For spring break Dan and I set out to Southern California, Arizona, and Nevada for a week-long road-trip. Due to Dan's phiolosiphy that our Geo Tracker is not really a car we rented a "real" car on Saturday and began our journey South.
Day 1: Highway 1's waterfallsAmong rainy, foggy conditions we started our long drive down through Santa Cruz to follow Highway 1 down along the coast. Twisting along the windy road between sandy beaches and over high cliffs the views of the ocean were spectacular. Through the Monterey penninsula there were amazing mansions set against the coast but they quickly let way to wilderness
further South.
The park of Big Sur was hit with large wildfires last year which still kept many of the areas around Pfeiffer State Park closed but we didn't see much evidence of the fire and it looked like new vegetation was quickly taking over the hillsides. Two quick hikes presented very different waterfalls - the first, on a secluded beach shut to the public fell slenderly down into the ocean while the second, Salmon Creek, raged over a high cliff into a valley of large boulders and towering trees.
The familiar bark of the stumbling sea lions greeted us as we approached San Simeon, our final destination for the night. Unlike the beaches at Ano Nuevo State Park where guides lead you on an 1+ trek to carefully approach the barking sea lions, at this beach a boardwalk lines a cliff directly over a beach covered with sea lions. The males were still imobile as ever while the newborns slowly made their way to the sea for swimming lessons. As the sun set on our first day of vacation I decided to try fried artichoke after passing all of the fields filled with the thistle-like plant all day. The rain still raged outside and we opted for a cheap hotel room for the night.
Day 2: Castle to mansions
All I really remembered of Hearst Castle from my visit as a child was the amazing swimming pools that I wanted to dive into. As we set out on the first tour of the morning my childish delight once more took over as we approached the Mediterranean villa set up in the hills over looking the coast. With the cathedral main house in the center and the "smaller" guest houses spread around the outside with gardens and pools I enjoyed imagining what life was like in this small paradise. The inside of the houses are just as ridiculous as the outside - 16th century fireplaces beside 14th century tapestries. The one feature I did find a bit odd was how dark the house was, feeling more like a damp medieval castle than a Mediterranean retreat.
After dreaming of how different life is for the rich and famous we continued our drive down the coast with agricultural fields stretching between beautiful beach. The giant rock at Morro Bay was impressive along with the gigantic power-plant that sat beside it. Our final stop for the day was for a walk around Santa Barbara with a quick look at the mission and beautiful, homogeneous downtown area. We found a beautiful campground on the beach just a bit further south in Carpenteria where we ended the day with a walk along the beach, surrounded by city lights in the distance.
Day 3: Across the desert
As part of our strategy to avoid the traffic of LA at all costs we
bee-lined eastward just south of LA. A long day of driving we quickly passed from the lush coastline to the desertland. Although we counted 7 different kinds of cactus, examined a solar-thermal power-plant through binoculars, and speculated about what types of projects were going on at all the military sites we passed it was a lazy day to just sit back and enjoy the sun (yes, Dan did drive the whole way). We did stop in Kingman, AZ for a quick game of frisbee golf at a small local course next to a middle school. Around 5pm we finally rolled into the Grand Canyon and found our campsite for the night as snow lightly fell. We headed over for look into the deep, broad canyon and started discussing what we wanted to do tomorrow ... "Do you think we could hike to the bottom?" ... "Sure, to the bottom, but we'd never make it back up" and then it was time to build a fire and have some hot chocolate before retreating into our warm sleeping bag.
Day 4: To the bottom of the Grand CanyonDriven out of our sleeping back around 6am from the freezing cold temperatures we decided we might as well head over and get started on a hike. We decided upon the South Kaibob trail which was supposed to have sweeping views as it followed ridgelines to the bottom. Our plan was to just go down a bit, see how we feel, and continue from there. As we descended beneath the rim of the canyon the views were spectacular as the sun rose. A mule train passed us by with a maintenance crew and we marveled at how stable these animals seemed on these steep trails ... although I'm not sure I'd ever want to ride one down. We kept going down and down .... somehow it seemed like the bottom was not getting any closer while the cliffs extended further above us as a reminder of what we had to climb back up. At about 1.5 hours we passed the half-way point on a set of particularly steep switch-backs and decided that we'd come this far, we might as well go for it - after all, we had another 10 hours to make it back out.
3 hours and 100+ photos later we finally approached the tunnel
leading to the bridge across the Colorado River ... we had made it! Besides the sore toes, that was easy ... but it was bitter-sweet as now we knew we had to start our climb back out. After a brief break at the river and a peek at some of the old indian ruins we resigned ourselves to starting the climb back up.
My feet were actually relieved to be going in the opposite direction and I was actually amazed at how quickly we ascended out of the canyon, leaving behind ridge after ridge that had seemed to take so long to reach on the way down. We stopped for a lunch break to enjoy the views and postpone the fact that we still had a long way up. As we passed the half-way point for the second time of the day I was starting to feel it and was wondering if Dan could give me a piggy-back ride the rest of the way. After watching a stuborn mule who did not want to go down any further, I decided it was time to continue upward. It took us about 3.5 hours but with sore feet we finally topped the final ridge and climbed the final switch-backs we had run down earlier that morning. Its amazing how once reaching the top, everything seemed to hurt a lot more than it had a moment earlier and we slowly wobbled our way to the visitors center for another look at the canyon we had just climbed .... "I can't believe we just did that!"
We decided that we wouldn't be able to move the next morning if we spent the night in our tent so we headed down to Flagstaff to spend the night. On the way we were suprised to find another national monument that had old indian ruins built into rocky outcrops and a "blowhole" where air seemed to stream out of the middle of the earth from a small hole in the ground. We ran like a couple of soar cripples to see all the ruins before the sun set and the parked close.
Day 5: Dam Frisbee Golf
We started our day with a quick look around Northern Arizona University in the quaint town of Flagstaff before retracing our steps to the town of Kingman and then North to Las Vegas. In Kingman we stopped at another frisbee golf course in the desert. Although we had to carefully extract our frisbees from cactuses a few times it was an amazing course with huge jack rabbits to keep us company.
About an hour out of Las Vegas we approached the Hoover Dam and found our first traffic jam of our journey. I was amazed at the number of people on the bridge and the huge bridge that they're building to bypass it. We took a walk across the dam, gazing down the huge concrete face and then headed into Las Vegas. Through AAA we had found a great room for the night at the Sunset Station Casino including food gift certificate and a bit of free play (the only kind of gambling we liked) and arrived for a relaxing evening. As we walked into the casino we looked like the octarians we were following as we wobbled back and forth on our sore legs.
Day 6: Las Vegas
Dan had never been to Las Vegas before so after stopping by the EthelM chocolate factory (free samples!) and cactus garden we headed into the strip. We spent the day walking all the way from the MGM down to the Venitian. Coca-Cola world was my favorite stop for the day where we tried 16 different kinds of soda from around the world (sugar overload). The belagio fountains were also spectacular .... I'd love to see them at night some day.
At around 4, our friend Val got off of work so we headed to the west side of Las Vegas to stay with her for the night. We went for a drive around Red Rocks Park which was amazing ... I highly recommend hiking around there whenever you are in Vegas. We watched the NCAA men's basketball tourney for the night in the beautiful house she lives in with her roommates and 2 cute dogs ... we're only "slightly" jealous of the fact that their beautiful kitchen was as big as our whole apartment.
Day 7: Lowest land in the Western Hemisphere
Waking Val at 7am the next morning we headed out of Vegas on our way to Death Valley. I wasn't quite sure what would be so special about the driest, deadest, lowest place on earth but I
figured we should check it out. We headed to the north side where some millionaire of the 1920s had built his own Stanford-inspired mansion known as Scotty's castle. I was amazed at how beautiful and well-equipped this mansion in the middle of the uninhabited desert was ... maybe this desert won't be so bad. Nearby we found a huge crater that descended 500 feet down into the earth and then we headed down into the valley. There were tons of wildflowers and even some little fish in a small stream near the bottom. I couldn't believe that they actually had a golf course in the middle of the park ... where does the water come from? My favorite part of the park was a quick circle drive through the "Artist's Pallete" where rock cliffs of all colors lit up in the afternoon sun.
Of course we also had to visit the "lowest place" at -232 feet below sea level and also explored the old borax factories (what is borax?).
Day 8: Snow in the giant sequoias
Our final day of the road trip we headed north and stopped at two more national parks on our way home. The valley approaching Sequoia National Monument was so peaceful with green hills and wildflowers lined the river flowing down from the mountains. We started our drive up into the park and soon found ourselves surrounded by snow. At the top of the road there were still 4+ feet beneath the huge sequoia trees. We hiked around as much as we could but we definitely want to go back and see more of the park during the summer some time. We were still able to see General Sherman, the largest living tree in the world (largest not in height, or width, but in total volume ... go figure).
The road through Sequoia National Monument leads into Kings Canyon National Park. The main road into the canyon was still closed for the winter but we were able to take a road over to a small lake looking over the valley ... another place to return for another visit.
As we made our final stretch north towards home we made our final stop of the roadtrip at .... Sonic! The whole trip Dan had been searching for his favorite slushie drinks and we finally found one in the town of Gilroy making our trip complete.
This past weekend Dan and I were spoiled in Yosemite. Thanks to a kind wedding present we got to spend a "romantic weekend" away at the Awahnee Lodge in Yosemite valley. It was supposed to be for our first anniversary but since I went to a conference (sorry Dan!) the trip was postponed til the spring. The Awahnee lodge was absolutely beautiful and we got a room on the top floor with an amazing view of the valley and waterfalls. The chocolate covered strawberries and champagne were the perfect way to start off our weekend.
Our room was the window at the top
