Yosemite 2013

We attempted to spend the Labor Day weekend in Yosemite, but only stayed one night after smoke, from the Rim Fire, entered the valley on Saturday.  It was a little smoky, but blue skies on Friday.  By Saturday morning, it was raining ash.  We started driving home, but all came down with food poisoning and ended up staying the night in Fresno before making the rough drive home on Sunday.  We all slept 14 hours once we got home!!

 

 

More photos:  https://picasaweb.google.com/FreqTravelers/YosemiteAug2013#

Palomar Mountain Camping

Father's Day weekend fun...This was Rylee's second time camping and she's becoming a pro!

Our site

 

Helping start a fire

 

Ready to hike

 Observatory Trail

 

Keeping Cool

 

S'mores!

 

Happy Father's Day!

More photos: click here.

Yosemite National Park

We visited Yosemite over Labor Day weekend.  We couldn't get a campsite, but we got the next best thing.  We stayed in canvas tents at Curry Village in the valley.  It's so nice and convenient staying inside the park and waking up every morning to the magnificent cliffs on both sides.  You also don't have to worry about driving in the crazy traffic.  We arrived on Saturday and did 2 short hikes and Sunday we did a long hike that took most of the day.

Our tent in Curry Village

On the Taft Point and the Fissures hike

Sentinel Dome hike

View from the top of Sentinel Dome

Cute deer

Yosemite Falls

Hiking the valley floor

A break for swimming the freezing cold Merced River

Another swimming break, it was so cold it took my breath away.

Tunnel View - the first sight of the valley (which we took on the way out)

Joshua Tree National Park

We went camping and hiking in Joshua Tree over the weekend with friends, Ben and Erin.  We camped in Black Rock Campground and broke in our new camping stove.  It was awesome, although we still cooked on the campfire a little.  On Saturday, the four of us hiked Rattlesnake Canyon and 49 Palms Oasis.  On Sunday, Mike and I stuck around and hiked Barker Dam and Ryan Mountain.  It was actually pretty cool, temperature wise, mostly because of the wind.  It was actually warmer back at home in San Diego than it was in the desert.

Our campsite.

The view from our site.

Our new campstove

Scaling Rocks in Rattlesnake Canyon (not my favorite terrain)

49 Palm Oasis

Ben and Erin in the Palm Oasis

Enjoying the Keys View

Joshua Trees

Snow capped San Jacinto Peak - 2nd highest peak in SoCal

Tough climb to Ryan's Peak

View from Ryan's Peak

Skull Rock

More photos:

Joshua Tree Apr 2011

Desert Hiking

We made a last minute trip out to the desert over the weekend to go camping and hiking.  There are a lot of great trails at Anza Borrego Desert State Park.  We hiked the Slot Trail on Saturday and tried to get to the Wind Caves, but our Prius had a heard time getting through with all the ruts and deep sand.  We ended up hiking  a Nature Trail by our campground instead.  On Sunday, we explored the trails of Blair Valley.  They have a lot of historical significance.  The Ghost Mountain trail climbs a small mountain and houses the ruins of where a family lived in the 1930s.  We also hiked the Morteros and Pictograph Trail that show some history of the Kumeyaay Indians.

Hiking thru the Slot Trail

Looking out to the Borrego Badlands

Teddy Bear Cholla

Ruins of South Family house on Ghost Mountain

Groves where Indians ground nuts into meal

A Pictograph

Vallecitos Valley Lookout

A Roadrunner...Meep Meep

Mammoth Lakes, CA

Mike and I went up to Mammoth Lakes for a blues festival a couple of weeks ago.  We decided to go on this camping trip with some people from Meet Up mainly to check out Mammoth for the first time.  Mammoth is so pretty and it smelled so good because of the pine trees.  We hiked the Devils Postpile National Monument on Saturday morning and drove back home through Yosemite on Sunday.

Our campsite.

Bluesapalooza

Hiking on Saturday

Devils Postpile

Rainbow Falls

Driving through Tioga Pass through Yosemite

Half Dome from Olmsted Point

You can see all our photos here:  Mammoth Aug 2010