Branson, MO

Branson, Missouri. This town is so much more than I thought it would be. I had vaguely heard of it before, and I heard that there are a lot of good shows here, but there's so much more than that. Anyone who vacations here for a week and gets bored is truly a bump on a log. There is a major "strip" they call the parking lot because there are usually so many cars driving on it, but the side streets also have restaurants, attractions, hotels, theaters, golf courses,etc.

There are amusement park type rides scattered around the town, as well as a full fledged amusement park and water park nearby.  They have the best Go-Kart track I have ever seen. There are numerous, fun museums- the Titanic, Ripley's Believe it or Not,  and Veterans Museum are just a few. Just off the strip there is a historic downtown shopping area, and right alongside it,the "Riverwalk", called Branson Landing, which is, of course, on a beautiful river.  There are more restaurants, shops, and condos there, and even an hourly fountain and fire show, set to music.

The town is set in the Ozark Mountains, so there is plenty of hiking around.  There are several Ziplines (I am determined to do one for the first time on Friday). There are two beautiful  lakes for boating, parasailing, swimming, etc.  We are taking the inflatable to the lake tomorrow for the day. 

     And then,of course, there are the shows.  Someone said there are over 100 live performances in Branson every day. The shows here feel like the cinema feels in other towns. The shows all reasonably priced- tickets are about $30 per person for most.  When we walked into the theater for our show tonight, there was a concession stand selling popcorn and candy, etc. Just like going to the movies.  Like most tourist towns, there are discount coupons to be found for everything.  After hunting around for the best show discounts, Paul and I took it to another level.  We went to a 2 hour presentation by Windham Hotels, for their timeshare program, and in return, we only paid $10 per ticket for the 3 shows that we want to see while we're here. That means instead of paying more than $180 for the tickets, we paid $60.  Well worth the 2 hours for us- and we didn't buy into the timeshare either! 

    We went to the first of the 3 shows tonight-our "cheap" tickets were center stage, about 7 rows back.  Pierce Arrow is a quartet who sing some country and some gospel, but we also heard they have the best comedian in town, and after seeing him, I believe it.  The show also features Tim Storms, who holds the Guinness world record for the lowest note produced by a human being. The show was fun, and makes me curious to see how the other two will compare, quality wise.

The RV Park we are in is almost on the strip.  Paul is pretty tired of having to drive the dually in cities all the time, so we wanted to be able to walk to a few things.  We found the number one rated Ice Cream place the first night we were here by going for a walk.  It was so good, it's dangerous- especially since we have the usual "buy one get one free" coupon. Later I spent quite a bit of time unsuccessfully trying to get some good pictures of all the fireflies that are around.
    As far as the tire situation goes, well, Paul is not a very happy person.  He has decided we need to replace all 4 tires on the Everest, even the brand new on we had put on in California.  The tires we have now barely have the capacity to hold the weight of the trailer. Add to that the fact that we have already blown one, and it definately looks like a second one is ready to blow, and he has decided we need a better quality and heavier duty tire for the trailer.  We have an appointment on Tuesday to get the new ones put on.

What a difference a day makes

Our last day in the Denver area was spent hiking.  We hiked a looped that took us past several lakes.  Two of them were absolutely beautiful.  In Rocky Mtn National Park, you're not really allowed to swim in the lakes and rivers- the water is too cold (I can vouch for that) and too swift.  It was pretty warm though, so I did poke my feet in the water of Mills Lake, which is where we stopped to have lunch.  While there we watched an elk approach the lake on the other side, and take her calf  for  a swim.  It was incredible to watch! 
   After lunch, we continued on our way, coming to Haiyaha Lake, which is one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen.  We had to climb over boulders to get to really see it, and we didn't take the time to go around the other side so we could get close to the water. Thats ok though, we sat on the boulders and just enjoyed.
The total hike was about 7.5 miles, but it started at 9500 ft and went up over 10,000 ft.  I had adjusted pretty well to the altitude so although I was breathing heavy, at least I could do the hike.
After taking the shuttle back to our truck we headed into Estes Park for a well deserved ice cream. We wandered the River walk for a bit before heading home to a very light dinner.

Friday brought some changes and was not so fun.  Three weeks ago we had the Everest axles aligned and had to replace one of the tires- Friday we went to another alignment shop because Paul noticed that it seemed out of alignment again and he wanted to make sure it was ok.  We spent most of the day there, trying to figure out the best way to fix the trailer, since according to this place, not only is it out of alignment again already, the axles aren't big enough for the trailer.  We called the  manufacturer, and they will take a look at it when we bring it in this August.  A very frustrating and long day.  The only good part was that they had private waiting rooms, so the cat could have his own room to wander around in, complete with reclining chair. This all delayed our leaving, and we ended up making it as far as Seibert, CO, headed towards Branson MO. 
      Today was all driving, and another frustrating day. We left this morning and had a lot of miles to go.  In the early afternoon we heard a huge "pop", which turned out to be one of our trailer tires bursting.  Paul handled it all calmly- the truck didn't even lurch, so we were pretty impressed with that. The other tires held, so that was great, but we had to limp a half mile down the highway because there was very little shoulder and it was too dangerous to try and change the tire there.  We got it to a safer place and Paul braved the 104 degree heat to put on the spare and we were on our way.  We lost the fender to the trailer as well, so we'll have to see about getting a new one.
Tonight we are in Topeka Kansas, debating buying a second A/C unit for the trailer. We've never felt the need for it until now, but at 8 pm it was still 97 outside and when we arrived, the inside temperature of the trailer was 102.  It's taken hours to get it to a reasonable temperature.  Of course, we spent one of those hours in the campground pool, relaxing, so it hasn't been all bad.

Denver, Colorado

Denver is definately a place that Paul and I could live, if we could just ignore the winters they get here! There is so much to do in this area, both outdoors and indoors. 

   We explored the downtown area a little bit and were impressed with the importance the people of Denver place on fitness and the outdoors, even in the middle of the city.  Bicycle riders are prevalent,  and there are parks and open spaces everywhere you turn.  REI's flagship store is in the city, so we checked it out but were disappointed with the variety of merchandise.
Our first full day here, we headed to Estes Park, a small town on the outskirts of Rocky Mountain National Park.  We started at the Stanley Hotel, built by F.O Stanley, of Stanley Steamer fame.  The hotel was built over 100 years ago, and is reportedly haunted by more than one ghost.  There are even "pictures" of the ghosts shown on a TV screen.  Stephen King was impressed enough to use the hotel for his movie "The Shining".  Honestly we didn't stay too long (Paul has actually stayed in the hotel before) since neither of us are Stephen King fans, and  didn't want to take the ghost tour. 
    From there we went up the tram to the top of Prospect Mountain, where we had our picnic lunch and watched kids feed the chipmonks too many nuts.  We had a great view of the town and surrounding mountains while we ate.

    Once we were down again, we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park to drive Trail Ridge Road-the highest paved road in the country.  Its about 50 miles from the beginning to the end. This road climbs in elevation to about 12,000 feet, which is above the treeline, through the Alpine tundra, with beautiful views of the mountains along the way.  I know, I sound like a brochure. Anyway, driving along this road was a great introduction to the Park.  I wasn't crazy about the altitude, and some of the curves were interesting, to say the least, but not so bad that I couldn't enjoy it. It was much cooler and windier along the top, so much so that we didn't get out of the car much. Plus, at that altitude, just walking required a fair amount of effort. Once we came down off ridge, the road came down into a meadow area and thats where we saw quite a few elk and even a solitary moose! I didn't get a great picture of the moose, since they are very reclusive and he ran away.  We saw him again later, but he was laying down in a thicket. But- at least I got to see a moose!  We saw an elk cow and calf, and several bull elk lounging around in the meadow.  Every time we saw a couple of cars pulled over, we'd stop and look and sure enough there would be elk or something in the meadow.  On the way back to Estes Park we saw a herd of Bighorn Sheep- Paul couldn't pull over at that spot, so I took a picture as we drove by.  Estes Park has a River Walk, with shopping and restaurants, so we walked around for a bit before stopping for dinner on the river.
    This morning we headed to Golden, CO, home of Coors beer. We had heard that they have a great tour of the facility, and they really do.  They give you an audio guide - if you want to hear about what you are seeing, as you do a self guided tour, you press a button and it gives information about each stop on the tour.  Each adult is also allowed to taste 3 different beers- and by taste, I mean drink a full glass of it.  Paul is not fond of beer, so he only tried a little of two different ones, and I did two others, so we got to try 4 without having to stagger out of the place. Everyone is limited to one tour per day which seems to make sense since the two people ahead of us in line were well known to the employee. Apparently they come to the tour pretty often.
Golden also has an extensive Museum of Geology and since Paul is very interested in Geology, we spent a couple of hours exploring the museum. It was reasonably interesting seeing all the rocks and gemstones and where they came from.
We drove back to our RV by way of a scenic drive that took us past the gravesite of Buffalo Bill (Cody).  There is a museum at the spot too, but it wasn't free and we weren't that interested, so we just looked around and kept going.  We did drive by the herd of buffalo that roam a nearby park. There were a lot of calves in the meadow- you can tell its spring here because we've seen a lot of baby animals.

Castle Rock CO

Well, after coming over the Rocky Mountains on Rte 70,  Paul has declared that we will not be going over that mountain again.  The elevation got to be over 11,000 ft.  Up and Down for hours.  I didn't realize he was stressing until he said so, and when I was surprised, he said that the throttle was pinned, so we were going as fast as we could, up the hill.  We weren't quite keeping up with the cars, but we did ok.  He said if the truck was ever going to have a problem, thats when it would happen, but miles and miles of up and down, and the engine temperature never changed, so that was good. 

Elevation reduces the horsepower that an engine is capable of, so it makes the steep hills tougher. I was on the lookout for Elk, since they frequent this area and although I haven't seen any yet, I did learn that they put "ramps" on the highway so that if Elk get on the road, they can get back off again.  I also saw for the first time "Chain stations".  In the winter months it is mandatory for trucks to "chain up" before going over the mountain, so there are pulloffs for them to do that.

Once we made it over, we ended a very long day of travel.  Almost 8 hours in the truck, and thats a long day for us.  We made it early enough to meet up with Shad and Amy, our nephew and his wife, for dinner.  We elected to head to Red Robin for dinner since Amy works for the company and none of us was up for cooking!  We had a great dinner with them and then met up again today for more fun.

We all hiked up Devil's Head trail, which leads to the last active fire lookout station on the Colorado mountain range. The view from the top was 100 miles in all directions, which was pretty awesome for me. It was my first good look at the Rocky Mountains.  Being a John Denver fan from my teenage years, I have always wanted to come here and see what he loved about them so much.
           After heading home to regroup, we all went out to dinner again at Red Robin- boy, I could get used to that! We had a great time with Shad and Amy, its really the first chance we have had to spend time with just the two of them and they are really great people. 
Now its on to our next stop, which is a state park just north of Denver, closer to Rocky Mountain National Park.  We may or may not have cell service and internet. I made a bucket list of things we might like to do while we are here.  We'll see what we end up doing.

The View from the Window

What does 1.9 million acres of remote and rugged landscape look like? We found out the answer today. Paul was not in the mood to drive on a major freeway, so when we left this morning to head towards Denver, we took Utah Rte 12, the Scenic Byway. This area was mapped by John Wesley Powell and his sister, and was the last area in the lower 48 states to be mapped. We passed through multiple National Parks and monuments along the way, with a constantly changing landscape. We climbed in elevation a couple of thousand feet, and then back down again. We stopped at scenic turn-outs along the way whenever we wanted and just enjoyed the beautiful day.
We went through the small town of Boulder Utah, not to be confused with Boulder Colorado. Boulder, UT was the last town to receive it’s mail by mule rather than automobile. They also didn’t have electricity until 1947. It wasn’t until the new Rte 12 was finished in the 1980s that the townspeople really had consistant access to the surrounding towns.

At the end of the day we landed in Green River Utah, and spent this evening booking campgrounds for the next week.

 

Bryce Canyon National Park

The early bird gets the worm, as they say, and because we were at the Park early, we got a site inside Bryce Canyon National Park. We have no internet or electricity, so I’ll post this once we leave here.

Bryce and Zion are about 2 hrs away from each other, but completely different as far as their looks. In Zion, we were in a canyon, looking up at the walls, in Bryce we are at the rim of the canyon looking down. The elevation here starts at 8000 ft and goes up from there. My body does not appreciate the thin air, and I am having a difficult time hiking. Its frustrating to be breathing heavy after walking a short distance, but there isn’t much I can do about it except “take it easy” according to the ranger.

       Bryce is home to “Hoodoos” which are rock spires created by the erosion of stone by ice and rain. There are about 200 days a year that temperatures in Bryce reach below freezing, and then thaw. That constant freeze and thaw action creates the spires by eroding away the softer stone that lies beneath a harder surface stone. Bryce Canyon also isn’t a true canyon, as canyons are usually created by rivers cutting through stone. There is no river here, just the effects of ice and rain. The spires range in color from bright orange to white, and really make an incredible first impression. 

        Our first day here I needed to acclimate, so we took the shuttle bus to various stops and looked at the different formations down in the canyon. It reminds me of Silly Sand- a toy I had when I was young- you use a small squirt bottle of sand and water and create whatever you want from sand. These spires look like that, on a much larger scale. 

Several of the spires have names, but you can imagine them to be whatever you want. I definitely saw ET as we hiked along. There are several that look so much like castles that its difficult to believe that they aren’t man made.

Tuesday night we attended a ranger talk about the night sky. After an hour talk he led us all outside where 6 telescopes were set up. One was aimed at the moon, and the others were aimed at Saturn. For the first time ever, I got to see Saturn, complete with rings and 6 moons! We also got to see M-15, which is a cluster of stars in a different galaxy. We could have stayed longer and seen other sights, but it was 11 pm and we were tired.

Yesterday we went down into the canyon and hiked 2 trails- the Navajo and the Queens Garden-about 3.5 miles total. It was even more impressive being down inside the canyon looking up at all these spires.
After lunch we checked out the local town and fueled the truck.
This morning we did a 5 mile hike into the canyon, and afterwards drove the 17 mile scenic drive. I had already gotten some pictures of prairie dogs and Pronghorn Antelope, and I wanted to see what else is out there.

Zion and Bryce are both small parks-and both are very organized. Zion has a propane powered shuttle that stops at about 9 stops, “up canyon” and “down canyon”. There are no cars allowed on the roads, which actually makes sense from an environmental standpoint. At Bryce, cars are allowed on the road, but in most cases its just easier to take the shuttle. After seeing both parks I would have to say that even though Bryce makes an incredible first impression, once you have seen Hoodoos, they all begin to look the same. I am glad we saw them, but I won’t hurry back anytime soon.

Zion to Bryce

When we only have a couple of days to see an area, it’s always a tough decision, deciding what to do and see, to try and hit the highlights, without killing ourselves physically. Our 8 mile hike took a lot out of us, but we wanted to see the “Emerald Pools”, which was a 3.5 mile hike. In retrospect, we could have passed it up, since the Pools weren’t really green right now, more of a muddy brown. From there we walked the Riverwalk, which runs along the Virgin River, towards the Narrows. The river is beautiful in this area, and it was a nice stroll. It also gave us the chance to see a little of what we were missing because we couldn’t hike the Narrows. The Park Ranger said it could be closed for weeks, due to high water. Once we had walked as far as we could, I waded in the river to cool off a bit. The water temperature was in the 50s, so I didn’t wade very long. We would have had to have special boots (which you can rent) to hike in water that cold. By the time we had cooled off, we were pretty tired, but we wanted to stop at the Museum of Human History on our way out. We watched a ranger talk about the Navajo sandstone and how the layers of rock got to be here. Millions of years ago, before the Rockies were formed, the Appalachian Mountains were the tallest around, and the 2000 ft deep sandstone here, came as run off from them. They were the old Continental Divide. The theory is that millions of years ago, a Pacific Plate slid into a different Plate, causing the Rockies to rise up and changing the landscape of the west. The canyon here was formed solely by the Virgin River flowing through soft sandstone for millions of years. Hard to believe when you see how small the river is now. Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon and Grand Canyon make up the Colorado Plateau, with Bryce being the highest elevation. The lowest elevation of Bryce is the highest of Zion, and the lowest elevation of Zion is the highest elevation of Grand Canyon. Today we are on our way to Bryce. We hope to stay in the park itself so we may have no internet or cell service for days. Our next big stop after this, may be Denver.

Zion National Park, UT

It was a 2 day drive to get from Yosemite to Zion National Park. There wasn't anything we planned to stop and see along the way, so we just drove through California, part of Nevada and arrived in Utah. Its really my first time in Utah, so I get to color in another state on my map. We hadn't made any reservations anywhere, which turned out to not be the best idea. There aren't that many RV parks really close to Zion and the only one that had availability is a "resort". Its actually really nice (Paul has commented twice that he really likes it). Its well laid out, has great amenities- a game room, pool, and lots of activities,etc., but Holy cow, its not cheap. Ah well. We stayed in one spot last night and then had to move today since they are pretty booked and just squeezed us in. Our first trip into Zion itself was today. We have heard of several hikes in the park that are supposed to be awesome, but the trails up to the canyon rims here have extremely sheer, long drops, with very little trail width. The most famous hike is Angels Landing. I researched it pretty thoroughly and reluctantly decided I would not be able to hike a trail that is 4 feet wide with 1000 ft drops on both sides- even if there IS a chain to hold onto. Not that the whole trail is like that, but even so, I was pretty sure I wouldn't make it. We would also have liked to hike "The Narrows" which is a really unique hike- the trail is the river, so you literally hike in the water. That would be so different, it would be really cool! Unfortunately, the hikability depends entirely on the weather, and there were flash flood warnings yesterday, into this morning, making it too dangerous. We are going to bring our water shoes to the park tomorrow and at least go check it out. So what we elected to do was the Observation Point Trail (8 miles, 5 hrs, 2150 ft elevation gain). It offers some of the best views in the park. When you start at the bottom of a canyon, its really hard to believe that you're going to hike all the way to the rim of the enormous wall that looks like its straight up from the canyon floor, but hike it you do! This was an easier hike, physically, than the hikes in Yosemite, but there were a couple of times that I had to mentally regroup in order to be able to handle the trail. Its not my favorite thing to be standing on a narrow trail with nothing between me and the ground 2000 ft below. The picture with Paul in it was taken close to the top, and he is standing about 2 ft from the edge- a 2100 ft drop. Me- I was pretty much hugging the wall. But- the views were amazing, and the hike was well worth it. As we worked our way to the top, stopping to admire everything around us, we were reminiscing about a hike we did in Kentucky- it supposedly had "views". It was a 10 mile hike and at the end, we saw nothing. There was no view, just an equestrian campground, deep in the woods. This hike today was far from that, thats for sure! Tomorrow its Zion again, and then we move on to Bryce Canyon.

Exciting Day!

What's better than hiking to the top of Yosemite Falls on a beautiful sunny day? Hiking to Yosemite Falls on a beautiful day, accompanied by a family of bears! Talk about the thrill of a life time! Yesterday Paul and I started up the trail to Yosemite Falls at about 9:30 am. Less than 30 minutes into the hike, we were joined by a mama bear and her two cubs. They meandered out of the woods and onto the trail about 40 feet ahead of us. Mama bear knew we were there, but showed no concern unless someone started to walk towards the cubs. Then she would just turn her head and stare at the offending person until they backed up enough to satisfy her. Since they were walking up the trail to the Falls, we were stuck behind them. After a little bit, there were more and more people backed up behind the bears. We were all vying for the best vantage point for taking pictures, without irritating Mama. We really didn't have to worry- there was plenty of time to take pictures! Once the bears went ahead of us, we slowly followed them up the trail. At times they would cut the switchbacks (the zig zags in the trail that make it less steep to climb) and we would think they were gone- but then we'd catch up to them in a minute or two. Several times they stopped to eat along the way, blocking our progress up the path. Mama kept a watchful eye, and soon got very upset. The cubs were on the trail and hikers came around the corner, headed down the mountain. It was obvious that Mama felt her cubs were being threatened. She visibly tensed and started making a swiping motion with her paw. The descending hikers immediately headed back up the hill, and those of us behind her backed off even further. She finally took the cubs up the hill aways, off the trail, and they were able to get down. We caught up to them again in a couple of minutes. By this time, the bears have been around for close to an hour and some of the hikers were getting antsy to get past them. One man tried to cut the switchback to sneak ahead of them, but to Mama it felt like a threat- she headed towards him (still about 50-60 ft away), reared up on her hind legs and made a swatting gesture. Boy did he fly back down that hill. Eventually she pulled them off to the side long enough that we were all (by this time, about 25 people) able to get by (very quickly, keeping a close eye out!). It was an interesting bonding experience with the people we were with, as we discussed our options for passing the bears, cautioned each other about getting too close, and discussed picture taking. We met a couple, Les and Pat, who we spent most of the day with, on and off, as we rested and hiked to and from the falls. They are from Utah, near Zion National Park, so we got some good tips on what to do when we get there next week. This hike to Yosemite Falls, is, without a doubt, the most difficult one I have ever done. Round trip we hiked about 9-10 miles total, with an elevation gain of 3000 feet. That's the equivalent of climbing the Empire State Building more than twice. We (I) had to stop frequently towards the top, and for a while, I wasn't sure I was going to make it- but I did! Once at the top we were astounded to see that there were people tightrope walking across the falls! Paul got a good look at the Falls and guys doing the "walking" but I elected not to go down that pathway...a shear drop with a tiny railing. He came back pretty quickly, since the wind started picking up. As we headed around the corner, we ran into Pat again. She was completely distraught, unable to find her husband Les. She was convinced he had fallen over the falls (no railings- could happen, but of course, not likely). I stayed with her while Paul went ahead to look for him. Eventually we found him ( he had not heard her say where she would be, and thought she went on without him.) A pretty tense time for her, but with a happy ending. After resting for a bit, we headed back down the mountain. By that time it was already 3 pm and the day was starting to feel long. The views along the way were as beautiful as most view are in Yosemite, but as we looked into the valley, we could see was a haze- as it turns out, it was a haze of pollen, adding a slightly green tinge to everything. We made it down without incident, but didn't get to the bottom until almost 6 pm. We were so hungry and tired at that point, we ate at Yosemite Lodge instead of leaving the park for dinner. I also got a T-shirt with a bear on it. The drive back to our trailer is almost 2 hours and most of it was done in the dark. We arrived at about 10 pm and we were both (especially Paul)too tired for words. Driving those roads, 4 hrs a day, especially in the dark, takes a toll. All in all yesterday was one of the most strenuous,yet rewarding days of our trip. I feel extremely lucky to have spent so much time with the bear family. Today we canceled our plans to drive Tioga Rd, which is supposed to be beautiful, but would be about a 5 hour drive. Paul is done in, and we'll just relax today before heading out tomorrow.

Bass Lake and Yosemite National Park

Bass lake is a beautiful lake in the Sierra National Forest. It’s a great lake for water skiing, swimming, and whatever other water sports anyone might have in mind. We arrived at the campground early Friday afternoon, and took the time to set up camp and pre-prep some food. Kirk and Karen showed up next- It was Karen’s last day of teaching this school year, so she was ready to get out of town. Once Kevin and Suzy showed up with their pop up trailer, we settled down to dinner and a campfire.
Saturday didn’t go quite as planned, since Kirk and Karen got “the call” Friday night, to alert them that their daughter-in-law was in labor, and their first grandchild was on the way. They headed back to Fresno Saturday morning to make sure they would be there to greet the new baby (Lauren!).

          After a lazy start, the 4 of us went for a ride, up and around the surrounding mountain area. We couldn’t make it all the way to the top- the snow got in the way. Kevin did a little fly fishing along the way, and we walked a few trails, but nothing energetic.
     Once we got back to the lake area, we headed to lunch at Ducey’s- a restaurant with a great view of the lake. Dinner that night was appetizers- once we started eating them, we decided we couldn’t eat a real dinner. Kirk and Karen arrived shortly thereafter and showed off the pictures of their new granddaughter.
         We had until 2 pm Sunday at the campground, so after fixing a delicious breakfast, we opted to rent a pontoon boat and take it around the lake. By then it was warm enough that a couple of us went for a dip in the lake. I got my first glimpse of a Bald Eagle while on the lake! It was just a glimpse, but I did note the white tail- no time to get the camera out unfortunately.
     Once again it was lunch at Ducey’s, and then it was time to pack it up and head out. We had a great time, as usual, with these friends, and are trying to make plans for Yellowstone next summer.
          After looking at the weather forecast (hot today, cool tomorrow) and the Yosemite brochure again Monday, we opted to check out Mariposa Grove, and then head to Glacier Point to watch the sunset. Mariposa Grove is home to Giant Sequoias and Ponderosa Pines. There are miles of trails that bring you past some of the more interesting and spectacular specimens. We took one of the longest trails, about 7 miles, and made it to Wawona Point, where the view was beautiful. Walking through the forest, I tripped about 4 times, trying to walk while looking up. These trees are so tall and wide and majestic, it’s hard to ignore them as you walk by. Sometimes there would be 2 or 3 trees growing together. We found out that they share nutrition by fusing their roots together, so that they can all survive. There were a lot of areas that showed evidence of fires- some seemed pretty recent. It was in 1970 that the change was made that allowed fires that were started by natural causes to continue to burn. It seems Mother Nature takes care of her own better than we knew. The fires serve the purpose of keeping the ecology of the forest balanced. The bark on the Sequoia trees is so thick and porous, it takes multiple fires to do serious harm to the trees. One of the trees we saw is 1800 years old.
           From the Grove it was another hour ride into the park to get to Glacier Point. Glacier Point Rd. is a long, narrow road, uphill most of the way, but once you get close to the top, the views are beyond spectacular. I would say that the views from there may be the best I have ever seen. We could see the whole valley, complete with views of Nevada and Vernal Falls, where we had hiked a few days ago. Half Dome is a prominent feature of the landscape. Sunset at Glacier Point was our goal, so we brought food for dinner with us. We ate while we waited for it to get late. As the shadows lengthened, contrasts in the landscape became more pronounced. On this night there was some pink in the sky, but I think on other nights it could be even better. Not that I am complaining. I think I took 100 pictures, but none of them will do it justice.

Yosemite National Park- Day 1

As we drove and walked through Yosemite National Park, I tried to decide what words I would use to sum up the park and what my impressions of it are.  That's very difficult to do when you have a limited vocabulary!   I guess if I had to use one word, it would be "huge".  Not "vast" like Big Bend, because in Big Bend there are no trees to block the "vastness".  Here, there are trees, huge ones, and  huge rocks, and views, huge views, everywhere you look. There really aren't words that convey the feeling I got.  There was a feeling of excitement of course, of feeling insignificant, but also the feeling that there have been  so many people  here exploring this wilderness, and I couldn't wait to be one of them, and how great it is that this place is being preserved so that we can all enjoy it.
    The RV Park we are staying in is about an hour and a half from the visitors center. On the way in, that was no problem,  I was captivated by the views anyway.  On the way home, at 8 pm though,  it got old since I was so tired.  Plus we then had to stop to go food shopping and eat dinner.  It was one long day.
      There were two hikes we were particularly  interested in doing, but we decided to do the shortest of the two on our first day.  We hiked the Mist Trail (appropriately named) up past Vernal Falls to Nevada Falls, then back down Muir Trail, for a total of about 7 miles and 1900 ft elevation gain.  Luckily the views were spectacular and the photo opportunities many, since we had to stop frequently to catch our breath along the way. The plus side to the fact that we can't hike Half Dome, due to snow, is that the waterfalls-and there are lots of them- are positively gushing with water. As we were hiking, whether we could see a waterfall or not, we could always hear one.  It was never quiet in the forest.  There were also lots of people, but not to the point where it felt overcrowded.
All in all it was a great, but tiring, first day in Yosemite.  This morning I am doing laundry, how fun.  This afternoon we are leaving this park for 2 nights, and meeting Kevin, Suzy, Kirk and Karen at a Federal campground to spend the weekend.  We'll come back to this campground on Sunday.

Yosemite National Park

 We have cancelled our reservation for inside Yosemite National Park. It snowed there again a few days ago, which means the cables for Half Dome will probably not be up before we leave the area, and we won't be able to hike it. I am really disappointed, but we'll just have to try again next year.  We'll still be here for a week, and do a lot of hiking, but not Half Dome.

Travel, and then Fresno CA

What followed Needles was a few days of travel and "chillin". We got up really early in the morning, and hit the road, in order to avoid the wind. We spent one night in Bakersfield CA, which is pretty close to Fresno, but made our traveling day a little shorter and easier.  There was no hiking we were interested in doing, so when we arrived in Bakersfield, we washed the Everest- which we haven't done in a long time.  It wasn't too bad, but it felt good to get all the months of accumulated dust off.
        We rewarded ourselves with a swim in the pool afterwards and had a quiet afternoon.  Well, except for the birds.  When we arrived at  our site, there was a bird (a Killdeer) making quite a racket, scolding us for being there, it seemed.  Soon enough, Paul saw the nest, complete with eggs, under our picnic table.  The mommy Killdeer was trying to warn us off.  Once that didn't work, she/he would run away from the nest and act injured, to attract our attention away from the eggs.  She/he (there were both mommy and daddy bird around) did this repeatedly all afternoon, everytime we came out of the trailer or approached the picnic table. Once we were at a safe distance, she would sit back down on the nest.  It was really cool to see the parental protective  instinct at work, yet a little sad since she didn't believe me when I told her we wouldn't harm her babies.  She just kept yelling at us and acting injured whenever she saw us.  We tried to stay away as much as possible so she would have more time on the nest, and we for sure couldn't let the cat out.
     Once in Fresno, we met up with Suzy and Kevin and headed up the road about an hour, to have dinner with Nancy and Bill.  Bill and Kevin are fraternity brothers of Paul's, and they remain good friends.  We always have a blast with the group from CA.   Nancy and Bill own a farm,  and sure do know how to feed people!  They built a "party barn" in their yard so that they can host square dancing,  parties and whatever else they want.  We had an awesome dinner with them.  We won't see them again this trip since their son is getting married in two weeks, and the wedding is at the farm. 

Yesterday we met Suzy and Kevin at Kirk and Karen's (another fraternity brother and great friend) house for breakfast, and started the day with Mimosas.  Once we had completely stuffed ourselves we headed over to our trailer to show off our home.  We made plans to head back to Kirk's for dinner, and got all the ingredients to make ice cream for dessert.  A very nice Memorial Day was had by all.
On and off all day we tried to make some new plans and finalize some existing plans, but having fun kept getting in the way.  We are all camping together next weekend at a Federal campground in the nearby Sierra National Forest, so we are trying to finalize who is bringing what.  We are all also interested in meeting in Yellowstone next summer, so we are trying to figure out if there is a time frame that we can all make it there, so that once reservations open up, we can make them.
Today Paul and I are working on some small projects, and doing some shopping, before meeting everyone at Kevin and Suzy's for dinner.