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Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree is a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles. I cannot describe how relieved I was to see the thinning of traffic as I drove West on the I-10. I spent several days in this area, but much of my time was spent at the local library. The park seems to be visited primarily by hippies, tramps, and rock-climbers. It was a very eclectic bunch of travelers that were found wandering about the park.

Here you'll find Joshua Trees all over the place, and maybe for every Joshua Tree you see, there's a big rock nearby. The rocks were bizarre, just sporadically placed throughout this desert land. These rocks are what make this park a great retreat for rock-climbers of all skill level. I scrambled about some rocks - shot my Christmas Gift Idea video, and then got the heck out of here. It was time to head to AZ for some warmth. Remember, I'm retired, I need to go South in the Winter.

Golden Gate Bridge National Recreation Area

This is the first man-made structure that I found myself being truly captivated by. The bridge is an amazing piece of engineering and the recreation area isn't bad either.

The hills surrounding the bridge provide bautiful vistas as well as an excellent place to go out for a bike ride. On the southern end of the bridge there's a nice park where you'll find locals enjoying the weather, flying a kite, surfing, playing football, or maybe just tossing a frisbee around.

Apparently the bridge is a great place to off yourself as well - as there are "crisis hotline" phones every couple hundred feet on the bridge. It took me a while to figure out what in the world they were for - I started by thinking about natural disasters, and I just couldn't grasp how calling some sort of counselor would help me in such a situation. Then, the last phone that I saw made everything crystal clear to me. People like to jump off of the bridge.

Return Trip to the Redwoods and Yosemite

It's a short drive (relatively speaking) from Kings Canyon to Yosemite so I pulled on in. I was so glad that I did too. I drove in during the night as it rained and snowed. This inclement weather gave way to a trickling Yosemite Falls and plenty of snow-capped granite.

It was absolutely great, I hiked around the falls, and just wandered about Yosemite Valley.

After enjoying the day at Yosemite I headed to the coastline. I had every intention of staying the heck out of San Francisco, but one missed sign, and I was lining up in traffic to pay a toll to get across a bridge. I panicked, swerved across several lanes of traffic, and I ended up in the carpool/bus lane, which I will probably get a fine for. SF was horrible - I missed another sign for the Golden Gate Bridge to get the heck out of there, and I was trapped in the city of ridiculously steep hills lost and too scared that I'd crash to type my destination into my phone. Eventually, I made it out of there, and a few hours later, I was pullign over for another night in the mobile home.

When I woke up, I continued up the coastline to the Redwood Forest. I was looking forward to hiking and biking around the park, but my car had other ideas. Nearly one year to the day in which I lost functionality of my pinky, my mobile home breaks down. The little VW lost all power.............thank goodness I was only a few miles from Crescent City and Ken's Auto Repair. I dropped the mobile home off, explained what she means to me, and put myself up in a hotel for a day or two. I'm going to be pretty spoiled when I get out of here.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

There have been so many parks that I've walked away pleasantly surprised. You can add these two to that list, and I was even coming in to Sequoia eagerly anticipating these giant Redwoods.

What's not to like, the tallest mountain in the lower 48, Mount Whitney resides in the mountain range at the western adge of these parks. The park is simply a series of peaks and valleys with patches of Sequoias, the world's biggest trees.

It's a great place for a hike, and the rolling hills of the high sierra that you'll see while driving into each of these parks, as well as Yosemite are beautiful too.

Sticking it to the USPS

Ever since the USPS wouldn't ship a rock for me, I've been trying to stick it to them. First I wanted to start the Llama Express Postal Service, now I'm sending their employees to the most remote post office I could think of: Furnace Creek PO in Death Valley National Park.

It turned out to be a faily minor obstacle for them. I had three packages shipped to me, and each of them arrived as scheduled. It took a little longer than usual, but it was quite reasonable. I'll get you yet USPS. One of the shipments was my replacement kayak paddle. I can kayak again, but I won't be finding any water in Death Valley to splash around in.

The only water I found in the park was Badwater, the lowest place in the US. I really like Death Valley, which made it a great choice for an extended stay until the USPS arrived. Click the link and check out what I did and didn't do.

I'm a Lottery Winner - The Wave, Wire Pass, and Buckskin Gulch

The Wave, Wire Pass, and Buckskin Gulch are all part of the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. Although Buckskin Gulch is considered one of the World's greatest hikes, most people know this monument because of the Wave. The Wave is a crazy, undulating sandstone formation tucked away in a remote location only accessible by foot.

Wire Pass is a short distance from the Wave and it's a spectacular slot canyon that leads into Buckskin Gulch. I can't believe I waited this long to take on these hikes. I should have been our and about in the Vermillion Cliffs area all the while I was locked away in my Fortress of Solitude. In th end, I did get it done. I won the lottery, and was able to make the hike. I suppose that needs some explaining. You must play a lottery (or sign up months in advance for the 10 permits that are available online) to get one of the 10 permits available via a lottery system the day before the hike. So, each day, the parks rangers pull out their BINGO ball hopper, call off numbers, and make a few hikers very, very happy. It took me two goes of it, and it was well worth the nights sleep at the Walmart in Page, AZ.

One thing to note about heading to the wave is that the road to the trailhead is unpaved and often inaccessible to non 4x4 vehicles. On my day of the hike, conditions were perfect for taking my car, but I chose to leave my four-wheeler behind and hop on my mountain bike due to the ridiculous amount of washboarded gravel road. My mobile home has been through a lot already, she didn't need to go through that as well.

After the Wave, I slept in my car at a pull-out just before the Zion National Park entrance. The following day I hiked around Zion a bit, up to the canyon overlook and around Checkerboard Mesa before heading back to my fortress of solitude to pick up a few things.

Petrified Forest National Park

From Grants, NM it was a quick jaunt down I-40 to Petrified Forest National Park. I'm not so sure why all this wood is so petrified, perhaps, it had just seen Paranormal Activity, or perhaps they were in Grease. I don't know, but there's a lot of this wood lying around. A staggering amount really, and this is after chunks, big and small, of petrified wood has been stolen by the pocketful and trainload for years.

For this reason, you are not allowed to spend the night in the park. Along with the petrified wood remains, you drive through the painted desert. Both attractions are well worth the brief detour from I-40.

A Stone's Throw from Mexico - Big Bend National Park

Next on my list was Big Bend National Park. The weather was great, the campsites were comfortable, and I even interrupted a Mexican taking a bath in the dirty Rio Grande.

This park was much much better than I was expecting. Geographically, this was one of the most diverse parks I've been to. Deserts, canyons, sprawling mountains. This park really did live up to Everything being Bigger in Texas.

Carlsbad Caverns: Journey to the Bat Cave

After the road crew had the "incident" cleaned up, I was back on my way, slowly tootling across Texas. But, first, I detoured North a bit, into New Mexico to check out Carsbad Caverns National Park. It's nothing like Mammoth Caves in that there are only 2-3 miles you accessible to tourists of the 20-30 mile network which makes up Carlsbad. Unlike Mammoth, Carlsbad is filled with beautiful cave formations, and it holds the Bat Cave, which is near the natural entrance just to the East of the visitor center by the amphitheater.

During my half day here, I hiked the circuit around the big room. Hiked the trail to the natural entrance and followed it down into the Big Room, and I took the Ranger guided tour to King's Palace. As always, the NPS Ranger leading the tour did an exceptional job making for an educational, yet entertaining experience.

Trapped in the Gaudalupe Mountains (only for a day)

I made the long haul from Saguaro NP to Guadalupe Mountains National Park (~7 hour drive through dusty desert, el Paso, and a Border Checkpoint). You could spend days hiking the Guadalupe Mountains that look like an island in the desert. They are quite literally the only prominent feature for dozens of miles in every direction.

The highlights of the Gaudalupe Mountains are Gaudalupe Peak (the highest peak in Texas at some 8,000+ feet), which proves that not everything is bigger in Texas, and McCittrick Canyon. I only wanted to spend a single day here, but I ended up spending two nights in the park thanks to a car "incident" that closed the highway for a full-day. As I said, there isn't a whole lot fo anything in any direction from the park, so any detour would require an awful lot of driving. Even though, I already had some 38,000 miles under my belt on this road trip, I wasn't about to tack on a couple hundred extra to evacuate the mountains in favor of Carlsbad Caverns.

Saguaro National Park

Saguaro National Park was a nice change of pace from all the canyons and mountains that I had been seeing. The high density of Saguaro Cactus make this park extremely unique, but it offers little else.

It seems to be a decent place to take your road bike out for a spin, but most people drive through the park (there are two units), and stop to take a brief hike through this cactus infested desert. That's exactly what I did. Drove in, hiked a couple of miles, and drove out and I was satisfied with my visit. There aren't any campgrounds on the premises, but there are picnic areas if you'd like to stop and have a bite to eat.

If you're passing through this dirty, dusty corner section of the US it's not a bad idea to spice up the ride a bit by passing on through Saguaro National Park.

Angel's Landing, the Narrows, and Paddling Powell, oh my!

I finally decided that it was time to leave the comforts of my newly rented fortress of solitude in Hurricane, UT. With my sickness still lingering, I decided to start things off easy by hiking up to Angel's Landing in Zion National Park. With any luck I'd be able to scare this illness out of me by staring down at the 2,000+ foot verticle drop on each side of you as you hike along a narrow ridgeline, aided only by an intermittent chain up to Angel's Landing. I was unsuccessful in scaring my sickness but I did get a pretty good case of jellow legs when I looked over the edge at the Landing.

I also bumped into a traveling Aussie at Angel's Landing and it just so happened that he was planning to hike the Narrows the following day. We teamed up, which eliminated the need for a $30 shuttle transport and made the 54 degree water of the Virgin River a little more bearable (although, my feet would probably disagree they were blocks of ice by the time we were finished, ~10 hours).

My next planned adventure was to test out towing my trailer (an inflatable raft) behind my itty bitty kayak. It slowed me down to somewhere between 1 and 2 mph, but I was able to get all my gear where I wanted it and I was thankful for that. I was planning on paddling 100 miles over the course of six days on Lake Powell. I lasted two and a half days and about 20 miles. A ranger told me that there would be strong winds from the suothwest, but I never thought that they would be strong enough to blow my tent over multiple times and strong enough to splash water in my face from one side and sand-blast myself from the other. After two poor nights' sleep, my sickness was revitalized, so I chose to paddle back to the landing and call her quits.

Crawling out of a Canyon

After the Cardinals game I decided to leave the oppressive heat of Phoenix for what I thought would be a much more comfortable and relaxing experience at the Grand Canyon.

I passed Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon. I had a little look around to see if I should do a bit of paddling in either Lake Powell or the Colorado River on the other side of the Glen Canyon Dam. I liked it, but continued on through Zion National Park and on to Hurricane where I was checking on an apartment to rent for the month. After checking out the place and handing over a check for the month's rent I continued South to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I spent the night in the back of my car and I set out for the canyon floor the following morning.

I made it to the floor, well at least I made it to Cottonwood Campground. It would have been another 7 miles until I reached the Colorado River and I knew I had to make my way back up to the top of North Rim. This was another one of those surveillance hikes - I wanted to check out the campgrounds; Cottonwood and Bright Angel, to see if I would spend a night or two on the canyon floor, and everything went perfectly until I started making my way back out of this infernal ditch.

For the most part the hike was easy going. I talked to a very pleasant gentleman who owns the company Fine Lite in San Francisco. Much to my surprise I had to cut our conversation short to rest my weary legs while he continued on his way. I believe the last three miles took me five hours of crawling, sitting, lying down, squatting, and grumbling with other hikers that were in the same predicament as I was in. Their company and the knowledge that none of these individuals had hiked as deep into the canyon as I had was a little reassuring but it did not assure my legs that they would be able to propel me back to the rim. There were a few points where I rested on a rock fearful that I might pass out, roll all the way back down to the canyon floor only to wake up and realize that I would start all over again from the bottom. In the end I made it, just barely. Once I reached my car, I got out of there as fast as I could and I stopped at the first gas station I found for a cool, refreshing slushie. Mmmm.......I can still taste the refreshment.

This unpleasant experience made sleeping in a bed at my newly rented fortress of solitude that much better. But, as you'll read I got very used to sleeping in the fortress of solitude.

Voting has Concluded for the Olympus Parks Video Competition

In my spare time I made a video for the National Parks Foundation's Video Contest that is sponsored by Olympus. All I had was pictures to work with and a couple of hours before the deadline, but the video turned alright and we'll see what happens from here.

Here's a link to my video.

Canon National Parks Photo Contest

So, I also learned about a photo contest put on by the National Park Foundation and Canon. After looking at some of the winning pictures I realized that many people take a whole lot of good pictures and some turn out to be great. Meanwhile, I take a whole lot of okay pictures and some turn out to be good thanks to the volume I'm snapping.

I really need to step up my game, but it doesn't hurt to submit. We'll see what happens. Voting should start in October, click the link above to vote.

Back in my Favorite State: Utah

I had a lot of choices from the four corners. I was coming from Colorado, so that was out, but then there's Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. Where do I go? Utah, of course.

My stint in Utah featured a lot of sleeping in my car. The campgrounds at the parks were filling up before 8am and I wasn't arriving that early. I actually was waking up in my car at about 6am near the parks campgrounds but I was always leaving not arriving.

My first stop was Canyonlands National Park. I got here late, pulled over in front of a campgruond, but I didn't know that it was a private camp. A man cautiously tapped on my window and asked me what in the world I was doing. I crawled out of my hatch and I think it was pretty self explanatory what I was up to, but I let him know I was going to bed. He wanted $20 a night, I said "pass" fired up my car and kept driving until I found a nicesleeping spot. In the morning I hiked to the Confluence of the Colorado and Green Rivers. It was a really good hike, very rugged and fairly strenuous.

After Canyonlands I headed to Arches National Park. This was very similar to my visit with my parents for MCPP (Mike's Cumulative Present Program). I arrived late, just as the sun was setting. The campgrounds were full, so I bucked it to Delicate Arch, snapped a few pictures and then darkness was upon me.

Since it was the weekend and the parks were already busy, I took Saturday and Sunday off to watch some football and to start working on the revamping of my website. My two days were spent in Richfield, UT. It was nice, this sweet old lady snuck me in early as I had woken up in my car before the crack of dawn only an hour outside of Richfield. It turned out that this city was over run with 4 wheelers. They were having some big shin-dig and they were all over the place. They even had an all 4x4 parade. They also like their big trucks.

After watching half (lost the TV signal at half-time) the Packers victory - I headed out to Capitol Reef National Park. Again, the campground was full. This time I would like to blame the police officer who flashed his lights, I pulled over, he passed me, then he flashed his lights and stopped, I passed him, he pulled out and pulled me over. All he was doing was letting me know I had a burnt out headlight, but he confused me and slowed me down. I doubt I wuold have gotten a spot anyway and now i"m gettin guse to my mobile home anyway. Capitol Reef was good too. There's a lot of red rocks, and I don't really even know what it is. It looks like a canyon, but they call it something else. I don't know it's a cool place. Stop by and check it out.

Pleasant Surprises in Southwestern Colorado

From RMNP I didn't waste any time. I woke up early at my campsite and I headed straight for the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. To myself I was kind of thinking that you've seen one canyon you've seen them all, but this is not true. This place was very cool. It's kind of like Crater Lake in that you drive to an overlook, hike to it, look at the canyon, and repeat. Repeating these steps isn't bad at all. Each overlook gives a different perspective of the Canyon and you can also drive down to the floor to stare up at the Canyon Walls.

The next surprise was Great Sand Dunes National Park. Out of all the parks so far I may have had the most fun at this one. It was great playing in the sand. It also has the scenic beauty that people have come to know from the US National Parks.

Finally, I made my way out of Colorado with a stop at Mesa Verde National Park. Now, I hope I'm not selling this park short by saying my favorite part was the free showers and free wi-fi. You have to understand how desperately I needed a shower and a little internets. The shower paid off for a little bonus pleasant surprise as a girl at the park left a note for me on my windshield. If you read my bumper stickers and stumbled upon this site - "I appreciate the cheesing fellow liker of biking, enjoyer of kayaking, and owner of an iPhone. Keep on cheesing Wisconsin!! Nothing bad has ever come of it!!" Man, I love that t-shirt.

RMNP - without all the Dumb and Dumber References

A little less than a year ago I was in Rocky Mountain National Park with my parents, my sister, my nephew and my niece. I ended up turning that installment of MCPP (Mike's Cumulative Present Program) into quite the debacle by taking one last hike while our plane was leaving Denver International Airport. In fact our entire visit to RMNP was very similar to Dumb and Dumber.

This time I simply wanted to cross the Rockies via Trail Ridge Road and take a few short hikes along the way. A couple mile long string of cars greeted me as I entered Estes Park and this made me happy that I had planned our visit last year to be off-season in October.

BUT, then I got to Trail Ridge Road. The sights you pass as you traverse the Rockies are unquestionably some of the greatest vistas you'll get of the Rocky Mountains without hiking deep into the back country. This made me a little sad that we didn't brave the congestion. I'm torn, but either way, any time of year, RMNP is a pretty splendid spot to visit.

These Tetons are Real and they're Magnificent

I mentioned this about my second stint at Yellowstone - the weekend was upon me and it made things pretty crazy at the Grand Tetons. All the Labor Day traffic combined with some pretty serious construction made for a nice leisurely stroll into the park which is connected to the southern end of Yellowstone.

However, once you get situated it's great. I camped at the first campground I found and I had enough time to hike along a lake's shoreline with a perfect vantage of the Tetons.

This one commonality of just about every location in the park. Where ever you are the Tetons loom overhead. I paddled the Snake River and they were there. I hiked around Jenny Lake and there they were. I biked the park road and they never left my periphery. It's kind of neat how it works out like that, and that 's one of the most attractive elements of this park.

Yellowstone Take 2

My return to Yellowstone was just as the sun set. I passed through the gates, a bit startled that they were still manned by a human to take your entrance fee. I kept on going until the first campground and I was so tired that I didn't even bother putting up my tent. My car is getting more comfortable each time I sleep in it and I was probably asleep in a matter of minutes.

I didn't have a whole lot on my agenda for my second visit as I had seen a pretty good portion of the park upon my last visit and sadly it was the weekend once again so it was going to be crazy. This trip, I hiked through a couple of geyser basins and I watched some Buffalo up at Hayden Valley. It was a pretty good trip, but not good enough to get me to stay another night I ended up heading south to the Grand Tetons.

En Route to Yellowstone

The way I'm driving around the country, I am starting to think that the quantity of miles required to get to Alaska was a bit of a guise.

From Crater Lake, I zipped through Lassen Volcanic National Park. I barely stopped to see anything. I pulled over to hike to the top of Mount Lassen, but it was closed until 2010. I was saddened, got back in my car, and put the pedal to the metal.

Next thing I knew I was in Nevada sleeping in my car at a Wal-Mart. One thing that was peculiar is that there aren't any slot machines in the Wal-Marts. I was a bit surprised. But they still do oil changes and I was taking advantage of that.

In Nevada I also spent that night at Great Basin National Park. It's another park you don't have to feel bad passing it by. I'm sure it's nice and has some great hiking, but it's not stop and stare beautiful.

One last stop before I made my glorious return to Yellowstone was Provo Utah. I stopped, spent some time at a BYU Library with the Mormons and then I had ice cream with them at the local A&W. It was excellent.

My New Favorite Place: Crater Lake

I started a little bit of a Crater kick by heading directly to Crater Lake after my stop at Craters of the Moon.

The crowds of Yellowstone were bad, but the main reason I left in a hurry was to get to Crater Lake. Crater Lake has a relatively brief window of opportunity to visit and I didn't really want to wait until next year. I'm not the most patient person in the whole world.

I made the drive to the far west coast once more and it was so worth it. I've never seen a blue so deep, a lake so photogenic and compelling. It seriously just draws your gaze in. At first sight you're pretty much left with one of two reactions; an unblinking stare or reaching for your camera.

It's spectacular get out there and see it for yourself.

I Stepped Foot on the Moon and Didn't Need a NASA Monkey-Suit

This place is aptly named Craters of the Moon. The second you step foot out of your car you do feel like you've arrived at some sort of other-wordly location (and it's not just Idaho). This park is diminutive in size, especially after just leaving Yellowstone, but I think it's definitely worth a look.

The park features a lot of lava rock, one big cinder cone, and just all-around bizarre terrain. Another aspect of the park that was dramatized due to coming from Yellowstone was the size of the crowd. Relatively speaking, no one was here. I biked a few laps around the park loop road and I'm not sure if I recall a car passing me.

Yellowstone National Park - Old Geezers and Geysers Galore

I went from the dramatic towering peaks of the Canadian Rockies to the bizarre geyser basins and hot springs of Yellowston. Yellowstone is an extremely contrasting experience to everything that I have seen so far and it's really quite spectacular.

I can see why so many photographers flock to the park roads of Yellowstone - when the conditions are right the visuals are stunning, wildlife is abundant, and the geography is quite diverse.

I loved the park but hated the crowds. It was soooo busy. I assumed that there would be a lot of people here, but when I looked at the size of the park and the fairly thorough park road system I didn't think any one place would be hectic. Instead every single place was a zoo. I spent four nights in the park and then I couldn't take it anymore and I ski-daddled to Craters of the Moon with plans of returning to Yellowstone after Labor Day.

In My Travels I Have Acquired a New Bad Habit

Leaving stuff on my car roof and driving away. I don't know if I'm just more absent-minded than usual (and that might be saying something) or if I am looking forward to so many things that I just drive away without thinking about anything. It could be something I haven't even thought about yet.

What I've done to date is this. In Kootenay National Park I placed my Spot Messenger on my roof-top because it wasn't working. A red light was blinking repeatedly and I didn't know what it meant. My solution was to drive away with it on my roof, resulting in it sliding off at about 100 kph. It took a beating, and that red light kept blinking. A later internet search would reveal that the red light meant the batteries were low. A problem that is easily remedied without having to put it through a high speed collision.

Next, after laundering my clothes I placed my change cup on my roof as I strategically arranged my clothes for car-sleeping. As you guessed, I forgot about the cup and it rained change on the highway about five miles outside of Helena, MT. I could blame a man from WI on this one, as he called me over to talk about biking. Either way, I found myself on the side of the highway picking up Canadian Loonies and Twonies, and a mess of US change. $4.21 Canadian and $11.34 US was recovered in this operation.

Finally, at Crater Lake I placed my moccasins on the roof. I drove about 15 miles, got out to take some pictures and there they were right where I left them. Thank goodness! That would have been the biggest tragedy of the bunch even though these moccasins are in desperate need of a cobbling.

The Canadian Rockies; Rugged, Dramatic, Magnificent

I spent much of my time in Seattle thinking about whether I should race up the Pacific Coast to Alaska or spend the reaminder of the summer of 2009 in the Rockies.

1. The Rockies won out, due to the mileage I would need to put behind me to get to Alaska and my not-so perfect confidence in my mobile home to make the journey.

As it turned out, my car was not a problem and I am sure Alaska would have been phenomonal but the Canadian Rockies were brilliant. I would have been perfectly happy spending the remainder of the summer here but there was so much more I wanted to see and my time and money are not limitless. In short I visited 5 National Parks in the Canadian Rockies. Each one featuring Rocky Mountains much more profound to what we see in the US (with the exception of the Grand Tetons and RMNP). The whole of the Canadian Rockies is an adventurer's wonderland. There's so much hiking, biking and paddling to be enjoyed and I just experienced the tip of the iceberg during my three weeks here:

• Kootenay National Park
• Banff National Park
• Jasper National Park
• Yoho National Park
• Waterton Lakes National Park

I'd highly highly reccomend Jasper and Yoho, they were my favorites and thus I spent a disproportionate amount of time in them, but every second of it was enjoyed.

Olympic National Park

I spent nearly a week in Olympic National Park. This park is massive. I believe there are a total of 12 different entry points to the park and I explored at least half of them. I began at Hurricane Ridge where I road my bicycle up to the top (successfully ruining one of my wheels), but the 17 miles of non-stop downhill high speed action was well worth it. Later I went to the Elwha Valley and Sol duc Valley. I also paddled the Hoh River where things got a little "splashy." More leisurely, I walked the sands of Ruby Beach and Rialto Beach. I also frequented the Public Library at Port Angeles.

Sasquatch in the Cascades?

A silly Sasquatch hiding out in the North Cascades National Park stumbled into a bucket of yellow paint used to paint the center lines of the highways you and I drive on. After wetting its feet the Sasquatch proceeded to cross the highway, leaving clear footprints as to where it was going and where it came from. I biked from Colonial Creek Campgrounds to the Mountain's Pass and back and no Sasquatch were sited.

Much Heat and Snow Found at Mount Rainier

The (near?) record temperatures nearly chased me right up the 14,000+ Mount Rainier just to cool off. The words majestic and breath-taking have frequently been used to describe Mount Rainier towering above its surroundings, but one should really see it firsthand to enjoy the complete majesty of the 5th tallest mountain in the lower 48.

Out of the office and into the Wilderness

• I yelled at a bear with a ranger at Glacier National Park
• I checked the Prairie Dog Villages of Theodore Roosevelt National Park for vacancy
• I encountered a Buffalo Barracade at Wind Cave National Park
• I got sweaty and stinky in the Badlands of South Dakota

Three ways to mount a Cadillac found at Acadia National Park:

I spent almost a week at Acadia National Park back in April. The highest peak in the park is Cadillac Mountain. This is most likely the most heavily visited area of Acadia National Park so I tried to find a couple of extra ways to get up the hill while staying out of the way of the throngs of people. First I took my car to scope it out. Next I hiked from my campground and only bumped in to a handful of fellow park-goers. Finally, I took my bike. This probably gets me more in the way of the tourists, but it's the off-season and man I love flying down hills after a nice big climb.

Rain stops for one day in Shenandoah National Park:

On my fourth attempt to enjoy Shenandoah the rain held off for most of the day and I got in a nice eight hour hike. The hike climaxed in mass confusion between myself and a father and daughter from Michigan. The trail branched four ways, and the fog rolled in. A few minutes of thought later, we chose wisely, and I realized I should bring a map along when I go hiking.

Westward Exploration with my Parents:

In October of 2008, as part of Mike's Cumulative Present Program (MCPP) I took my parents out west to check out a few of our countries more spectacular parks. We hit Redwood, Yosemite, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, and Rocky Mountain National Park. This trip ended with a BANG!! I missed our flight, rented a car to get home, and drove directly into a parked car on the road trip. But, it still was an amazing time in my life.

Nenes run wild at Haleakala National Park:

My buddy Ben and I took our rental car up to the 10,000 foot summit of Haleakala. We didn't expect to find much wildlife on our way up to this humungous crater but to our surprise their were cow crossing signs and Nenes were running wild all over the place. The nenes, while abundant, proved to be elusive. We spent a handful of minutes trying to herd a nene into a corner where we could catch the little bugger. We were unsuccesful, but we did see an other-wordly sight; Haleakala Crater.

My Dad has gas at Redwood National Park:

In a much less startling surprise my Dad had gas in Redwood forest. I really just added this picture because I forgot to include it in the picture book I made for my parents after our trip.

Eastern Exploration with My Pinky Up Tour:

Out west went so well (sans car accident and missed flight) and my South American adventure turned into a debacle so I decided to give the East a shot. Although, not as awe-inspiring, and much much more developed, the East Coast has a few National Parks that are just as breath-taking as the ones out West.

If you still want more - check out my old BLOGSPOT Archives