Wednesday, 8/14 We were far from the first people in the parking lot the night before, nor were we the last. The late arrivals made sleep slightly more challenging than it already was expected to be. I always wonder in these scenarios how much sleep I actually get. I don’t… Continue reading
Tuesday, 8/13 Second day of success – we got up early enough to get to the Sky Pond trailhead and secure parking. We were still in prime season at the parks, so the need to find parking early ended up being something of a theme for the entire trip. We… Continue reading
Monday, 8/12 We expected to need to be to the trailhead early to get parking as well as to get an early start on the hike to allow time and avoid potential afternoon storms. We mostly succeeded, even though a construction zone took a slight toll. We still got to… Continue reading
Saturday, 8/10 I drove down to Chicago in the Subaru getting in at around midnight and with the expectation that we would be driving the Subaru westbound the next day. Something about the drive made me uncomfortable enough with that plan that we decided to take Janet’s Honda Fit instead…. Continue reading
Friday 5/25/18 I don’t recall where exactly we stayed that night – some random hotel between Yosemite & Death Valley. I do recall a late-night stop at a McDonald’s on the way out of Yosemite for coffee and to use their WiFi to find a hotel. We had a late… Continue reading
Thursday 5/24/18 We could only afford the $200/night yurt for one night, so we checked out in the morning and drove out to the “end” of the valley near the Upper Pines campground. The goal was to hike one or both of Vernal and Nevada falls, an area of the… Continue reading
Wednesday 5/23/18 We knew that Yosemite was going to be busy even though it was early in the season, every information website we found told us so. But, they have first-come camping at Camp 4 that we thought we’d get in line for when they opened as we had done… Continue reading
Tuesday 5/22/18 We planned to stay a couple nights in King’s Canyon with one day of hiking, so after making coffee and breakfast we went to register the site and hit up the visitor center and figure out what trails to hike. Our first hike was to be a quick… Continue reading
[singlepic id=2765 w=400 float=right] Monday 5/21/18 It took a while to drive up into Sequoia National Park. We stopped at the Foothills Visitor Center to get a map. I don’t exactly remember what information they gave us — maybe that all the campsites were all full. From there we drove… Continue reading
Sunday 05/20/18 The second day of the Channel Islands was to Anacapa Island. Anacapa is much smaller, with only about two miles of trails which more or less covers the entire island end to end. I guess technically we were on East Anacapa island – it’s all labeled as one… Continue reading