I know you will be reading this quite a while after it happened, but I hope you’ll still enjoy the stories. This blog, as I’ve stated before, exists for two main reasons:
1) To share with you all of the adventures I have been on.
2) To keep a detailed record of every moment for my own perusal.
I am so thankful that you have followed along on all these escapades. I hope my stories have inspired you to find your own adventures, challenge your own comfort zone, and seek out your own fears to face. If you’re not sure where to start, let me know. I’d love to go on a hike with you!
And now, week 12!
January 31 - February 6
This week started nice and slow. With dad back home and Isaac not scheduled to arrive until Tuesday, I had Monday all to myself. I’d planned on spending the day enjoying the beach or visiting the zoo or just exploring San Diego. However, I knew I needed to do some writing since I was a few weeks behind on my blog, and my body insisted on sleeping late. Plus, it was cloudy and chilly and windy, so my warm, comfy hotel bed felt awfully nice. After a few hours of typing away inside, I decided to toss on some layers cause I wasn’t gonna let the weather stop me from enjoying my few days near the ocean, gosh darn! So out I went. I found my way to Coronado Beach in San Diego, picked my spot on the sandy stretch, and got back to writing. The waves, birds, murmuring beach walkers, and passing airplanes made great white noise for my story writing. After a couple of hours of typing away, when I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore, I packed up my stuff and took my own stroll down the beach. It was a lovely time of prayer, of dancing with the cold waves, and of taking in my surroundings. Still can’t believe that I made it all the way to the Pacific. Still can’t wait to see more.
I’d ordered a perfect pink, orange, and purple sunset that night. The delivery never made it to me. According to Facebook and Instagram, almost everyone else in North America had the sunset of the century, especially back home in Minnesota. But over the Pacific? Nope. Just heavy gray clouds with the slightest hint of pink. Oh well! The beach walk was still lovely and so was the promise of my warm hotel room!
Navigating an unknown city, alone, after dark is kinda scary! I’m usually very comfortable behind the wheel and have no issue or concern following directions on roads I’ve never seen before. Maybe San Diego is different, maybe it was because of the dark. I’m not sure, but that was tough. Thankfully I made it back to my hotel a-okay. After a bit more writing and a couple phone calls, I was zonked. Goodnight!
On Tuesday morning, I got up early to do some bill paying and car cleaning before picking Ike up from the airport. Once the other Daring Dawdler was loaded into the vehicle, we found our way back to the beach. Isaac wanted to take a few deep breaths by the ocean, and we needed to figure out where we were going next. Well, we did manage to take a few deep breaths by the ocean, but we didn’t exactly figure out where we were going. I was in the mood to wander; Isaac didn’t care where we went. So, we started north toward the impetus of the Pacific Coast Highway. Once we were on the famous scenic route, we just drove. I love California. I’ve been here before on a more urban-style trip and fell in love with the ocean, the little ocean-front downtowns, and the energy. I was entirely content to just drive and enjoy the lovely place. After a couple of hours of ocean, highway, and mountains, we pulled into a Trader Joe's parking lot to snag some groceries and pick out a place to park for the night. A short search revealed an ocean-side campground just a bit further up the route. With a campsite guaranteed for the night, we continued north.
I was hoping to stay on Highway 1 the whole way there, but the traffic got too slow and the stoplights were guzzling our gas. I finally gave up blazing my own trail and obeyed the route Google Maps had been trying to give me for the past hour. We pulled into our campsite at Thornhill Broome State Campground just as the sun finished sinking into the ocean. After enjoying the watery color show, we made camp, dinner, and plans for the morning. We would head inland for Death Valley. I would be okay without the ocean for a few days, I supposed. There’s more to see of California than her beaches.
Wednesday had different plans than we did. I woke to constant a 15+ mph wind with gusts reaching 35mph. (Or at least that’s what the wind advisory stated.) With such strong gales, we couldn’t fold down the camper. Not a chance. After gathering our belongings that had blown into the neighboring campsite, Ike and I hunkered in. We made breakfast, we drank our coffee, we read, we zoned out on our phones, and we waited. And waited. Finally, with the campground check-out time just an hour away, we had to decide what we were going to do. Neither of us felt comfortable with the idea of trying to fold down the camper, so we decided to postpone our travel plans until tomorrow. With that decision made, I had to try to make the most of this day. I put on my jacket, took off my shoes, and started walking down the beach, with the wind. Even with the gusts hitting my back, it was still not overly enjoyable. But I was determined. I watched the powerful waves crash on the shore and run up the sand to tickle my toes. I sat and prayed, asking God what I could learn from today. It felt natural to just be really disappointed with this wasted day. Here I was, in my final-destination state with a list of places I wanted to see, and I was stuck at what was supposed to be a one-night campsite. But I’ve seen many of these days on this trip and let them take my heart the wrong way. This one would go differently. I didn’t really get a distinct answer from the Cool Guy, but I did feel like just that resolve to not let the disappointment win was kind of a big deal.
Ike caught up to me on my walk shortly after that (which wasn’t tough because I was just sitting on a rock) and we ventured further down the beach together, climbing the bank, playing chicken with the waves, and trying to skip rocks in the moments between swells. The moment was swell. Once we’d had enough sandblasting to remove all skin from our faces, we headed back toward camp, hopped in the car, and headed north on Highway 1 again, to see what was around the next bend, and to find a gas station. We accomplished both quite nicely. The scenic drive was nice, but what really made the day spectacular was the Krispy Kreme donuts we had for lunch, er, I mean, for a snack. (Don’t tell mom.)
That’s about all there is to tell about Wednesday. We drove back to camp, we made dinner, we played Cribbage, we read or played phone games, we prayed that the wind would die down by morning, and we went to sleep.
I was woken by a hefty gust of wind on Thursday morning. Oh no. I prayed some more. By the time I’d made breakfast and coffee, the wind was gone almost entirely. Woohoo!!! We ate up, packed out, and rolled on. Death Valley here we come! The drive was boring for the first while, but then, oh boy, did it level up! Driving into Death Valley is no joke! Just to give you an idea of the intensity, the last hour into the valley includes a nearly-5,000 foot ascent to a mountain pass, immediately followed by the descent onto the valley floor which lies more than 100 feet below sea level. You better believe I got a headache from all that rapid elevation change! With the camper set up at Sunset Campground near Furnace Creek, we scrubbed some dishes, made some dinner, ate some dinner, played a card game, read some books, and went to bed. There was adventuring to be done tomorrow!
Friday! With just over a week to see the majority of central and southern California, we packed our days. Are you ready for this?
On Friday we saw the following places in Death Valley:
Furnace Creek Visitor Center: This stop gave us some context for what we were about to see out in the valley. I highly recommend it to anyone heading out into that crazy desert land.
Keane Wonder Mine: Walk through history and see the still-standing tramway system built to haul slag from the most profitable mine in the valley. It is so cool to walk around between the structures and imagine what the place looked like when it was bustling with miners and buzzing with wealth. Ike and I got our close-up exploration of the machinery scaffolding and then left the trail for our own explorations. Behind the main mining space, we found a rock wall that appeared to be white marble. It was smooth and nearly polished to the point of being kitchen-ready. It was so beautiful! And very difficult to climb! But you know we did. We scrambled and slid and marveled at the marble.
Mosaic Canyon: This narrow canyon is named for the appearance of the walls. Bits of various rocks were mixed with a sedimentary compound when the layers were formed, creating a mosaic-like look. Very super cool and very super beautiful! This was a significantly more difficult hike than the Keane Wonder Mine trail, but absolutely worth it. There is even a section of the trail that requires climbing a barely-slanted 20-foot wall (if you miss the turn in the trail as we did.) The route to the back of Mosaic canyon is filled with rock formations to climb, higher-risk routes to choose from, and amazing structures all around. We loved it! This hike was about 4 miles in total. We still had energy for more so we headed to destination number three.
Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes: This place is CRAZY. Stepping from the pavement onto the sand flat felt like being transported to the Sahara. This 14 square mile sandbox has been shaped by the harsh winds of Death Valley into a series of picture-perfect dunes. If nothing else, it’s incredibly photogenic. It’s also super cool to climb. It’s also super exhausting to climb. We started walking into the dune flat, which was easy enough at the beginning. Ike thought we should go all the way across to the tallest dune. It wasn't all that far away. We got about three dunes in and unanimously decided we were not going any further. Think about how difficult it is to walk on the beach. Now slant that beach 30+ degrees. Not easy. We jumped off the edge of the dunes, which felt like flying. We dug our toes down several inches to feel the cool sand. We dumped the sand out of our boots. We got sunburnt. (Okay, I was probably the only one who got sunburnt.) It was awesome.
Salt Creek: A creek that is salty. The vegetation around Salt Creek is very strange looking. It’s as unique as the creek itself. We were told that there would be pupfish to see in the creek. These endangered fish exist in only a few places, Death Valley being one of them (obviously). Sadly, they were all out to dinner or taking a nap or something. I still enjoyed examining the pickle plants along the trail and the salt-covered boardwalk and scooping up handfuls of salt crystals from the creek bed. Death Valley is like no place else. Too cool.
Twenty-Mule Team Canyon: This place could also be called Start Wars Canyon. It looks exactly like some of the places in those movies. Probably because they were filmed there. That seems like a good explanation. The scenic drive through this area of the valley was really something! There were few places to pull off for closer observation, but that didn’t make the experience any less fabulous. Man, the geology of this entire area is crazy gorgeous. It’s mind-blowing! As I mentioned, these hills were used as scenery in one of the Star Wars movies. I’m not a Star Wars fan, but it was neat to be in the place where such significant art was brought to life!
We felt that those five locations were enough to see in a day, so we headed back to camp. We ate tacos by lantern light and enjoyed the warm air.
Saturday: Death Valley, day two! The time crunch that I mentioned before inspired us to pack up camp before we headed out for the day’s adventures. We had to be out of our campsite by noon, but we still had a couple of sights to see before leaving Death Valley. With three hours on the clock, we drove away from our collapsed camper toward Artist’s Pallet. This wacky place in the park is known for its mineral-laden soil that displays bright colors due to oxidization. The blues, pinks, purples, and yellows of the hills are oddly beautiful. Artist’s Pallet, much like the rest of the park, felt very otherworldly. Ike and I walked and climbed around, over, and through the steep dirt piles. The sandy soil is very loosely packed and crumbles under foot, making it difficult to climb. You know that didn’t stop us! Once we’d had our fill of the colors, we headed to the next spot. The clock was still ticking.
Stop number two was Natural Bridge. This rock formation, hidden within one of the many narrow canyons of Death Valley is surprisingly beautiful. I’ve seen a few natural bridges and arches before, but this one was exceptional. And I bet you can guess what Ike did while I was taking pictures. If you guessed that he climbed it, you are correct. I would have climbed it too, but the clock was ticking. The cool-aired, warm-colored canyon ushered us back out to our car and onto our next stop.
The final pit stop before heading back for the camper was Badwater Basin. The lowest place in North America. This crazy-looking salt flat lies 280 feet below sea level. The salt formations look like they’ve been sculpted by human hands, but they form naturally. My Minnesotan eyes told me it was snowy, but the only snow in sight was on the mountain peaks 16 miles west and 2 miles up. I thought I’d been drinking enough water, but being surrounded by that much pure salt zaps every last bit of moisture instantly. Still, this place was very, very awesome. I wanted to walk further out into the 200-square mile bowl of table salt, but remember that ticking clock?
We made it back to the campground and got the camper hooked up to the car with just a few minutes to spare, and off we went! Our route out took us back out the way we’d come in. That altitude change smacked me with a headache again but it wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t enjoy the scenery! Just before exiting the national park, we took a rough dirt road toward Darwin Falls. This hidden oasis is an easy hike from the road and seemed the perfect ending to our desert adventure. The one-mile trail was mostly flat and a little boring. We want adventure, ya know? It didn’t take long to find it. Just a short distance into the canyon, the creek causes a drastic change in the vegetation. It was a welcome sight to take in the green plants and budding flowers after a couple of days of desolate desert. Don’t get me wrong, I love the desert, but change is good. We loved Darwin Falls! After a few hops across the creek, we found ourselves at the bottom of a rushing 80-foot waterfall, surrounded by ferns and other lush greenery. The hike was significantly shorter than I’d expected, ending at two miles round trip, instead of the 4 miles that I’d planned for. That was a treat after our hectic morning in the sun. It felt good to get back to the car, turn on the A/C, and relax for a bit. I don’t know if you caught this, but we pretty much saw all of Death Valley National Park in two days. Craziness.
A couple of hours of driving brought us near Sequoia National Park. I’d picked out Horse Creek Campground as our basecamp for exploring Sequoia. We found the campground with no problem but had some issues when we discovered that we had to pay with cash. Thanks to a mishap in Texas back in December, all of our cash was stuck in a lockbox for which we had no key. So, we had to drive back into town to pull some cash from an ATM. There was no ATM. The cashback function at the gas station register wasn’t working. No problem, cause there was a town just 5 miles down the road. Well, that was mostly no problem, except that the clock was ticking again. We had to be back to the campground before nine, otherwise, we would be locked out and have to walk nearly a mile to the camper. I drove the very winding roads as quickly as I could, we found the ATM and made it back to the camper with just a few minutes to spare. What is it with today and ticking clocks? With just enough energy left in us to set up camp, leftovers were on the menu. Tacos never disappoint so we flopped into bed with happy stomachs and tired legs. Goodnight.
Sunday was our day to visit Sequoia. We got a fairly early start from camp since we had a long list of stops to make. First stop: the park’s cool sign. We’ve made a point of stopping to take a picture with the monument sign at every park we’ve explored. I think we only missed a couple. Since we weren’t sure how long our excursions would take, we thought we’d play it safe and take the picture while daylight was guaranteed. After a bit more driving on the unbelievably beautiful General’s Highway, we stopped to take a look at Hospital Rock. This huge boulder is covered in rock paintings, known as pictographs. The vivid red paint, artfully applied to the rock several hundred years ago, is still so bright that I’d believe you if you told me it was put there yesterday. How wild is that?
We walked down to the river from there, to enjoy the roaring power of it. With some satisfactory rock jumping completed, we headed back to the car to drive deeper into the park. It didn’t take long to discover two important things.
1: Sequoia National Park is a magical, mythical, majestic place straight out of storybooks and too perfect to be real.
2: Much of the park was inaccessible because it was winter and the effects of last summer’s wildfires made large areas unsafe. Boo.
Even still, I was in awe. Just driving along the General's Highway made me fall in love with this park. The mountains and valleys, the river, the trees. The trees! Have you seen a Giant Sequoia in person? If not, I hope you do someday. There is nothing like it. The rich tone of their bark, the enormity of their bulk, the glory of their age and majestic existence. I was enamored. We drove in awestruck silence through the Giant Forest, making our way to the General Sherman Tree. On the trail to the General, we walked through a tunnel cut in a fallen sequoia. Did you read that? We walked, easily, full height, through a tree. It was laying down on its side too! So crazy!
We walked the trails a bit, reading the signs to learn about these incredible trees, counting the rings of a tree's gigantic log slice, and finally laying our eyes on him. The king. General Sherman. The biggest tree on earth. He isn’t the tallest or the widest, but somehow General Sherman has the greatest volume of any other measured tree on earth. The behemoth is one of those sorts of things that you could just stare at all day and not fully understand. The circumference of the base is 103 feet. That means he is 36.5 feet in diameter at his widest point. At 2,200 years old, this king is an estimated 1,385 tons. I think I developed a little crush on this dude. Simply unmatched.
After a brief flirtation with General Sherman, we headed deeper into the park. This was when we realized that much of the park is closed. Shucks! We then decided to check out the Giant Tree Museum a short distance back down the road. This informative building gives a great snapshot of the history of the park, Giant Sequoia 101, and the wonders of these trees and forest fires. The relationship they have and the ability of the trees to survive a fire is so wild! The museum isn’t an all-day stop, so we went in search of a hike. Our options were pretty limited because of the three feet of snow on the ground, but a nearby meadow offered a great option. The Big Trees Trail was a delightful, short trek that offered us the opportunity to get up close and personal with the Sequoias. I touched them, I walked inside a burned-out one, I lay down between them and gazed up their trunks. Did I run my camera out of batteries? Absolutely. Good luck dealing with all those pictures, Abigail. Oh boy.
That about sums up our experience in Sequoia National Park. I fully plan to go back there someday, when it’s not winter, to see more of what the park has to offer. Today felt like the teaser trailer. The day ended with a beautiful sunset shining up the valley in which our campground was situated. The foothills offered simply perfect reflective surfaces to exaggerate the colors and intensify the magic. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I kinda like sunsets.
There ya are! Week 12! It was a really busy week, with countless miles traveled, countable miles hiked, a handful of sunsets admired, and creation enjoyed to the best of our adventurous ability. The adventure continues!
Until next time!
