Tuesday, July 31, 2012

The Blog

Grrr... campground internet is really slowing things down.  For the time being I think I'm going to hold on to the posts I have done and wait until we have reliable internet rather than fight with a lack of bandwidth that won't accept my pictures.  Sorry, but I do promise to keep writing my thoughts offline as we go and get them posted when I can.

Right now we are in Yellowstone.  I can't begin to describe how beautiful this park is.  Today we saw Old Faithful and many more geysers and hot springs, hiked to a pool where the ground actually shakes under your feet just before the geyser erupts and saw bison, elk, osprey and red dragon flies.  No bear sightings yet...but not to worry, we're camping right inside Yellowstone in a part of the park that only allows "hard sided campers."  In other words, the King is now a 26 foot bear resistant container.  Wish us luck!!

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Salinas California

I love to read, and have been known to stay up all night long if a book is really good!  I've done it many times, even during the week when I have to work the next morning.  So when we realized Salinas California was just a measly 17 miles from Monterey, we decided to make it a day trip and visit the National Steinbeck Center


Known as the salad bowl of the US, Salinas is not only the childhood home of John Streinbeck, it also serves as the setting for many of his most popular works.  The museum building is beautiful and bright and houses several different exhibits.  The main hall is devoted to Steinbeck's life with a section devoted to each of his major books.  Each section had artifacts and interactive exhibits as well as movie screens showing clips from each movie made from his books.  I loved the Of Mice and Men exhibit, with pegs on the wall showing quotes from each character and the hat or outfit they may have worn.  The object was to guess which character went with which quote.  Lennie's jacket pocket even had a fake mouse in it and a can of beans next to it that when you lifted it up revealed a bottle of ketchup!

 
Some of the other memoribilia included personal letters and journals that inspired the book East of Eden, canisters from Doc's lab in Cannery Row and war memoribilia from Steinbecks time as a war reporter during WWII and used in the book Bomb's Away.  Then, as you near the end of the exhibit you come upon a map of the US that shows the route Steinbeck took when he traveled across the country with just his dog in 1960.  He traveled to and visited many of the same places we are visiting, but what made this part of the exhibit so cool was his camper, the actual one he travelled in!  He named teh camper Rocinante, presumably after Don Quixote's horse in novel by Cervantes.


It is a wonderfully done museum, with additional exhibits on the history of the Salinas Valley and the agriculture of the region and another exhibit on banned and recovered books throughout history.  I really loved it!


As fabulous as the museum was, our day in Salinas was not over yet!  With a bit of time to kill we headed to the outskirts of town, near the Spreckles Sugar Factory, to The Farm, an actual working organic farm with a farm stand and a very active CSA program.  The boys had great fun petting the rabbits and seeing some of the old tractors. We bought a big box of strawberries, grown right across the road, that were some of the best I've ever had, and a really yummy homemade strawberry rhubarb pie!


Our final stop in Salinas was an evening at the California Rodeo Salinas. One thing we really wanted to do while we were out west this summer was go to a rodeo. I had googled and looked for rodeos in Texas and Oklahoma, but had not been able to find one running while we were here visiting. That is, until we got to Monterey. Outside the aquarium, entertaining the crowds, was a brightly painted car and three rodeo clowns advertising for the rodeo, which was running for 4 nights starting the day we were there. We wrote down the website on the advertised on the side of the car and looked it up when we got back to our camp sight. Turns out this rodeo is a pretty big deal in this area, and we were lucky enough to get tickets for the following night!

The Rodeo (Ro-day-oh, as they say in California) was fascinating! There was definitely a carnival type atmosphere inside the gate, with food and vendors selling shirts, cowboy hats and other western wear items. There was even a kids area set up with games and bounce houses and music! We found our seats just as the parade was starting. This rodeo starts with a parade and the Pageant of the Flags, where each flag that has flown over the State of California is carried into the arena on horseback by a rider dressed in full costume while a narrator tells the story of how each group came to California . It was very interesting, and the horses and costumes were beautiful.



After the National Anthem it was time for the events to begin. The rodeo started with bull riding in the main arena. Other events included calf roping, bronco riding and steer wrestling. While these events were going on in the main arena they had other events happening in the outer parade area. We watched some womens horse racing and barrel racing, several trick riders, and the “Mutton Muster,” a kids event similar to bull riding, but for kids under 60 pounds and riding sheep.

The whole event was very much like a hockey game at home. There were announcers and cameras filming for television broadcast, music and interactive things broadcast on a big screen TV. There was even a tractor pulling a grader that came out several times during the rodeo to smooth the dirt, much like a Zamboni does on the ice. The whole evening was a lot of fun and ended with fireworks and a bullfighting competition between the rodeo clowns.



We really had a great time, enjoyed watching the people and learned a lot! The little dude is now in training to become a rodeo clown and the other two want to go back next year...we'll see.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Monterey Bay, California

After spending several days hiking the canyons of the Southwest we headed for the Pacific Coast and Monterey, California. Having spent a week last summer in Maine on the Atlantic Ocean, the boys were really excited to dip their toes in the Pacific and spend some time relaxing on a nice sandy beach. Monterey is a really pretty coastal town, with lots of family friendly activities and things to do. We parked the King at an RV Park in Marina, California and rented a car for a couple days to get us around town.

The drive from Utah to Monterey is fairly long, so we broke it up with a stop overnight in Bakersfield California. We found a beautiful RV park right in an orange grove where, in season, you can pick your own oranges. Unfortunately the season is from January to April. But, a short walk around the corner we found the California Fruit Depot, a little shop filled with fresh, local fruits, nuts, olive oils, honey and other goodies. They have samples of all of their products for you to try before you buy them and we left with a big bag of Valencia oranges. There's another box of Valencias on the way to grandma and grandpas house, so look for them the first week of August!! They also make their own fresh homemade date shakes! The woman working there was super nice and friendly and we left with our oranges, date shakes and some free t-shirts for the boys.

Monterey is a picturesque tourist town right on Monterey Bay. Once home to the many fish canneries described by John Steinbeck in Cannery Row, it's now home to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and National Marine Sanctuary. The original Cannery Row has been converted into upscale shops, restaurants and hotels.


Our first stop was the aquarium. They have a wonderful exhibit on jellyfish right now, so we started there.

The exhibits in this aquarium are really well done, with lots of huge tanks arranged by ecosystem instead of by fish type. They have tanks for local sea life found in the harbor, another for animals found in the open sea as well as tanks for vanishing animals and a kelp forest. The boys loved the otters and the puffins and the giant octopus. The touch tanks had anemone and red abalone, sea cucumbers and sea stars as well as bat rays and sting rays that would let you touch the tips of their wings as they swam by!

Before the day was over we got to take a “behind the scenes” tour of the aquarium, which was neat because it showed the boys how the tanks were set up and maintained. The aquarium cycles 200,000 gallons of seawater a minute through the facility, bringing in important nutrients and native sea life. It was a really well done tour that ended with a feeding in the kelp forest. Pretty cool!

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is built on the sight of the Hovden Cannery, the largest and the last to close, in 1973, on Cannery Row. It has an interesting exhibit, including many artifacts, on the mackerel and sardine canning facilities, and also on John Steinbeck and some of the research he did while living in the area and writing Cannery Row. There is a bust of Steinbeck in the park down the street, and the middle guy took my picture with it before we left.

After a nice dinner on Cannery Row we headed over to Dennis the Menace Park, one of the best playgrounds I've ever seen, in spite of this sign posted at the entrance:

The boys could have spent hours here there were so many things to do!! It had a couple of climbing walls, swings and tons of slides. There were tunnels and bridges and I think the little dude ran for a solid hour! We only played on the park, but the whole complex included a pool, a ball field and a small lake with paddle boats, all owned and maintained by the City of Monterey.

We loved Monterey!!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Bryce and Zion Canyons


Just a short distance apart in Southern Utah we visited Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion NationalPark. Both canyons are located on the Colorado Plateau and were formed over millions of years. They both offer stunning views of amazing rock formations, but look completely different from one another.



Bryce Canyon was our first stop, and we started at the visitors center where we picked up a junior ranger book, watched a short film then caught a shuttle bus down to Bryce Point. Expecting to see something very similar to the Grand Canyon, but much smaller, we were surprised by our first view. Where the Grand Canyon's walls have been carved in very linear patterns by the Colorado River, Bryce Canyon's Paria River and its tributaries has eroded and carved the Canyon walls in a much different way. Here the canyon has been carved into tall pillars of rock, called Hoodoo's, each with a slightly different shape and many variations in color. The first look was amazing.



Wanting to see more of the canyon, we headed off along the rim trail toward the center of the canyon. A much more uneven and hilly trail than the rim of the Grand Canyon, it was a beautiful hike. We saw lots of birds and wildlife and enjoyed the many stops and lookouts along the 3 mile section to the Bryce Lodge.



After lunch, the boys wanted to do some hiking down into the canyon, so we headed for the Queens Garden Trail. Not too steep, it was a nice walk into the canyon and as we walked along we looked for benchmarks along the trail. This canyon has a program this summer called “Hike the Hoodoos,” set up like a bit of a treasure hunt with clues to find along the way. We made it into the first benchmark, when the little dude announced he had had enough hiking and wanted to go back up, so I headed up with him and the middle guy while the husband and teen hiked the rest of the trail looking for more clues. While we attended a ranger program about the hoodoos and how they were formed, the big boys hiked up the Navajo Loop trail, finding and photographing more benchmarks with their phones. Back at the visitors center, the little dude was sworn in as a junior ranger and the husband and teen were awarded these neat pins for “Hiking the Hoodoos” and taking pictures along the way!



The next day we headed to our third and final canyon, Zion. An interesting drive, as when you approach this canyon from the east, there is a tunnel, 1 mile long, that you must drive through in order to get into the park. The only problem is this tunnel was built in the 1920's, when cars were smaller and also before big, giant motor homes. It's small, and dark, and curves a few times inside the mountain just for fun. And if you have an oversized vehicle like the King, they have to stop oncoming traffic so you can drive through the middle of it. It also costs an extra 15 bucks. I didn't think we were going to fit...



But, we did! Whew! This canyon was another complete surprise. The road into both the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon take you up, to the top of the plateau and along the rim. The road into Zion Canyon takes you down, into the bottom of the canyon, leaving you looking up at smooth rocks and steep cliffs.



We again wanted to do some hiking, but choosing a hike was more difficult in this canyon. We had originally planned to hike into the Narrows, a trail that leads to the end of the canyon where the walls get closer and closer together, but the area had a very heavy rainstorm the night before we were there, and that trail was closed due to a flash flood warning. Many other trails were closed, or didn't connect to each other as the Park Rangers are doing a lot of work to improve the trails this summer. Finally, we decided to hike up a ways to the Emerald Pools. A beautiful and easy walk. These trails take you to a series of small waterfalls over the side of the canyon that fall down into small pools, surrounded by greenery and filled with a greenish algae, giving the pools their emerald green color, and their names. It was very relaxing a peaceful to listen to the falling water and watch the birds and squirrels play in the mist.

Both canyons were beautiful and we really enjoyed our hikes, but by the end of the day the boys were pretty much canyoned out!!  They had a great time and kept up with all the hiking and would love to come back someday...and so would I! 

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Grand Canyon Arizona

The Grand Canyon was a bit of an overwhelming experience. It is breathtaking and beautiful and at the same time a slightly terrifying place to take small children. It's also the largest National Park we have visited so far and offers a dizzying array of tours and activities for it's many visitors. With hiking trails, mule, horse or donkey tours, Jeep rides into the canyon, and plane and helicopter tours of the canyon the possibilities are pretty much endless. We had two and a half days to explore and decided to keep it simple, and cheap, and do a lot of hiking.

We entered the park from the east, at the Desert view visitors center and got our first view of the canyon. Spectacular!

Next we climbed the historic watchtower to get an even better view. A round tower constructed in the 1930's and made to look like an ancient puebloan watchtower, it has an observation deck and a winding staircase that takes you to the top for the ultimate view.


It was about a half hour drive along the south rim and out the south exit to our camp site, which was thankfully only a short walk from a shuttle bus stop. We were able to park the King and let it rest, as well as give the husband a break from some really white knuckle mountain driving and ride the free shuttle from Tusayan Arizona into the park each day. We spent the first day hiking along the rim trail for several miles, taking in the scenic vistas and visiting the Yavapai Geology Museum. The rim trail is a wide, well paved path that follows along the rim of the canyon, and there are a few places where there is a small wall or fence, but most of it is wide open, so the little dude was made to hold a hand...the whole day. It was a beautiful hike and I snapped several pictures along the way.

I took the boys favorite picture along the rim, at one of the sections without a rail. The view was beautiful so they sat down and just soaked it in for a bit!

Clearly, they love this picture because it looks like they are sitting right on the edge and dangling their feet over the side of the canyon. Now, I know my mom and dad are probably freaking out right about now, and I can hear my next phone call home as I type this. So, mom and dad, this picture is for you!

See, they're not really sitting right on the edge. So relax, I promise, we didn't even come close to loosing one of them over the edge!

The one thing that struck me most on our first full day at Grand Canyon was the silence. Living so close to Niagara Falls, a place I've visited hundreds of times, one of the things that sticks with you is the sound, the noise and the fury of all that rushing water. The Grand Canyon, on the other hand, is almost silent. No songbirds chirping or people shouting. Even my own kids were pretty quiet, speechless actually as they took it all in. And then we saw the coolest thing. 5 California Condors, soaring in the thermal currents coming up from the bottom of the canyon. We must have stood there watching them for an hour or more. The middle child is our resident wildlife photographer and he captured some great pictures of these huge birds.


The next day we decided we were ready for a bit more adventure and wanted to hike a ways into the canyon. There are several trails that go all the way to the bottom, but the Bright Angel Trail has some water stops, ranger stations and places to turn around without hiking all the way down. We started off, planning on going three miles round trip, six if we got down there and still felt pretty good. We made it to the first water stop when it began to thunder and lightening, so turn around we did and headed out. Only 3 miles for us. The climb down wasn't bad and it was beautiful, but that hike back out was tough.



Finally, a word of thanks and praise to the Park Rangers we have met in each of the parks we have visited so far. The rangers give talks, programs and tours throughout the day at each park. They are all free and have all been excellent! Most National Parks also have a Junior Ranger Program that the little dude has been participating in along the way. You pick up a book at the visitors center, then your child has to complete 3-4 activities, pick up some litter along the way and attend a ranger program during your stay. They have all been excellent, but I think the best one so far was at the Grand Canyon. The ranger taught us about many of the artifacts that have been found in the park, then took the kids on an “archeological dig” to see what they could learn about the first people who lived in the canyon. It was fascinating and the little dude was right into it!

At the end of the day you take the book, signed by the ranger, back to the visitors center and are “officially sworn in” as you take the pledge to protect the National Parks and be a friend to nature. It's all very official, and the kids earn a junior park ranger badge at each park. The little dude should have quite a collection of badges by the end of our trip!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Mesa Verde National Park

Before we began planning this trip I have to confess that I had never even heard of Mesa Verde NationalPark. We saw it on the map, but not knowing much about it were going to bypass it until another teacher I work with mentioned how much she had enjoyed visiting there, so it was added to the list. I'm so glad we did! The park is located just outside of Durango, Colorado and is filled with ancient cliff dwellings built by the Ancestral Pueblo people.

The Ancestral Puebloans first came to this area from the 4 corners region and from the site of the Aztec Ruins that we stopped and visited on our way here around the year 600. No one knows why they left and came here, and it is unknown why they abandoned this area nearly 700 years later, but while they were here they built elaborate cliff dwellings in the cave walls lining the canyons and farmed the land on top of the mesa's. Their descendants are still living and thriving in Pueblos along the Colorado River, making theirs one of the longest thriving civilizations in history.

Of the 600 cliff dwellings in the park, 3 are open for viewing. We started with a self guided tour of Spruce Tree House, the easiest dwelling to access on foot. There is a ½ mile round trip paved trail down a 100 foot descent into this cliff dwelling. An easy walk, this dwelling has 114 rooms and 8 Kiva's, round ceremonial chambers, built into the cliff. It is believed to have been home to about 100 people and has a Kiva you can climb down into by ladder, as the Ancestral Puebloans would have done while living there.

Ranger led tours of the other two dwellings, Balcony House and Cliff Palace are available by purchasing timed tickets. First we were off to Balcony House, which I later found out was the more challenging of the cliff dwelling tours. As these dwellings are built into the side of a cliff, they are not exactly easy to access. In fact you must climb a 32 foot ladder, attached to the side of the cliff, just to get into Balcony House. It's very wide and stable, but I still didn't look down.

Once inside, the view is amazing. The walls, built over a thousand years ago, are still true and straight. The tour is an hour longer and it flew by, there was so much to see! The rooms are laid out across the whole cave, with several Kiva's in between. This dwelling is divided in half and there is a tunnel, 18 inches wide and 12 feet long, to crawl through to get to the other side of the dwelling. After crawling through the tunnel there is a 60 foot climb along the open rock face which includes 2 ten foot ladders to exit the dwelling.

The park ranger who led out tour was fantastic, answered tons of questions and was great with the boys. We headed over to Cliff Palace for that tour, but unfortunately a late afternoon thunderstorm canceled the rest of the tours for the day. Luckily, Cliff Palace is visible from an overlook off the road, so we were still able to see quite a bit of it.

This stop was also our first experience with “dry camping.” We had reserved a spot right inside the park at the Morefield Campground. Although the spot had no hookups, it was beautiful. There were bathrooms nearby and laundry and showers just a short drive away. There was also an amphitheater we could walk to that hosts a ranger program each night. Since we were all settled in, we headed over to see what it was about. The evenings programs was about the wildlife that lives inside the park. Not surprising, Mesa Verde is home to bobcats, mountain lions, elk, mule deer, several species of birds and many lizards. We saw tons of mule deer, but no mountain lions while we were there. It's also home to several feral cattle and horses that have been abandoned or wandered into the park from nearby farms.

Just one last thought on driving in some of these areas of the country. The road into Mesa Verde is narrow, and pretty much travels up the side of the mountain. It was steep, and a bit of a nail biter to drive in such a large vehicle, but the husband has been a great driver, and we persevered. But all that break work we had done to the King before we left home was worth every penny!