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The Tokopah Valley Trail 2017
Voyage into the High Sierra – “Camping at 7,000ft is awesome!” Saturday, June 10th, 2017 The Sequoia National Forest is a place that I had visited very briefly one day in 2007 and have been wanting to return ever since then. I got my opportunity to fulfill that wish when a good friend of mine invited me on a last minute venture to go camping with him in the Western part of the High Sierra. The drive would rival some of my recent Eastern Sierra travels in terms of distance and time. My buddy Richard had reserved a place at the Lodgepole Campground in the Sequoia National Forest which from…
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Southwest 2015 – Zion, Images of a Winter Dreamland
Monday, December 14th, 2015 Julia and I awoke on what would be our very last day in the town of Springdale. For the last few days, we waited patiently for a snow storm to hit that we had been hearing about all week long, but it never came, that is until we looked out the window this morning. It was snowing and the mountains were covered in it! This seriously could not have been better timed. Rather than pack up, check out, and go home, we stayed for the day and spent our last hours here exploring through a new snow covered Zion. With our camera gear mounted up and…
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Southwest 2015 – Lazy Sunday at the Virgin River
Sunday, December 13th, 2015 Julia and I woke up super late today. We were very sore from all the resistance hiking through The Narrows yesterday so today was definitely going to be a lazy Sunday for us. Our knees were aching, but our attitudes remained positive as we slowly made our way out of the hotel and on to another small venture for the day. We didn’t want anything too crazy, so we settled on a casual walk along the Virgin River just south of the main entrance to the park. It was practically lunch, so we grabbed a quick bite at Cafe Soleil since it would be our last…
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Southwest 2015 – Secret Petroglyphs and Slot Canyons
Friday, December 11th, 2015 This morning we awoke to some pretty ominous clouds in the sky and wondered if the snow storm was coming in a bit early. Julia and I didn’t want to waste any time so we got ourselves some breakfast downstairs and then got cleaned up and ready to hit the road. We wanted to stop off at the Zion Adventure Company for some general questions about the Narrows tomorrow. The girl we spoke to said that there was the possibility of a flash flood today and so booking ourselves for the next day was a good idea. I wanted to explore the region of the park…
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Leap Day Adventure
Monday, February 29th, 2016 Of all the Leap Days that have come and gone in my life, I felt that it was about time to start doing something special on that rare day that only appears on the calendar every four years. There were many ideas going through my head about where I could possibly go including some places I had already been to, but that would not work. Today had to be about something “New” and “Unexplored” so I decided that I could head back to Joshua Tree National Park and visit the Hall of Horrors and the Barker Dam loop hike as a follow up after that. I had recently been to Joshua…
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Death Valley Super Bloom 2016
Thursday, February 18th, 2016 Death Valley is a place of extreme heat and desolation with wide valleys well below sea level and surrounded by tall and eccentrically featured mountains of the Amargosa Range to the East and the sierra like peaks of the Panamint range to the west. Of all the times I have visited this beautiful park, never have I had the opportunity to catch the annual flower bloom, let alone the even more rare “Super Bloom” which was happening this year. The last Super Bloom occurred over a decade ago in 2005, so I was certainly not going to miss this! Victorville My day started off somewhat later than…
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Conquering Half Dome
“Taking on one serious monster of a hike!” Friday, July 17th, 2015 This trip was a long time coming. Going all the way back to March 2015 when my friend Sandy and I decided to apply for the Yosemite Lottery to attain a permit to hike the cables up to Half Dome. The lottery system was implemented in 2012 to limit the amount of foot traffic on the cables. A maximum of 300 hikers are allowed (about 225 day hikers and 75 backpackers) each day on the Half Dome Trail beyond the base of the Sub Dome. Two separate fees are collected. The first fee, which is charged at the…
