Posted by Karen on 31-May-2010
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After 3 days of nice sunshine, it rained again last evening and so today it is a foggy and damp kind of day. Since I woke up with a headache and didn’t feel I’d be able to maintain the proper glorious spectator smile, I decide to skip the last day of the 42nd Kinetic Grand Championship and go for a hike instead. I headed north to the Redwood National Park and took the Lyons Ranch Trail to the old homestead. A herd of deer and I kept startling each other in the dense fog, but otherwise it was a quiet hike in the solitude of the fog. The homestead is so very well preserved that I almost wondered if someone was still living there, but no, not on park property. I searched around a bit for a geocache that was hidden there, but with the fog as dense as it was, I didn’t want to wander too far off the trail, so I didn’t find it. But I did have a nice hike and my headache went away, so that was a bonus.
Posted by Karen on 31-Jan-2010
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Lori and I went to Yosemite Valley to spend the weekend under the Full Wolf Moon, the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. From the Farmers’ Almanac:
Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January’s full Moon. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule. Some called it the Full Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to the next Moon.
On the way down Friday, we stopped at a vineyard and tried to capture the rows of bare grape vines and the precise line of trees behind it. We also stopped to look at a camping trailer I was interested in, so we didn’t arrive at Yosemite until slightly before sunset. We went up to Tunnel View to watch the sunset, which was fairly ordinary, but then the full moon started rising behind Half Dome and that was very extraordinary. For sleeping, we’d rented one of the Curry Village heated cabins and I must say, the heaters in those cabins are excellent.
Saturday morning, we walked over to the Happy Isles Bridge and photographed the Merced River and then we headed over to Yosemite Falls, Ahwahnee Meadow, Sentinel Bridge and just photographed away. We decided to spend sunset and moonrise on Sentinel Bridge, photographing Half Dome and the Merced River. We met a few other hardy souls out there with their cameras too and we all chatted and laughed away even though it was near freezing out there. We saw a little avalanche fall from Half Dome and I got a few pictures of it, which was kind of exciting. After the sun set, a huge cloud of fog settled over the horizon and even though it was the biggest and fullest moon of the year, we couldn’t see it rising, just the illumination of it behind the fog. Okay, time for pizza and warmth.
Sunday morning, we checked out the visitor center and the Indian Museum and met an old Indian woman weaving baskets in the traditional style. At Valley View, we met a couple of crows that were more than eager to pose for us, so of course we had to oblige them and take their photograph. As we headed for home, we stopped for one last waterfall on Cascade Creek, and then headed home after a really nice weekend.
Posted by Karen on 26-Nov-2008
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This morning I woke up to a big storm that had come over the area. So I figured, lets head towards Bryce Canyon National Park and make it a mostly driving day. Along the way I drove through Red Canyon and since it wasn’t raining too hard, I hiked along the little trail there and got right up amongst the red “hoodoos”. Hoodoos are what they call the castle-like turrets that form in the soft sandstone by the rain and wind. I just love the red rock. The rain picked back up a little, so I continued on down the road. When I reached the turn off for Cedar Breaks National Monument, I contemplated going there, but changed my mind as the snow plows pulled in behind me on the road! Naaa, I think I’ll just continue on to Bryce Canyon National Park, it’s not as high in elevation as Cedar Breaks is. As I reach the turnoff for Bryce, the rain has turned to snow, but I head on in anyways. Pictures I’ve seen of Bryce show how pretty is can be with snowfall on the red rock. Now, that only works if you have some visibility! In the middle of a snow storm, with virtually no visibility, it’s not really that spectacular, it is very quiet though and the visitor center was nice, dry and warm. As I head back south, the weather starts clearing again, so when I reach Red Canyon, I decide to explore some dirt roads to see where they go. I followed on and it took me to the Casto Canyon Trailhead. With the sun setting, I decide to continue on the dirt road because it looks like it will connect back with the highway and is going in the direction I need to go. One lone house out there was light up nice and pretty for Christmas already. And there’s the highway and now it’s back to the warm motel room for the evening. The snow storm kicks back up, so it’s a long slow drive through the snow flurries, but I make it and safe and sound.
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