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2011 |
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Last update 1/10/11 |
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2008
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2010 vacation redux |
monday, 1/10/2011 |
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We vacationed out west last September, and it is easy enough to paste my trip notes here: Friday, September 3 - We flew direct from Shreveport to Las Vegas on Allegiant Air, arriving early afternoon to meet son, who flew in from San Jose. Our flight was a bit late, rent car counter was very slow, so we didn't really get rolling until around 4 PM, when we picked up our tickets for Cirque do Soleil "Ka" at MGM Grand. We had hoped to squeeze in grocery shopping before the show, but timing was too tight, so we parked and went on in for dinner. We ate at a pretentious, overpriced Wolfgang Puck bar and grill, where pizza and beer for 3 cost nearly $100. Very bad choice! We should have walked out when we saw the menu. The Ka show was excellent, as expected, though the massive hydraulic stage developed a small fluid leak about halfway through and required 30 minutes of maintenance. After the show, we got the car and drove to Wal Mart to buy food for our camping/hiking week ahead, then on to Buffalo Bill's on the state line 40 miles away. We arrived there around midnight - unfortunately just after the awesome roller coaster had shut down. We were all tired, so we just went to bed.
Saturday, September 4 - We were up by 7:30 and drove across the
highway to have the breakfast special at Whiskey Pete's. Since the
roller coaster wouldn't be operating again until noon, and we didn't
want to wait, we started
driving southwest toward Bakersfield. The Mojave desert is a big
space, and the scenery doesn't change a lot, but the drive was still
pleasant on a sunny day. We stopped in Barstow to get a California
map and some beer and wine for after we had a campsite set up.
The Vonn's supermarket charged us inflated prices since we didn't
have their "member" card. Our route took us
just north of Bakersfield onto highway 99 toward Fresno, then
turning off toward Sequoia National Park at Visalia. Since this was
the Friday
Sunday, September 5 - As the sun arose, we had the traditional oatmeal and hot chocolate for breakfast, then packed up and continued up the road, stopping to take a walk on one of the tourist paths through the General Grant tree. As we drove into King's Canyon, the clear air became filled with smoke from a fire that had been started by lightening back in July and was allowed to continue burning to remove debris from the forest floor. At times, we could see flames on the other side of the road. Apparently, this modern practice of allowing fires to burn with some degree of "management" allows conifer seeds to germinate, so it is important to the health of the ecosystem. We drove around the camping areas at road's end, and in spite of signs saying "full", we eventually found a nice site where someone was just leaving and nabbed it. We stopped into the wilderness ranger cabin and got a permit to start our backpacking trip in the morning, then drove back to the campsite for a relaxing dinner, with one of our bottles of wine, organizing of the backpacks, then in bed at dark.
Tuesday, September 7 - Up again at first light, which was around 6:30 am to boil water for oatmeal and hot chocolate. We decided to hike on to Upper Paradise Valley, only another 3 miles or so, and set up camp early to enjoy the beautiful warm sunny weather. We set out day hiking further up the trail and finally stopped for a snack lunch at a vista point, then hiked back down. The afternoon was spent lounging in hammocks and reading. We had a good fire and had plenty of time to prepare dinner, with pudding for desert, chilled in the river just behind our tents. Son was in bed at dark, and M and I only stayed up a little longer. It is always surprising that you can sleep for 12 hours in a tent out on the trail, while if it were at home, we would be tossing and turning in the bed.
Monday, September 13 - Up at 4:30 to check out and drive to the airport for early flights out.
Everything went as planned.
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back in the saddle |
saturday, 1/1/2011 |
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It has been two years since my last update. I had lost interest, or my muse had drifted away , or something. But much has happened since then, I've got more time to write now (I retired last spring), and winter weather has provided me with some stay-inside time. Much more to come :)
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before labor day weekend, and it was mid afternoon by
now, the many campsites throughout the park were all full according
to the sign at the entrance. We decided to go on in anyway, driving up the
long, narrow, winding Generals Highway. As we passed campgrounds on
the way up, we drove
around them to verify they had no space, and they didn't.
I asked a ranger at the Grant Village visitor center if there was
somewhere we could camp, and he clued us in that where the highway
left the park and entered national forest land, which covers several miles of
the northern sections of the road as it passes between Sequoia and
King's Canyon National Parks, visitors are allowed to camp anywhere they can pull
of the road and find a spot. By early evening, we had turned off on
Big Meadow road,
then onto a side road where it looked like there
had been an official campground up on a hill sometime in the distant
past. The dirt tracks were badly eroded, but we found a nice flat
spot to pitch the two tents; my much used backpacking tent and
son's brand new one. We built a fire and had a beer before a late
dinner, then in bed at dark - around 7:30.
Monday, September 6 - We were up at first light to eat breakfast,
decamp, and drive to the road's end trailhead. With the same clear
sky and cool, dry morning air as every other day, we set out up the
trail to Paradise Valley. The first couple of miles were flat and
very well traveled, with the dirt so dry and powdery it was like
walking in loose beach sand. We stayed toward the edges of the wide
path where the footing was firmer. The trail finally started
ascending, and before we knew it,
we had gone four miles and reached
mist falls, where we stopped to rest and take photos. My back had
begun to hurt, possibly because my pack wasn't adjusted quite right,
but by the time we made it to Lower Paradise Valley campground for
lunch, I was pretty worn out. Smoke from the managed fires down the
valley had begun drifting up, reducing the visibility. We continued on another 2.1 miles to Middle Paradise campground and decided to
camp, since it was empty. We spent the remainder of the afternoon
lounging around, and a group of about 10 trail maintenance workers,
with a woman leader, arrived at the campsite next to us about 30
minutes before dark. They were hiking to a work site, which was
probably supplied with food and shelter, as they were traveling
pretty light and slept in their sleeping bags under the stars. We turned in at dark.
Wednesday, September 8 - We started early to hike all the way out
the way we had come. Between Lower Paradise and Mist Falls, we
walked through a wild raspberry patch with most of the berries
already gone this late in the season, but it was enough to keep the
bears interested, Son was in the lead on the trail and walked right
near a black bear slowly walking around and up onto a rock beside
the trail. He hollered back at me to look for the bear beside me,
but the brush was thick and the bear had climbed down off the rock,
so I could hear
it snapping twigs as it moved, but it was hard to
see. He got good pictures though. The smoke started coming in
again, and visibility was again reduced by the time we stopped at
Mist Falls for lunch. We made excellent time and arrived at the
ranger hut and parking lot at 12:30, having walked almost 10 miles.
As we loaded up and headed down the road, a cold front blew through,
dropping the temperature into the low 40s. Although all the
campgrounds were empty now that the holiday weekend was past, we kept going
all the way down to the Lodgepole Visitor Center area. Since we
needed to get cleaned up, and it was cold and wet outside, we decided
to get a room at the Wuksachi Lodge, since they had one available
when we asked. After nice hot showers, we had a very good dinner in
the restaurant - a bit expensive, but well worth it.
Thursday, September 9 - We had the breakfast buffet at the Wuksachi
restaurant, with the outside temperature in the low 30s, but the sky had
cleared overnight. We checked out and made our way to Lodgepole
Campground to find a tent site. This campground was still
surprisingly populated, at least on the creek side of the road where
the sites were more desirable. We spent the morning hiking to Tokopah Falls. The scenery was nice, but there was very little water
in the creek, so there wasn't really any waterfall. By the time we
got back to the car and headed to the Giant Forest area, fog and
smoke had come in, and we once again had poor visibility for any
vistas. We hiked the tourist trails through the giant sequoia grove, drove
through the tunnel log, and went through the giant tree museum.
Driving on a small road to a meadow, we saw a couple of people
looking into the woods, and there was a mama black bear and cub. We
quickly stopped and got out to take pictures. The bears mostly
ignored us and kept walking until they were hidden in the ferns and
brush. After we set up camp, we drove to find firewood off a side
road, loading up the trunk of the rent car with dead wood. The fire
was nice and warm, and we had beer with chips and hot sauce before
making dinner, then had a bottle of wine with that.
Friday,
September 10 - Although the temperature dropped into the 30s
overnight, we slept warm in our bags. We were out early again, for the long drive back to Las Vegas. We
stopped at Moro rock, a scenic overlook, since the weather was nice
and clear again. About 100 miles out, with the Friday afternoon
traffic thick on I-15, we had a very close call when a woman in a
big old Cadillac almost ran us into the guard rail trying to cut
into our lane of traffic. But we made it safe and sound to New York,
New York Hotel/Casino, where we were able to get into our room. We went out for
an afternoon stroll on the strip, then ate fish & chips at the Nine
Fine Irishmen restaurant out on the verandah, with a Guinness
stout. We walked about a little more and gambled a little.
Saturday, September 11 - We found a Denny's
near our hotel across the street
for breakfast. We retrieved the car and drove to the old
downtown area, parking at a parking garage for Binion's casino. It
was a little seedy, but we played some blackjack for awhile,
then emerged on Fremont Street. The street has been covered with a
high canopy and blocked off for pedestrian traffic only. We wandered
through several of the famous old casinos, like the Golden
Nugget. On the way back toward the strip, we stopped in at the
Stratosphere tower and paid to go up and ride the "Big Shot", a
pneumatic lift and freefall on the very top. It was pretty
breathtaking, since you are already 1200 feet up on the tower, and
it feels as if you are rising, then falling through space. We walked about some
more
in the afternoon, going in several casinos to look around, then
spent the evening back at NYNY. We got some Pizza at a place in the
casino and ate it in the room. We rode the NYNY roller coaster,
which was OK, but not as exciting as the big shot or even the big
coaster at Buffalo Bill's. Son and I played craps for a couple of
hours, at one time doing pretty well, but then falling back to even
before calling it a night.
Sunday, September 12 - We ate breakfast at Denny's again, then
M
went to church while I walked about some more and son hung out at
the sports book at NYNY. When we all rejoined, M and I decided to
go down to Fremont Street again while son watched pro football.
After lunch, we hung out in the casino for awhile, then got cleaned
up to walk to an Outback steakhouse for dinner, which turned out to
be further than we thought. The timing worked out just right for us
to walk to the Bellagio after dinner just as the doors opened for Cirque du Soleil's "O". We had seats on about the third
row, so it was easy to see the performers very clearly. The show was
fantastic, of course. Afterward, we stopped to watch the dancing
fountains while a recording of Elvis singing "Viva, Las Vegas"
played. M got the display on video with her camera, but the
file is pretty big. Maybe I should figure out how to make it
smaller to upload.
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