Can't wait to go back to Golden Gate Park

On our way to Cliff House and the Sutro Baths, Ariel and I drove through Golden Gate Park. Before last Sunday, I'd only even driven along the edge of the park. The last time we passed, Cam said he wanted to come back and explore the park. I sort of wondered "Why bother?" with all of the amazing nature outside of the city. But I said, "Yeah. Sure. Let's." While I meant it, I wasn't incredibly excited about crossing the bridge and dealing with traffic to get to a park.








I didn't know what I was talking about. The park was magnificent. We especially enjoyed the way the light shown through the trees. It reminded be a bit of Forest Park or even Tower Grove Park in St. Louis. We have lived next to and loved some glorious big city parks like those and Lincoln Park in Chicago. I can't wait to get back and experience this one.

Thanks for taking me through, Ariel.

Big Sur Waterfall Hike

Back to Big Sur. After exploring, feasting, watching the sun set and spending Thanksgiving night in Big Sur, Cameron and I were up before the sun the following morning. We thought about reading and relaxing in our room until the restaurants opened for breakfast at 8. But then we thought better of it.

Cam suggested we check out the hike to Pfeiffer Falls in Pfeiffer State Park. It sounded lovely so we were off.

It was chilly outside but not uncomfortably so and hiking is always a good way to get the blood pumping.

The trees were tall and impressive.















Some had distinctive markings.

After seeing this shot on Cameron's blog, his friend, Pablo joked that after this shot was taken I was tragically eaten by the troll that lives in the tree.







Cam is nearly engulfed by this massive specimen.







The trail ran along a small creek.















And up to the base of this waterfall.















It was lovely.

After admiring the falls, we hiked the Valley View trail to complete our loop. By the time we'd climbed to the lookout point, I had shed my coat and sweatshirt and was down to short sleeves.

It was a glorious morning.

You'll never guess...

You'll never guess where we decided to go first thing Saturday morning. That's right, Muir Woods. My family has an affinity for this place and since all of us could get in free. We figured, "Why not?" Cam took the token sign shot.

At 8:30 am, we had the place nearly to ourselves again.


Sounded like it had been nearly 10 years since my folks had been to this park.



We marveled
at the
wonders.











And pointed out things of interest.

The main trail makes a nice easy loop. The entire thing is paved and there is little to no elevation change. However, Sam and I had been itching to try the route we took with the Sierra Club, shortly after his arrival in California, again.

With the club, we'd started on the Dipsea trail from the parking lot, hiked that mostly uphill for a mile or so on a ridge along the coastline until we reached the Ben Johnston trail. Then we turned toward the park and hiked down a bunch of stairs into it, eventually arriving at the park floor.

This time, we'd follow the route in reverse. Everyone said they were up for trying it. So after seeing one buck, we crossed bridge four and started up the Ben Johnson trail. At one resting point, I thought I saw monkeys (hear no evil...)

The basically straight uphill climb of Ben Johnson was more strenuous that I'd remembered and we expected but we didn't quit. The above link describes the loop's difficulty as moderate. This description, from mytrails.com calls it a "spectacular challenge for the energetic hiker" and refers to the "steep, steep Ben Johnson trail."

At the top, we enjoyed the views of the ocean as we hiked the ragged dirt trail down the Dipsea back towards our car. Sam found an intriguing resting spot in this tree. I am proud of all of us for completing the hike. It was an invigorating way to start the day.

Afterwards, we went home and had take-out from In and Out Burger and Lucinda's (veggie burrito for me, chicken quesadilla for Sam.) Then we rested, relaxed and played for awhile with plans to watch the sun set later at the beach or on top of a mountain.

Duir Woods?

So last Saturday, we gave to the environment by helping out with Coastal Cleanup Day. On Sunday, we received. The Sample's song Nature is going through my head now. "Nature, it's all around me. Nature, it's so astounding." (Click on the "Nature" link or here for the MP3.)

Since we'd purchased a National Parks Pass at Yosemite the previous weekend, (Admission to that park is $40. The National Parks Pass is $50 so purchasing one was an easy decision.) we decided to put it to use by going to Muir Woods. All of us had been there before but we hadn't been together.

I talked Cam and Sam into stopping for a picture in front of this sign. It is becoming a tradition and will be fun to continue to look back on how we change in front of it over the years. (See pics of Sam and I in front of this sign.)

We'd woken up early and as much as I was looking forward to going to Muir Woods, I thought the park opened at 9 am and that it might be nice to work with Sam to help him post something on his blog about all of the remarkable things he's done lately before leaving. But Cam noticed that the park opened at 8 am and while the park is just a couple of exits away, we do have to travel a bit on Hwy to get there after exiting off 101. So we decided to get a move on.


The early start paid off. We parked in the second spot from the entrance to the park and were there before the rangers. No one was working the desk at that hour. Looks like we could have walked right in to the near empty park even without our pass but at least we have it.




Walking in the main entrance, we were immediately amazed by these trees, which are some of the tallest in the world.










Not far down the main path, we noticed a side path leading to Ocean View Trail. A sign told us that due to tree growth, there was no longer a view of the ocean but it looked like it did lead to something called Mountain Home. Cam thought it sounded interesting so we branched off.


It was a nice, peaceful hike. Mostly up-hill which served to get our hearts pumping and warm us up which was nice. It is cool in the early-morning shade of these enormous coastal trees. We didn't see many people until we gave up on finding Mountain Home and hiked back towards the main trail. In the time we were off hiking (about a mile up and a mile back), the crowds had arrived at the main trail.

Just before joining the crowd, we noticed three deer (a doe and two fawns) grazing just off the side path. They were very close and didn't seem to be bothered by all of the people at all. We pointed them out to some other people with small children who were standing nearby and continued on.






Piggyback rides were employed to get deeper into the park, away from the crowds (and to get some snuggles in).








Soon, we were out of the congestion, practically on our own again. We talked about how fun it will be to come back to the woods throughout the year, in the rain, on random weekdays off, etc. Since our admission fee is already paid, we can come for quick trips as well as longer ones.




We saw another deer. Then a bit later, someone repaid our earlier kindness and pointed out another deer to us. Can you see her in the shot behind Sam? She didn't seem bothered by our presence at all.


Her reaction to this buck was a different story. When we were about to move on from watching the her, he appeared. He was captivated by her. He kept approaching her and she kept moving away from him. Their dance was fascinating. We watched them for awhile until she finally moved off.

Farther into the woods, we noticed another doe with fawns. We saw another buck attempting to interact with them. In about four hours, I counted 10 deer. It is possible some of them were the same deer but we thought they were different animals in each encounter.





Sam took a few nice photos of us by these trees. Check out Cam's post for a picture of some smooching.








Towards the end of our loop, back near the main entrance, we encountered this amazing burnt out tree. Sam and I had visited it before when we were here five years ago. At that time, he loved running out of it appearing to scream. Were we those tourists with screaming children whose proximity we now avoid? I didn't think so but who knows? Guess we are all a bit more subdued now.

Yosemite - Morning Tranquility

In my last post, I told you how lucky we were to snag a campsite at White Wolf, one of the first-come, first-served campgrounds at Yosemite National Park. But I didn't tell you much about the camping experience. Let's see...

As excited as we were about finding this spot surrounded by pristine beauty, we were concerned about the people blaring music and talking very loudly (ok yelling) to each other who had already set up camp very nearby. We considered driving on to the next campground to see if there was a more peaceful spot but we liked it there and didn't know if anything else would be open and even if something was, what was to stop another group of obnoxious campers from setting up next to us? We decided to cross our fingers and hope the loud people at White Wolf would mellow out a bit as the night progressed.

After exploring the area near the campground (see previous post and Cam's posts), we settled in to relax and enjoy an evening around the campfire. Cam and Sam have a ritual about fire building. I am happy to be the recipient of its warmth and fascinating coals. Soon, they had a wonderful fire blazing away.

Before leaving, Cam offered to pack all of the camping gear and food. He and brought excellent cook on the fire options. We quite enjoyed our impromptu chili (one can pinto beans, one can chopped tomatoes) and Sam had some sort of pasta. However, we were often distracted by our neighbors who rather than turning it down seemed to be gearing up for a night of revelry. We did our best to ignore them while wondering with dismay why they thought yelping in a poor imitation of a wild animal was an ok thing to do. After roasting marshmallows and enjoying our s'mores, Sam and I were ready to catch some shut-eye. It was dark and we were tired so we didn't have any trouble falling asleep. Cam decided to check to see what time quiet hours officially began.

Thankfully, Cam brought along several comforters to augment our sleeping bags in providing warmth. At 8,000 foot elevation, it was going to be a chilly night. When Cam finally came to bed, he told me about how our rowdy neighbors had been taken away in handcuffs.

Shortly after 10:00 pm Cam decided we had all had enough of these people's infernal racket. He walked over an asked them to turn off their music. Apparently, one of the guys was obviously wasted, slurring his speech. The other guy was so angry at having their party interrupted that he wouldn't even look at Cam and just sat there staring at the fire. Then, I guess one of them challenged Cam to go get the ranger. He said he was happy to get the ranger if that would make things easier then walked off toward the ranger station. It seems like that was enough to get them to turn off the music so Cam walked back to our campsite. Minutes later, they were making animal noises again, "Whoop, whoop, whoop?" Really.

Before Cam decided to go have another word with them, he heard an authoritative-sounding person talking with them. Apparently someone else had called the ranger. Soon Cam heard the ranger say they were going to search these guys vehicle/tent. He asked if they had anything else they wanted to tell them about before they found it like the concealed knife one of them had on them. Marijuana and hashish were mentioned that evening and the next day, Cam heard some rangers discussing the bust say they had also found cocaine. So these people were more than obnoxious, they were armed criminals. Excellent. At least no one was stabbed. "Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do?" (Photo courtesy of COPS TV.)

We both had a bit of trouble sleeping after all of the excitement. I'd had just enough sleep to be less tired than uncomfortable. I unzipped my sleeping bag and felt much better not being constricted. It was cold. Dogs were barking. Someone's car alarm went off and then at seriously around 1:00 in the morning, we heard someone setting up camp. They had some sort of generator going; I think they were blowing up an air mattress. Oh well. At least Sam was sleeping soundly. Cam and I did manage fitful bouts of sleep.

Then finally, it was morning, glorious morning. If we thought it was cold inside of the tent, it was literally freezing outside. There was frost on the tent. We ran around a bit; washing up with cold water from the bathroom didn't help much. The Frappuccino and Reese's Puffs cereal did. Sam and I found a patch of sunlight to stand in then as quickly as we could we decided to just get hiking to warm up.

Cam had suggested we take one of the hikes that left from the campground. It sounded like an excellent plan to me so we headed out towards Lukens Lake. I loved the way the moss grew on the branches of trees in the woods. One group of middle-aged guys hiked past us while we were climbing boulders near the path. We didn't see them or anyone else again on our walk to the lake. The men were at the lake when we arrived. We walked along the lake a bit to give them space. I guess they left shortly afterwards. I didn't see or hear from them again.



The lake was ours. We sat on a fallen tree and enjoyed the definition of tranquility.





It was glorious...
















peaceful...











and relaxing...














Cam hiked around the lake in both directions.

I took this photo of trees and the pristine sky while lying on my back on the log.




Just as we were about to pack up and head back, this deer came to the lake to have a drink and pay us a visit. She was around the bend from us and seemed to feel pretty comfortable despite our presence.

As we were leaving, we passed some people just arriving at the lake and saw several more groups on their way there during our walk back to camp. After such a restless evening, I am happy we were given such a restful morning.