2008 – Week 4


Tuesday, May 20, 2008:
Up and on the road a bit earlier than usual. We wanted to beat the traffic jams that are the result of road reconstruction inside the park on CA140. They are reinforcing the retaining walls, adding stone safety rails, adding drainage and repaving. This project has been going on for several years as the road in from the entrance has all been done. Due to the heavy winter snowfall, all construction work must be done during the tourist season. It will be great when it gets done. When we entered the park, when found a terrific parking spot in “Day Use” Lots. It seemed to be in shade all day and that was great for Daisy. We went to the Visitor Center, but had a detour into a deli to get egg omelet sandwiches for lunch. The young ladies behind the counter seemed more interested in talking to the customers than producing product. Oh, well, but 20 minutes seemed a bit long. We boarded a Park sponsored hybrid bus that was to take us to the trailhead for the “Mist Trail” at the east end of the valley. It would have been perfect, but I had us get off one stop early. After an extra walk to loosen our muscles and get our packs settled in (I am trying to justify my mistake here) we started on the climb to Vernal Fall with thoughts of continuing to Nevada Fall (we had seen both yesterday from Glacier Point). The trail had no mercy as we climbed from the minute we started. It was only a 1,000-foot climb, but it had Susie and I (more I) huffing and puffing. About 1/2 way up, we crossed a bridge that spanned the Merced River and had a glimpse of what we should expect. Up to the bridge, the trail had been paved so the walk was pretty easy. However, from the bridge to the top of Vernal Falls, it was unpaved and rocky. Best of all, the trail was so steep that there were 430 steps plus some less steep grades. These were the original steps and were not consistent in height. If that wasn’t enough, about 1/2 way through this section, the “mist” from the Fall began. It was wet, cold, slippery and a long way down. We became good friends with the people around us as we all struggled up this section. When we made it to the top (not always a given) it was warm and dry and felt good to lay on the warm granite.
There was a group of college girls who were headed up into the backcountry to camp for 5 days. They were carrying all their gear, and it looked very heavy. When they reached Vernal Fall, they still were not 1/2 way to the first night’s campsite. Susie and I had several cherries as a snack, and one of them slipped away. Not to worry, a ground squirrel found and ate it. We had lunch at the top of the Fall before heading down. We had given up on the plan to go to Nevada Fall. We stayed at the top of the Fall for about 45 minutes to dry our clothes and rest. The trip down was faster and easier. We returned to the RV to check on Daisy (fine) and prepare for a bike ride. We went to Mirror Lake and Happy Isles Nature Center where we learned about a rockslide in 1996. At 7.00pm a massive section of the cliff on the south side of the Valley and directly above the Happy Isles Visitor Center came crashing down creating an air burst that killed a young camper, injured two park employees and damaged the building. A bit later another, but smaller piece fell, but did not cause any further damage. Just as we finished reading about this, two emergency vehicles headed up the path towards Vernal Fall. We never did hear what, if anything, happened. Next to the Visitor Center to buy Susie her Yosemite memento pin. We continued to view the bottom of the Lower Yosemite Falls and got wet again. On our way back to the RV, we saw the Upper Yosemite Falls and Susie noticed a cable and one person at the top of the Fall. It seemed that the person was trying to cross over the top of Yosemite Creek. We watched for a while, and a second person showed up. I got cold, and we eventually left without know if the traverse was successful. Back to the RV to take care of Daisy and have dinner before returning to the campground. We had great day and learned at the Visitor Center that the Tioga Road (CA 120) through the Park would be open at 8:00am tomorrow for the first time in 2008. There were reports of a 45 (not a typo) foot snow accumulation this last winter. We entered the campground at 9:10pm, had showers and went to bed shortly thereafter.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008:
I noticed that our neighbors were from the State of Washington and decided to ask if they had any advice as to what we should see when we got there. They were helpful, and the conversation turned to traveling in general. They were on the way to North Carolina to see their son who had just returned from Afghanistan. This trip was their first of this sort, and they were using their Ford Explorer. The plan was to camp for 4 or 5 nights and then go to a hotel. They had modified the Explorer by removing the rear seats to create storage and placed a bed frame in the back for a level sleeping area. They seemed to have lots of stuff but it all fit. If we saw them drive down the highway, we would never have known they were camping across the country and back over a five-week period. Susie showed them her book, and since the husband is an artist, he (and she) thought he might try the same. We then started our journey across Yosemite Park along CA120. Whenever we were at 8,000 feet or above there was snow, the deepest was only 5 feet. We stopped to see another sequoia grove and then headed east to Olmsted Point. We were driving along a tree lined 2 lane road and bam, we were at Olmsted Point. This was spectacular, and the main view was to the south where we could again see Half Dome but this time from the north. Susie and I were able to see climbers who were using the cable handrails to get up the last and steeper section of Half Dome. We had lunch looking over this very scenic place. Continuing east we left the park, and as soon as we did, the scenery changed and not for the better. We dropped down 3,200 feet to the town of Lee Vining CA and headed north on US395. We passed Mono Lake, which is in a basin created by volcanic activity 600 years ago. This lake is maintained by snowmelt, and its level is never constant. The accumulation of snowmelt borne minerals has made the lake unsuitable for anything other brine shrimp. The land here is a bit better than Nevada, but nothing to write home to your parents to ask them to send money to buy. As we continued north through Bridgeport CA, the mountains still had some snow on them. Irrigation from the Bridgeport Reservoir supported pasture land for cows and sheep with the cows having the better and more irrigated land. We continued 22 miles north of Bridgeport and stopped in a campground in the Toiyabe National Forest for the night. Tomorrow we head to Lake Tahoe. At 7:30 pm, the temperature is 55 degrees, and we expect it to go much lower.

Thursday, May 22, 2008:
Daisy woke me at 3:00am this morning asking to go out. I put on some clothes and slippers and stepped out of the RV into 2” of snow. What a surprise! Daisy did her business and then decided to sniff her way around the campground looking for animals. No way! We got up again at 7;00am, and I looked at the outside temperature. It was 36 degrees and 46 degrees inside, plus it was still snowing.
I turned on the generator and RV furnace to make it bearable inside. Next to us there was a couple camping out of the back of a pickup truck. They were there at 3:00am, but not at 7:00am. We drove north towards Carson City NV and were able to find a vet for Daisy. Her loose tummy had gone on for too long, and we were afraid of dehydration and need to find out what was wrong. The short of it is that Daisy is staying in the doggie hospital for the night with an IV to make sure the drugs actually stay in her system. We will take her from the vet’s tomorrow. We had the oil changed in the RV and found a campground across from a casino. We’ll probably go there tonight for a bit after updating our logs and trying to get them on our respective blogs. We need to do laundry for the benefit of all of those we come in contact with. At 5:30p it is 60 degrees, but with the strong north wind feels much cooler.

Friday, May 23, 2008:
Rained again last night. We decided that today would be a good one to clean the RV, get Susie ready to fly to San Antonio for some family business, buy some supplies and pick up Daisy. However, after a talk with the vet we have decided to leave her in the doggie hospital one more night to make sure she gets her meds properly. We went to see her, and she is doing fine and happy to see us. I’ll get her after I return from taking Susie to the Reno airport. We’ll go to the casino for dinner and have any early night. It is windy and cold with occasional showers at our elevation, but probably snow above 6,000 feet.

Saturday, May 24, 2008:
I took Susie to Reno to catch her plane to San Antonio and then returned to Carson City to buy some goodies at Trader Joe’s and WalMart to get some AA batteries, engine oil, etc before picking Daisy up from the hospital. They didn’t have the special food I want, so on Saturday of a 3-day weekend, I found myself running all around town to find some. I made so may turns that Gabby Garmin was completely confused. Daisy and I finally came back to the RV Park around 2:00pm, and there we sit. Daisy is sleeping, but is hungry and thirsty as can be. I have taken her for several walks, and when she comes back, she falls asleep. She is plenty perky when she goes for our walks, and that is good news. It is still cold here with intermittent mist and rain. I cannot tell if it is snowing on the mountaintops, but if it is, there is little or no accumulation. We leave tomorrow and start heading to Boise. The weather reports are not great for us, but these brown valleys and hills can sure use the water.

Sunday, May 25, 2008:
Another cloudy and rainy day! Just before we left the RV Park, I noticed a man and wife walking around wearing sheepskin lined denim jackets and earmuffs. I really didn’t think it was that cold. Daisy and I left Carson City at 9:30am and headed north on US395 through Reno eventually entering CA. I would like to comment on the noise barriers along the freeways that we have seen in Colorado and Nevada. The ones there are much more attractive and aren’t as obtrusive as the ones back east. Driving north from Carson City to Reno I noticed several geothermal power plants along US395. If I remember correctly, Reno sits near a fault line and had several earthquakes and tremors over the last few months. There are hot springs so the geothermal source must be close to the surface. North of Reno, US395 turns west into CA and then north again. I had to pass through an agriculture checkpoint shortly after entering California. They were looking for vegetables. Of course, I had none. They must be serious because there was an incinerator at the site. A single-track railroad runs generally parallel to US395, and on a rail siding I saw a string of railroad cars designed to carry finished lumber. The cars were empty with no sign of any locomotives so they must be in storage waiting for the housing market to restart. It is hard to imagine how many cars there were, but the string was between 2 and 3 miles long. Finally the clouds began to break, and I had hopes for sun, but the clouds returned as did the rain. As we continued north, irrigated farmland and pastures became more prevalent. We passed to the west Honey Lake. It is noted as a dry lake on the road map but there was some water. Just north of the lake I took a small detour and passed through the town of Susanville CA.

This is a pretty big town in this part of the state, with a population of 17,000. I took a picture of the entrance sign just to prove to Susie that I was there. There was snow on the mountains to the west, and I assumed that the water supply for irrigation was plentiful. I talked to a local farmer who told me that most of the lakes were 6-8 feet low, terrible for this time of the season. So much for my assumption! The rain we were having that day was the first since last November and was not significant. Snowpack is not good enough for this area. North of Susanville, I noticed that there was a railbed that had been stripped of rails but was unable to determine if it had been added to the “rails to trails” network. There are probably not many people out here who might want to ride it, but I thought that about the Hiawatha Trail in NE Idaho. Continuing north on US395, we crossed Sage Hen Pass (great name) and a few miles further on passed through the MODOC National Wildlife Reserve near the town of Alturas. I assume that this NWR is on a flyway because all the water features were rectangular, not something we generally see in nature. The northbound season must have passed because there was no activity. I suspect early spring and late fall are the times to visit there. Continuing north on US395, we crossed into Oregon and made a hard left turn on to the road that leads to Goose Lake State Park. Goose Lake is about 10 miles wide and 30 miles long, but I imagine its size varies according to the season. We arrived at 4:30pm after having traveled 264 miles. Daisy and I took a long walk and settled in. We sleep tonight with cows mooing in the background and maybe a train.

Monday, May 26, 2008:
Up this morning to cloudy skies and a temperature of 50 degrees. Daisy and I took a longer walk and have decided that we will stay here one more night. It is quiet and the spring flowers are out. There is a report of a porcupine in the area so I’ll be careful with Daisy. Daisy usually likes to stay outside but asked to come in the morning. She is asleep on the couch, covered with a blanket. I am going to work on our travel routing for the next few weeks as we approach Glacier NP. The last I saw on the internet, the Going-to-the-Sun Road is still closed due to snow. The skies cleared to partly cloudy, but as I looked to the west, it appeared that more wet weather is coming. The temperature warmed to 73 degrees before the clouds obscured the sun. The rains came, but not very hard or for very long. I noticed a flock of white swans flying overhead and learned from the Park Hosts that there are several flocks in Goose Lake. They were graceful and a joy to watch. I showered, much to Daisy’s joy. It was cloudy and 57 degrees as the sun set.

2008 - Week 3


Tuesday, May 13, 2008:
We had planned to leave Pahrump around 8:00am and did it! We stopped in town to get more groceries and then were on the road headed towards Death Valley NP. We traveled NV Route 372 that turned into CA Route 172 through Shoshone CA into the south end of DVNP, across the Greenwater and Amargosa Range before turning north onto Badwater Road at the bottom of the valley. The elevation there was approximately 80 feet. The Panamint Range forms the other side of the valley and includes Telescope Peak at 11,049 feet as its high point. This peak still had remnants of snow, and the temperature in valley was 93 degrees. We pulled out our small hiking GPS and watched the elevation change as we drove north. The question in our mind in what would the GPS do when we went below sea level? It just put a minus sign in front of the elevation! The wind was blowing, and the colors of the mountains were bright and varied. The floor Death Valley receives about 2” of rain each year, but does get some runoff from the mountains. As we drove north, we noticed that the vegetation consisted mostly of creosote bushes, but even those disappeared as we went further north and the valley floor dropped. By the time we reached Badwater (the lowest point in the US at elevation of – 282 feet), there was no vegetation. We walked out on the mineral surface at the Badwater viewing facility and noticed some man-made holes with liquid about 6” below the surface. I am not going to describe it as water because a tourist tasted it and spit it out with an ugly epitaph. He had had his mouth washed out before he spoke. We noticed that there was a sign placed on the mountain behind the parking area stating ‘SEALEVEL”. It was a long way up! We continued north and traveled the one-way Artists Drive, so named for the marvelous colors in the rock. There is a vehicle length limitation of 25’, and we just made it. This is a ”must see”. We continued north to the Furnace Creek Visitor Center for more info and decided to head north to visit the Ubehebe Crater and Scottys Castle. The Ubehebe Crater was formed more than 300 years ago when the ground water seeped down into molten lava, causing a violent explosion. When the dust settled over 6 square miles, a hole 1/2 mile in diameter and 600 feet remained. You can walk down into or around this crater, but we decided to decline. The surface around the hole is covered with black gravel, about the size of a pea in diameter. We decided to visit Scottys Castle tomorrow morning and so headed to the Mesquite Springs camping area. It was nearly empty as the season for visiting DVNP is coming to a close (except for Daisy, Susie and I). Daisy has not been feeling well for the last few days with an upset tummy. Hopefully the medicine Susie has will fix the problem. The sky was clear and had it not been for the bright moon, we it would have been a great night for seeing the stars. Sometime during the night, Daisy heard or smelled some animal and woke us with loud barking. Probably a coyote.


Wednesday, May 14, 2008:
We started the day with a tour of Scottys Castle to finish off the north end of DVNP. Mr Johnson, who owned the place but seemed happy to have Scotty take credit, spent in excess od $2,000,000 in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. I wonder how much that would be in today’s dollars? It is a Spanish style house made to look old as if it were built and furnished with antiques. Susie and I will be scratching our heads to try to figure out why someone would spend so mush money in such as desolate area. Driving back from Scottys Castle to the bottom of Death Valley, the elevation fell from 3,300 feet to –70 feet, and I was able to coast most of the way. However, as we climbed out of DVNP on the west side through Stovepipe Wells, we went from –70 feet to 4,956 feet thus using all the gas we saved coasting earlier. We had to buy more gas while in Death Valley at $4.36/gallon, another new record for us, but probably not for the Californians. We drove south on RT 178, passing through the town of Troma whose only livelihood was harvesting the minerals from Searles Lake before turning west to Lake Isabella in the south end of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It was good to see real water again, and Daisy, whom is feeling much better, swam and swam and swam. The cool water felt good on our feet and help relieve the high 90’s we had today. The weather report for the next few days is for the same, so we’ll be getting underway earlier tomorrow to get us into the mountains above 6,000 feet.

Thursday, May 15, 2008:
We were up early and on the road by 7:00am to get to Sequoia NP, about 150 miles away. Driving west on CA 178, we followed the Kern River from Lake Isabella to the city of Bakersfield. It was a long but interesting trip. The road was about 50 above the river, but had no guardrails to prevent a swim. By the time we arrived at Bakersfield we had seen several places for white water rafters to put in, 2 hydroelectric dams, an aqueduct serving the city of Los Angeles and numerous irrigated orchards. The area around Bakersfield is a large petroleum producing field. We drove north and then east into Sequoia NP at the south end and drove north through a section where the National Park Service recommended that no vehicle over 22 feet long travel. Before we entered the park, we found a fresh fruit stand and bought cherries, navel oranges and strawberries. I can say without hesitation that I have never had better strawberries ever! We eventually reached the Giant Forest and spent 3.5 hours on an 8-mile walk through the giant trees and climbed to the top of Moro Rock. From the top of this rock, you have a 360-degree view, and it is wonderful. There was still snow on the tops of the mountains and in the valleys where the sun doesn’t reach. We then drove through the Sequoia National Forest to the Azalea Campground in Grant Grove area of Kings Canyon NP. The boundaries of Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks touch each other and are administered as one. Snow was evident in many areas as we drove this 1.5-hour drive of 35 miles. We drove 205 miles today and have seen many wonderful sequoia trees and scenery and will move on to hike in areas along the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway tomorrow. By the way, the cherries are gone and we have made a big dent in the strawberries.

Friday, May 16, 2008:
Slow morning today, but the weather was beautiful. The weather report stated that in the San Joaquin Valley the temperatures were to top 100 degrees, but the mountains would be in the 80’s. Love this altitude! We left the campground around 9:45am, stopped at the Post Office then the Visitor Center where I bought a hiking and trail map for the Cedar Gove area of KCNP. We toured Grant Grove and saw the General Grant Tree, which President Coolidge proclaimed as the Nation’s Christmas Tree in 1926. President Eisenhower proclaimed this same tree as a National Shrine. In the past, the sequoia trees in this area were named after states, but due to a lack of documentation, the practice was stopped. However one of the trees still named, the California Tree has an interesting story. In 1906 it was hit by lightning and started to burn at the top. Firefighters climbed an adjacent very tall fir tree that was 50 feet away, swung over to the burning sequoia, hauled a fire hose to top and extinguished the fire. We left Grant Grove as 2 busloads of elementary school kids arrived. We headed down the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway (CA 180) to the point where the road stops at the end of the canyon, a distance of 35 miles. Depending where we were on the Byway, on one side of the road was a vertical rock cliff and on the other side was a falloff to the bottom of the canyon (600 feet in some places) where the South Fork of the Kings River flows. Susie drove the 35 miles, and it took 1.5 hours. Neither Susie nor I can remember seeing such wonderful and rugged terrain. I’ve probably said that several times before, but it never seems to stop getting better. We didn’t know much about the Sierra Nevada Mountains, but Susie and I feel they are more rugged than the Rockies. The Sierra Nevada Mountains are a roadblock when traveling across California, and if you look at a road map, there are roads that run around the south end (which we did), but you must drive 150 miles (as the crow flies) north before finding the road through Yosemite NP that crosses this mountain range. If it weren’t for the National Park, you would have to drive another 30 miles to go around the north end. The mountains are just a jumble of peaks, very steep slopes and bare rock surfaces. Kings Canyon is a glacier made feature. When we go back to Glacier NP in mid-June, we’ll really have something to compare. When we got to the Sheep Creek Campground, the only 1 of the 4 opened now, we had lunch and then took a short nap that turned out to be 1.5 hours long. When we awoke, we took a bike ride. As I said earlier, I bought a hiking/biking map for this area and found once again that the graphics of the brochure was great, but the information was not completely correct. Bah, humbug! Susie took Daisy for her second swim of the day while I reloaded the bikes. Daisy came back exhausted, but happy. In spite of the nap, it will probably be an early night. Since it is Friday night, the campground is filling up for the weekend. Next weekend being Memorial Day, all the campgrounds will be open and full until Labor Day. We went to sleep listening to the sounds of the flowing river.

Saturday, May 17, 2008:
Daisy started making noises at 5:45am, and I did my best to ignore her, thinking it was a wild animal nearby. By 6:00am she had convinced me to get up and take her for a walk. Good thing as we think her tummy had been upset by the heart/worm medicine taken the day before. More hikes today. The first one was about 4 miles long and passed through a variety of plants life including fens, pine trees, ponderosa pines, flowers, etc. The path, a section of the Paradise Valley Trail, was on the north side of the South Fork, and we followed it upstream, crossing a bridge and expecting to follow a section of the Kanawyer Loop Trail downstream. Bubbs Creek, a very active tributary of the South Fork at this time of the year, had overflowed its banks and made Kanayer impassable. We returned the way we came and talked to numerous people on the way back. There were about 10 people who had full camping gear and were backpacking into the mountains, a vertical rise of 5,000 feet or more. Other people were going to see a waterfall, but we were not prepared for that journey. There was a report of a rattlesnake on the trail, but we never saw it. Back to the RV for lunch, and then a hike around Zumwalt Meadow. We didn’t see any large wildlife inn the meadow. As we traveled around the Meadow, we had the South Fork on one side and on the other the path lead us through a granite rock field. This rock field is the result of the actions of the glacier that formed Kings Canyon. The last hike of the day was to the Roaring River Falls. The Roaring River is another tributary to the South Fork. We can now understand why the first time we saw the South Fork it was so large. Tomorrow we leave this wonderful place that some US Park Ranger told us was like Yosemite NP without the crowds. We’ll find out on Monday.

Sunday, May 18, 2008:
Short day today. We left Cedar Grove at the bottom of Kings Canyon at 8:15am to get up the hills before the heat became too bad. We started at elevation 4,678 feet, followed the North Fork down until we reached Boyden Cave at 3,063 feet where we left the river and starting climbing out of Kings Canyon. By the time we reached the top, we were at 6,800 feet. What amazed us was the number of bicyclists following the same route as us with a full load of equipment. The last one we saw had just crested the high point and was peddling downhill. We stopped at the Grant Cove Visitor Center to get the answers to still lingering questions such as “How fast does the North Fork flow?”, answer “Don’t know” and “What are those large evergreen cones we saw on the ground?”, answer ‘Sugar Pine Cones”. Interestingly one of the smallest pinecones came from the sequoia trees. We left the Visitor Center (elevation 6,589 feet) and headed west on CA 180 to the city of Fresno CA dropping into the San Joaquin Valley at an elevation of 305 feet. Once again irrigation is king, and the fields are filled with fruit trees that need irrigation and wheat that doesn’t need as much. Wheat was the original crop in this valley. We found another fruit stand, and Susie bought white peaches, avocado and cherries. After we reached Fresno and replaced some basic foods, we turned north and headed back into the foothills before stopping at a KOA in Coarsegold CA, about 20 miles south of the South Entrance to Yosemite NP. The elevation here is 2,400 feet and the temperature is in the high 90’s (by the way, the normal high for this time of the year is 73 and in June 82 degrees. Terrible record-breaking temperatures here. We are plugged into the electric and hoping that CA has enough power to keep us cool. We are using the time to catch up on our administrative duties plus plan for Yosemite. Yosemite has severe restrictions on pets and advanced reservations for camping in the valley. We’ll probably have to stay outside the valley and in the mountains.

Monday, May 19, 2008:
A few days ago, I said that we were told that Kings Canyon NP was Yosemite NP without the people. Wrong! There are numerous people here, and the campgrounds we were planning to use a as a base are not yet open because they are at a high elevation and still full of snow. The Visitor Center personnel were helpful and provided us with some options which we’ll work on. We entered at the South Entrance and visited the Mariposa Grove that has sequoia trees and other very large pines. We could tell that many more people visit this park than do Sequoia NP by the packed earth, more restrictive fencing and propane-powered courtesy buses. This Grove was crammed with people, a lot of them speaking different languages. We then drove north and took the Glacier Point Road which is on the south side of Yosemite Valley but some 3,500 feet higher in elevation. The drive was lined with tall evergreen trees. The first surprise was the amount of snow in the forest, not enough to ski on, but too much for camping. The first overlook is named Washburn Point, and we were awestruck at what we saw. With the help of several people who had been there before, we identified Vernal Fall, Nevada Fall, Illioutte Fall, the rock formation known as Half Dome (peak elevation 8,836 feet), plus several others with peaks in excess of 10,000 feet and all snow covered. Several people gave us hints as to which hikes we should do. We then moved on to Glacier Point where we saw more of the same, but from a different angle plus Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls. As we were looking at Half Dome, a whisper spread that there were climbers on the south elevation (not the shear cliff face with gives Half Dome its name). Eventually, 4 climbers were spotted near the top, and we watched them climb to the peak. Everyone seemed to be talking about the climbers and the risks, etc, but then a young man who worked as an equipment carrier for the climbers told us how great the thrill it is to climb a surface with ropes. His girlfriend stood in the background, shaking her head. I don’t think she agreed with him. We moved on to the trailhead for Sentinel Dome. This dome has a 360-degree view and a top elevation of 8,122 feet. We were able to see El Capitan with a top elevation of 7,569 feet, plus a great view to the west that we were unable to see from Glacier Point. We climbed back down through the snow, returned to the RV and then to the RV Trailerpark outside Yosemite. The roads around the entrance to Yosemite NP are a bit convoluted due to the limited space at the valley entrance. We traveled into the bottom of the valley for a bit and the views were great. We are looking forward to tomorrow when we spend the day in the valley and take some hikes. We are again sleeping next to a roaring river. This time it is the Merced River, and it is the one that drains Yosemite Valley.

We climbed back down through the snow, returned to the RV and then to the RV Trailerpark outside Yosemite. The roads around the entrance to Yosemite NP are a bit convoluted due to the limited space at the valley entrance. We traveled into the bottom of the valley for a bit and the views were great. We are looking forward to tomorrow when we spend the day in the valley and take some hikes. We are again sleeping next to a roaring river. This time it is the Merced River, and it is the one that drains Yosemite Valley.

2008 - Week 2


May 6, 2008:
Slow day today! First order of business was a trip to the dentist in Evergreen. He fixed it promptly at a cost less than a tank of gas. Susie and I then went to Safeway to replenish our fresh fruit and vegetable supplies. Plain old bananas were $0.69/lb compared to the $0.49/lb at home. We then filled up with gas at a gas station that was not shown on our GPS. Lunch was at a small deli, and the owner brought us carrot cake as a complimentary desert. Back to Diana’s where we disassembled her new grill, loaded it into the back of her SUV and returned it to Home Depot. She found that it is almost impossible to buy a grill that runs off natural gas. We met Paul for dinner and returned home for laundry and to play with the blogs. There were some rain sprinkles when we went to bed at 11:00pm.

May 7, 2008:
We were awaken by heavy rain at 2:00am and by the time we got up there had been 3/4” of rain. We were concerned that there might have been snow in the mountains, but a check of the road reports showed that the rain had passed across the mountains and was about to pass Denver. We had breakfast and left Diana and Paul to pack for their 7-day wedding anniversary trip to the San Juan Islands in Washington State. They take a trip every year, usually with a tour, and camp out, but this year the trip was cancelled due to a lack of participants. They decided to go anyway. They will give us feedback so when we get there in July we’ll have first-hand knowledge. Back on I-70 headed west. Diana’s house is at 6,024 feet and Susie had been taking altitude pills, but the trip through the Loveland Pass at 11,200 feet left her feeling terrible. It wasn’t until we got to Dillon CO, north of Breckenridge, that she began to feel better. A cup of strong caffeinated coffee put her over the edge. We have taken this route once before but never with snow on the mountains. They were still actively skiing in several areas, mostly between Denver and Dillon. We are not sure, but it seems there were many more oil or natural gas drill rigs along the route of I-70 than we saw during our last trip through this area in 2004. The best part of the trip was the drive through Glenwood Canyon. I-70, the Colorado River and a single set of railroad tracks are all crammed in the bottom of this narrow but deep canyon. We ate lunch in a Rest Area near the town of No Name (no joke) CO at the west end of Glenwood Canyon and watched Amtrak passenger train headed west and a few whitewater rafters. The water in the Colorado River is from snowmelt and must have been cold. We drove through a wind/dust storm just before we stopped at for the night at the Colorado State Park in Fruita CO. We stopped at 5:15pm after driving 276 miles. We are on the north side of the Colorado River and on the south side is the Colorado National Monument which we drove through a few years ago. If you are in the area, you must take the time to do the same. There are clouds in the west so a change of weather is probable.


May 8, 2008:
I took Daisy for a walk at 7:00am, about one hour after sunrise, and it was a real treat. The sun shone on the bluffs of the Colorado National Monument and the different colors of the rocks were well highlighted. The view is the best in the early morning. We walked along the Colorado River for a bit, noticing the dark brown color and the swiftness of the water. Susie caught up with her drawing diary and then took Daisy for a run. We had showers, breakfast and then left Fruita at 10:30am. That park is just wonderful, and it gives us a good feeling whenever we stop there. Heading west on I-70, we passed into Utah and marveled at the geography and colors. Off to the south we saw the snow-topped La Sal Mountains that are just to the east of Moab. It was in these mountains that we climbed into 6” of snow and were unable to turn around and go back. We have photos of that adventure, but the most interesting is us in the RV following a herd of cattle along the road. We passed the town of Green River UT, and I remembered that it was the jumping off point for canoe trips down the Green River. The trip takes a few days, and the canoe outfitters give you enough food for 3 days, shoved you into the river and then retrieve you just upstream of where the Green River joins the Colorado River in Canyonlands NP. Susie thinks it would be better to have a guide and maybe that is an option. The farther west we went, the rougher the geography. There were more mesas and different kinds of stone, ranging in color from tans, reds and grays. At mileage marker 146, we came upon San Rafael Reef and start of the San Rafael Swell. We stopped at a viewing area and climbed to the top of a small knoll and thought we had seen the best ever. We had lunch and drove through the cut in the San Rafael Reef to the top of the San Rafael Swell and found that the views were even better. I am not sure the pictures do it justice, but it is a memory that Susie and I won’t forget. We continued west on I-70 to Salina UT, viewing the snow-topped peaks of the Pavant Range that we passed to the north, then through irrigated farmland to Delta UT (founded 1907) to spend the night. We drove 269 miles and stopped at 4:50pm MDT. This is the first commercial RV Park that we have been through in several years that doesn’t have any internet facilities.


May 9, 2008:
It is starting to feel that we’re starting the viewing part of the trip. We continued the drive across Utah and into Nevada to visit the Great Basin National Park, a distance of 130 miles. The land was absolutely flat with a large intermittent lake named Sevier Lake to the south. We worked our way through mountains including the House Range, Confusion Range and Snake Range before we reached the Great Basin NP. The growth is pure scrub, and we saw only one animal, a pronghorn antelope. Looking back on this segment, we think that building a dozen or so nuclear plants here can solve the energy crisis in the US. At the GBNP Visitor Center, we learned that the Great Basin is one of four deserts in the US but the only one that is “cold” desert (freezes during the winter) and has a little glacier at the top of Wheeler Peak (top elev. 13,063 feet). We also learned that the Great Basin covers parts of UT, NV, CA, AZ, OR and a bit of Mexico. The definition of a basin is that all water that falls in the region stays in that region and does not flow to the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean. In the Great Basin NP is a cave complex named after Absalom Lehman, the man who discovered them in 1885. We have explored 4 cave complexes during the last 5 years and all are different. This is a small cave, but the interior features are wonderful. Because it is small, these features are easily viewed. Stalactites, stalagmites, columns, straws, shields, and bacon are abundant. The environment of all caves is very fragile, and we were able to see fungus growing on traces on human-made pencil markings and soot from candles used during the exploration in the late 1800’s. According to the US Park Ranger, there are two types of fungus growing in this cave that are unique to this location. It was hard for anyone on the tour to believe that after 120 years that these markings were still providing nourishment to the fungi. The tour took over an hour and was well worth the time. Before we left, we started to drive further up the road to Wheeler Peak to get a better view of the Great Basin, but there was too much haze. We turned back and drove to Ely NV to spend another night in a KOA. When I walked in to the office I noticed they were selling t-shirts with the inscription “397 miles round trip to the nearest Wal-Mart”. I didn’t buy one, but it sure told us how far we were out of the mainstream. All three of us will be happy when we can start staying in US National Parks and US Forest Service lands. Much quieter! We head southwest tomorrow to get organized for a drive through Death Valley on Monday. We traveled 174 miles and arrived at Ely at 4:15pm. It is now 8:30pm and the sun has set. The wind is from the northeast, and the temperature is expected to fall to 28 overnight.


May 10, 2008:
Well, the temperature didn’t fall to 28 degrees, only to 39 with clear skies. Daisy and I took a long walk through the scrub, hoping that it was too cold for the snakes to be out. There were several other walkers with us, and we all made the trip safely. I took a few pictures, but because the vista is so large, We left the KOA at 9:30am and went into town for gas (a new high of $3.959), electrical fuses, electrical switch and food. The grocery was large, but due to the need to increase shelf-life, everything seems to be loaded with potassium sorbate, a preservative that gives Susie 3-day migraines. We left Ely NV and headed southwest on Route 6. Once again the mountain ranges pop up through a very flat surface that is covered with sagebrush. There were several dry lakes on either side of the road. We the further west we got, the drier it became and there was less vegetation. Traffic was light between Ely and Tonopah, and I think during this leg of 169 miles we saw less than a dozen vehicles coming from Tonopah. Nuclear plants here also! While there are towns listed on the map, they are generally deserted or in such bad shape that they should be. During the last 30 miles as we approached Tonopah, we started to see herds of longhorn cattle, plus several small dust-devils. The longhorns must be the only ones strong enough to survive this environment. The town of Tonopah, where we turned south on Route 95, was a mining town and it was terribly depressed. We headed south and stopped in the town of Goldfield NV to make lunch. Goldfield has a few wonderful old buildings and was once the largest town in NV, but now it is just a dump (maybe a bit better than Tonopah but not much). It was here that I discovered that both front tires were badly worn on the outside tread. We called AAA in the hopes that they could give us a hand in locating a tire shop where we could get new tires plus an alignment. If you remember, I mentioned having the front end of the RV rebuilt so I was really surprised at the amount of damage. AAA was not much help. One of the firms mentioned was back in Tonopah, but when I called the phone was disconnected. Another firm was in the town of Beatty, but we were unable to make contact. Susie was on the phone trying everything, but we finally decided that we had to drive south with the hope that the closer we got to Las Vegas, the better chance we would have. We noticed that the rock formations changed the further south we went south with some layers of granite showing. We must have been traveling along a fault line as the layers of rock ran vertically, whereas a few miles on either side of this rock, the layers were horizontal, just as they were laid down millions of years ago when this area was a sea (several times). We also saw a very large sand dune that just seemed to pop out of the desert floor. Goodness knows how that got there. Driving much more slowly and checking the tires on occasion allowed us to get to the town of Pahrump NV, about 50 miles north of Las Vegas. There is a tire store, but it doesn’t do alignment because the RV is too tall. There is also a GM dealership, and we hope that between the two, we can get fixed. We found the most luxurious KOA imaginable. We were sure it was going to cost us an arm and a leg, but no. Actually, it is 5 years old, and the owners are trying to “condo” the property. We are the beneficiaries and have access to a pool, exercise room, sauna and hot tub plus free wifi. It was a pleasant way to complete a very stressful 130-mile hair-raising last segment of the trip. We cannot get anything done tomorrow (when we were planning to drive through Death Valley), and we don’t have a feel for Monday. All we know is that we need to go through Death Valley early in the day to reduce the heat impact. We shut the engine down at 5:30pm having covered 330 miles.


May 11, 2008:
It was bright at 5:30 this morning, but the sun had not yet come up. After Daisy and I went for our morning walk, we lowered the awning on the RV to get some shade and then had coffee and a bagel. I suspect we’ll spend some time in the pool today! We read a bit, played on the computer, grumbled at the lousy internet service, fixed some electrical problems, walked Daisy, swam in the pool
, took some pictures and then met a German couple, Stephen and Inga, from Hamburg who noticed that I had an Apple computer. She needed help registering her new Apple touch screen iPod, and so they came over after dinner. Susie was able to help her, and then we talked for about an hour and a half. Theyhave taken great vacations around the world for the last 20 years and have rented an RV and will tour southern CA for 2 weeks before returning home. We didn’t move the RV today. The high temperature was 86, quite a change from what we have experienced the last few days. It is also very windy and hazy so photos of the mountains are questionable. I sometimes wonder where all the bright and sunny photos of the area come from.


May 12, 2008:
I woke at 5:50am and took Daisy for a walk. Susie was up when I returned, and she cleaned the RV and fed Daisy while I took a shower and scoured the Las Vegas Yellow Pages for RV places in the hope that we can get new tires and an alignment today. We knew we had to go to Las Vegas and started driving in that direction at 8:00am. Susie was calling everyone, tire places, RV service companies and RV dealers (including Winnebago) I had identified, but no one seemed to do alignment. Finally through a LV RV dealer, we found All-American Tire on the southeast side. We arrived at 10:30 and two hours later with 2 new tires and an alignment, Susie convinced me that we should see the Hoover Dam. We stopped to get sandwiches and then went to Hoover. First, we stopped at the Lake Mead NRA Visitor Center and learned that for the first time in 8 years, the snowfall was in excess of the yearly annual amount by 47%. While that is a huge help, Lake Mead is at less than 50% capacity at this time. We moved on to the Hoover Dam and spent about 2 hours there on the tour of the diversion tunnels, generator room and observation deck. Next we went over to the building that houses an exhibit by the Reclamation Dept. The exhibit showing the routing of the Colorado River from the headwaters to the US/Mexican border was good, the 10 minute presentation seemed to be an attempt at fund raising for the Reclamation Dept. Anyway it was a great trip, and I thank Susie for suggesting it. We drove back north to Pahrump in preparation for Death Valley tomorrow. It was a very hazy day today, bust as we drove north it seemed as if a front was coming through and that should lower the temperatures in Death Valley for tomorrow. After that the temperatures rise again to well over 100.

2008 - Week 1

April 29, 2008:

We were almost ready to take off today, Monday 4/28/2008, but no quite, and the heavy rains gave use an excuse to stay home one more day. Daisy knows something is going one and is staying very close. The RV refrigerator and freezer are full, and the stuff is packed well enough to allow us to take off tomorrow morning. It always takes a few days for everything to settle in.

We closed up the house (always takes longer than expected) and departed Sykesville at 12:30pm. We traveled west on I-70, then I-68 to Morgantown WV, north on I-79 where re connected to I-70. With a few exceptions, we will probably stay on I-70 until we get to Sedalia Co where we’ll connect with our daughter Diana and husband Paul.

I am afraid to say that we ate our way across WV and OH, stopping at a Dairy Queen and Steak and Shake before stopping at 9:00pm in a KOA on Buckeye Lake. For the sailors, Buckeye Lake is one of the places George Fisher has raced. I talked to George today, and we will see him in late morning at his home.

April 30, 2008:

Up in the morning for a walk down to Buckeye Lake YC while Susie took Daisy for a run. The Yacht Club is an historic building, built on an island, which I suspect was man-made. We found out later from George that the lake was originally 1 mile wide and 9 miles long, but is now 12 miles long. We suspected that it is mostly powerboat heaven now. After breakfast and a shower, we left to visit George Fisher. Our new GPS proves the point that sometimes new is not always better. George lives on the west side of Columbus in Hilliard and is fairly close to an Interstate, however the GPS took us through downtown Columbus. We wondered why we were not on the Interstate. Anyway, after a call to George, we found that we were on the wrong side of a river and would have had to swim the RV across. George straightened us out. We had a great time with George and Marty and stayed a bit more than an hour.

We drove on to Saint Paris OH to visit Pat and Walter Hill, friends from our days in Flemington NJ. I had not seen then for almost 23 years, but it was a warm and comfortable visit. Seems that real friends can resume conversations as if they had never parted. They are a farming couple, and the two of them farm about 450 acres while still keeping a beautiful homestead. It was nice to hear their thoughts on the state of the country, the price of corn, the price of diesel, etc. While driving to their place, we had exited I-70 and drove for 40 miles along the back roads. Wonderful farmland and clean farms the entire drive. We passed through the town of Urbana and fell in love with the old brick houses. There must have been lots of money there in the early 1900’s. We went to dinner with the Hills in a nearby (15 miles) town.

May 1, 2008:

We had breakfast with the Hills and solved all the remaining problems of the country. There was a discussion about wind power, and we all felt that it was a bit strange that people object to the sight of wind turbines but don’t seem to mind large transmission line towers, cell phone towers and highway billboards! We left the Hill’s at 11:30am and went to the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton OH. It was a great 4 hours, and had we not been to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum STEVEN F. UDVAR-HAZY CENTER adjacent to Dulles Airport, we would have spent more time there. We returned to I-70 and headed west. We can confirm that the cost of fuel has not reduced truck or passenger car traffic. There was a strong crosswind making the RV a bit difficult to drive. The speed limit is 70mph in Indiana, but no one was going that fast. We pulled off the road just south of Greencastle IN to spend the night and prepare to see DePauw University where daughter Meredith’s has been hired as an Asst Professor in the Arts Program. Warm (sort of) showers were had by all and a few hours spent by Susie drawing her pictorial history of the day finished off the day. 1,040 miles remain to Sedalia, CO daughter Diana’s home.

May 2, 2008:

We had a bit of rain last night. We had breakfast in a small diner in Greencastle and then went to DePauw. We had a great time there and are confident that Meredith and husband Michael Ray have made a great choice. After leaving DePauw around noon and heading west, the rain came down hard for more than an hour. Visibility was terrible, and everyone slowed down, even the truckers. We saw some lightning, but it was to the south. Shortly after we crossed the IN/IL border, the skies started to clear, but the wind began to blow from the SW, with gusts probably in the 40 mph range. Once again the RV was a bit to handle, and we were forced to slow to 55 mph. As we passed through St Louis we were surprised how far suburbia reached to the west. We tried to stop at one RV place for the night, but the entire Interstate interchange was “sin city”, and we decided to drive on. The wind was with us the entire day, and the temperatures dropped so that by the time we reached the vicinity of Kansas City KS, it was in the mid-50’s with a low of 40 expected for the night. Billboards, billboards and more billboards! They were everywhere. Gas prices in MO were $3.399/gallon; go figure. We filled the RV with gas several times, and the credit card or pump shut down at $100, a sign of things to come. We just heard that Exxon-Mobil had profits of $10.9 billion in the first quarter. We could use some of that. Near Salinas KS, we passed through a 50+ unit windfarm that was being expanded. We drove 420 miles today, too much for a day when we started late and had bad weather. We spent the night in a KOA located in Oak Grove MO, but it was located adjacent to I-70. Noise all night long so not much sleep. The only catastrophe of the day was when I was getting ready for bed and a tooth crown fell off. Moral: be careful when you floss is you have crowns. I hope get it fixed when we get to Sedalia.

May 3, 2008:

Daisy started the day with a game of ball toss and then went on a run with Susie. We left the KOA and stopped west of Kansas City to visit the Moon Marble Company that Susie discovered through an article in Smithsonian magazine. We watched as the artisan made a glass marble with numerous strands of color on the interior. It was a fantastic shop with all sorts of toys. Before we left, Susie climbed to the roof of the RV and secured the TV antenna that has decided to rattle whenever we have a crosswind. A success, but I think we may need to buy some gorilla tape to made sure the fix is good. Back on I-70 to Abilene KS, the birthplace of Dwight Eisenhower, to see an old-time carousel. It was very primitive, but being able to see all the working parts was fun. This carousel is supported on steel wheels that run on a steel plate on the floor. We believe that all the other carousels we have seen were hung from and rotated around a center post. As we traveled west, we noticed that the geography of Kansas varies greatly, first good farmland, then a 75 mile stretch where exposed layers of sedimentary rock made the land suitable only for cattle grazing and then back to good farmland. The further west we traveled, the more irrigation was required. Signage brags, “Each Kansas farmer feeds 120 people plus YOU”. We drove 338 miles and stopped at 6:30pm at another KOA Campground at Wakeeney KS approximately 125 miles from the Kansas/Colorado border. Once again it was adjacent to I-70, but there was much less traffic and noise. We walked Daisy and had a chicken dinner from the George Foreman grill. It is perfect for a trip like this! The weather forecast indicates a low of 35 tonight.

May 4, 2008:

Up at 7:00am in time for Susie and Daisy to take a run, and Jamie to take a walk. The temperature was 39, but the wind direction had changed from NW to SW and the temperatures rose quickly. We left the campground at 9:30am CST and headed west on I-70. The further west, the more irrigated farmland until even that didn’t work. The land use transitioned from farming to grazing and poor it was. Just before we entered Colorado, we noticed areas of unmelted snow. They must have been remnants of snowdrifts. Still, the have snow the first part of May was unusual for us. We left the Interstate and drove the back roads fro the last 75 miles. We went over the top of a small hill, and there in the distance was Pikes Peak and miles later the rest of Rocky Mountains came into view. All were snow topped and quite beautiful. We now have to watch the weather to decide if we continue on I-70 through the Rockies or skirt around the southern end. We arrived at Diana’s at 2:30pm MST after driving 298 miles. We started this segment of the trip at elevation 2,400 feet and ended at 6,200 feet. Susie had not taken her altitude medicine and had a headache as a result. Susie, Daisy and I are very happy to stop and celebrated by taking a long walk through her neighborhood. It is very cloudy here but no precipitation.

May 5, 2008:
Sun was up early, the sky was cloudless and temperature was 40 degrees. Obviously the thermometer lagged the temperature because I was over-dressed for my morning walk with Daisy. As we reached the top of the hill, I was able to see the snow-capped Rocky Mountains (Daisy saw them also but didn’t comment) plus I realized how the thin the air is here as compared to sea level. It will take a few days to acclimatize ourselves. We made a few maintenance adjustments to the RV after this 1,700 mile shakedown. Diana, Susie and I went for a hike through the south portion of Roxborough State Park.

The temperature had risen to the point that we all wore shorts and sunscreen. This small park has several ridges of different rock types, with the red rocks being the most dominant. The ridge of red rock runs south from Denver along the eastern foothills of the Rockies to at least Colorado Springs and maybe more. Back to the house for a rest and then assembly of Diana’s new Weber grill. Unfortunately, she had planned to use natural gas as a fuel and was sold a unit designed for bottle propane. Several phone calls later, we found that she needed a different model that will be special ordered. No pork chops on the grill tonight!