Posts Tagged ‘National Park Odyssey’

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KENAI FJORDS NP, 2008

October 5, 2009

OK, so I cheated.  But I was on my way up to Fairbanks and from there to ANWR, so I was pressed a bit for time.  I flew into Anchorage, rented a car, and drove down to the Kenai Peninsula.  I was able to enter Kenai Fjords NP and walk part way up the snowy, watery, dangerous hill toward Exit Glacier.  I figured that my exiting was a good idea, and I spent the rest of the morning at the moraine and seeing where the glacier had once been.

I thought about taking one of the boat tours, but 40 degree weather and rain didn’t really appeal to me.  Maybe it should have.  We didn’t get much rain up in ANWR, and what we did was at night.  It would be a different story in 2009.

That afternoon, I day hiked to Crescent Lake, outside of the Park.  I think I was too cavalier about the idea of running into bears.  I didn’t, but it is easy to forget when one is in boreal forest.

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WIND CAVE NP/BADLAND NP, 2007

October 5, 2009

Jan and I went through Badlands after we were married in 1971.  At the time, it was a monument.  I went up to see Wind Cave and decided to pay another visit to Badlands.  This entailed a flight to Rapid City, SD and driving down through Wind Cave NP, where I saw the cave, small, but very interesting.  There are a lot more caves in the national parks than Carlsbad Caverns and Mammoth Cave!

I stayed in Hot Springs, fortunately having missed by one day a group of desperadoes who drove through here on their way to shutting down nearby Chadron, NE!   They were fortunately caught.

The next morning, I day hiked about 15 miles through the park east of the cave.  There were lovely views of the plains from the Black Hills.  I saw and heard numerous elk and even had one bound right out in front of me! 

The following morning, I went over to Badlands and hiked about 10 miles in the backcountry, seeing Big Horn sheep and getting to the car about five minutes before it really dumped!

One animal note:  I am a cat person.  I didn’t start out that way, but cats seemed to have their own ideas.  We have several.  My wife saves them, and they adopt me.  Well, there were two kittens at the hotel I was staying at who were obviously feral.  I bought some food for them and the next day paid a visit to the vet/animal control.  They were trapped, which brought the cops to the hotel to question me.  The kittens were taken to the local humane society/shelter, which I supported with a check.  I try to do that in every nearby town where there is a national park I visit.  I can’t save the world, but maybe I can help part of it!

Wind Cave NP pictures:

The cave itself and surrounding trails/views:

 

 

 

 

Badlands pictures:

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YOSEMITE NP, 2009

September 19, 2009

It had been a source of some personal shame than I had never been to Yosemite until I was 60.  A bad infection that had sidelined me for several months was finally getting under some control, and my wife was attending a conference at the Tenaya Lodge, which is about 4 miles from the south Park entrance.  I went in the first day and hike Chilhuana Falls, which as my wife noted, made me just blossom.  It was a great day hike, and I added on some more stuff to make it about 17 miles.

The next day, we did the Yosemite Village stuff, which was on a Sunday, a week before Memorial Day, hot and crowded.  It was nice, but we had enough and left.

The day after, I did a hike out Glacier Point to a view, and then walked 6 miles along the road rather than doubling back.  Bad idea. 

The following day, we went over and did Kings Canyon and Sequoia.  We got great views from Moro Rock and the Generals Sherman and Grants tree.  While I got into Kings Canyon, I need to go back and camp there some time.

I did two more day hikes in Yosemite, one into a backcountry lake and another out to the rim overlooking the valley.  No question that the Glacier Point road is the best way to see the park.  I suppose sometime I need to hike to the top of Upper Yosemite Falls, but I was satisfied with what I did.

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GREAT BASIN NP, NEVADA, 2008

September 18, 2009

This was my third October park trip in a row.  I flew to Las VEgas, rented a car, and drove through snow a good share of the way up the Great Basin Highway to Baker.  I stayed at the Silverjack Lodge in Baker run by Terry Marasco.  This is a great place, with good food and a most interesting owner.  I highly recommend it.

Great Basin Park  has Lehman caves, which I saw the first day, then I hiked up towards Baker Lake, getting up around 10,500 feet in a couple of feet of snow.  The lakes were frozen, but the cirque covered in snow was really pretty.  Only downside was that the road up to Wheeler Peak was closed.  I walked part of it, then took a day hike most of the way between the lower and upper road.  I need to go back there and see the bristlecone pines.  Also would like to see the night sky from there.  I am told that the camping outside the park to the north is very remote.  Definitely worth considering!

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CONGAREE NP, 2008

September 18, 2009

Congaree is about 14 miles outside of Columbia, SC, in a cypress swamp with a river running through it.  I was flying to Philadelphia for a high school reunion and thought I would go by way of Charlotte.  From there, it is a couple of hours to Columbia, and a short hop to the park.  When flooded, the boardwalks are the only way around, and some of them are flooded as well.  I was there in late November, and everything was dry.  There are a nice set of trails, and I spent the morning and early afternoon hiking.  Saw some wild boar and some really large cypress trees.  It’s a nice place, near a city but still wild.

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CAPITOL REEF NP, 2007

September 15, 2009

Capitol Reef can actually be seen very well without ever getting out of the car.  Of course, a good hike is a lot more fun, and the Park has many.  One went up a stream bed, another to an arch, a third to Golden Throne and a fourth to the Chimney.  There was one to an arch that I sort of saw, but it was icy and I really was spooked by the terrain.  This place is hard to get to, but if one does Arches and Canyonlands, it ought to be attempted!

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ARCHES NP, 2007

September 15, 2009

Try to spend a day at Arches, because there are a lot of really nice things to see.  Even if you don’t leave the car, you can still see a lot of beautiful arches.  If you are willing to hike a little, you will see a lot more.  If you are willing to put in a couple of miles here and there, well–you can see Delicate Arch close up.

It had just snowed, and I was one of the first in to the Park that day.  The clouds and lighting were superb, the weather not too cold, and I only had to abort one hike at the northern end of the Park, as the rock was just too icy to be safe enough to continue.

Spent the day viewing arches and then did Courthouse at the end of the day.  No arches but great rock formations!

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CANYONLANDS NP, 2007

September 15, 2009

I didn’t have a lot of time between Christmas and New Years’ Day, so I did what I could.  Flew to SLC and drove to Canyonlands, arriving in mid-afternoon.  Got a good 6 miles of hiking in, with some great views, a lot of snow, saw a coyote on the road, and Mesa Arch just as it was getting dark.  It is a long drive in and out of the park, and this is one I definitely would like to come back to and spend more time!

 

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JOSHUA TREE NP, 2007

September 15, 2009

As close as it is to the LA area, Joshua Tree has a lot of space and some nice day hikes.  I started off with Ryan Mountain and then did two other double digit milers.  The Joshua Trees are striking, and there are hikes into Palm Oases that are interesting as well.  Lot of campgrounds, but this is not a place one wants to be at the height of summer.   Rainfall the year before I came was about two-thirds of one inch.  That’s right.  Less than an inch.

 

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BIG BEND NP, 2007

September 15, 2009

I took the 13 hour drive during June, which is not the best time to visit Big Bend.  But it was great, anyway.  The South Rim trail has about 2000 feet of climbing and is a nice 12-15 mile hike, depending upon whether one wants to add Emory Peak to it.  I did. 

I saw both summer tanagers and western tanagers.  On the South Rim, one walks for several miles above the Chihuahan Desert below.  I saw nobody the day I did it.  But what was really neat, to this weather junkie, was the “steam” I saw ahead of me.  It was humid air flowing from the south, hitting the cliff walls, being pushed up and condensing before me. This is called orographic lift and is why mountains get more rain than valleys–they provide a lifting mechanism that cools the air and wrings the water out of it, just as making a balloon with water in it smaller wrings the water out of it, too.

I also did the hike to the Window.

 

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