I’ll tell you what. There needs to be more July. 31 days is not near enough. How about more July and less January?
I was in a really cool place on Tuesday to watch the sun rise. The way the light hit the rocks and how it changed the color was awesome.
What an awesome week!
Minaret sunset. Mammoth branch for church. Yosemite North Dome hike. Green manzanita plus granite. Expansive view. Half Dome large and Inyo face. Pizza. Whitney Portal thunderstorm. Early (very, very early) hike. Fellow hikers from Georgia. The hike was not as hard when you couldn’t see. Trail Camp. Mice. Orangest sunrise. Lit spires. Spire view. Consultation Lake. Quiet and stillness at the lake. God. My parents. Nap on a rock. Lake view. Small marmot eating breakfast. Hummingbird. Seeing all the amazing trail views on the hike down. Darren summitimg. Water falling. Granite walls. More views. Even more views. Quick stop at Lone Pine Lake. Alabama Hills. Tall tall trees. “Have you seen the meadow?” Moro Rock. Fallen tree. Kind of lame King’s/Sequoia. Sleeping in a tent. Not sleeping in a tent and having a shower. Wild burros.
Sequoia and Kings were OK. I mean I'm not writing home about them but they do have some tall and big trees. “Come see our trees. We have lots of trees. And we have some special trees. We’ll name the special ones and put a fence around them.” But it was kinda cool to camp here. We started our long drive home which became longer when part of I15 closed and the detour sent us through Death Valley. 118 degrees in the evening when we drove through.
Trying to find reasons why Kings Canyon isn’t lame. I mean it is a “Refuge for Sequoia trees.” So there that. The ranger lady was even struggling to come up with cool things to see. “Have you seen the meadow?” :) Sequoia seems a little better since there are more trees. Plus Moro rock was kinda cool. But when this is the best picture I took today things can’t be too impressive. Tonight driving back to our campsite the road was blocked with a tree that had just fallen. We had no confidence in the people that found some rope and had a truck and yet they moved that tree out of the way with only a 30 minute delay for us. Filing that under a Sequoia experience.
My dad did not like his birthday. Which is funny because I love my birthday. We always joked though that Utah celebrates his birthday a day early. They just can’t seem to ever get the right day. :) Well I really miss him today on his birthday. And really all week. And most of the days since September 20th. The best present we ever got him was a bag of nails. But I wish I could take him a root beer and some chocolate licorice and have him tell me we don’t need to celebrate.
Today we drove closer to Sequoia seeing Mobius Arch in the Alabama Hills on our way out. Crazy how there is this desert boulder landscape and then jagged mountain peaks including Whitney right behind.
Awesome church meeting at the little Mammoth branch. I said a prayer and Darren helped pass the sacrament. We should have stayed for second hour. What a good experience.
Our tripping has begun. We made it to Mammoth, CA. It’s very pretty here. We caught the sunset at Minaret Point. Lots of peaks and mounts for a nice sunset. I love road trips. I even like driving through middle of nowhere Nevada.
Comedy with D, K and T. Greg Warren, who I think is hilarious, was at Wise Guys in Jordan Landing. We laughed and laughed and laughed. And 1 of their 3 openers was actually funny.
It’s still at least weekly that I feel the huge hole in my heart where my parents should be. It hurts.
More Mason birthday hanging out. We went to Thanksgiving Point and their dinosaur animatronic stuff for year 3. Watched a bird show where the falcon didn’t want to come back. Then we fed the koi fish.
Happy Mason’s birthday. They came to visit and we got to celebrate. Culver’s, Nickel Cade, Dr Mario (my favorite), and homemade ice cream at the Randalls. Mmm.
This was an amazing week! So much good and fun and beauty. Some highlights from the week:
Darren somehow got me to the top of Timp. Peaks are overrated and the last mile gives me anxiety, but it was cool to summit. That Timp Basin is just so beautiful. We saw some goats, 2 moose, and a sheep on the side of the road driving out of the canyon.
My Glacier birthday trip was amazing and epic. Some Glacier highlights:
Morning hike to Bullhead Lake. This trail must have been labeled a silver trail as we saw lots of senior citizens hiking this one. But it was a good one. We passed Fishercap Lake and Red Rock Falls. Bullhead Lake made it on my favorite lakes list. It was just what I think of when I dream of a lake to hike to. So pretty and the reflection was amazing. We also saw a ptarmigan which adds to our cool birds list with the osprey and bald eagle.
Redemption for the campsite came in the fact that a mama moose and baby walked right past us this morning in camp. Then a deer had breakfast right next to us. Also, a squirrel woke us up by dropping pine cones on our tent from the tree above.
Darren mentioned this morning that 50 was a rough year. It was rough. Really rough. Thank goodness for family, good friends, and the good things.
Such a great birthday eve hike today in Many Glacier. We all hiked to Iceberg Lake which is just so cool. I was happy to get back to this spot. (Plan A was the Highline trail for today but since that was closed we went with plan B. Plan B was fantastic.) On the way back from Iceberg (again let me mention how super cool it is) we added on Ptarmigan Lake. Then D and I continued hiking till Ptarmigan Tunnel which had amazing views! I loved this part. It had some amazing views! It was a long hike down and my knees and back were not happy but everything was in agreement that it was worth it. Panoramic beauty!
We made it to Glacier! First stop Lake McDonald. Well first stop was the line to get into the park and then the next stop was the line to show your road permit so I guess our third stop was Lake McDonald for a sandwich and a view. Next stop was an amazing parking spot at Avalanche Lake for a hike. Lots of green and tall trees and a pretty lake at the end with lots of cascades. Pictures didn’t show the cool color of the water. Such a greenish blue. While I think this hike is overrated, it was still a good stop.
Today just felt a bit wrong. I should have seen my parents. How my mom loved having her family around for Independence Day. We had a good morning with a breakfast and 4 square and that was nice but then I just ignored that it was the 4th and D, Kenz, and I drove to Missoula to begin our Glacier trip. A Montana outhouse, and pizza at a casino and it is officially a road trip. We collected so many bugs on the car. Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.
After almost 10 years of weekly working at the library building, tonight was the last time working in that space. It was a little bittersweet as a new building will be great but the old one has some good memories. I’m mostly sad that Hannah won’t be coming to the new place. I sure enjoyed working with her.
