by the seating areas and once from a trail. The second time, it was erupting while Beehive geyser was also erupting. That's pretty spectacular to see two different geysers fairly close to each other erupting at the same time. The rest of the afternoon, we spent hiking here and there among the geysers, taking in the sights, doing virtual and earth caches. Earth caches and virtual caches are geocaches that don't have a physical container. Virtual caches usually take you to a specific place of scenic or cultural beauty and you have to answer a specific question about the spot, or post a photo of you at the spot to prove that you were there. Earth caches are similar, only the spot is geological in nature and you have to answer geology questions based upon what you see at the spot. The National Park Service, with a couple of exceptions, doesn't allow physical geocaches in the parks because they view them as litter. They do allow virtual and earth caches though, so we spent the day doing those. With all of the stuff we were learning, our brains literally hurt by the end of the day.
While we were there, we watched Old Faithful erupt at around 2:30 or so. Packed house. We hiked around some more in the area, then went to nearby restaurant to eat dinner. Came back out and watched Old Faithful erupt again and could have had our pick of seats in the seating area at that time. Lesson learned. If you have time, wait until after dinner to watch Old Faithful erupt. Most of the crowds have dispersed back to their hotels or campsites and the parking lot has many spaces available. I don't think it's ever not crowded there, but there were definitely less people later in the evening. In the summertime, it doesn't really get dark until after nine o'clock, so you have lots of daylight hours in which to work. After dinner, we drove over the continental divide and drove down to view Yellowstone Lake. There was another geyser basin right along the lakeshore, so we walked the boardwalks there and enjoyed the peacefulness of the lake. There were not as many people here, mainly because it was getting later on in the day and as noted above, most people had "gone home" for the day. After sightseeing lakeside, we hopped back in the Jeep and made our way back through West Yellowstone and into Idaho where we were staying the night. A bison jam slowed us down, but that was pretty cool watching a herd of bison walk across the road in front of us. At least we weren't going the other way on the road where a bison decided to lay down in the middle of the lane and take a siesta. Moral of the story is, don't even think about just spending a day there. I think you need a week, maybe longer to fully enjoy the park. I know I'm going to be spending some more time there in the future.
This past week, I went hiking with a friend up Ice House Canyon, which is a popular trailhead out of the Mt. Baldy area. We were heading up to the Ice House Saddle, a portion of the trail that literally splits into five different trails at that point, leading to other peaks, or down into other valleys on the far side. We got a fairly early start leaving my house around 8 in the morning and with a quick stop for a sandwich, we were at the trailhead and hiking by 8:30 in the morning. One of the nice things about this hike is it's mostly in the shade and the temperatures are about 10 degrees cooler than what we'd experience down off the mountain, so we were hiking in the morning in about 50 degree weather. At one point we ran into a spot where an entire boulder next to the trail was covered in ladybugs. I've seen other areas further up and on the other side in the Lytle Creek area where I've seen the same kind of thing and it never ceases to amaze me. Just thousands upon thousands of ladybugs. The hike itself was very enjoyable, albeit steep. 2700 feet of elevation gain in about 3.6 miles. I'd never hiked up to the saddle before, but I have been up on that trail several times, the last time was about a year and a half ago. I knew my friend liked this particular hike and he kept commenting about different things on the trail to the point like he really knew all the twists and turns of the trail. I asked him when he'd been on the trail last and his response made me laugh. Yesterday. Ok, that's why you're so familiar with it.
Getting up to the saddle took us a little over 2 hours and by that time, even though it was before 11 in the morning, it was time for our sandwiches. So we found a log with the view posted here and enjoyed our lunch before we headed back down. I will have to admit that the trail was about as slow going down too, mainly because the upper part of the trail was the only part that really resembled a simple dirt trail. Most of the trail was rocky, stair step type of trail where you have to go slowly so you don't lose your step or your balance. It still was enjoyable, but we didn't make as good of time as would be expected since we were headed downhill. I didn't find any geocaches along the hike, but that was not the purpose of the day. We passed three on a side trail that I hadn't found and there were three more further up the trail from the saddle that I will have to wait for another day in which to find those. I showed my friend one of the geocaches that I helped hide the last time I was up there. In fact, that particular cache was named because of all the ladybugs that were in the area at that time. I'm definitely going back, perhaps next week. I hear some geocaches calling my name and there's also spots along the upper portion of the trail where new caches could be hidden. I think the most surprising thing about the trail was the total lack of poison oak. We didn't notice even one plant on our entire hike and we were in spots where you'd definitely expect to see it. Curiouser and curiouser.
This is the 2nd of a series of semi-regular articles chronicling the 2017 road trip my youngest and I took to Wisconsin and back again. Our first night on the road trip was spent in Bridgeport, California. From there, we continued north on HWY 395 into Nevada. The purpose of that day was to find a geocache in each county along the northern tier of the state, thus giving me a find in every county in Nevada. I already have every county covered in California and this was a natural follow up to that. We didn't really go much out of our way since Interstate 80 cuts through all of the northern counties that I needed. One side trip into Virginia City to get that county and it was pretty much a done deal. We spent the night in Wells. The next day we drove from Wells, up to Twin Falls, Idaho where we stopped for lunch near the Perrine Bridge. The bridge's claim to fame is that it's the 8th highest bridge in the United States and it's one of the few, if not the only man-made structure in the United States, where BASE jumping is allowed year-round without a permit. BASE jumping. Building, Antenna, Span and Earth. Yeah. Jump with a parachute off of each of those things and land on the ground. Dangerous, but apparently a lot of fun for those who want to try it. We watched a couple of guys readying their parachutes and then decided to hang around and watch one of them jump off of the bridge. I don't have a good video of that happening, so I'll leave this video I found on-line to show you what it's like. All I can say is, it's not for me.
I'm not sure I believe in the whole doppelgänger thing or not, but yesterday, my wife and I went out on a walk and was this woman walking her daughter's dog Atlas. The dog was on "vacation" from New York. Apparently, this is going to be a regular feature for Atlas in the near future. Live the winter months in New York and then spend the summer out in California. Anyway, as we were walking, we spotted Atlas and I said out loud, "that dog looks just like Rocky." Rocky was the dog I'd gotten my wife for her birthday the first year we were married. Half Cocker Spaniel, half Siberian Husky, Rocky was a whirlwind of energy.
I'll let you be the judge on whether you see the doppelgänger thing or not. The photo on the left is Atlas at age 2 and a half. The photo on the right is Rocky at age 3. Atlas has at least 30 pounds on Rocky as he is a Alaskan Malamute mix and Rocky was on the small side, but the similarities were very striking.
Most of you know know that I enjoy hiking. Yeah, tell us something else we don't already know. Anyway.... I was looking through my Fitbit app on my phone and noticed some "workouts" I'd done. I was thinking that I don't remember recording anything from June 19th and then it dawned on me that these were hikes that I'd done two years ago. Now, everything made sense. So I decided to keep track of my latest hike with the app and see what the map looked liked. The weather was overcast this morning, which made it perfect for a more strenuous kind of hike, so I got the gear I needed and drove the Jeep over to the neighborhood where I could access the Thompson Creek walking trail. From there, I accessed the trail/fireroad which took me up into Johnson's Pasture. If you're following along at home, I'm moving on the map in a clockwise direction. That trail eventually took me over to the Claremont Hills Wilderness Loop trail and I just kept going from there. At the very top of the map is approximately where I encountered the bear that I wrote about in this post. At about that time, it's pretty much downhill so my pace picked up. At the top of the loop, I was averaging about 22 minutes per mile, so you can see that I picked it up on the downhill side so that I was averaging over 3 miles per hour. Another place in the app, I can access how much elevation gain this hike was and it was about 1200 feet of elevation gain overall. Not really that tough since that's a 7 mile hike, but compress that 1200 miles down to the first 3 and a half miles and it's a little bit more impressive. Either way, I fell I'm doing much better on my hiking stamina than I was in the past. I'm hoping for some more cooler mornings so I can get out again before the summer heat really takes over. Now I just need to remember to record my hikes into the app. Happy 4th to everyone. Be safe.
One of the things I've always written about in all of my blogs are trips that I take that I find significant. Back in 2017, I went on a 16 state road trip with my youngest and yet, for some strange reason, never chronicled that trip in any way, shape or form, outside of some photos that I posted to Facebook. I will attempt to rectify that over the course of the next couple of months as I share some of the photography from that trip and some of the places we visited along the way. Originally, the two of us had thought about taking a trip to Yellowstone National Park that particular summer. We had discussed it casually in the fall of the year before but hadn't really solidified anything, so it sort of stayed on the back burner. Then in February of 2017, my father-in-law passed away and the family had to sort out his house and deal with the things that you have to deal with when a grandparent/parent dies. There were several pieces of artwork that my wife's sister particularly wanted. The question was how to get it back to her in Wisconsin. That's where the idea of this 16 day road trip was spawned. We started planning our route out and once the planning had been done, I then started looking for places we could camp each night. It was then my son pointed out the errors of my thought process by pointing out, that with all of the extra stuff we were taking back to Wisconsin with us, we wouldn't have any room in the Jeep for camping equipment. Yeah, I'd sort of forgotten that the Jeep is a little bit smaller than our former minivan that we'd used on previous camping trips. So we ended up staying most of the time in motels along the way. As with all of our road trips, geocaching is involved and so there were several goals attached to that end of the trip as well. Getting different kinds of geocaches in each state we passed through, finding a geocache in every county we passed through in Nevada. If we played our cards right, we'd have the entire state covered at the end. So the trip started and we drove north on Hwy 395 through the Owens Valley up the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, stopping for lunch, stopping for gas and stopping once again at Manzanar National Historic Site. I say, once again, because every time I head north along Hwy 395, I stop there. The historical importance of this "Relocation Center" cannot be stressed enough. Over 110,000 Japanese Americans were relocated to 10 different camps in the Western United States during World War II, ostensibly because of their race and who we were fighting in the war. The premise that was given by our own government was that it was for the protection of the people in the camps. If that was the case, why were the guns pointed inward at the camps? I'll let that sink in a little. The first time I visited, I was 19 years old and had no idea what Manzanar was all about. I made sure each of my children visited the place at least once. This should never happen again in our country. Ever.
