Death Valley

After searching, unsuccessfully, for off-roading opportunities in the Three Rivers area near the Sequoia NP area we stumbled upon the Red Rock Canyon State Park north of Mojave, CA.  This beautiful park is full of great bluffs, washes and desert jack rabbits which were too skittish to photograph.  I put the Rubicon in to 4L, and we did a little mild rock crawling through Nightmare Gulch.  The boys had fun but we wished their cousins Kurtis and Conrad were along.

After a glimpse of Mount Whitney (highest point in lower 48) from Lone Pine, we headed into the heat they call Death Valley.  We feel fortunate it only hit 111 while we were there.  The staff at the visitor center said it hit 125 a day earlier. This park takes you over 4000 foot passes and then down into valleys at or below sea level.  Not at all what we were expecting.  The boys LOVE dunes, so we had to stop and try some sand sledding…a little Alaska showing through.


We visited the ghost town of Rhyolite which once had 10,000 inhabitants. It is hard to believe based on the way things look now. One of the most interesting houses that is still in great shape is the Bottle House whose walls were made completely of empty glass bottles and mortar.  Of course we had to go to Badwater (elevation -282) and experience the lowest dry land in North America. The Artist drive was gorgeous.  With so many features named after something evil we decided that this area looked like God's palette with eons of pigment piled on top of each other.

 We then headed to the Las Vegas area.  Fortunately, Amy found the most incredible RV park…aptly named the Oasis RV Resort. It had multiple swimming pools (which we took advantage of immediately upon arrival!), private bathroom/showers, and over 400 sites.  Many snowbirds call it home from October to March.  The main site we came to see was the Hoover Dam.  There is a reason that it was named the engineering project of the century.  Not only is it big and beautifully designed, it has paid for its construction and operation costs through the sale of generated power.  Hmmmm…clean energy that doesn't cost the taxpayers and lasts for generations?  We sure could use more of this kind of thinking. After our third straight day of 100+ degree weather we decided to head to cool climes of Flagstaff.

A week with family

We made our way south with lots of excitement to see Aunt Audrey, Uncle Randy, Kurtis and Konrad.    Our first month on the road was planned out so that we would make it to California to spend the week together.  We did it!

We spent the first 4 days exploring the Yosemite area.  On our first day in the park we took a hike on the 4 mile trail.  The view from Glacier Point was amazing!  It looked like a painted Hollywood backdrop.  We also made sure to enter 4 of the guys in the Half Dome hike lottery.  Yosemite allows 400 people to hike this trail daily.  They award 350 permits via a lottery in the Spring and then 50 additional permits are available via lottery 2 days prior to the day you want to hike.  So the odds of getting a permit are 1 in 50.  But, when they applied, Yosemite was making 125 permits available (not a popular time with hikers?).  I knew when they said that, the guys were going to hike in 2 days!  We found out the next morning that they were given a permit so we spent the day preparing.  By God's grace, we were at the motorhome when Randy and Audrey's rental car was struck by a motorhome.  Jerry was outside and flagged down the driver.  He was from Germany and had only been driving the motorhome 3 days.  We were so thankful he did not hit our motorhome or Jeep.  It looks like it will work out fine.  We relaxed that afternoon at the local Bass Lake!

The day of the big hike came and went and everyone did great.  Audrey, the boys and I started on the same trail as the guys but they quickly took off and set a great pace.  Most hikers complete the Half Dome hike in 12 hours, but they finished in 8 hours.  Jerry said the cables made him feel like hanging from a 1000ft building with only a cable to hang on to.  Meanwhile, we hiked to Nevada Falls via the Mist Trail.  It was a great day and Aunt Audrey had plenty of energy, more than me!  We thank the Lord she is doing so well.  It was only a few months ago when I was visiting VA that she barely had enough energy for a walk around her neighborhood.

The last 3 days of our time together was spent in Sequoia National Park.  We really enjoyed seeing the massive trees and taking a few "walks" in the park (Asa did not care to do any more hiking!).  Our RV site was beside a river and had an awesome swimming hole that we all loved to cool down in.
It was a wonderful week and the 8 of us survived sharing very close quarters in the motorhome.  Our boys enjoyed having cousins to play with.

Catching up on the last week…

Visiting Oregon always feels like coming home.  We realized again the diversity of the geography as we travelled from the Southeast corner to the West Coast.  We have always wanted to visit the Steens Mountains ever since we bought a relief map of Oregon and saw the straight, steep scar in the southeast corner.  It did not disappoint.  We drove the nearly 60 mile scenic route out of Frenchglen and saw some spectacular vistas that reminded Jerry of the Grand Canyon.  As we headed west toward Bend we hit the longest, straightest road of our trip so far.

After a bike rack system redesign in Bend we rolled into Eugene late in the day, but not too late to spend a few hours chatting with Merv, previous Program Director at Drift Creek Camp.  We were all looking forward to getting to the coast and spending time with previous neighbors and friends.  John and Jean were gracious hosts and put up with our hectic running around and leaving a brown spot on their driveway after the Jeep (aka Pigpen) got a bath.   Dayl and Kelly provided a perfect spot to rest the motorhome and went out of their way to fit us into their busy schedule.  Dayl mentioned that Gibson Farms was opening for u-pick blueberries, so the next day Amy, Jean, Jackson and Asa picked three buckets! The boys had a blast as this was the farm that Amy took them to every year of the six years we lived there. We got to catch up with Sue and Chelsi and wished we had a little more time to visit other friends.  Next time!

Time moves quickly, and to keep on-schedule, we headed south to Winchester Bay and the dunes of the Oregon Coast.  It was quite blustery and foggy the evening we arrived, so we postponed the ATV riding until the following morning. The local advice was to go early in the morning when there would be less people out riding.  The advice was good.  The next morning was calm, still a little foggy, and there were only a few people out riding.  There was a slight learning curve to riding in the loose sand, but Jackson and Asa picked it up fairly quickly and had a blast. That same morning we headed south to Crescent City, CA.  We drove through the Stout Grove and, even though we have seen them before, stood in awe of the enormity of the Giant Redwoods.  More big trees to come when we hit Sequoia NP.

An unexpected twist (pun intended) was the roads of northern California.  I have never experienced anything quite like that.  The sign at the beginning that read "curves for the next 22 miles" was the understatement of the trip.  Between highway 1 and highway 20 we must have driven about 100 miles of switchbacks and steep grades.  The Georgetown performed well… Jerry was worn out!  We stopped at Glass Beach in Fort Bragg and were a bit disappointed that people have removed most of the beach glass that it is known for.  That evening we stayed at Caspar Beach and Amy had her spirits lifted when Jerry brought home an abalone shell that someone had just harvested 25 feet under the ocean.  It is gorgeous!

We travelled on to the Lake Tahoe area the following day.  It was probably the longest travel day we have had due to curvy roads and forest fire delays.  We were fortunate that the road was not still closed since the fireman were still actively fighting the fire.  We really admire their tough job.  But at the end of that long day we were greeted warmly by Travis, Katrina and their kids and all was forgotten.  We first met them while living in Oregon.  While visiting in Truckee, we were able to take a great 3 1/2 mile hike in Squaw Valley up the mountain to catch the tram down (for free!!).  The kids did great.  We also took in some rock climbing with the expertise of Travis and Jerry and several trips to the lakes to swim.  It was good to be in one spot for longer than a day and to do our home schooling without moving!  Travis and Katrina spoiled us with great meals and graciously loaned us their Jeep while ours got a new set of shocks. Thanks for a wonderful visit and more memories.

Bonneville Speedway

Although fossils sites and museums are fun, Asa's main interest is motorized vehicles which he reminded us of a few times on this trip.  Our progress westward took us right by Bonneville Speedway, site of the land speed record track. We ventured off into the slat flats and, although they weren't racing today, we had a great time pretending the Jeep was a rocket car and took it up to 85mph.  Asa was all smiles.  The rocket car museum isn't slated to be completed for another few years, so we were content with just viewing the site. Much to Asa's relief, we have other historic, automotively-significant sites in mind on this trip.

Fish Fossils and Friends

Wyoming is definitely winning in the photo contest.  We have 563 photos in the Wyoming folder.  The next closest is South Dakota with 115.  On our way west we stopped in Douglas, Wyoming, site of the Wyoming State Fair grounds, a great Pioneer museum, and home of the jackalope.  The pioneer museum was fantastic and free! They had a gun collection that Uncle Philip would love and lots of great rooms full of pioneer day stories and artifacts. After the museum the boys could not resist running through the fairground sprinklers.  We spent our first night "WalMart Camping"in Rock Springs and I must say it went well. The boys had us in stitches! They were outside for a few moments and then they came rolling up saying "did someone in here order some groceries!" Ha!

We had a fantastic visit to Kemmerer, Wyoming, the fish fossil capital of the world. We ventured up the road to Fossil Safari on FSR 4211 and had a blast splitting apart the quarry stone finding neatly pressed remains of fish.  Max and Ruth, parents of friends of ours from Anchorage, welcomed us to their Kemmerer home like we were family, and they treated us to the juiciest grilled burgers of the trip for our lunch.  The boys had a blast playing with Bella, their German short hair pointer.

Later yesterday evening we rolled in to Salt Lake City at the home of good friends, Scott and Sharon.  Sharon was a previous co-worker of Amy's at Providence. Jackson and Asa enjoyed reuniting with Rachel and Jeremiah and their new dog Harley, an energetic German Shepherd.  Today, Scott was very helpful to Jerry as they tackled an RV project.  We enjoyed an afternoon at the pool, an evening bike ride, and just catching up a bit.  If you ask Jackson and Asa their favorite part of the day they would probably say riding around on the ATVs and motorcycle.  Thanks Scott and Sharon for your generous hospitality, welcoming us in just three weeks after moving in your new home!

The Dakotas (part2)

From Jackson's journal...

Today we went to Mt. Rushmore and saw Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln's faces carved in the rock. It took 14 years to make the faces! After that, we went to a place where they are building a mountain-big sculpture called Crazy Horse. It was huge! What an exciting day.

The Crazy Horse Memorial was most impressive. It is a private, non-profit endeavor and is the largest stone sculpture in the world. It was commissioned by the local Lakota Souix tribes and was started in 1948 by a non-sculptor named Korczak. He worked up until his death in 1982 and his wife and 7 of his 10 children continue to oversee the project.

The Dakotas

So much happens in a day it is hard to keep up! We all have gained a new appreciation for the Great Plains. On our way through western Montana we stopped at Pompey's Pillar.  We happened to hit the very weekend they were honoring William Clark because it was on July 25, 1806 that Clark carved his name on this famous rock, the day that the Corps of Discovery arrived there.

On to North Dakota…we had never heard of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, but now recommend it as a must see for those traveling through this part of the country.  It is as much about the man TR as it is about the beauty of the grasslands and the little Missouri Badlands.

We rolled into Custer, SD a bit late without reservations and were a bit worried as the popular Custer State Park was showing no vacancy on their website.  Amy found a number of private campground options, but we would need to stop and ask as the offices were closed. As we creeped through town we saw a lit-up cross above an open sign at a small RV campground called French Creek.  They had a spot for us! What great folks…very hospitable and kind to the weary traveler. We could spend two weeks here visiting all of the great places.  Yesterday we visited Wind Cave National Park and took an hour and a half tour through the cave.  They have found over 240 miles of cave all within a one square mile area and estimate they have only found 5% of the cave based on air volume exchange data. The most unique feature is the box work formations. Wind Cave is also a primary bison reserve.

We also visited The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs. The area was once a sink hole with an artesian hot spring that attracted Mammoths as well as other animals who got stuck in the hole and died.  So, far they have found the remains of 60 mammoths and several other species such as the giant short-faced bear, a very rare find. The boys are having breakfast at the moment and are discussing how the short faced bear might have gotten stuck and died in the hole…it's awesome!

Today we are off to see the Crazy Horse monument, Mount Rushmore, and a drive through Custer State Park.  We are sure to have more to report after today's adventure.