We tried our hand at winter camping. I just really like the desert and I hate the heat so I figured the desert during the winter would be great. And it was! Except at night it was really cold and very little changed that. Lesson learned. Anyhow, we drove to Grand Canyon National Park. We arrived after dark, so our first view was sunrise the next morning. A very nice introduction. Hiking at the Grand Canyon isn't much fun, as it starts on the downhill and ends on the uphill. But we did a couple little jaunts and it was quite nice. On the way back home, we stopped by Monument Valley which was beautiful and camped near the southern entrance to Canyonlands National Park in Utah. That night was probably even colder, but woke to a spectacular sunrise. I was super nice to take a vacation and get away for a bit. I don't think we'll be winter camping again anytime soon, though.

Sunrise on the south rim. 

Desert Watchtower. 

Mittens at Monument Valley

Sunrise near Canyonlands. 

Newspaper Rock. 

More National Parks

Last weekend the boyfriend and I took a trip. Mostly it was just to get out. To check a couple more national parks off the list. We headed south to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico and Guadalupe Mountains just south in Texas.

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed those two parks. We hit Guadalupe Mountains first. The Chihuahuan desert is pretty bleak and Texas' tallest mountain is just over 8,000, and thus none-too-impressive, but there is a beauty there. I'm sure it helped that we went in February, before the temperatures settled in the mid 90s. The one major drawback was the wind. It was windy the entire time. Blowing us around while on the highway south. Blowing dust. Blowing the tent over (we ended up sleeping in the SUV.) We were unable to hike Guadalupe Peak because of the wind. We did get in a nice hike to a stone cabin up a canyon that would surely have been much prettier with some summer greenery.

Guadalupe Peak. 

Pratt Cabin and madrone trees

After our hike we drove the 40 minutes north to Carlsbad. The entrance to the caverns is actually up on top of a hill, the caves are 750 feet below. That first day, we descended via the elevator and stepped out into an underground cafe of sorts. It was pretty surreal. The ground was flat and paved and there were kiosks for snacks and t-shirts. And picnic tables and bathrooms with running water. And then, a bit further on, the Big Room.

(part of) the Big Room

I used to work at Glenwood Caverns. I always thought it was super cool. There are lots of formations and plenty of space to stand up on the basic tours. The Big Room is huge. I knew somewhere in my mind that Carlsbad Caverns was big. I mean, it's a national park and all. I was unprepared. No photos will ever fully show the vastness of that space. Something like 60 football fields in length. Monolithic stalagmites. We walked around the whole room. The trail is over a mile. It's paved and has handrails to keep people contained to protect the visitors and the caves.

These are at least 2x taller than me. 

gazing into the depths of hell. Or something.

The following day we walked down the natural entrance. The whole 750  vertical feet via a winding trail down a dark hole in the earth. It was quite the experience.

candle lanterns lighting the Left Hand Tunnel

We had a ranger guided tour to a different part of the cave. It was lighted only by handheld candle lanterns. It was a highlight of the trip. Though the formations were not as impressive as in the Big Room, Left Hand Tunnel was a very fun experience. We learned a lot of history about the caves, some Native American lore, some stories about the man who first explored and pushed to make it be a park.

cave pool

It was a very pleasant trip, any really not that long a drive compared to what we often do to visit parks. My main regret is that the bats were wintering down south and so we couldn't watch them fly out at dusk. And also the crawling tours weren't available in the off-season. I guess we'll just have to go back in the summer sometime. And spend the whole down down below to beat the heat.

Here are a few more photos from the trip.

sunset from our campsite near the Caverns. 

see? they're big.

SOCO?

This past week was a southern Colorado week.

On Tuesday I got a call from my work asking if I wanted to go on an investigations/transfer case with Colorado Humane Society (which is a subset of my shelter.) I said sure, because anything is better than the daily grind. This meant meeting earlier than my usual schedule though.

We drove south for threeish hours. The job was to catch 10-15 cats and two dogs from a tiny house. It was not as bad as previous cases, but it was bad. When people hoard animals it's usually not just animals. The tiny house was very cluttered and since there were so many cats, there was feces literally everywhere. The cats were in the box springs, in the dresser drawers, in the kitchen cabinets. There was hair, vomit and feces in each of those places as well. Very unhealthy. However, unlike other cases, these cats were not mean. They were a bit scared and darted around, so they weren't super easy to catch, but they didn't fight back and many of them were caught by hand instead of traps and nets. We ended up with 11. Luckily, we didn't have to transport them back to the shelter in Denver. Instead, we went further south and dropped them off at a small shelter in Trinidad. I got a new experience, a day "off" work and free lunch. Good times

For the Fourth of July weekend we went where we'd vowed never to go in the middle of summer: the sand dunes.

It was awesome.

prickly pear blossom.

Sure, a bit hot in the middle of the day, but fine if we stayed off the sand. There was about an hour of rain both evenings, but nothing terrible. And we saw the distant and rather pitiful fireworks show put on by Alamosa.










It's one of the very few National Parks that allows dogs, so we brought Zorro along. He wasn't thrilled by being forced to ride in the very back because we had four people. The creek that runs by the dunes was very wide for this time of year, so we had some fun playing in the sand there. The sand was too hot for the dog's paws during the day, so when we went there he wore booties. The one time we actually hiked the dunes was around 8am and the temperature was perfect. I also went barefoot and it was amazing how quickly the sand began to heat up around 9am. Zorro seemed to really love dashing through the sand. He kept treating it like snow or water though; as he ran, he'd dip his head as if to scoop up the sand into his mouth. He always stopped before actually doing that though.  It is a favorite place and it had been too long.

poor abused pup. 

my friends and the dog running the dunes.

Trail Tuesday (last Tuesday)

A friend of mine with whom I've hiked once before asked if I would join him on a hike he'd found in Rocky Mountain National Park. I agreed, even though it meant getting up ridiculously early on my day off to drive for two hours.

Boy was it worth it though!

Out ultimate destination was Sky Pond, but the trail passed several other alpine lakes along the way. It was amazing to watch the sun rise over these placid lakes.

Sunrise across Loch Vale

Timberline Falls. We had to scramble up the trail next to them.

The Shark's Teeth and Sky Pond.

I found the panorama function on my phone!

The Loch on the way back down.

My buddy and Alberta Falls.

Washington Parks Tour

At the beginning of October we spent a week in Washington state, touring the National Parks and hiking as much as possible. We did not make it to North Cascades National Park, choosing instead to go further south to Mt. Saint Helens National Monument, and even down to Portland, OR for the day. 

Our first night camping (in Mt. Rainier National Park) we saw some mice scurrying around the rental car. I figured they were tiny enough not to be able to get in. The next morning, I found I was wrong. One had nibbled a cookie. Bit a hole in a Lara Bar wrapper and shredded three rolls of toilet paper. Demon! We stored the food better from then on, and kept doors closed, but I was constantly worried that the mouse was still in the vehicle and would chew my down sleeping bag or ruin the car somehow. The fears proved unfounded. 

We did several great hikes, one main one in each place. In Mt. Rainier we did the Naches Peak Loop which overlaps the Pacific Crest Trail. It was astounding. We also did part of Mt. Fremont.

Mt. Rainier. It's ever-present.

Rainier in Reflection Lake.

Autumn foliage on the Naches trail.

Boyfriend and Rainier.

Mt. Rainier and colorful foliage.

We did not get around the the east side of Mt. Saint Helens in order to get any photos of the devastation that occurred there. We did a short "hike" through the Ape Caves, some old lava tubes. We had to use headlamps. It was so fun!

The entrance/exit to the Ape Caves. Lava tubes near Mt. Saint Helens.

We were accompanied on our hike in Olympic National Park by a Canadian couple. We had no choice really. They camped near us the night before and we were informed that they were going to attempt the same loop as we were, and that they'd join us. Even though we tried to get up early enough to beat them to the trailhead, it was unsuccessful. It wasn't bad though, they were very nice and very fit, keeping up out 3 mile an hour pace. The trail through the rain forest was mostly boardwalk so it was easy, though sometimes slippery. We got to the beach a low tide and it was super rocky and filled with seaweed. Not a very pleasant walk along the beach. The four of us were joined by a young black tailed stag. He stayed with us for a good mile or so. The beach hike ended at a fun sea stack which we were able to climb and see way up and down the coast. We couldn't see out west because of the ever-present fog. 

Rainbow over the Pacific at Rialto Beach, Olympic National Park.

Whale bone!

Petroglyphs along the beach near Wedding Rock.

our hiking buddy.

I could not live in the Pacific Northwest. It is altogether too rainy and dreary. And very humid. I loved visiting though, I am sure I will do so again. I have discovered a love for the ocean. This was my first time seeing the Pacific Ocean, and I want to see more of it. Without fog. The forests are beautiful. So green and full of moss. The temperature was amazing considering the time of year we went. I just tired of everything being damp all the time.

Iceland in Actuality

It's been a long time since I've really traveled out of the country. I mean, a couple of years ago I camped a night in Canada, but before that it was Kenya/Qatar in 2007. So this trip was long overdue. And very much welcomed. Even it if was way too short.

I finally made it to Iceland. It's a place I've been yearning to visit for many years now. I don't know what the exact lure of it has been. The beautiful photos I've seen. The music that has come out of it. The history and lore. All of it I guess. I had three Icelandic words tattooed on my arms for several years.

The opportunity presented itself. Iceland in winter. A vacation package and airfare for a very reasonable price. And it wasn't even hard to talk my boyfriend into it.

We flew out of Denver shortly after 4pm. Six hours later arriving at Keflavik airport around 7am. It was a bit exhausting. We'd rented a car to get from the airport to our hotel in Reykjavik. It was a pitch black drive and we had a hard time finding out hotel due to strange street names that change after only a few blocks. Getting around Reykjavik proved very difficult indeed. The myriad of one way streets only added to the problem. We finally found our hotel, only to learn that our room was still occupied. We opted for a different room. One the woman at the front desk said would be loud at night because it faced the street. The narrow one way street. We assured her we were used to noise and just needed sleep. It did turn out to be very loud though. Icelanders know how to party on the weekends. Anyhow, we got a couple hours rest that first morning then headed toward the nearest national park: Þingvellir.

Þingvallavatn, the largest natural lake in Iceland, in Thingvellir.

 The days are terribly short this time of year (only 6 or 7 hours), so the sun looks like it's either always sunrise or sunset. We didn't spend a whole lot of time out and about that first day since we were still so exhausted from the flight and time difference. Also, we had to meet a tour at 8:30 that night. Northern Lights! We again missed the proper streets in Reykjavk and had a hard time getting back to where we needed to be. It's a small city, but it's nearly impossible to drive in. Walking proved much easier.

Our Northern Lights tour met at the Old Harbour. It was only a 10 minute walk from our hotel. On the way we stopped and bought some hot dogs from a stand that is the most popular restaurant in Iceland. The meal was quite good.

The tour was supposed to be a boat tour, taking us away from the city lights, but the wind was strong and they opted for buses instead so no one would get sick. It was pretty cloudy and the aurora forecast was low, but we did see some wavering strips of green for a few minutes. This night was when I learned that more layers were necessary. It wasn't particularly cold, but the wind was very strong from the ocean and it sliced through everything.

Sleeping as I said was actually a little difficult. I currently live on a very well-used two-lane one way street, but even on a Saturday evening it isn't so populated as the street in Reykjavik. Perhaps if I hadn't been so exhausted I'd have joined the rúntur. Then again, alcohol (and everything else) was far too expensive, so I guess it's good I didn't. We did finally sleep. In fact, we overslept. We'd planned to wake early and head to another national park about 3 hours drive away. Alas, the time change and general darkness confused us and we slept an extra 3 hours. 

We headed north anyhow, knowing we wouldn't make it the whole way.  We decided to go to Akranes, an hour or so up the coast from Reykjavik. It was a quaint little fishing town on a peninsula. The road getting there went through a tunnel underneath a fjord. The tunnel was several miles long. Akranes had a historic lighthouse and a very nice view of the sun coming up (or was it setting?) over some mountains and the sea. 

lighthouse at Akranes.

sunrise?

 We turned around and went south along the coast to Selfoss and up toward Thingvellir from the other direction.We know that 'foss' denoted a waterfall, and seemed to remember that Selfoss was some famous falls, but we couldn't seem to find a waterfall. Afterward, I learned that the waterfall Selfoss is in the north east of Iceland, rather than the south west like the town. So I guess we didn't miss much. 

Icelandic horses are short and fuzzy.

We returned the rental car and got a ride back into the city. Here is where I shall describe the street lights. Like ours, they have three colors. Unlike ours, they turn yellow before going green as well as before red. It's a neat idea I think. 

Dinner this day was rough. I decided I needed to try traditional Icelandic food. And I knew it was not so good. I had done some research. But I wasn't really ready for it. Everything is pickled or cured in lactic acid. It all has a very strong flavor that stays in ones mouth for far too long and turns the stomach. 

Pictured: vileness.

 After the "meal" we stepped outside Cafe Loki to see Hallgrímskirkja lit up for the evening with the statue of Leif Ericsson. And after the statue we went to the Burger Joint for some more familiar food.

The next morning we walked to the sea road to photograph Sólfar. It was a bit too early at the time so we ended up coming back later and I got this photo:

The Sun Voyager

This second-to-last day was spent wandering around Reykjavik and finding good food. We'd not been on a real eating schedule since arriving. The city is small and the streets are narrow. It's hard to navigate because the streets aren't straight for very long and they change names often. But as I said, it was easier to get around by foot than driving. We found a very nice seafood buffet for lunch and stayed away from anything that looked to be pickled or cured. The fish soup was beyond amazing, especially after trekking around the city in the wind all morning. We relaxed for the rest of the day, visited some shops. Had a beer in the hotel.

The last day was our tour to the Blue Lagoon. It is not something that I'd pay for, but it was nice as an addition. The water is supposed to have some healing properties. It's milky-blue and smells of sulfur and sea water. The water is wonderfully warm, but the weather was nasty that day. Cold and rainy and of course windy. After our dip in the geothermal pool, it was back to the airport and back home.

Bláa lónið

My trip was a dream come true, even if I didn't get to see much of the things I yearned to see. It was simply too short a trip. I will go back sometime in the summer for a week or so and enjoy camping in the extended days.