Wednesday in Yosemite National Park

Today we are "in the valley" Yosemite Valley. This is one of the reasons we have national parks in this country. Abraham Lincoln signed a resolution into law in 1867 that made this area a National Park. The valley is surrounded by 2500 foot cliffs and 2000 foot waterfalls. There is snow on the mountains and it is green and 60 degrees in the valley below. The redwoods tower up from the ground and there are trees here that are over two thousand years old. I will get some pictures up when we have a better signal.
We were in San Francisco for three days and toured highway 1 along the coast from Carmel to Big Sur on Friday. The coast here was beautiful and we found out that Big Sur is a river and not one of the huge outcroppings in the ocean along the coast. Carmel was also beautiful and we saw the huge eucalyptus trees that grow in this area along the coast.
On Saturday we moved closer to San Francisco and camped at Castro Valley at the Anthony Chabot Regional Park up on a mountain in the suburbs of San Francisco. This was an oasis in the middle of the sprawl around the city. In the morning the roar of civilization with the traffic and trains and planes would wake us up at about five in the morning.
Sunday we took a BART train into downtown San Francisco from Castro Valley. It dropped us off on Market Street and we had a short walk to the waterfront and the piers. There was a lot of activity here as it was a hub of restaurants and shops of all kinds. Later we met up with Elizabeth and she took us for a tour of Fisherman's Wharf and then into the downtown area. We saw Alcatraz, the Golden Gate bridge and the Bay Bridge. We then walked the mall in downtown and rode a cable car through the city. Liz took us to see her house and then we went out for dinner and caught the train back to Castro Valley for the night.
Monday we drove into town and picked Elizabeth up for a day trip north up the coast. First we drove through Golden Gate Park and then Lands End National Park. We then drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and then north to Point Reyes National Seashore. This whole area was awesome and made us understand why California was such a big draw for people for so many decades. The small towns along the coast north of San Francisco each had their own character and allure.
On Tuesday we started back east and drove into the Sierra Nevada's to Yosemite National Park. The drive up into the mountains had us questioning our sanity at pulling the trailer into the mountains. The winding uphill grade was a test for my driving abilities and the mighty hemi's performance.
Before we got into Yosemite there was a national forest visitor center and we stopped to see if we could really make this trip. They assured us that the worst of the drive was behind us and that there was an easier road to go back off of the mountain. That made us brave enough to keep on going. The road did smooth out after that and we made it into Yosemite. We were on the mountain top the first day and this morning we drove into Yosemite Valley. This place is just incredible and is the essence of the most beautiful mountain area we have ever seen. We spent the day today exploring the shops and visitors center as we had rain off and on. We took the shuttle to see where everything is and are planning to do a lot more exploring tomorrow as the weather is supposed to improve.
Hope everyone is well and doing fine.

Sunny California at Last!!

We finally made it to California. The first stop was Joshua Tree National Park. We stayed for three nights, and split the time between the east and west ends of the park. There was quite a bit of difference between the two sides as the east is in the Colorado desert, part of the Sanoran desert, and the west side is in the Mojave desert. Different landscapes and vegetation.
From there we went north of Fresno and saw miles and miles of orchards and farms. They grow produce here to feed the country. We stayed at a beautiful Army Corp of Engineers camp last night and are in a state park now for two nights. So far we have had beautiful weather with sunny skies and eighty degree days. The nights are getting warmer since we left the desert and we are not getting nearly as cool.
We are setting up to rendezvous with Elizabeth this weekend in San Francisco. We are only about an hour and a half from the Pacific Ocean now!

The entrance to Joshua Tree N.P. our first destination in California

 

Desert palms at Cottonwood Springs at the park. Note the size of the trees compared to the people at the bottom left corner of the picture!

Jumbo Rocks at the Jumbo Rock Campground at the west end of the park

Finally, these are the Joshua Trees.

The green grasses and meadows were beautiful in the San Joaquin Valley north of Fresno

Horses and cows were grazing in the fields, and where the land leveled off there were orchards for miles and miles. 

We are at Joshua Tree National Park in California

We are on our second day at Joshua Tree NP. The weather was cool and windy yesterday, but today it is very warm and sunny. We did a six mile hike this morning and saw desert palms at two of the springs in the park. They look so out of place in the desert. Still plenty of cactus here, but we have yet to see our first Joshua tree. They are all on the west side of the park for some reason. (This park is about forty miles across!).
I will be posting pictures when we have a better signal.
That's all for now, hope everyone is well.

Arizona / California

We're camped on the Colorado River on the Arizona side. California is across the water from us and today we drove across the Parker Dam and took a ride on the wild (California), side!
This is a gorgeous area with colorful mountains everywhere and an abundance of camping. It seems that this is a huge recreation area for both states plus Nevada with Lake Havasu being the big draw. The lake is formed by Parker Dam and Havasu City is a huge new boom town in the desert. We drove across Arizona's second biggest tourist attraction, the London Bridge! What is it doing out here? It seems a local businessman bought it at auction in the 1960's and moved it here and re-built it across a channel of the Colorado River! Now it is a huge draw for tourism and there is a huge resort community built around it!
We've also done some hiking in the desert and and have been enjoying the amazing scenery. This is big Bureau of Land Management area here and lots of off-roading and desert camping.

Hiking at Catalina State Park north of Tucson

The reward at the end of the hike (besides the magnificent views of the desert and mountains), was the pools along the Romero River.

A community of saguaro cactus and the buttercups growing on the mountainside.

We saw these lizards everywhere, but no rattlesnakes or Gila monsters. How disappointing!

Lake Havasu, Arizona

London bridge was falling down, but they dismantled it and rebuilt it in Arizona!!

Not Hawaii, just Lake Havasu!

Do you think they went overboard with the commercialism?

A hummingbird on one of the nature walks. Notice the purple throat.

The Colorado River and mountains in California.

Campgrounds along the river

 

The beavertail cactus and desert wildflowers were starting to bloom.

Weekend warriors in the desert.

Wild burros along Parker Dam Road

Tucson Territory

We are in the second campground in the Tucson area. The first was Kartchner Caverns State Park, just east of town, and now we are in Catalina State Park north of Downtown. This is a very pretty area with lots of hills and mountains. There is quite a bit of sprawl around Tucson, but nothing like Phoenix which seemed to go on forever.

The weather is getting hotter by the day and today we are at eighty degrees. Too hot, really, and we are looking forward to the cool down later in the week. We have been doing a lot of sightseeing and hiking, and I want to post some pictures here to catch up since we were in Mesilla last weekend.

Hope everyone is doing OK.

 San Albina Church in Mesilla



 Billy the Kid's hangout.

 



The Rio Grande outside of town. we were told that this water was from the water recycling plant and that the actual river was dry.

A little further upstream we found where the water was being discharged, and indeed the actual river was dry above this point.

There were a lot of Pecan orchards in this part of the country

A street in historic downtown Mesilla

The Chile Company store. Lots of imports from Mexico here. 

 

The St. Clair Winery. I bought a bottle of pepper wine here.

Here we are at the La Posta Restaurant with Mr. Mike Kerner

The old wild west town of Tombstone. They did a nice job of preserving and presenting the town. Lots of fun and lots to see.

Waiting for a gunfight to break out.

One of the numerous watering holes for the dusty cowboys as they came in out of the desert.

Inside the Crystal Palace the barkeep set up a couple of beers for me and my lady.

Here she is at the Outlaw's Social Club.

The OK Coral

What the heck?

 

Here we are at Saguaro National Park.

The cactus here were really giants!

 

Barrel cactus with fruit

Giant Saguaro

This was really a spectacular place nestled in the mountains just outside of Tucson

 

 

 

Into the Vast Unknown (We are now out west)

We know we are out west now because we went over the continental divide and we saw numerous snow capped mountains. We stopped at Katchner Caverns State Park just east of Tuscon, Arizona. We wanted to get across the New Mexico desert early because they were calling for increasing winds and that area is noted for it's big sandstorms. We managed to get through with calm winds and no dust.

Yesterday we were at Mesilla, New Mexico which is a historic town just outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico. We went bike riding along the Rio Grande which passes just west of town (It is not the border in this area. New Mexico is on both sides of the river as it turns north out of Texas). There is a bike trail that goes along the river bed for miles and we rode for several hours. Later in the afternoon we had a visit from Mike Kerner from Washington, Michigan, who lives in El Paso and is a pilot for a company that flies freight across the country. He gave us a nice tour of the area and we had a great dinner at "La Posta" restaurant in Mesilla.

After setting up camp today we took a ride over to Tombstone, Arizona, which is close to the state park. We walked around town and had a beer at the Crystal Palace Saloon. Luckily no gunfights broke out while we were there. This is a nice area and we plan to explore it for the next four days.

I'll post pictures when we get a better signal.

Hope everyone is well.

Las Cruces, New Mexico

White's City near Carlsbad Canyon. This is the New Mexico style of cabins for rent. A duplex at that!

The post office at White's City

They had this eight foot brown bear on the porch. Notice the chain around his ankle. As though someone might run off with him!!

The also had these weird looking aliens hanging around. This must be a New Mexico desert thing?

 

 

We left the Carlsbad area on Thursday and drove over the Sacramento Mountains. In a matter of several hours we saw such a diversity in the scenery we were amazed. We started in desert country at Brantley Lake State Park. We drove north to Artesia then west into the Sacramento Mountains. At Wimsatt we were in the pines with golden fields of grass and it reminded us of Colorado in the foothills. Then a little further up we started seeing traces of snow. By the time we got to the summit near Cloudcroft there was snow everywhere and the temperature dropped from forty five to 28 degrees. There was a ski resort at the top of the mountain and they had over a foot of snow and drifts even higher. After the summit we came to a lookout point facing west and could see white in the distance. We couldn't tell if it was snow or if we were above the clouds. After driving down we found ourselves in White Sands New Mexico and the white turned out to be sand dunes of glistening gypsum. We drove into White Sands National Monument and took a drive into the dunes and had our lunch. What an awesome place! Afterwards we drove to Las Cruces and set up camp at Leasburg Dam State Park back in the desert. We had come full circle and still couldn't believe the scenery of the day.

Driving west into the mountains the desert scenery gave way to pines and meadows

We saw several groups of mule deer grazing in the meadows

Higher up we started getting snow. At Cloudcroft at the summit there was a ski resort.

Over the summit and on the way down we came to Lincoln National Forest. The view was incredible. We couldn't figure out what the white was in the desert in the distance.

We found ourselves in White Sands National Monument. This wasn't snow, but sure looked like it!

Gypsum sand accumulated from the minerals washed down from the mountains, crystallized, and blown by the wind into fine particles.

We drove eight miles into the dune fields and stopped for lunch.

These dunes cover 275 square miles!

A view from our camp in Mesilla near Las Cruces. Back at desert level and nice and warm.