Sunny Southwest

We've been poking around the southwest for the past week or so, soaking up the sun. We spent three days in Aravaipa Canyon, which is an awesome and rugged wilderness area in eastern Arizona. The hike follows a small stream and winds through miles of steep canyon walls. Lots of the hiking is spent walking in the actual stream, as the canyon is so narrow and there is no official trail. We saw a few groups the first day, but nobody after that.

Starting the hike.

Exploring a side canyon, almost sunset.

The stream was sometimes lined with sycamores and cottonwood, with the leaves turning fall colors.

Relaxing is an important aspect of every hike.

A group of javelinas.

The canyon walls were a thousand feet high or so.

After leaving Aravaipa, we bummed around the southwest for awhile longer, hiking around Arizona and southern California. We hung out in Mojave National Preserve for awhile, which is a huge area: 1.6 million acres, about twice the size of Yosemite. Climbing around the Kelso Dune Field was lots of fun - but sliding down was even funner. The sand makes an awesome squeaking noise as you slide down it. The dunes are really tall and extensive (about 600 feet tall - as tall as a 60 story skyscraper). There is really neat natural history here.  The dunes are essentially an ecological island.  There are seven species of insect found only on this particular dune field. We also explored around a huge pumice plain and climbed up one of about 20 cinder cones in the park. The volcanoes erupted here about 10,000 years ago.

Kelso Sand Dunes. Emily is the little dot on the right.

David stretches as the sun sets. 

Pumice field and the cinder cone that we climbed.

This is the tail end of the trip for us, but I think we'd like to return to every place we visited the past month!

Bye bye Baja

We spent the last of our time at Baja on the beach, sea kayaking and hiking around a really cool area with tons of boulders and huge cactus, Catavina. We had an amazing time in Baja, we really didn't know much about Baja or what to expect before we left. Traveling here has allowed us to really get a sense of a new place as well as meet lots of awesome people. We have had such a great time getting to know people, and everyone has been really nice to us. People we had just met let us use their kayaks, brought us thanksgiving dinner, invited us to campfires, and David even got a job offer! We'll definitely be back to Baja sometime, its a great combination of beach and hiking with so many great people.

Full moon rising over out beach campsite at Playa Coyote.

On one of our last days of the trip, just as we headed back to the beach after a morning of kayaking and were ready to pack up the tent and head north,we had a quite a surprise. We ended up running into Tim, our neighbor and friend from last summer in Yosemite, who had just pulled in to set up camp. Of course, we changed out plans to spend an awesome beach campfire with him, and also made friends with two guys riding across North America on motercycles.

The five amigos.

 We bid a fond farewell to the beach and headed up North for some hiking in Catavina.

Cardon cactus.

So many cool rock formations!

Cirio (aka boojum) plant.

 On the way north, we again passed by huge fields and greenhouses miles and miles long. If you're enjoying a delicious strawberry or tomato right now, this may be where it came from. The scale of the operations are astounding and more than a little eery.

Miles of huge greenhouse, stretching as far as the eye can see.

Border fence, Mexican side. The US side is much more boring, of course.

Camp Pufferfish

 Much of the last few days was spent at a place called Rattlesnake Beach, a long stretch of beach where quite a number of boondockers have set up residence for the winter.  This is a beach with no amenities, so it's a bit hardier bunch than some of the other beaches around Baja.  We found a nice secluded spot and quickly raised our aquatic standard: two dried up pufferfish.

Beach Time

Since we last wrote, we've mostly been hanging out in small towns and on the beach. We've wandered around a couple of little towns, often sampling their ice cream and park benches. One of the highlights was San Ignacio, which contains a beautiful old mission church. We happened to show up a 9:55 on Sunday morning to the town square, just in time to hear the peeling of the church bells and peoplewatch as familes filed in for the service.

We continued meandering southward, taking little walks along the way. David has been really excited to see more birds.  The latest round of avian highlights include: Vermillion Flycatcher, Black-and-White Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, and the incredible Gray Thrasher (one of the five endemic birds to Baja).
 

Mountains in Baja.

Cool beetle

We came upon a beach on the Sea of Cortez that was so nice we ended up staying five days.  There were really amazing friendly people there who really took us under their wing.  We split our days hiking in the mornings before it got too hot; exploring lots of canyons, hiking up arroyos and dry washes, and looking in each of the many caves for possible petroglyphs.  In the afternoon we would lay low and took siestas on the beach.  One day our wonderful neighbors Larry and Wendy let us borrow their sea kayak and we paddled around some of the islands in the bay and Emily went snorkeling.  Our tent was about 10 feet from the ocean.  When we woke up at night we could look out of the tent and see the Big Dipper right above the ocean.  When we woke at dawn (so David could go birding!) we could see a beautiful pink sunrise each day.  It was really nice to stay at one place for a while and really get to know the people well.  There were lot of really interesting personalities on the beach with a lifetime full of stories and adventures to share with us. 

There are caves everywhere here. Some of them contain cool petroglyphs and pictographs.

Looking southeast, view of Bahia Coyote. We were camped at the very far end of this bay.

Turkey vultures on a cardon cactus.

Our campsite on the beach. Each site has a palapa, which provides a nice place to cook and get in the shade.

Sunset at Coyote Beach. In the mornings and evenings, the water is a calm as a lake. Waves are the choppiest in the afternoon. They can get to almost one foot high!! (aka very little).

Today we bittersweetly moved on from our temporary home to explore a little more going south on the peninsula.  We're in a really nice town now called Loreto.  We were wandering around this evening and we stumbled onto basically a talent show for the local elementary school at the town plaza.  Just as entertaining as the singing and dancing was all the random kids playing on the fringes, the supportive mothers applauding while serving tons of platters of food, and the proud fathers taking photos and videos of their kids up on stage.  It seemed like a very wholesome and happy event and we were lucky to be able to watch part of the events.  Food here has also been pretty awesome.  Emily got a homemade strawberry popsicle that tasted like the best fat juicy strawberry you've ever had in the height of summer, intensely distilled into a popsicle.  She claimed it was the best dessert she has ever had.  The ice cream store had about 20-30 different flavors of homemade popsicles (paletas).  We also bought fresh bread and cookies from the back of a pickup truck that was blaring a song about buying bread much like an ice cream truck in the states. 

We'll be in Baja for about another week and then are going to spend a bit of time in southern Arizona and SE California before returning to Portland.  Hasta manana!

Baja 1000

We headed out from Portland to Baja through Oregon and Northern California. After staying with our delightful friends Annika and Ross (who can also whip up a mean dinner) we had our next stop in Joshua Tree National Park. We tooled around that area a little, and then headed for the border. We had no trouble at the border crossing - Tecate crossing is highly recommended! 

We kept on trucking south, passing through some amazing desert. Baja has about 120 species of cactus, plus lots of other interesting and strange looking plants. We've been taking it easy, getting out of the car a lot to hike and poke around.  We made our first long stop in Bahia de los Angeles, a beautiful bay on the Gulf Coast. On our way there, we were momentarily involved in the Baja 100 when two racing motorcycles passed us on the road. The race happens once a year, and 99% of it is off road, so it was pretty funny to be a part of the action for the 1% of the time it was on the highway headed to the same small fishing village that we were. The village was bustling with people setting up for pit stops, and we got to check out tire changes close up. It was pretty exciting. 

We spent the last day or so on a small empty beach owned by a couple friendly guys called La Gringa. David saw about a billion birds he was excited about, including reddish egret, yellow-footed gull, elegant tern, long-billed curlew, and marbled godwit. I saw dolphins. We're now on the road again, headed south to Baja Sur.  

Hiking around boulder fields at Catavina.

David drove his honda up and tried to get a free oil change.

Pit stop on a motorcycle. Everything was completed in 20 seconds.

View from Bahia de los Angeles campsite. We were in a palapa, which is a type of partially-walled shelter with a thatched roof common around here. 

David sneaking up on birds on La Gringa beach.

Lunch of potatoes and fresh clams.

From left to right: Two elephant trees, flowering century plant, and a boojum (cirio).

Fall Travels

After more that a month in the Pacific Northwest, the temperature has dropped below 45 and we're headed south to Baja. We'll be there for a couple weeks, and post updates about our trip here. For now, here's some pictures from a weekend trip to the Oregon Coast. We actually saw the sun there!

Hike in the woods.

Rocky coastline.

Yosemite Ramblings

We left Yosemite at the end of September after having a wonderful summer. In August and September, we continued to do lots of backpacking and hiking. David also went rock climbing a little. Here are some pictures of some of our outings in the last few months.

Kuna Crest.

On Kuna Crest, looking at the Cathedral Range before sunset.

Setting up camp. Something about the perspective of this photo makes David look like a giant.

Almost to Donahue Pass. 

On the way to Matterhorn.

View from Mt Hoffman.

After leaving Yosemite, we headed north up the west coast, stopping in Chico to visit with our friends Annika and Ross, two geologists who also make a mean mushroom curry. We spent a night at Crater Lake National Park. We pulled up to the lake just as the sun was setting, to see the full moon rising across the lake. Spectacular! The next night we camped near Mt Hood. We went to Timberline Lodge for a drink, which I was SUPER excited about. It is a classy building, very very cool. Check out its history here: http://heritage.timberlinelodge.com/. I'm now back in Portland enjoying the hospitality of Leah, Chris and their roommates, and heading to Seattle and the Twin Cities for a bit. David started his volunteer work at Mt Rainier.

Moonrise over Crater Lake. 

Crater Lake by day from Mt Scott.

Mid-summer in the Sierra

July has been a busy but awesome month. It is crazy to think that we are well into summer! Its been really hot here in El Portal – highs of over 100 every day – but luckily no humidity! We’ve been escaping into the mountains to cool down.

A couple weekends ago we took a short jaunt to the east side of the Sierra.  One highlight was Mono Lake, which is a very interesting place.  Because it has no natural outlet, the water evaporates, leaving the minerals behind, giving the water a very high salinity.  It is supposedly three times saltier than the ocean.  When the city of Los Angeles starting filching the water supply in the 1960’s, the water level dropped and it exposed towers of accumulated carbonate called tufa. 

Tufa towers at Mono Lake

Another awesome part of that weekend was an awesome dayhike through Lundy Canyon, which was full of beautiful wildflowers.  We climbed to the top of the canyon up to a basin with numerous small tarns (small lakes in the high country) were nestled in the mountains.  It was quite spectacular. 

Steelhead Lake

Falls at Lundy Canyon

 The next couple weekends we spent with David’s family in Sequoia/Kings Canyon and Yosemite.  We had an awesome time hanging out, eating good food and seeing the sights.  One highlight was seeing the giant sequoias, which was also a first for Emily.  David’s favorite part was an old timey store where we got ice cream.  It also had four hummingbird feeders in front, and we were able to see up to a dozen hummingbirds from several feet away.

King's Canyon National Park

This past weekend we were back at it burning up the trail.  We did a great dayhike starting from a high elevation lake(Tenaya Lake) in the north part of the park, hiking to one of the best 360 vantage points (Clouds Rest), and then going all the way back to the Valley.  It was a popular trail and had a lot of other hikers, but it was well worth the crowds for the amazing vistas.

View of Half Dome and Yosemite Valley from Cloud's Rest

David celebrated his 29^th anniversary of existence with the traditional butterfly census (and hoping no one notices its his birthday).  Meanwhile Emily celebrated his birthday by making her favorite food, macaroni and cheese, ostensibly for his sake. 

Ramblings in Yosemite

Last week we made a delicious dinner using some spices that Emily got from her Mom for Christmas.  It wasn’t quite as good as Mom cooking, but Chris refuses to move out here and live in our closet. 

The deliciously spiced Indian food. 

We’ve been on lots of great hikes the last few weekends.  One trip included a side route to Royal Arch Lake.   Once we got there David climbed hundreds of feet up a peak while Emily took a nap. 

Royal Arch Lake

Last weekend took us up the Lyell Fork Canyon, a very popular spot for all, especially fly fishermen.  We climbed out of the canyon to Ireland Lake, our campsite for the night.  Unfortunately we hadn’t really researched the location too well.  It turns out that it’s a very windswept place normally, and the unusually high winds that weekends combined with the generally harsh timberline setting led to quite a gusty night.  We survived however, and proceeded the next day to continue on adventuring in the  beautiful high sierra.

Lyell Fork Canyon

Ireland Lake

Evelyn Lake

High Sierra

This past weekend we took one of our most incredible backpacking trips ever!!!  We did the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne.  The combination of towering granite cliffs, raging river torrents, tranquil aspen groves, an amazing diversity of plant life, and cascades that would make a water park envious all made for quite a fun weekend.  We started at the headwaters of the Tuolumne River and followed it 20 miles along as it dropped 5,000 feet over the next three days.  The hike out today up 3,000 feet of switchbacks was a bun-burner but well worth it.  

Tuolumne River in the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne

First night campsite

Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne

This spot was great for rock sliding and swimming

Almost the end of the  hike -- sad!