Category: WesternLoop2018
World of Zoo Sequoia Park Zoo

World of Zoo Sequoia Park Zoo

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World of Zoo

To my fellow animal lovers! I bring to you a post from Eureka, CA.

Sequoia Park Zoo is a definite must do if you’re ever in the area.

The zoo is really clean and they really care for all of their animals.

They even have some animals I’ve never see before and we’ve been to a few zoos! Like Patagonian cavys,

crusted screamers and…

Montjacs! Montjacs are small but interesting animals. The folds on their noses and forehead are scent glands, and they mark their territory by head bumping a tree or a rock. The antlers on a montjac get about 4 inches long, this guy had just shed his.

In with the montjac (named Jack) are three red pandas! (I am very proud of taking this pic). They have the best exhibit for seeing red pandas I’ve ever seen!

The red pandas have trees for lounging in, it also provides a good escape route just in case Jack gets troublesome, but that doesn’t happen often.

When we got to the pandas (I was rather frantic) they were about ready to start feeding them. The keeper fed them some apple cubes after putting out they’re bamboo and taught us a little bit about them. Now, this was the first time I ever saw them move, so I got to see how slow they really are. Eating only bamboo will kinda do that to ya.

Did I forget to mention they have their own hut? Man, I want my own hut!

They’ve got some peccarys on the hunt for food, always hunting for food.

This owl was REALLY on the hunt. The keepers put mice in the owl exhibit and this one was zeroed in on one.

The eagles weren’t doing much, just sitting there all majestically saying “Look at me hooman, I’ze amazing!”.

The otters were pretty active. They were racing each other all around their habitat and playing around! It was fun to watch, but hard to get a picture of.

The otters weren’t the only ones playing around, check out the spider monkey! He was swinging back and forth on a rope. I’m pretty sure it was eating something too. Based on cleanliness, habitat size for the animals and all of the happy, healthy animals, Sequoia Zoo certainly deserves 5 stars.

See y’all at the Zoo!!

#worldofzoo

Written by Nicholas
Redwoods and Fern Canyons

Redwoods and Fern Canyons

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Hey Guys!! We spent one week in Myers Flat so we could spend some more time amongst the tall trees we’ve come to love so much.

When we got to our RV park we realized that the Verizon service they’d promised on the phone wasn’t there. I couldn’t even pull up Facebook on my phone and Jerl had a real bugger of a time trying to work. If we’d been planning on staying for more than a week we would have had to find a place with better connectivity and move.

Redwood National and State Parks are home to the world’s tallest trees. The two parks protect almost half of the remaining old growth redwoods left in the world. We spent some time in the midst of the giant sequoia trees earlier this year while we were in Sequoia National Park and completely fell in love with tall trees. The first full day we had in the area we went to Redwood National and State Parks. We started in the National Park with the Lady Bird Johnson Grove trail where we spent some time tripping on things in the trail because our necks were craned back looking up at the tall trees.

The coastal redwood is the tallest living thing on earth. It’s hard to believe that something so big can grow from something the size of a tomato seed.

There’s a good sized herd of Roosevelt Elk in the area. We’ve seen a lot of warning signs in our travels, but this was the first time we’ve seen a sign like this. Don’t mess with the mamas. They will hoof you.

Fern Canyon. You might recognize it from Jurassic Park II. I can’t remember where I first heard about Fern Canyon, but I knew right away it was a spot I really wanted to see. In all of the pics I saw of the one mile gorge, there were little bridges over all of the water crossings…but when we got there…there weren’t any bridges. None. Plenty of water in the little creek that runs through the gorge though! At first we tried to keep our shoes dry by walking on strategically placed rocks and logs.

It wasn’t long before we realized we were going to get wet so we rolled up our pant legs and waded through the water. We had the best time! Fern Canyon has fifty foot walls that are draped with seven different kinds of ferns. When you’re walking through it, it’s easy to imagine huge dinosaurs rambling through the canyon munching on all of the ferns.

When we know that we’re going to be out all day exploring in remote areas we like to pack a picnic lunch. Most times we end up eating in our car somewhere, but check out the view we had at this picnic! Not bad, right? It was a gorgeous day for a picnic by the ocean.

On the way home we stopped at Patrick’s Point State Park. We walked the trail out to Wedding Rock. The view was pretty amazing. And check out that black rock! We’d seen some black sand beaches around…I guess we know where the black sand comes from.

We also walked out to Agate Beach. We were told you can find agates there. We picked up some rocks, but I really don’t know if they’re actually agates. It doesn’t matter though…we love them. It’s hard to tell in this picture, but the sand was a black-ish sand.

So, I’ve only told you about one day of the week that we spent in Myers Flat. Instead of making one really long post, I’m going to break this week up into two posts. We found the pink flower in the Lady Bird Johnson Grove. There were several trees with the blooms on them throughout the trail. Bright pops of pink in a sea of green. It was pretty magical.

See y’all down the road!

#westernloop2018
Bodega Bay

Bodega Bay

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Hey Guys! Remember when we had to change all of our plans because of engine trouble and eye surgery? Bodega Bay wasn’t originally in our plans, but when I was reworking our schedule I added it in on a whim. It’s just north of San Francisco and I don’t usually have such small travel jumps, but something about the area called to me…so I answered.

Bodega Bay is, as you might guess…right on the water. It’s kind of a white knuckley drive down highway one to get there, but Guys, we loved the area! The RV park we stayed in was near enough to the coast that we could hear the boats and water, but far enough that we were somewhat protected from the wind that seems to be a constant on the west coast.

We only had one week in Bodega Bay. That means we really only had one full day of exploration. We started out early in the morning and headed down to Point Reyes National Seashore. When we took off that morning it was a gorgeously sunny day with just a few specs of clouds but as we drove south to Point Reyes NS the clouds and fog started creeping in.

By the time we made it to Point Reyes it was sooo foggy and windy!! We tried to go out to the Point Reyes Lighthouse, but Guys…it was so incredibly windy and foggy we could barely see the road that you have to walk up to get to the lighthouse. We talked to the Ranger sitting in his car up at the lighthouse gate (it was bad enough that even he didn’t want to get out of his car) and he let us know that the lighthouse was open, but it was about a half mile walk to get to it. We opted out. As much as we love lighthouses…it was just too windy, wet, and cold. We did stop at Drake’s Beach! Love those cliffs!

I always try to give you a size comparison. Here’s a shot of the boys standing next to those cliffs on Drake’s Beach. With the weather being kind of…miserable…we didn’t have to share the beach with too many people. I mean, really, what kind of a nutter goes to the beach when it’s in the 40s and is super windy with fog? Well, the nomad nutters do. Yup. When you have a set time at a location, you go explore no matter what the weather (within reason) does or you miss out.

We found several sand dollars, a few shells, and some tide pools! They weren’t big tide pools, but we did enjoy the little sea anemones in them.

While I prefer to have beautiful sunny days to explore, I have to admit…I’m kind of digging the moodiness that the fog gave my pictures of Drake’s Beach. I guess it’s ok to have mood…sometimes.

The weather was so miserable that day we almost gave up on adventuring and went home. I’m so glad we stuck it out and headed up to Fort Ross State Historic Park which was about an hours drive north of where we were staying. We got there later in the day and only had about an hour to explore it. We do love our forts. It’s not unusual for us to get lost in a fort for half a day or more. So, we really had to rush through this one.

Fort Ross was established in 1812 for the primary purpose of finding food and hunting sea otters for their furs to support the Russian outposts in Alaska. Some of the buildings have been reconstructed and decorated to look close to what they would have looked like during the time the fort was up and running. There’s so much history that can be learned at forts like this. Most of what we’ve learned by visiting all of these forts isn’t taught in the general history books, but history is an important lesson.

On our way home from our foggy day of exploration we stopped at this pull-off to take in the view of the spot where the Russian River dumps into the pacific ocean. We noticed a crowd of people down on the beach all ogling a particular spot on the beach in between us. Guys! Seals! There was a ton of them! We found out later that the beach is called Goat Rock Beach and apparently, the seals are there often.

This is another shot of Goat Rock Beach on a different day. We tried to get out each afternoon during our week in the Bodega Bay area to get some more exploring done.

There are tons of pull-offs to take in the amazing views all along this section of highway one. We spent most of the afternoons at one of the pull-offs or beaches in the Sonoma Coast State Park. We loved our week along this rugged coast. I don’t think any of us were really ready to move on.

Let’s talk foodies. Right in front of where we stayed was this great little Mexican restaurant. We stopped in our first night and kind of wished we hadn’t. It was really good and way too close…we walked there. We also found a place right on the wharf where we got some great fish-n-chips! We’re getting our fill of all of the coastal fish-n-chips while we can.

I started seeing these in the supermarkets when we were in San Diego, but I kept resisting. We found them for sale singely at a little market in Bodega Bay though…so we tried them. Guys…do you see the two oatmeal cookies? These were so wrong that they were so right. I thought I’d be safe enough…we only had one more week in California at this point. I was really hoping I wouldn’t be able to find them once we got out of California…but, we’re in Oregon right now and…I saw them in the grocery store here! I may have to grab a box before we leave…I’m trying to be strong…but y’all know I’m a sugarholic… The struggle is real.

I love love love these pink and purple pretties! We found these at Fort Ross.

We had a great week exploring the coast here!

See y’all down the road!

#westernloop2018
San Francisco Part Two

San Francisco Part Two

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Hey Guys!! We stayed in the Vacaville area for two weeks while we explored the San Francisco area.

Vacaville was about forty-five minutes away from San Francisco so it really suited us well. Far enough away to avoid the crush of so many people on a daily basis, but close enough that we were able to spend two days explore San Francisco.

We passed by this field every time we went toward the Bay area. Do you see the little outhouse? It’s quite the outhouse! Complete with modern plumbing…but no door…and facing a highway. Oh the things we see…

Y’all know that big cities aren’t really our thing. In fact, we usually skip them, but I wanted to see the big red bridge. Our first day in San Francisco was on a weekend and boy let me tell you…the crowds were insane! It took us quite a bit of time to find a parking space anywhere near the bridge, but we eventually did. It was cold and super windy. Apparently, that’s a typical summer day for San Francisco. By the time we walked to the bridge that famous San Francisco Bay fog had started rolling in.

We waded through the crowds to snap some pictures of the view then hightailed it back to the warmth of our car. This was as close as we got to Alcatraz. Timing and tickets weren’t on our side this trip. I’m hoping to revisit the area someday, but like I said before…big cities aren’t really our thing…so, we’ll see. We made our way down to Fisherman’s Wharf to do some more sight seeing, but the crowds were just too thick for us so we decided to leave.

We headed out in search of food and found ourselves at a place called Roam. Do you see that burger in the picture? I somehow got my mouth around it (no comments please) and promptly realized that this burger was definitely on my list of top five burgers…near the top. We got the Fry-Fecta to go along with our burgers. My favorite of the three choices was the fried zucchini/onion spirals. We left reminiscing about all of the other burgers we’ve had while trying to decide which burger is on the top of our list of favorites. We all agreed it was a green chili cheeseburger, but we’re divided as to exactly which one.

By the time we were crossing back over the bridge to head home the fog had rolled fully in. It was a little eerie crossing over the water without being able to see it.

Our second excursion into the city was during the week. We made the trip first thing in the morning to avoid as much of the crowd as we could. We found Fisherman’s Wharf much less crowded. And Guys, check out the famous San Francisco hills. It’s hard to really see how steep it is in pictures…you can see the slope of it better in the bottom picture. Driving up one of the steeper hills felt kind of like the beginning of a roller-coaster. You know…the very beginning when you’re click, click, clicking slowly to the top of the hill so you can plummet down the other side. I feel like it would definitely be more terrifying to go plummeting down one of these steep San Francisco hills.

Our first stop was the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park where we learned about the city’s seafaring past. There’s a nice little museum at the Visitor’s Center where the boys got their Junior Ranger booklets, but the best part is right across the street, over at the Hyde St. Pier where you can walk around and explore some older ships.

We walked around an old passenger ferry named Eureka. Eureka started out as a ship named Ukiah that used to transport munition filled railroad cars. We loved walking through all of the old cars and the upper level where the passengers would ride.

Years ago…I don’t remember where I first got some…I had my first taste of See’s Candies. It’s been my favorite boxed chocolate since then. So, when we saw a See’s Candies store on Fisherman’s Wharf…I had to go in. And…come out with a few…souvenirs.

We ended up at a fish-n-chips place called The Codmother Fish & Chips. There’s something about having fish just feet from the water it was caught in…so good!

Our last stop in San Francisco was the Sutro Baths. At one time, the Sutro Baths were once the world’s largest indoor swimming complex. The building itself is all but gone, but there are still remnants of what once was. This picture of what the Sutro Baths used to look like was in the Visitor Center. Adolph Sutro, a German immigrant, used the money he made as an engineer of a ventilation tunnel for the silver mines of Nevada’s Comstock Lode to purchase the real estate called Lands End and build the Sutro Baths. The swimming and bathing complex was covered in three acres of stained glass and steel and seemed to be built right into the seaside cliffs.

Confession…I’m a little bit of a sugarholic. Just a little. Well, if I’m being completely honest, I might as well tell you…I’m a huge sugarholic. Huge! Some of my friends and family have told me that sugar runs through my veins instead of blood. While I’ve made an effort to cut back on the amount of sugar I have a day…er…I mean a week. We couldn’t pass up touring through the factory of one of my favorite sugary treats. Jelly Belly!

The Goelitz family has been in the candy business since 1869. That’s a lot of candy making! At the Fairfield factory, you can take a free self-guided tour of their candy making process and see the factory in action. In the picture above you can see what Jelly Belly bean centers look like. When the centers get their shells, they’ll be 40% bigger! The center bean of a Jelly Belly is made from a slurry made of sugar, water, corn syrup, and corn starch. Every Jelly Belly bean starts with the same basic slurry and then the flavor and color is added. The Fairfield Jelly Belly factory can make around 800 Jelly Belly bean centers per second. Once the bean centers have been made they have to cure, rest and dry.

Have you ever wondered how they mix the Jelly Belly beans for the bags of mixed flavors? They pour boxes of each bean in the mix on this long conveyor belt. The belt moves and the beans work their way up to a big barrel where the beans are all mixed up together. The beans are then moved by another conveyor belt to those big white containers in the picture (top left a bit) above where they wait to go to the packaging area.

There’s a bean artist who gets to spend all of their time making these Jelly Belly bean works of art. How fun would that be?! Some fun facts:  each work of art is typically 4’x5′, each picture weighs about 100 pounds with the frame, it takes around 100 hours from start to finish, and it takes somewhere around 12,000 beans to make one masterpiece.  

One of the best things about the Jelly Belly factory…they’ve got all of the flavors! And I do mean all of them. We, of course, had to take home some samples. Just a few. **wink, wink**

We really enjoyed exploring the San Francisco area! There was so much to see and do that we didn’t even scratch the surface with two very full weeks of adventuring. Maybe someday we’ll travel through the area again so we can hit some of the things we missed…when we’re ready to face the huge crowds again.

See y’all down the road!

#westernloop2018
San Francisco Area Part One

San Francisco Area Part One

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Hey Guys! We spent two weeks in the San Francisco area. We crammed so much into those two weeks that I’ve decided to break up this area into two separate posts. I could easily do four posts…we saw that much…but I’ll cram it all into two to save some time. The RV park we were staying in was in the town of Vacaville and it was in a great location for exploring the area without being right in middle of the San Francisco crowds all the time.

We went to five National Park Units while we were in the San Francisco area. Five! We missed a few…they either weren’t open or we didn’t plan far enough ahead and we missed out on tickets. Y’all know how far out we plan our travels so the fact that we missed out on tickets…sigh…should tell you how fast tickets are snatched up at popular parks.

 John Muir is known as the “Father of the National Parks” and the “Patron Saint of the American Wilderness”. He devoted most of his life to preserving the wild places that he loved so much. We’re big fans of John Muir and what his perseverance to save the wild spaces did for future generations. All over our Country, in the many National Park Units we’ve visited we’ve heard his name spoken with a kind of reverence. It is because of him, that we have National Parks. We visited Muir National Historic Site in Martinz, CA one afternoon. It was just as thrilling to us to walk in John Muir’s home as it was for us to walk through the home of Abraham Lincoln or Lyndon B. Johnson or well, any of the other great homes we’ve visited during our travels across the US.

Muir spent quite a bit of his time in solitude as he explored and studied nature. Around the time John was turning forty, some of his friends started to urge him to return to society. Upon his return, a friend of his introduced him to his future wife, Louisa Strentzel. Louisa was the daughter of Dr. Strenzel who owned a 2,600 acre fruit orchard. Muir and Dr. Strentzel went into business together and within five years, Muir had earned enough money to keep his family living well for the rest of their lives. Muir spent the next ten years working on the orchard. He was a devoted husband and father to his two daughters, but his heart was still yearning for the wild places. Louisa encouraged him to go back to the mountains for some respite. He went. Sometimes he would go alone and other times he would take his daughters.

Muir called it his “scribble den”. This is the room where John Muir wrote most of his books and published articles. He would worry about the wording of his books and articles in his determination to make others see how important the preservation of wilderness is. Many of his journals helped in the preservation of National Parks even after his death in 1914.

Muir Woods National Monument was established in 1908. When John Muir found out that they’d named this park after him he said, “This is the best tree lover’s monument that could possibly be found in all the forests of the world.”

Muir Woods National Monument was our first glimpse of the coastal redwoods. The coastal redwoods are in the same family as the giant sequoia trees we fell in love with while we were exploring Sequoia National Park. Coastal redwoods are known as the tallest living things on Earth. In Muir Woods, there’s a tree that reaches up to 258 feet above the forest floor. To give you some perspective…that is about the height of a 23 story building. These giant trees need the moderate temperatures and fog that the northern California coast provides them with in order to survive.

Muir Woods National Monument is a little tricky to get to. You have to make prior arrangements to either claim one of the few parking spots at the park or to get a ticket with a shuttle bus. We chose to take the first shuttle bus of the day in hopes of avoiding the mass of people. This park gets over a million visitors a year. Our plan worked. We were leaving when the park started to feel crowded. We had a great morning walking through the giants…listening to their stories…and marveling at their height. And freezing. We weren’t prepared for how cold it was!

In December of 1941 everything changed for America. Men were sent to fight in the war which left a gaping hole in the American workforce. To fill that hole, the government turned to the women left behind. Around six million women joined the workforce during the war. Rosie the Riveter/ World War II Home Front National Historic Park tells the story of the American workforce during World War II. Women and other minority groups answered the call to help their Country by joining the workforce. It wasn’t easy for them. Many of these women had never worked outside of their home before. They weren’t accepted or welcomed by the men left in the factories.

I didn’t really know what to expect at this NPS Unit. We arrived late in the day and was rushed to get through it all. I could have easily spent hours here reading all of the memories. I hope to revisit this one again someday.

We finally made it to the California State Capitol Building in Sacramento! I’m going to be totally honest with you. I’m behind on writing posts…it’s been almost two months since we were at the California SCB and while I do love this dome…it’s really all I remember about the building itself…other than an awful lot of pink. Don’t get me wrong…it’s a lovely building. We took a guided tour and our docent was very enthusiastic about how big and powerful California has always been. This was pointed out numerous times. It was also admitted that the reason this SCB looks so much like the National Capital Building is because the plans for the NCB somehow fell into the hands of the California SCB planners…so yeah, there’s that too. It was for sure, the oddest docent led tour we’ve ever had of a SCB.

The day we went there was a parade and several protests. We didn’t’ stick around for any of it. Crowds aren’t really our thing. At all.

There was a really nice rose garden! So many different colors of roses! There were also some other really pretty flowers on the SCB’s grounds. It really was a very pretty campus.

We found a really good old fashioned diner in Martinez, CA while we were visiting the John Muir National Historic Site. Great burgers and milk shakes!

Stay tuned for part two of our San Francisco area adventures!

See y’all down the road!

#westernloop2018
Pizza Roundup Round Table Pizza

Pizza Roundup Round Table Pizza

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To my fellow pizza lovers, I bring to you a post on Round Table Pizza.

Now walking in I expected a fast food Cicis like pizza but once we got the pizza, I thought differently. Round Table is a chain pizza place that is really good.

We had to go back it was so good!

The Round Table Pizza we went into was pretty clean and had good service…

oh don’t mind the stack of pizza crust, dad just wanted more room for the toppings. You have to admit, it’s an impressive stack of pizza crust!

Round Table really surprised me with how good it is, so it deserves a 5 star review!

See y’all next time on…

Pizza Street!!

Written by Nicholas
Yosemite National Park Part Two

Yosemite National Park Part Two

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Hey Guys! Yosemite Part Two! We spent a day and a half in Yosemite Valley and well…I was kind of disappointed. The views were stellar. The hikes were available. But, it was so incredibly crowded that it really felt more like a day at an amusement park. We couldn’t get away from the crowd no matter what time we got to the park or where in the valley we went.

If you look at a map of Yosemite National Park, you’ll see it’s actually separated into different regions. You’ve got Yosemite Valley where most people go…but then you’ve also got Wawona, Glacier Road, Hetch Hetchy, and Tioga Road areas. We tried to go to Mariposa Grove in the Wawona area but it was closed for restoration. Hetch Hetchy was a three hour drive from where we were staying which means six hours of just travel time…that’s half the day gone. We had already planned on driving Tioga Road…but we met a great family at Park Sierra (where we were staying) and they gave us tips on not only Tioga Road but also Glacier Road.

We drove a lot during all of our Yosemite NP explorations. One of my biggest tips for you if you’re heading to Yosemite is to get gas before heading into the park. Check out those gas prices. We saw two different gas stations that were close-ish to the park and both of them were super pricey.

The first time we tried to explore Glacier Road was during a weekend. It was a Sunday afternoon and we thought maybe the weekend crowds would’ve started thinning out. We were wrong. So very wrong. We got there and there was an hour wait just to go up the road. So, we skipped it for later. We were able to take an afternoon mid-week to explore Glacier Road and it was so much better. Not nearly the amount of people and no waiting. There are several pull outs for trails but we passed them to head to the very end of the road and Glacier Point.

Glacier Point is an overlook that sits 3,000 feet above the Yosemite Valley floor. You get unobstructed views of Yosemite Valley, upper and lower Yosemite Falls, Vernal and Nevada Falls, Half Dome, and some High Sierra snow capped peaks in the distance. Talk about eye candy. It was my favorite view of the entire valley. We were told that sunset from Glacier Point is phenomenal. We didn’t get to stay for it, but I would love to go back one day and see it.

One of my favorite hikes in Yosemite National Park is on Glacier Road. The Taft Point trial is only one mile (one way). You start out in a lovely forest setting and the trail meanders through a meadow before dropping down and spitting you out on this canyon rim. Now, one of the interesting things about this steep sided canyon is that it has these really cool fissures! Guys! Check out this fissure! There are several of them all along Taft Point. These fissures plunge 2,000 feet straight down. Some are wide and some of the fissures are narrow.

Taft Point gives you an amazing view of El Capitan. We spent some time out on the point wandering around. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. A couple of groups of people were getting there right about the time we were heading back. I have four books on National Parks and what to see and do in each park. The Taft Point hike was only in one of them and it was by far my favorite hike we did in the park. It was only two miles round trip, the hike was easy enough for any physical level, and the views were pretty darn amazing. Plus, we had the place to ourselves. We didn’t have to wait in line to get a glimpse.

It took us an entire day to explore Tioga Road. It might only be a 39 mile scenic drive, but there is so much to see and do. Tioga Road is closed during the winter months. We lucked out and it opened a couple of weeks before we got there. At Olmstead Point you can see granite exposed by years of weathering and erosion. Olmstead Point is also a great place to get a birds-eye-view of Tenaya Lake. At 8,149 feet, Tenaya Lake is one of Yosemite’s biggest natural lakes. The Native Americans called it Py-we-ack which means shining rocks. Thousands of years ago the rocks around the lake were polished smooth by glacier movement and they still reflect and “shine” in the golden glow of the setting sun.

Toulumne Meadows started out millions of years ago under a sea of ice that was more than 2,000 feet deep. This is the view…right here in this spot back in 1889, where John Muir and Robert Underwood Johnson sat around a campfire discussing ways to protect this area of the Sierra Nevadas. One year later, in 1890, Yosemite National Park was born.

Toulumne Meadows has panoramic vistas of snow capped mountains and domes. It’s one of the largest sub-alpine meadows in the Sierra Nevadas…and it’s where you’ll find Soda Springs. The biggest part of the spring is protected within the enclosure in the pic above. Soda Springs has carbonated water bubbling and percolating up right out of the ground. The minerals in the soda water has turned the area around it a rusty red color. It was fun to stand there and watch it. It would bubble for a bit and then stop…then start back up. We found fresh tracks around it so we’re pretty sure the animals in the area are drinking it. People used to drink it too, but the Park Service now discourages people from drinking it due to possible ground contamination.

Tioga Road is Yosemite’s only road through the High Sierra country. From 6,200 feet all the way up to almost 10,000 feet at Tioga Pass is California’s highest automobile pass. Once you cross Tioga Pass, you exit Yosemite NP and start to descend down to the small town of Lee Vining.

We got a tip about a place to eat in Lee Vining. Whoa Nellie Deli shares its space with a gas station and a gift store. You might expect their food to be “fast food”, but it’s not even close to fast food. I had the lobster and crab Tioga Taquitos and they were the bomb!! Is that saying even still used? We have to thank our new friends, the Buoy family, for letting us know about this place.

Right down the road from Whoa Nellie Deli is Mono Lake Tufa State National Reserve. We didn’t have much time, but we drove down and took a quick peak at the lake. What the heck is tuffa? See those structures out in the water? That, is tuffa. Basically, it’s a limestone tower that forms over a freshwater spring within the lake. If we could figure out a way that didn’t require taking our home-on-wheels over huge scary mountain passes we could totally spend some time in the Lee Vining area. Between the lake and a few state parks…I was bummed our RV park was so far away from the area.

We ended up enjoying Yosemite National Park way more than we thought we would after our first experience in Yosemite Valley. There are places that still feel wild and while you might have to work a little harder to get to them, your efforts are completely worth it.

I wish we’d had this book from the start of our Yosemite National Park exploring. All of the park roads have little numbered signs at different points along the roads. This book tells you what all of those signs and areas are. Plus there’s a ton on Yosemite history and geology. We bought ours at the Toulumne Meadows Visitor Center but, it’s also available on Amazon and would be a great planning tool.

There were a few pretties in the area. I love these bright pink ones! These light lilac colored blooms were sprinkled throughout the park. I’m a sucker for purple…

We enjoyed our time in Yosemite. It’s easy to see why it has inspired so many people throughout it’s history. Between the sheer size of the park and the number of people who visit, planning is essential to seeing everything you want to see in this park.

“It is by far the grandest of all the special temples of Nature I was ever permitted to enter.” ~John Muir

See y’all down the road!

#westernloop2018
Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park

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Hey Guys! We spent two weeks in Coarsegold, California so we could explore Yosemite National Park. Originally we’d planned on staying in a park in Groveland, but when we took a closer look at the road to get there…we changed our mind. We like to avoid narrow, winding, mountain roads in our home-on-wheels. When I called Park Sierra in Coarsegold a couple of weeks before we needed a spot, I didn’t really expect them to have a spot for us. But, we totally lucked out and they had a spot for us!

We arrived Memorial Day weekend and had no desire to go up into Yosemite National Park over a holiday weekend. I took a morning before the heat of the day set in to get some of the grime off of our roof. You can see the line between clean and dirty in the top picture above. I really only took off the top layer of grime, but it looks so much better. It’s amazing how much dirt can accumulate in a short amount of time. I never thought I would have to mop the roof of my home…that’s RV life though! The only spot available to us was in direct sunlight all day and unfortunately, the temps were high 90s and even into the low 100s while we were there. Our front air conditioning unit decided to have issues. Luckily, Jerl was able to get it fixed one morning and we stayed…well, not really cool, but semi-comfortable.

Other than the no shade issue, we really enjoyed our time at Park Sierra. One of the coolest things about the park was all of the walking we could do. One afternoon we found ourselves down by a little creek. The boys made some friends and they all spent some time wading in the creek on the hot days.

Nicholas celebrated his birthday while we were there. He’s obsessed with pizza. His goal in life is to have pizza in all fifty states. A pizza game board is perfect for this pizza loving kid!

There are a few different ways to get into Yosemite National Park, but only one that’s open year round. The year round road had a little rock slide at some point so now there’s a detour that takes you over this one lane bridge that also takes you over the river. It looks like they’ve been working to clean up the rock slide, but it might be awhile before the road is opened back up. If you’re heading to Yosemite any time soon, be prepared for some delays getting into the park.

Welcome to Yosemite National Park! We spent three and a half days exploring the park and while we got to see most of the highlights, we missed quite a bit.

This is the famous Tunnel View that you come to right out of the Wawona Tunnel. There are two different parking areas so you can pull over and spend some time soaking in the view. From here you can see Yosemite Valley…it’s been called the most photographed vista on Earth. I don’t know if that’s true, but there were certainly tons of people there when we were.

Yosemite is one of the most popular National Parks to visit. More than four million people from all over the world come to soak in the beauty of Yosemite National Park every year. That’s a massive amount of people and more than a few cars. In order to help preserve the park, Yosemite has a free shuttle service. And Guys, it’s totally the way to go. The shuttles can take you all over the valley. We went at the very beginning of the busy season (the week after Memorial Day weekend) and it was already pretty insane with the amount of people everywhere. There were several times on the shuttles that we were crammed in like sardines in a can. On an average summer day there is usually around 14,000 people in Yosemite Village. 14,000!!! I can’t even imagine! I don’t think we’ll ever want to visit during the busy season.

Did you know that Yosemite Valley is only 3% of the parks total land area? The valley is a one mile wide and seven mile long canyon that was started by a river and then widened by a glacier a long long time ago. El Capitan can be seen from the park valley road. I snapped the pic above from the shuttle. El Capitan is 3,593 feet from base to summit making it one of the world’s largest granite monoliths.

Half Dome, one of Yosemite’s iconic granite formations, rises 4,800 feet above the valley floor.  The first visitors to Yosemite National Park…way back before it was officially Yosemite National Park…would take four to five days to get from San Francisco to the valley by carriage or by horse.

Upper, Middle, and lower Yosemite Falls combine to form the highest waterfall in North America and the second highest in the world. Yosemite Falls is fed mostly by snow melt and is often dry by August. There’s a short trail to the base of Yosemite’s lower fall. It’s worth a side trip.

We did two hikes in the valley. The first one was the Mist Trail. This was a hard trail due to it’s 14% grade. The trail it’s self was a great trail! It’s about a mile to the 317 foot Vernal Fall and then you start up the 600 granite steps. Right about the time you reach the steps you also realize where the trail got it’s name.

The mist off of the Vernal and Nevada Falls pretty much soaks you. On a hot day, it’s refreshing! We didn’t make it all the way up those 600 steps to the Nevada Fall. We could see what we wanted to see from where we were and we were trying to make it to a Ranger program. The Mist Trail was our favorite hike in the park. It’s the most popular trail in the park so go early or it’ll feel more like a day at a crowded amusement park than a hike in nature. Remember that 14% grade? Yeah, I was really feeling that the next day, but it was the walk back down that got me.

The second hike we did was to Mirror Lake. The trail there was enjoyable and well maintained. We were on the first shuttle of the day, so we were among some of the first ones there that day. I should probably tell you that Mirror Lake isn’t actually a lake. Nope, it’s a small part of the Tenaya Creek. Honestly, I was a little disappointed with it. Just a teeny bit.

It’s hard to be too disappointed when you’re standing in a place like this. I mean…come on…look how gorgeous it is! We were standing there taking it all in when one of us realized they really needed to find a restroom. We’d been told there was a restroom on the way there, but we didn’t see it. Which meant we were on the wrong side of the river. Three of us made it all the way across the icy cold river. Two of us chickened out after making it only about a foot from the banks edge and immediately turned around. Yup, Nicholas and I (Jennie) couldn’t handle the cold. It was so cold!!! So, we split up. Three went off to find the restrooms on the other side of the river while two of us moseyed back down the trail we’d come in on.

The crowds were showing up and getting thick by the time we made it back to the shuttle stop. Can you believe there were people stripping down to their tidy whiteys and swimming in that frigid water?! I couldn’t even walk in it and they were swimming!! No. Thank. You!

We made it to the Ranger program. The boys needed to go to one to complete the Junior Ranger booklet. Nicholas volunteered to help the Ranger during the program. In over 100 National Park Units, we’ve only had to pay for the Junior Ranger booklets twice. Yosemite was one of those we had to pay for. The boys got both a cool wooden badge and a patch. And…with the sheer number of people that go though the park per year…it is understandable that the NPS would need a little help paying for the Junior Ranger stuff.

There were so many squirrels in Yosemite Valley. I can’t tell you how many people were trying to feed them by hand and pet them. Guys, the fleas that live on these squirrels can carry the plague and those little fleas can jump like 15 feet! Not to mention, squirrels will bite. But, we saw countless numbers of people treating the squirrels like they were pets. Human food is actually bad for squirrels. Did you know that squirrels can develop diabetes from eating human food? It’s true. Keep wild animals wild by not feeding them or touching them.

Every NP unit has it’s own feel to it and it’s own way of doing things. Like signs. I love the sheet metal signs in Yosemite. They’ve got torched letters giving them a rustic feel. Back in the mid 1950s there was some concern regarding the potential for the paint smell on the classic trail signs might attract bears. Bears…they’ll eat anything! Can you imagine coming up on a bear trying to eat a trail sign?

Well, this post is getting kind of long…and we’ve only covered Yosemite Valley…remember, that’s only 3% of the park…and it’s not even our favorite part. I’ll show you our favorite parts in next weeks post! So stay tuned!! For now, I’m going to leave you with this picture of the pretty that was right out side our home-on-wheels in Park Sierra.

See y’all down the road!

#westernloop2018
Gilroy, CA

Gilroy, CA

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We spent two weeks in the Gilroy area of California. We wanted to explore some of the coast and hit a National Park there. When I pick places to stay, one of the things I look at is cell service strength. We have to have decent Verizon service so work can be done. In three years, we’ve only had to move once due to lack of cell single. We almost had to move from this area. We weren’t that far from a big city, but there were so many people the bandwidth was completely bogged down. It was bad. The area it’s self was pretty good! We enjoyed it!

Welcome to the Garlic Capital of the World! Gilroy is all about the garlic. You can get garlic flavored…everything. And I do mean…everything. We tried the garlic ice cream. The garlic flavor was so light that we couldn’t really taste the garlic much.

This entire part of California is a heavy agricultural area. If a house or business isn’t sitting on some land…it’s being used to grow something. One of our favorite things to do was try and guess what was growing in the different fields. Have you ever seen artichoke plants? They look pretty crazy!

All those fields of veggies and fruits meant tons of little farm stands…and some not so little stands. Casa de Fruta is one of those touristy places we usually try to avoid, but a friend of ours told us we had to see it. She was right! We stopped on our way out of the area and it was pretty cool! So many different local fruits, veggies, nuts, and candies! I’d never seen so many different flavors and styles of garlic. There were honey, jams, jellies, dates and nuts…I could have spent several hours looking at everything.

We had to stock up on a few things. We could have easily spent way too much on all of the yummy looking treats here!

We found a fish-n-chips truck called Ketch It outside one of those fruit and veggie places. Guys…it was the best fried fish we’ve ever had. Ever. And the garlic fries…top notch! We went back twice…we would have gone one more time, but the timing was off. We will forever compare all other fish-n-chips to these. We also found a burger place. The Habit. It’s fast food, but better. We like them better than In & Out and Five Guys and so far in California we’ve seen Habit stores in most areas we’re staying in. We try not to eat out too often, but it does happen.

We spent a day driving highway one. The road is as snaky as you’ve heard and the views…are even better than you think they’re going to be. Luckily, there were tons of pull-offs so we could safely gawk. And we did. We gawked and ogled and said wow more times than we thought we would.

To be honest, it was better than I thought it would be. I’d seen pictures, but you know we compare everything to Alaska and Maine. I thought…how could it be anywhere near as great as Alaska or Maine…but Guys, it is. It’s gorgeous! And the color of the water even on a cloudy day was so pretty. We started near the Monterrey Bay area and made it down to the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park to see the little waterfall. We had to stand in line to get a glimpse of it. The crowd was not the best but it was pretty though! It was worth wading through the crowd and standing in line to get a glimpse.

Garrapata State Park was probably my favorite stop of the day. I love love love all of the flowers right next to the beach! I mean…look at those colors!! When we started out that morning we were pretty much on our own. Not that many people out and about. But, by mid-morning the people found us and we decided to call it quits on the exploring.

Pinnacles National Park was a surprise. I actually found it after I’d made our reservations. It was a happy coincidence that we were close enough to go check out Pinnacles NP. We only got to visit once, but there’s enough to do for several visits. Pinnacles NP is part of an old volcanic field that sits near the San Andreas Fault Zone. There’s not a lot of parking at this NP. You have to park at the visitor center then ride a shuttle bus back to the hiking. So be prepared for that.

We were about a mile into a five mile hike when Nicholas started not feeling well. He pushed on a little more, but just wasn’t feeling it. Nicholas, Alex, and I ended up turning around while Jerl and Charles finished out the hike. We were so bummed to miss the hike, but it was a really hot day and the heat was making Nicholas feel even worse. Luckily, we’d packed a lunch so the three of us made our way back down to the visitor center where we sat in the shade and had our lunch while we waited. The food and the cooler temps in the shade helped.

The main reason we wanted to visit Pinnacles was to see the California condors. Pinnacles National Park is a nesting area for them and is one of very few release sites in the US for the big birds. Weighing in at around twenty pounds with a wingspan of nine and a half feet, the California condor is one of the largest birds in North America. They’re certainly not the prettiest bird…but they are awe inspiring.

While the little boys and I were relaxing in the shade, Jerl and Charles were working hard on the trail. Check out those foot holds in the pic above! I’m a little jealous I didn’t get to finish this trail. It looks totally awesome! Jerl and Charles came back with tales of how difficult it was all while raving about the views!

It’s a thistle…but it’s pink. I’d never seen a pink thistle before. They’re usually purple…but the ones at Pinnacles were all this vibrant pink color. Love! The other beauties pictured above were also at Pinnacles!

These pretties were all down highway one. I love them so much! I mean…Guys…it’s purple with a pink glow!!!

While this area presented a challenge with cell service, we really enjoyed our time in Gilroy, CA. So much so that we would consider going back one day even though it was extremely congested with people.

See y’all down the road!

#westernloop2018
Sequoia National Park

Sequoia National Park

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Hey Guys!! We spent two weeks in Three Rivers, CA so we could explore Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park. We only made it to Kings Canyon NP once, but we were in Sequoia as much as we could be. It took us over an hour to actually get up into Sequoia National Park.

The road to get into Sequoia NP winds it’s way up a mountain with hairpin turns. Our first time into the park we were waiting in line to cross the construction area when some fog started to waft in. Well, it wasn’t so much wafting in as it was pouring in. It came in really fast and really thick. We thought it might just go on through so we headed on into the park anyway.

We made it to the Giant Forest Museum and went in to kill some time hoping the fog would roll out while we were in there. You can see the fog in the windows of the pic above. Did you know it takes 91,000 sequoia seeds to make one pound? Each seed is the size of an oat flake.

The fog was still rolling in, but we decided to try and push forward…until we couldn’t see the road in front of our car. It was slightly terrifying. We were stuck on a two lane, very narrow, mountain road going up the mountain into thicker fog. We finally found a place to turn around and start our slow, nerve wracking decent down the mountain. It was crazy how fast other people were driving…without their fog lights on. We made it down the mountain and went to get pizza. After all of that we were ready for some comfort food!

If you’re heading into Sequoia National Park this summer, be prepared for construction and lane closures. Depending on when we went up the mountain we would have anywhere between a 15 min to an hour delay.

Established in 1890, Sequoia National Park is the second oldest National Park. We had to hunt for this park sign. The one at the Three River’s entrance with the Indian Head that you’ve probably seen…it was taken down for restoration. We were super bummed, but at least we found this other sign.

Every year the General Sherman tree grows enough new wood to make a brand new sixty foot regular sized tree. You are looking at the largest living (by volume) tree on earth. The estimated volume is more than 52,000 cubic feet…which is about the same volume as sixteen blue whales.

This little marmot was out enjoying the sun at one of the less popular pull-offs. We try to check out a variety of pull-offs…sometimes the views are just as spectacular as the more popular super crowded pull-offs. And, sometimes you come face to face with some of the park residents. ;-}

One of the hardest things to portray in pictures (for me) is size. I snapped this picture of the Giant Tree Museum in the middle of some sequoias to try and show you how massive these trees are. The museum is a decent sized building and look how much taller those amazing trees are!

These giant sequoias only grow on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada range and can grow to almost 275 feet tall with a trunk circumference of around 100 feet. It’s hard to believe the little seedling in the pic above might one day reach 275 feet high.

We went to Sequoia NP before the official start of the summer season, so not all of the roads were open. One of the places we really wanted to visit was Moro Rock. You could park down by the Giant Forest Museum and walk up. It made the hike a few miles longer…one way. And we were totally going to do that…if we had to. We kept checking to see if the Moro Rock road was open every time we went into the park. On our last day in the park it was…open!! Sweet Chickens! When you can park in the parking lot by the trail head…Moro Rock is a short quarter mile hike up 400 steps along with several ramps. The trail was built by the CCC back in 1931 and takes you up to 6,725 feet. Before this nice trail was built, early visitors had to use ropes to scale Moro Rock. I’m not sure we would have attempted that particular hike. I like to think we’re adventurous and daring…but there’s a limit to what I’ll do with kids in tow.

When you reach the top and after you catch your breath… you can walk out to the end of the trail and enjoy unobstructed views of the Great Western Divide. We stood up there for awhile. The views were…well, they were pretty darn amazing in every direction! We finally moved on when other people started nudging us out of the way. I get it. We all want to take in the view and get pictures with that vista. We moved out of the way and started back to the car excited that we could check Moro Rock off of our list.

Buttress Tree fell without warning on June 3, 1959. Most sequoia trees die from toppling over. The roots are shallow and they don’t have a taproot to help anchor them. We found Buttress Tree after we left Moro Rock and found a wide spot in the road so we could pull over to get a closer look. I had to snap a picture of the boys with the root system to show how big the roots get.

Hale Tharp was the first settler of European descent to move into the Sequoia NP area. He built a cabin out of an old hollowed-out sequoia. Tharp’s Log has been pretty much left alone. You can step inside the door and see how Hale Tharp had it set up. Did you know that Sequoia bark is up to 2 feet thick and is a poor conductor of heat? Sequoia bark also has some natural immunity to bugs and fungi which means a fallen sequoia can stick around for a very very long time under natural circumstances. How cool would it be to have a house built from fallen Sequoia logs?!

Sequoias rarely die of old age. Many of the oldest sequoias are close to 3,000 years old. Sequoias live so long that we’re only just now seeing the second generation of these gigantic trees. Think about that… We still don’t really know how these amazing trees will evolve over time. They’re really just getting started.

Sequoia NP is in bear country so all of that stuff you carry around when you hike that has any kind of smell at all… lotions, lip balms, repellents, snacks, cans and bottles (even unopened)…bears can smell them up to a mile away. The park has provided tons of these bear boxes to store all of your stuff in. Oh, and bears have been known to claw their way into cars…in the middle of a crowded parking lot…so, do yourself a favor and use the bear boxes.

Did you know that sequoia trees actually need fire to regenerate? A sequoia pine cone needs fire in order to release all of those tiny, oat flake sized seeds. The NPS now conducts prescribed burns in order to keep the forest healthy. They’ve sectioned off the park and rotate burn sections.

We weren’t sure we were going to get to drive through Tunnel Log. This is up the same road as Moro Rock. We actually got to drive through it twice. Everyone we saw driving though it stopped for a picture or two or three. We even saw some tourists having a full on photo shoot in front of it. Seriously, how many pics do you need of yourself in front of the same tree? Ha!  But really…move it along. Tunnel Log fell naturally and instead of reworking the roads, the NPS tunneled through the tree so cars could get through. Oh! We also made it to an old fallen tree that you used to be able to actually pull your car up on and then get a pic of it…while it was on the log! So cool! It’s blocked off now. You can’t get your car up on it anymore, but you can walk and climb all over it. So fun!

Springtime in the mountains means pretties everywhere! I loved all of the flowers in bloom! These yuccas were amazingly huge and dotted all over the foothills of the park. We also spotted quite a few dogwood trees! I love dogwoods with their delicate white and pink blooms!

We loved Sequoia National Park so much more than we could have imagined. There was something very humbling about standing next to a living thing that’s been around for thousands of years. There’s a sense of being so small in the grand scheme of things.

It’s hard to grasp the sheer size and feel of a giant sequoia until you’re standing next to one.

See y’all down the road!

#westernloop2018