Category: Travel

June 2016 – Yosemite and Great Basin

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An overdue post!

Annnd two weeks on the road!   It was a real glimpse into how life will look as we travel.  We spent one week in Yosemite National Park and the other in Great Basin National Park.  Most people know about Yosemite, but Great Basin, located in Nevada, is one of our smaller jewels.   The park is so unknown that  a fellow traveler staying at the same RV park had never heard of it.

The drive from Sacramento to Yosemite is a relatively easy one, about four hours.  We decided to stay at the Thousand Trails RV Park, Yosemite Lakes.  IMG_4684[1]We are Thousand Trails members so it is a good deal for us.  The campground itself is pretty nice for an RV park.  There are sections for tents, basins, yurts and RVs.  Having full hookups is a sweet deal, but that means I can’t rate the facilities.  Bear did laundry and he had no complaints.  I used the shower once and it seemed a standard camp shower bathroom.  That means, relatively clean, bring shower shoes, and most of all expect bugs.

Our favorite part of this campground is the area just upstream of a swimming hole.  I’m not a fan of the swimming hole, I once kicked a boulder and have held a grudge since then. We did see our fellow travelers having a great time, so you may want to make your own decision!

The Merced River flows calmly through this campground and it usually is safe for wading or floating. My favorite spot is an area the river has split in two.  One side is very rocky, and painful to walk on without water shoes.  My flip flops were sufficient.  The other side is sandy and very still and was positively swarming with butterflies.  The girls had a grand time building dams and having races.  A lot of families enjoy bringing their kids by, so it was a wonderful place for the girls to make friends.IMG_4913[1]

The last time we camped here, we scored a spot right by the river, with a nice gentle bank.  This time we weren’t so lucky.  The place was packed and we had to sit in Sun Circle (or something along those lines, let’s just say, it’s aptly named).  Thankfully, we had full hook-ups, so air conditioning was available.  The campground also has a playground which is better designed for kids 3 and older.  It’s made from logs and metal and is best avoided under a hot summer sun.  Morning and evening are good times to visit. There’s a variety of courts from  basketball to mini golf, and it seems to attract a lot of visitors.

Yosemite Lakes is about 40 miles away from Yosemite Valley and 20 miles from our first day hike in Hetch Hetchy.  Hetch Hetchy is not as popular as Yosemite Valley, but I would still recommend getting there somewhat early, no later than 10am.  It is a hotter section of the park and lower in elevation.

We hiked out to Wapana Falls, a 4+ mile hike rated moderate by the national park.  The trail is well maintained and easy to walk on. It’s a gradual uphill, but there are great vistas and wild flowers along the way to distract you from any hiking discomfort.

The next day, we made the hike to May Lake, a High Sierra Camp that had not yet opened.  It’s a light hike, about 3 miles round trip.  IMG_4742[1]

The lake itself is classic Yosemite alpine lake;  crystal clear water framed by sheer granite mountains.  In the high country, you are guaranteed some amount of wildlife.  If you can’t spot a marmot, you are not trying.

DSCN6930 (2)Just be careful, these cute fuzzballs carry plague and other joyous diseases.  They’re also thieves and they poop on everything.

The girls each completed the Yosemite Junior Ranger  packets for a small amount of home school hours.  Both earned their badges, Bunny getting a ‘Cub’ badge and Goose getting the Jr Ranger Badge.  The Yosemite packet is nice, it’s got a good amount of science, critical thinking and creative activities.  It’s nice to have something to frame discussions about the educational aspects of the park.

We took a hike towards Illilouette Falls from Glacier point.  It is a backwards hike, meaning you go down then up.  It was pretty tough and the adults all spent time hauling children up the trail.  We managed and then we ate ice cream!

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My folks came with us, so Bear and I were able to sneak away for a date hike.  We picked the Ten Lakes Trail.  It’s a butt-kicker and it’s worth it!  We never make it to the lakes, instead we picnic at the top of the pass.  It’s a great vista, we were even treated to some passing deer.

 

We were sad to hit the road again, but eager to see Great Basin.  It was a new park for all involved and we had not heard a lot about it.  The more famous attractions are Wheeler Peak, the Bristlecone Trees and the Lehman Caves.  It’s also a great place for night sky viewing, if there aren’t clouds.  We scored one clear night.  Although we were all sad to be missing out on the milky way, we were treated to some great desert cloud-scapes.

We stayed at The Border Inn, aptly named for being on the border with Utah.  According to our phones, the laundry room was in Mountain Time.  Bear had a lot of fun confusing Siri while doing laundry in Utah.  The Border Inn was better than I had expected.  It is a combo gas station, casino (of course!), Inn, and RV Park.  It seemed most of the employees livimg_5009e on site and I felt secure there the whole time.  Our neighbors included some passing ranch hands and an entomologist collecting samples. (Score!)  We also got to meet part of the family of the owners.  They were more than happy to chat about their town and the sights in the area.  Bonus, they had three girls in tow so we finally got some kids to play with!

Wheeler Peak can be enjoyed via the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive.  We took care of that our first day there.  It is a winding road with some great vistas of the Peak and the valley below.

There are several trail heads along this route, including the Alpine Lakes and Bristlecone/Glacier trails.  Both are short enough for an easy to moderate day hike. Goose and Bunny managed it mostly under their own power!  The Alpine Loops Trail provided two pretty lakes.  There were a disturbing amount of flies in the area, but they seemed to be more interested in the river banks than us.

The Bristlecone/Glacier trail was an easy trail with the payoff of the oldest known living organisms: The Bristlecone Pine.  Oh, what beauties these trees are!  They are some pretty tough trees.  They are dense and resinous, which defends them from the elements and the beasties. They were surprisingly soft.  If you want to know if you’re looking at a bristlecone, just softly run your hand over the pines.  They are the softest pine I have ever met!

The Lehman Caves were a great treat and Goose loved every minute!  You have to reserve a tour and it is worth it!  We had to do the Lodge Room Tour as Bunny didn’t meet the age requirements for the longer one.  Frankly, that worked out best as she was interested, but not enraptured.  Goose could have spent the day chatting with the ranger.  The tour itself is informative, covering the processes that form caves and cave structures.  It also gets into the history of the caves, focusing mostly on the impact of tourism and people.

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We took a short day trip from Baker to Ely for a ride on the Northern Nevada Railway.  It was a treat, but I wish we could have had a train that got robbed.  We’re home safely and soundly, and glad to have been out and about.  We miss the road already and we can not wait to get out again.

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The Archives: Why I Travel

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My family’s priority was travelling.  We would alternate between cheap camping trips and more expensive overseas or cross continental travel.  My mother, the Goat, is from Italy and we would always visit her family when we could.  Then we would spend some time nearby, visiting every museum and every ruin we could find.

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These travels brought me to understand people and the world around me.  I learned more than geography and a bit of history.  I learned propaganda through the masterpieces throughout the centuries.  I learned to look at the sides of the paintings and not the subject (almost always Jesus and family), because that is where the artists were able to express themselves.

My mother would lecture me on history as we walked around ruins under a hot sun.  It was a noble attempt, but I was a very unfocused child and very good at pretending to pay attention, so I didn’t learn too much. I knew if I waited long enough, she would make me a lizard trap, explaining, yet again, how to tie the knot.  Then, we would go lizard hunting.  A lizard trap can be made from a long piece of grass with a noose-like knot at the end.  To catch the lizard, lay the noose in front of it.  The lizard is likely playing “you can’t see me if I don’t move.”  Gently tap behind the lizard to scare it forward.  It will walk through your trap, and pull.  Be careful to pull only on the body or the neck.  Never the tail.  The tail will come off and the poor animal will lose its primary defense. My mother is an expert lizard catcher.  I was pretty good too.

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One day, she told me that she was done explaining how to make the knot and it was up to me to do it.  I, of course, had no clue how to do it, but I couldn’t lose face.  I tied what I thought was a good imitation of my mothers careful knot and set about to find a lizard.   I found my candidate and lay the trap.  The plan worked perfectly.  The lizard walked through my trap and I yanked!  The trap failed miserably.  The poor lizard took flight and probably landed on some poor tourist.  After that, I learned to catch them with my hands.

I may not have learned the specifics of history among those ruins, but that does not mean my time was wasted.  I would pay attention to the stories of loss and hardship.  I knew that that the way these people lived their lives was both similar and foreign to how I lived my own.  I saw the sharp contrast between the upper classes, the Church and the poor.    We walked through the buildings where the poor went to have their last breath, literally named “Last Breath”.  My aunt took me along the path where the un-wedded women must walk, high above the road where no one and everyone could look at them.  (ps it’s a great walk, high above the beach in Mondello, Sicily.)

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I wandered the streets of Pompeii and marveled at the vulnerability of my own life.  In the castles and ruins, I saw how people have evolved and grown taller with better living conditions and nutrition.  The doors could barely fit my somewhat short mother.  It showed me that our species is always in flux and changing.  I saw the talent and beauty being expressed through the artists of stone, paint, and architecture.  IMG_20160607_0005

Most of the lessons I learned did not give me concrete facts about the history of a place.  I was not very interested at that age.  I mostly learned how lucky I am and how far we have come.  I also worry how far we can fall. Travel taught me about myself and about the world around me.  Travel taught me about family. 

I saw how my mother and hIMG_20160607_0009er family, acted just like my mother and me.  We would often stay with my aunt and her daughter, Topolina (little mouse), and in her I understood sibling rivalry and sibling love.  

I saw how my parents chose to live with less, so we could see and experience more.  I appreciated the value in experiences versus material.  As a child and a teenager I knew, I wanted to have a family and I wanted see, with them, the world and family that I so loved.

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Sunset Beach

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Back from Monterey! It was a pretty awesome weekend.  As usual, the Monterey Bay Aquarium was incredible.  The exhibits were breathtaking and educational and the girls loved every moment.  The camping, contrary to my initial opinion, turned out to be peaceful and pleasant.  We met some new people and even ran into an old camping acquaintance!  Overall, it was an excellent voyage, but it was way too short.

Sunset Beach is one of many great camping spots along the California Coastline.  We tend to come to the coast in the spring.  It’s a nice time to visit.  You can catch a lot of wildlife and wild flowers.  Our flower viewing was nice, but nothing spectacular.  There were all sorts of campsite critters, including a mouse!  At night, we got a treat when the bats started flying about.  We don’t see too many of them in our area, so the girls were excited.

As the name would imply, the sunset was spectacular out on the beach.  The area wasn’t empty, but it was by no means crowded.  The walk was steep, but pretty easy.  The girls were able to manage fairly well, albeit with some complaining.  There were plenty of kids around and Goose and Bunny were their usual social selves and made some new friends.  As it turned out, one new friend was actually an old acquaintance from a prior trip!

The whole purpose of this trip was a day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Be warned, it is a pricey museum trip.  The Aquarium is not publicly funded so admission costs are steep.  The cost for our family was pretty close to the cost of a family membership and if we had any intention of returning this year, we would have purchased the membership.  When we are full-time on the road, I hope to spend some time here and have the girls do some unit studies on marine life.  We will certainly take advantage of the membership prices then.

The Aquarium has a few permanent exhibits and some changing ones.  The temporary exhibits  are Tentacles and  ¡Viva Baja!, which are both amazing.  Tentacles takes you through all sorts of squid, octopus, and cuttlefish.

There were some fun educational displays, including how squids propel themselves through water and ‘make your own’ video of cuttlefish camouflage on your face!

Goose and Bunny’s favorite is the Open Sea.  That’s a really fun area because the tank is enormous and all the big fish are here.  The best part of this room is listening to the kids freak out over every giant fish that passes directly in front of them.  I will admit to oohing and ahhing myself.  It’s a great sight.

After the Aquarium, we took some lunch and went over to the Dennis the Menace Park.  If you travel to Monterey with kids, take them here.  It’s a sprawling play area with a rock climbing area, several play structures, a hedge maze, and a suspension bridge.  This is a park with something for any child to play on.  It is also in a prime location.  The park over looks a lake and the coast!

It was a fast-paced and fun trip, and we can’t wait to come back.  Thanks for a great weekend Monterey!

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To The Coast!

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The Jolly Crew will be opening this season with a quick trip out to the Santa Cruz/Monterey Area.  We will be camping at a beach campsite (more information to follow) and visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  Both girls will be studying “Animal Sciences” this coming year, so this will be a great opportunity to do animal profiles.   There are a lot of great resources for education at the aquarium here! The girls love undersea creatures, thank you Octonauts, and are very excited about this trip!

We had the pleasure of visiting the aquarium last year.  It was an absolute blast.  Monterey has a great exhibition, Tentacles, with an impressive array of jellyfish, octopuses, cuttlefish and squid!  This year they are also showing ¡Viva Baja! which looks amazing!  We’ll be back with more after this trip.  Enjoy your weekend!

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Bunny, Goose, and Mouse – Monterey Bay Aquarium, April 2014