From desert to Denver

We went from one extreme to the next on this little section.  We spent a little time in the desert around Death Valley, Las Vegas, and into Arizona.  I suppose the desert is beautiful in its own way, but we are hard to please at this point.  Rocky and barren.  Near Sedona, AZ is beautiful though, with the red rocks and crazy cliffs.  We had a hard time finding open campsites.  Apparently many of them close in October.  It never occurred to us that this would happen since camping is open year round in Tennessee.

We gave up on the desert thing and went to Denver to stay with Tim and Natalie.  We went on an awesome hike in the mountains and it snowed a lot.  Might even be considered a blizzard by Tennessee standards.  On the way out, we couldn't see the footprints we made on the way in.  A winter wonderland and the first real snow we have seen on this trip.  We hiked up to Crater Lakes- amazing views of the mountains and beautiful clear lakes.  We are totally jealous of the amazing hiking that Tim and Nat are so close to.  We also got to check out downtown Denver, which was cool.  A very clean and nice city with loads of public transportation.  They are lovin it there.

 

Our one year anniversary was Oct. 25th.  We drank a bottle of mead that Tim made us (thanks Tim!), and a bottle of wine that Sally Yancey made us (thanks Sally!).  Homemade booze is where it's at.

Unfortunately blog fans, I think this is the last post.  The fundage has run dry and our gear is shot.  It was bound to happen when you quit your jobs and still spend money.  Two months is a pretty respectable run, though, I think.  Right now we are in Houston at Mike's parents house and we plan to mooch it up here for a while and look for new jobs.  I think the blog site stays ours forever, so if we ever wander again, we will post.

Wander on fellow travelers.  Happy Halloween!

Headin' South to Yosemite

We decided that we had enough of the cold so we went south in search of warmer weather.  We drove down scenic coastal highway 101.  This is a cool road even though it is not as fast as the interstate.  A lot of the time the shoulder was a sheer drop off a cliff to the ocean.  Lots of lighthouses, pretty ocean views, neat little coast towns.  Fun fun.  We were lucky enough to have some family to stay with in southern Washington, Katie and Eric Semco, cousins on Mike's mom's side.  We enjoyed their hospitality and even got to run our dishes through an actual dishwasher.  The first time the dishes have been really clean in a month.  Thanks guys!

We drove though Redwood but didn't stay long because they were tryin to charge $30 to camp.  Crazy.  Big trees, but I really thought they were bigger in Olympic.  Just sayin.

We spent almost a week at Yosemite and loved it.  Just keeps gettin better.  Beautiful mountains, scenic vistas, waterfalls, just really beautiful scenery.  We saw three bears in the first couple days.  Apparently they have a big problem with bears hangin out at the campsites and stealing food.  Some intelligent people even feed them and the ranger was tellin us it is not uncommon to see people trying to pet them.  hmmm.  The bears will rip the doors off your car if you leave food in there.  They have caused something like $64,000 worth of property damage this year.  The squirrels were so fat and obnoxious.  They also get fed a lot.  One crawled up in the car when I left the door open.  It might still be in there; I'm not sure.

We went backpacking for four days.  They main valley was very crowded, but once we got five miles off the main trails we didn't see another person for days.  We saw a huge rattlesnake.  Once again, Mike almost ran right into it.  I think he owes me.  This is crazy- at the same time we saw the snake, we look up and see a huge coyote.  It ran right past us, could've reached out and pet him.  What are the odds of seeing both of those things at the same time?  Really great hiking here, but some pretty steep mountains for Tennessee hillwalkers.  We did about a thirty mile loop through Lost Valley, Little Yosemite Valley, Moraine Dome, Echo Valley, and Sunrise Valley.  We hiked up Half Dome and had some amazing 360 degree panoramic views.  There was a lot of soul searching on this trip and I feel like we found the clarity we were searchin for.  Nothin to gain, nothin to lose.  Dig it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who knows what we will do next.  We are throwin around Death Valley or Mojave desert.  We will wander on and keep ya posted. 

Olympic

We LOVE this park!  I think this is the most beautiful place in the world.  We camped one night on the coastline.  We saw a bald eagle, sea anemonies, multicolored starfish, and all kinds of little creatures in the tide pools.  The sand was black and very soft with lots of pretty rocks.  We camped right on the sand- very cool- and watched the sunset over the ocean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The most amazing thing to me, though, was the rainforest.  The trees were HUGE, some of them over 500 years old.  They were covered in moss and ferns, making the whole thing look prehistoric, ancient, and magical.  There were elk everywhere and each night we went to sleep listening to them bugle.  On the hike in, there was a herd of elk on the trail, so we had to make our way around them.  We actually saw two big bulls duking it out and charging each other.  That was crazy and a little scary.  There are mushrooms everywhere in all shapes and sizes growing out of every available surface.  Mike was so distracted by them at one point that he almost ran right into a bull elk in the trail.  We rounded a corner, he kept walking, Oh my God - look out, what? where?, right in front of you!, Oh yeah.  He nearly impaled himself on the elk's horns.  How would that have been for a newspaper headline?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting side note for dorky Twilight fans like me- We went through Forks, La Push, and Port Angeles.  Forks has completely sold it's soul, Twilight cafe, Twilight motel, Twilight gas station, Dazzled by Twilight souvenirs, Twilight outfitters, Twilight firewood?, just crazy.  I wanted to take a picture of the sign on the way into town, and I had to wait in line.  Alas, I didn't see Edward Cullen, but the search continues. 

 

 

Olympic is amazing.  We could have stayed here for months and we must go back again someday.  Truly wonderful and unforgettable.