Death Valley (5.26.11)

Only ~100 miles from Sequioa and King's Canyon National Parks as the Crow flies, but this place could not be more different! (Note we drove 400 miles around the southern tip of the Sierras to get here.) It reached 110F today and it is dry and desolate!

We are staying at the Furnace Creek campground. The name is accurate except that it is an oasis of palm trees in the middle of rock and scrub brush. Still trying to deduce where the water comes from, but at least they use renewable energy! (And they have showers & a pool!)

The Devil's Golf Course. Incredible salt formations almost as far as the eye can see. (Dirty salt, but the German tourists who took our picture said it tasted good.)

Yes. That's all salt behind us.

Mmmm. Salt.

Took refuge under the "natural bridge" for lunch. Mmmm. Sandwiches.

Adam checks out a "waterfall" that used to be a tributary and has now been carved out by the canyon. Cool.

Desolate (and 110F!). Time to go jump in the pool.

Sequoia National Park (5.25.11)

Incredible trees - many over 2,000 years old! We attempted to be more "Sequoical" (in the words of John Muir).

Beautiful slice demonstrating the size of the Sequoias and influence of environmental factors on the rings. (Note: Adam to scale.)

Beautiful slice demonstrating the size of the Sequoias and influence of environmental factors on the rings. (Note: Adam to scale.)

Check out the size of that burl!

Big tree. Small Ailey.

On a hike we encountered old mortar holes in the bedrock used by Native Americans. They probably had a better pestle than Ailey did.

Amazing 360 view from the top of Moro Rock. Ailey donned her glasses for the occasion.

As we walked through this tree we spotted a bear cub not 20 feet from us on the path! While excited (so cute!) we also remembered that where there's a baby bear there's a mama bear. We never spotted the mom (potentially because we were loudly informing the mother bear of our presence!), but got to watch the cub clumsily scamper up the hill and we went on our merry way.

Adam slides down the snow back to our campsite at King's Canyon National Park. Did we mention it's 34F? And guess where we're headed next... 

King's Canyon National Park (5.24.11)

First morning at our sweet campsite in Azalea at King's Canyon National Park. It's still early in the season - down to 34F at night and we practically have the place to ourselves!

Beautiful views of the Great Western Divide - peaks so tall you can't even see Mt Whitney! (And yes for those who care - that is Manzanita in the foreground. Plus snow and Adam.)

As you might imagine there are enormous trees in this national park. The Sequoias that fall do not decompose for hundreds of years thanks to tannins - same stuff that makes your wine taste bitter.

Beware. Ailey found the ice cream.

Boyden's cave! Forget stalactites and stalagmites - this cave has formations called draperies, upside-down sand dribble castles, a "wedding cake", and drip pools whose borders are formed by single drops propagating to the edges. We have pictures for those interested.

Maiden Voyage: the Housewarming Party

This weekend we made a trial run to Anthony Chabot Park in preparation for the big trip. Everything is working well and looking good. Thanks to everyone who made it out to our trailer-warming party at Lake Chabot.