Twisp of Fate

I’m not sure what happened to October – it’s almost over!  It took me forever just to get the pictures off my camera, but here is a belated look back at our 2-week whirlwind trip to the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas for a wedding, and up along the eastern Sierra Nevada and through central Oregon via Hwy 395 – the last 2 weeks of September.

We took only 3 days to get to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  Not all that bad with 2 of us to drive.  We had lots of smoke from forest fires all the way down through SE Washington and into Idaho.  But we had beautiful clear weather once we arrived at our destination, although it did get cold at night, which had as much to do with the elevation (6000′ – 8000′) as anything.

We camped at Jacob Lake in a commercial campground, which turned out to be almost an hour’s drive each day to the scenery and trails at the rim.  Next time (if there is a next time) we will probably go for the park service North Rim Campground.  No water or electric hookups there, but it looked quite nice and has showers, laundry and a basic grocery store.

Camping at Jacob Lake near the Grand Canyon North Rim

The obligatory pose at the rim

We were there for 4 nights, and got in several short to moderate hikes.  The scenery is spectacular, but almost a little overwhelming.  The light was often flat so it was a challenge to get really good pictures (not that it held us back!)

From the Grand Canyon we drove to Las Vegas to attend the wedding of the daughter of some long-time friends (I have known the bride’s mother since the 7th grade).  We parked our little trailer at an inexpensive RV park in Las Vegas where we felt it would be safe – and we could hook up to electricity to run the refrigerator and the fan.  We stayed 3 nights at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino so we could be with our friends and the rest of the wedding party.  About 55 people actually came down for the wedding, which was held about an hour’s drive east of Las Vegas, at Valley of Fire State Park.

They got everyone there in 3 limousines:

Our friends, the mother and father of the bride

A spectacular setting for the wedding ceremony

Afterwards we returned to Las Vegas for a lovely dinner at The Venetian.  This hotel/casino has an artificial “sky” over the “canal” with real water and gondolas.  It was both over-the-top and kind of cool!  Our dinner party was on the second floor overlooking the “canal” and you could almost believe you were in Venice.  Sorry – no pictures.

We had never been to Las Vegas before.  I was expecting the casinos and gambling, but had NO IDEA how much of a theme park the whole place is.  We did enjoy some things, though, like the Fountains at The Bellagio:

Fountains at the Bellagio during the day

Fountains at night (they play music when the fountains are on – this time it was Elvis singing “Viva Las Vegas”!

By Monday we were ready to pick up the trailer and hit the road.  The rest of the trip was more or less a whirlwind tour of places we want to go back to, and spend more time.

Death Valley – more beautiful than we expected.  What a fabulous landscape!  but too hot even at the end of September.  Best to go back in March or April and do some camping and hiking.

Death Valley

We spent one night up in Yosemite National Park at the Tuolomne Meadows Campground (where we camped many times when I was a child).  Did a drive through the park and remembered how much we love Yosemite, especially the high country.  We will definitely be going back there for at least a week in the next year or two!

camping at Tuolomne Meadows

Rick in Yosemite Valley

We spent a couple of nights on the way home at the south end of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in SE Oregon.  This was our third visit there, but we have always gone in the spring to enjoy the bird migrations.  This time we took a day to drive the scenic 50-mile loop on Steens Mountain.  This is an uplifted tableland (escarpment) which lifts from west to east.  There are numerous deep U-shaped gorges that were formed by glaciation.  It is a somewhat austere landscape, but quite beautiful.  We saw antelope but not the wild horses that also roam there.

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We have been home from Hawaii for about 10 days, but work and life events have been more pressing than blogging.  However, I am determined to catch up a little, so for today, here are some images and impressions from our vacation.  We were on the Big Island of Hawaii (the island is called Hawaii, as is the state, so it gets a little confusing).   The weather was perfect – high 70’s to low 80’s, sometimes overcast, even a few showers – but so warm and comfortable and lush.  The water was incredibly warm and we swam and/or snorkeled almost every day.

The first week we spent on the Kona side (drier side), mostly at a house rental south of Kailua-Kona.  Specifically, it was down Napo’opo’o Road below the town of Captain Cook, at the south end of Kaleakekua Bay.  This is the bay which has the Captain Cook monument at the north end.  The north end of the bay is accessible only by boat, or by a long and very steep trail from the top of the cliff – but it is home to spinner dolphins, and has some of the best snorkeling in the state (clear waters, beautiful coral reefs, and lots and lots of fabulous fish to look at).

The house was right on the bay, and near the old pier where we could get in and out easily at high tide to swim or snorkel.  People also rented kayaks there every morning to explore the bay.

Our house near Napo’opo’o pier

First night’s sunset

Morning view of the pier with kayaks

There was an outdoor barbeque, so Rick grilled fish or chicken almost every night for dinner.

From there, we explored south along the coast.  Found some great beaches, and visited our friend Jennifer Schwarz, who we know from the old days of Northwest Fine Woodworking in Seattle.  She has moved to Hawaii, with all of her woodworking machinery and everything, and is doing some beautiful work.

On my birthday, we went to South Point, the aptly-named most southern point of the island.  It is also the most southerly place in the entire United States, farther south even than the Florida Keys.  From there, we did a 4-mile round trip hike along the coast to a green sand beach.  The sand washes down from a “littoral cone” which contains a lot of olivine.  We decided not to scramble down to the beach, although many people were doing it without problems, but just sat and ate our lunch and enjoyed the beauty of the place before heading back.

Here we are at windy South Point, Hawaii

Approaching the green sand beach

Looking down on green sand beach

Twice we rented kayaks and paddled to the north end of the bay.  The spinner dolphins would swim and surface around us as we neared the monument, and even jump straight up out of the water, spinning around and then flopping onto their bellies.  It was really magical to hear them breathing and see them so near.  Near the monument, we pulled our kayak up onto the lava rocks and then explored up and down the coral reefs with our snorkeling gear, enjoying the wonderful sights and fish.

I tried to take pictures of the dolphins, but because of all the bobbing up and down, got mostly pictures of the sky, or the cliffs, or my paddle – or else dolphins doing something not very interesting.

Looks kind of like Batman coming up from a swim.

After we left the house, we drove across the Saddle Road between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, to the Hilo (wet) side of the island, and then up to Hawaii Volcanoes Nat’l Park.  There we stayed one night at Kilauea Lodge, which also has a pretty decent restaurant.  Part of the road around Kilauea crater is closed due to sulpher dioxide fumes from the current eruption (Pu’u O’o vent).  But we did some exploring and short walks the first afternoon, and the next morning went for a short hike to a hill in the midst of a 1980’s lava flow.

On the way to Pu’u Huluhulu

We saw a flock of nene’s (pron. nay-nays), the wild Hawaiin geese.  Why they live up there at the  volcano, I do not know, but there are “nene crossing” signs everywhere!

We also dropped in at the Volcano Art Center Gallery near the visitor center – well worth the visit.  Really wonderful, high quality art.  We saw some beautiful woodworking in particular, and our friend Jennifer has some of her small tables there.  Here is a koa bench that we particularly admired:

The last 3 nights we spent at the Kona Tiki Hotel in Kailua-Kona.  Built in 1953, it isn’t fancy, but it was clean and friendly and all rooms faced the water.  We had a kitchenette unit so we could still cook our own food, and they had some barbeques down by the pool area so we could grill yet more wonderful fish!   From there, we explored the northern tip of the island and found some nice art galleries along the way.  Also searched out some wonderful small beaches where we could go for a swim and hang out and relax.

Kohala north coast on an overcast (but warm!) day

A small Kohala beach, only 10 cars let in at a time

The view from our balcony at the Kona Tiki

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Yesterday I turned 62, which in the eyes of the U.S. Government (Dept of Interior in particular) makes me eligible for my very own ten-dollar, good-for-my-lifetime Senior Pass to our nation’s public lands.  Entry to national parks, half-price camping fees in certain areas, and most usefully to me, trailhead pass for hiking trails at home in the Methow Valley.  I plan to buy mine either at Rocky Mountain National Park, or Jellystone National Park on the way home.

Here was the scene when we crossed the Continental Divide on Colorado State Hwy 50 on Tuesday:

Monarch Pass

Those peaks are over 14000′ high (the pass about 11000′).  Lots of snow up there still.

Tomorrow we head north towards Boulder.  The state park where we plan to stay showed 44 degrees and snowing yesterday!  But it is supposed to warm up to the mid-60’s and be partly sunny by the weekend.  May not have good internet access after this so blogging may be over after tonight.

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On our third day here we moved the trailer to the new spot, did laundry, and just kind of took it easy.  In the afternoon we took off in the truck to explore the mesa top country.  The access road to the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands NP takes off just a quarter mile down the highway from where we are staying, and it also leads to Dead Horse Point State Park.  We decided to make that our destination for the afternoon.

Dead Horse Point is a small mesa separated from the “mainland” by only a 30-ft wide neck of land.  The main vista is to the east over the canyonlands and the Colorado River.  Quite spectacular, but so vast it is hard to take in, much less photograph.  There were a lot of high clouds that day and the light was flat, colors washed, but after a bit the sun broke through and we were able to make out more relief in the rock formations.

Dead Horse Point State Park

That’s a potash evaporation pond in the far distance.  They pump water from the river into the layer that contains the potash, then dry the liquid in lined evaporation ponds.  Then they “mine” it with bulldozers and take it to a refining plant nearby.  The blue color is from something they add to speed up the evaporation process.

A woman we met from Australia had told us the bike trail at this park was really great and quite civilized compared to what she was used to at home.  So we got our folding bikes out of the truck and set off from the visitor center parking  lot only to discover that neither bikes nor riders were up to the challenge.  It was a mix of red dirt and slick rock and way too bumpy and uneven for the little tires on our folding bikes!  Oh well, worth a try.

Sunday we went back up the same road to explore the Island in the Sky district of the national park.  Much of it is also an isolated mesa, separated from the adjoining land by a 40-ft wide neck called “The Neck”, strangely enough.  This mesa is quite convoluted in shape but fairly large, 43 square miles.  We hiked a total of about 7 miles this day, but not all in the same place.  The shortest one was a half-mile nature walk to see Mesa Arch, through which you look down on the canyonlands below:

Mesa Arch at Canyonlands

The longest one was a 3.6 mile round trip to Murphy Point, which looks out to the southwest over the Green River as it flows down to join the Colorado, and also an area of the park called The Maze, which is accessible only by jeep trail and hiking trails.

the view from Murphy Point at Canyonlands

It was another gorgeous sunny day, temps in the 80’s, but extremely windy.  When we got back to camp, we discovered our Kelty awning had imploded and some of the edge binding had torn loose, so we had to take it down.  I should be able to repair it once I get back home to my sewing machine, but no more vestibule/shelter for the side of the trailer for the rest of this trip.

Yesterday was our last full day here, and we went back to Arches NP to explore the Devils Garden area trails.  It was a high overcast day, windy, temps in the mid-70’s – very comfortable for hiking, but the light and colors were very flat for photography.  This trail starts off very groomed and civilized and there were many people.  There are a number of arches to visit on spur trails along the way.

Partition Arch in the Devils Garden

After about a mile you have to climb up a steep rock fin, and that is where the wheat is separated from the chaff, so to speak.  There are many visitors from Europe, Japan, Australia, and Canada (we heard a lot of French, which could mean people from France – or from Quebec) and they all seemed to make the distance to the end of the trail.  But some of this trail is not for the agoraphobic!

check out the signpost

Rick on a rock fin at Devils Garden

Last night we had dinner in Moab at a nice place called the Desert Bistro.  It was really windy with strong gusts during the night, and began raining this morning.  We feel lucky to have had such beautiful weather during our 5 days here exploring the 2 parks.  I felt so sorry for the people here camped in tents, it must have been a miserable night and a muddy red morning.  But we are packing up and heading off to Colorado, where hopefully the weather will improve!

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Utah, that is….

Here we are near Moab, Utah for 6 days, well-positioned to explore Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park.  We headed south with our Aliner camping trailer on May 9, after a weekend in Seattle for various errands, visits and Mothers’ Day dinner with Rick’s mom and sister.  The first night we stayed at Farewell Bend State Park, a very nice Oregon SP on the Snake River, almost into Idaho.  The second day we daudled a bit, so didn’t get to a campground until quite late, and landed up at Willard Bay State Park just south of Brigham City, UT.  Not so nice, just off the highway and they were doing work at night so lots of jack-hammering amidst the truck traffic noise.  Thank goodness for earplugs!

Arrived here on Wednesday May 11.  We had made a reservation for 6 nights, and had a spot at the end of a row so we weren’t sandwiched between other people.  The place is quiet and very clean, and well out of town ( Moab appears to be a bit hectic).   But it turned out we were near the highway with lots of truck traffic at night, so the next morning we arranged to move to a new spot as soon as possible, which turned out to be Saturday.  It’s on the other side,over a slight rise which blocks off the highway.  So for our last 3 nights here we will have peace and quiet, and an unimpeded view across the desert towards the Windows section of Arches National Park:

Moab itself is a mecca for bicyclists (both road and mountain variety). There is an extensive trail system, plus all the surrounding public lands.  It appears to also draw rafters, rock climbers, hikers, and ATV and motorcycle types.  The town has a lot of RV parks and motels, restaurants, tourist shops, and “adventure tour” places.  Red rock T-shirt, anyone?  Kokopelli?  No?  Well it also has a couple of good grocery stores etc. so we have ventured into town a couple of times to stock up.

Thursday we explored Arches National Park.  What an amazing place!  We stopped at several spots along the road and did short to medium hikes, probably about 6 miles all told.  Still getting used to the altitude here, which has been between 5000′ and 6000′ where we have been hiking.  Rick is having a lot of fun with his big camera but I took a few with my little point-and-shoot so I can post a sampling of the scenery on the blog.  These are thumbnails, click on the image to see it full-sized:

Turret Arch in The Windows area of Arches NP

Double Arch in The Windows area of Arches NP

Delicate Arch at Wolfe Ranch area of Arches NP

Winter Wash below the Delicate Arch

Yesterday  we drove down to The Needles section of Canyonlands National Park.  This park is huge and divided by the Colorado and Green Rivers, so you can’t drive through the park and no roads connect the different sections.  The road to The Needles section is 40 miles south of Moab, then a 35 mile drive to the park boundary, but it is a lovely drive with towering red rock cliffs, mesas, a creek valley with a working ranch, etc.  Once we reached the park and got more information at the visitor center, we did the short drive to the end of the road and explored a couple of the “short walks”.  Then we parked at the Elephant Hill parking lot and did a 6-mile hike to Cresler Park, which is a high shrub and grassland surrounded by the Needles formations for which this section of the park is named.  Didn’t start until about 3 pm and got out a little after 7 pm, tired and weary and sweaty but basically happy to have been really up into such an amazing landscape.  A lot of the hike was across slickrock with rock cairns to guide the way.

The Needles area landscape

We got to a sign that said “Chesler Park 0.2 miles” and yours truly went the wrong way, so after about a half mile we realized this couldn’t be right, and re-traced our steps.  Pretty tired, we debated whether to make the effort to go up to the overlook, which involved some climbing.  But wow, we are glad we did!

Chesler Park from overlook

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