We have been back from vacation now for a few days and already it seems like a dream.  I wanted to write up a final summary of the trip and our memories.

Best Place

Canada, so excited to finally go back after 11 years (over 20 since I was in Alberta where I was born).   Fun to see my dad and his place as well as the Canadian Rockies. 

Best Hiking

Grand Canyon.   It is just like climbing a mountain for distance except it is down first and it is hot instead of snowy.  Both improvements on a near perfect activity as far as I am concerned.

Best Food

Hottest food was in Oregon at our Thai restaurant, but our best food was where we stayed.  Dad, Megan, Jason and Gem all cook awsome! 

Best Beach

Cape Perpetua in Oregon.  Wish it was warm enough to swim but all the animals and the waves were awsome!

Best Road Trip Tool

Bryons blackberry and its ability to tether to the computer.  We used Google maps on the computer for everything (maps, restaurants, stores, etc).  Just days after we left on our 5 week trip we got notice on one of our rentals.  The internet in the car allowed us to get it rented while we were gone.  We signed papers an our after we drove back into town and only lost 3 days of rent.  That right there payed for a bunch of our trip.  Love technology.

Worst Money Spent

Most of the fast food we got.  Yuck!

Places we would want to go back

Pretty much all of it again.  There was lots more hiking in Custer State Park, Yellowstone, Banff, Kings Canyon and Grand Canyon that we wanted to do but ran out of time.  Probabaly we will look for a different place to travel next… maybe south east or out of the country… gotta save up. 

Regrets

None

Memories

1. Actually getting everything packed into the little car
2. Finding out someone got killed by a bear the same day we were hiking in Yellowstone
3. Going to the Calgary Stampede
4. Ian climbing all the way up Sulfur Mountain and the Hot Springs with rain and lifeguards in winter coats (and hoods..zipped up)
5. More snow than I have ever seen (always living in snowy climates) at Mount Baker… in July
6. The Pacific coast being so much colder than I expected
7. Sea life on the coast of Oregon and watching the kids play in the waves
8. Big trees in California
9. Smog
10. Gas dropping .90 crossing between CA and AZ
11. The most amazing hike down the Grand Canyon!
12. Lots of kids fighting in the car

I think the kids are a bit bummed about being back.  Lily is complaining that her eyes hurt because there is nothing pretty to look at and that her legs hurt because there is nothing fun to climb.  Another day, another time.  For now, it is work and getting ready for homeschooling 2 kids this year.   Great trip!  Great memories!

Well, one thing we confirmed today, the kids can’t do more than 1 day in the car at a time….today marked 3 days in a row driving. Ian got board with his activities 2 ½ days ago, and has spent his time terrorizing his sister, drinking way to much water, and making a mess of himself and the car. …he is going to be trouble growing up. Lily, on the other hand, has provided great reactions to all his pestering, and also, drank to much water, making matters worse.

Before this trip, my idea of the west included mountains in some areas. However, on our trip from about day 2 we have been driving through mountains…. Until today… welcome back to Nebraska, the land of flat, hot, boring roads. It might have something to do with the fact that we are going home, but no state seems to take as long to cross as Nebraska (Iowa comes in close second).

No pictures from today. We piled into the car and left at 7:30 this morning from just north of Denver…. And drove… and drove… and drove. … more than 1 day of driving doesn’t work well for the parents either.

I thought 5 weeks would be forever for a vacation, but now that it is finished, it seemed it seems much shorter. The kids were saying this morning that they didn’t want to go home yet, they wanted to stay on vacation. Bryon and I are ready to get home for a bit, maybe two weeks to do laundry and get healthy again… but then we would love to be on the road again as well. If only we could figure out how to make travel and hiking pay.

After another hot shower and breakfast we headed off again. I felt much better getting up, but soon had a fever of 100 again.

Arches was awesome. We explored it for a few hours in the morning. It isn’t a big park, but all of it is beautiful. With more time and less sick there was a great trail through Devils Garden that looked like fun.

The park lies on top of an underground salt bed that is responsible for all the arches, spires, balanced rocks, sandstone fins, and eroded monoliths that are all a bright red. It boasts the worlds biggest concentration of natural arches… over 2000 cataloged.

It all is so cool looking. It looks like clay art… on a God scale. All the different shapes, some seemingly defying gravity, are incredible to see.

The kids and I played on the Turret Arch for a while Bryon took pictures. It was perfect ‘rock climbing’ for them, steep but not too steep. They played Diego rescuing baby animals.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. Almost ran out of gas in ‘the middle of no where’ Colorado, drove through the Rockies again, saw a full double rainbow, and listened to 2 tired kids fight about everything….

Staying with friends tonight. It has been really fun to reconnect with several people on our trip that we haven’t seen for a long time. Fabulous food, company and bed. God willing, we will be back in our own bed tomorrow night.

(this is on the far east side of Grand Canyon park roads.  It is in an old fire tower)

So frustrated. I typed up the post for yesterday and when I opened the file again it was gone. So here it is again,… never as good the second time.

Yesterday was hard. I am never the last person in the family to get sick, but I managed to this time. Lily and Ian had the sinus bug in California and Bryon got it at Grand Canyon. I managed to pick it up bad starting Saturday evening. I don’t know if I get sicker or just am a bigger baby about being sick… but I am a mess.

We didn’t have that far to drive so we decided to add on a few other places to the route for the day. The first detour we took was to the four corners… but when we got there it looked cheesy and we didn’t end up paying to get in.

The other place we detoured to was Mesa Verde National Park. This park, in the south west corner of Colorado, was set up to preserve architectural ruins that were built in the early 1000’s. It claims to be the best site in North America of its kind. We didn’t have much time so we just went straight to the Spruce Tree House. This house was used by 60-80 people and is one of the buildings that we could visit without a tour. Tucked back into the rock wall it was still surprisingly intact. We couldn’t walk over most of it, but some of the front area the kids could crawl all over.

They had these rooms that were circular, about 10‘-12’ across and only accessible from the top through a little hole and down a ladder. There was one that we could go down into. It was unclear, listening to the Ranger, if this was a family ‘house’ or a room used for religious purposes. There was at least 3 or 4 that we could see in the whole building/longhouse structure.

We crawled down into the room, but it was really dusty and hard to breath. I can’t imagine living in something like that. Either way, the kids loved the ladder.

Lots of buildings are in the area still. It would be a great place to visit and see more of at another time. This is crazy far back compared to most of our history. When people built these buildings the ‘known world’ didn’t include Asia much less any of the Americas and most of the Islands. They have survived lots of time and a lot of world changes.

Last night was one of the nights we didn’t have planned out. Originally, we were going to drive straight through to Denver in one day, but Bryon really wanted to see Arches National Park and it would have been too long of a driving day to stop.

By evening my fever was over 100 and so first we looked for hotels… but they were more than we wanted to pay, so then we searched for campsites only to come to the realization that neither of us wanted to unpack the car, set up, take down and repack late at night or in the morning. We found a hotel just south of Arches National Park and Bryon talked them down on price. This is one of the great discoveries I have found in the last year. We spent lots of last winter in hotels for work and I always thought that their prices were fixed, but it turns out there is wiggle room when you ask for discounts. So here is the tip (if you don’t do it already)–Always ask for a discount! Not rude or pushy, but asking for a discount, or even sometimes two, really pays off.

Hot tub, hot shower, nice bed… so great. I love camping, but setting up in the dark with a fever seemed like the ‘end of the world’ last night.

The kids have been on a roll with great quotes from the back seat. Here are two I wrote down today to share.

Ian-”Lily, my butt just burped by itself”

Lily-“Look, that horse is growing a 5^th leg”

So, when I pulled this picture I realized that it looks like we are disobeying the sign.  The wall is in the front.  The floor was ok to walk on.  

Ian, first down the ladder.  Not sure why he always sticks his tongue out, but he sure tries to everytime Bryon has the camera out.

Lily going down into the hole/room.

I don’t know who this kid is.  Bryon was just shooting the room.  His flash worked really good.  In reality, it was so dark we couldn’t see much but the ladder and the hole at the top.

A long shot of the Spruce Tree House.

Taking a picture by a window in the the Spruce Tree House.  It is still so intact…. this is good construction!

I woke up sore this morning. A good sore. The kids were crabby, like they might be tired, but still were running around everywhere… so they couldn’t have been that sore.

Today was the last full day of vacation. Tomorrow we start the drive back. (driving for 3 days).

We did the more touristy stuff along the rim today. First priority for the kids was finishing their junior ranger badges by going to a ranger program about birds. Ian was so proud. At Yellowstone he wasn’t old enough to do the program, but they let him do it here. He put his badge on his sleeve, like the real rangers, and showed and told everyone he could find that he was a ’junior ranger’. He even wanted to be addressed as ’Junior Ranger’ instead of Ian. Such a nut!

After walking the rim and riding all around I can say that the rim is nothing compared to hiking down in. Hiking in is hard, and dangerous, but from the rim the canyon is just too huge. To look at the canyon from the rim just looks like a picture. It is huge and nothing can be seen very well. Sure it is awesome, but so are pictures of the canyon. Hiking in gets you right by the walls, and over the edges of the different layers. You can touch the rock, feel the elevation change and see the completely different ecosystem at the bottom. … I have to say all day I just wanted to hike back down in again.

I definitely want to come back again. Next time we will plan on a much longer trip into the canyon. The rest days I want to spend will be at the bottom and not at the top. The top is full of people, souvenirs, and bad expensive food.

Speaking of people, it is so fun to see all the different people and where they come from. We have met lots from all over Europe, especially Germany and several from Asia. On the trail there were lots of people that, if I tried to say anything but ‘hi’, I just got a blank stare. I love language and culture, I can’t travel everywhere, but meeting people from all over the world is the next best thing.

This is definitely an area that I would love to live near. Not sure when or how, but I want to come back.

They needed and adult volunteer for the Bald Eagle wings.  The kids wanted Bryon, naturally, because he is bald   He was supposed to put them on, but I got “no, you are just going to take a picture and put it on your blog” .  … so I had to post this pic just for him.

The defining moment in Ian’s short life.  He couldn’t have been more proud.

 Walking along the rim there is lots of information and rock displays that they kids had lots of fun with.

 Ian sporting his new badge.

This is the far west edge of the park (accessible by roads).  There is a great trail that goes down to an old hiking camp and the bottom of the canyon from here that looks fun as well.  Not maintained and we have to bring a water filter.. sounds like fun!

(this is the start of the trail, all geared up and ready to go)

By far the highlight of the trip! I can barely move and I am eating everything in sight. Yesterday we hiked down to Indian Garden Campground, ¾ of the way down the canyon. It is 4.6 miles down with an elevation drop of 3300. We left at about 3:30 in the afternoon to avoid of the direct sun and heat. It was between 90 and 100 temperatures depending on how deep in the canyon we got… and that was in the shade. We got to our campsite right at sunset and got set up before it became pitch black. Because of the heat we started our hike back up at about 6:30 am this morning and made it to the top by 12:30. So cool doesn’t come close to describing it!

The canyon is beautiful! Really, it is hard to put into words, but I will say that hiking in it is 100 times better than just looking over the edge. Experiencing it, touching it, climbing over all the different layers of cliffs is just incredible. From the top so much of it isn’t visible, and it is all so far away. The first 1.5 miles was through a white/yellow rock, then the next section was red rock (like PEI sand) and the last section we hiked down was more black. Each section and type had its own texture and patterns. We saw lizards, ground squirrels, a snake, and mule deer.

This time of year hiking is pretty dangerous. In the sun, the bottom of the canyon can get to 130. It was well over 100 in the sun when we hiked yesterday. They rescue over 350 people a summer along the trail and warnings are everywhere. Surprisingly, it is the healthy, young males that they seem to rescue the most. Timing, water, and food is really important! We took tones of sugary and salty stuff and ate way more than I expected.

We almost decided not to try the hike. The heat was crazy, I had a bad tension headache, Bryon had some kind of food poisoning, Lily had been stuffed up for days and Ian… is 4. We ate and rested most of yesterday and took it all slow. I still have the headache (it lasts for days no matter what I do), Bryon is tired but doing much better, Lily is much better and Ian walked almost all of it! Definitely coming back, maybe next fall, to do a much longer hike all the way to the bottom. Awesome trails, amazing view!

I wish I could hike this stuff as a job. Experienced EMT’s seem to get the jobs… for good reason, so I don’t know how good my chances would be with a business degree.

There were 2 of these archways in the top part of the walk.  This was the first one.  They have to have signs for people who try and climb out on it and fall.  I think this one is a 150′ drop right beside the trail.

This is our campsite at Indian Garden.  It was a beautiful, flat site with a nice shaded area.  Way better than Kings Canyon and this one is 4.6 miles down with no roads.  We took this shot quick after we had packed up in the morning just before we headed up. 

This was part way up.  I just loved the shot down the valley.

Lily and me hiking up the trail. 

Ian on the trail goofing off.  He was walking so good!

More of Ian goofing off.  There is more pictures of Ian because he was walking with Bryon.  I carried the pack and tried to keep up with Lily (who was practically running up the trail), while Bryon slowly coaxed Ian up the hill giving him ‘skittle power’ at each switch back.  We were planning on having to carry him at least half way up but he did great…. we will have to remember the skittles on future hikes

Lily saw in some brochures that these were called ‘Long Eared Taxies’.  She thought this was so funny that she talked about it constantly.  …. so we had to get a picture. 

This was the second arch down from the top and we took the picture as we came up.   Just moments after this we discovered that we left the kids water bottle down the trail a ways.  Bryon took all the stuff and I ran back to find it.  Thankfully a ranger had found it and I only had to go back about a 1/4 mile.  It was getting hot and the sun was coming out.

Made it back to the top!  About 12:30.  I seriously had expected not to make it out till after dark with the kids walking slow and the heat, but they did great!  We planned on sitting out the hot part of the day 10-4 at the 1.5 mile rest house with water and shade, but when we got there there was still cloud cover and we decided to trek on up.

Today was one of the biggest driving days of the trip. I didn’t get any pictures, but I can give you a visual. Bryon and I… no shower for 3 days and still in our pj’s, kids all messy and dirty. … nothing picture worthy.

Lily has been stuffed up since we entered California… literally minutes after we crossed the border she started complaining about a stuffed nose and ear ache. Bryon has been stuffed up and I was short of breath last night and having trouble sleeping. There is smog everywhere. We were told by the ranger that some of the peaks around us had a dangerous air quality level.

This just makes me sick. California is beautiful! It has such beautiful nature and terrible air. We could see it just hanging in the air.

This trip has been more of a wake up call on pollution than I anticipated. The glaciers melting was huge and now the terrible air. These aren’t fixable problems. These are big! What really gets me is what is pushed as the fix. Recycling isn’t going to save the world!! In reduce, reuse and recycle the biggest difference to be made is reduce. Consumption is the killer of the earth. Big houses, big cars, tones of useless crap that breaks as fast as it gets purchased is what the problem is! That, and animal products which are the number one polluter of the air and water (and a bunch of other stuff). This isn’t what is being pushed because these changes might affect the economy… heaven forbid the economy gets any worse… maybe it will be better when the earth blows up and we have to carry oxygen when we go hiking.

… so there is today’s rant.

We got back last night to find our large loud group of neighbors gone and the spot occupied by 3 heavy drinkers making a movie of their trip. They were making ‘Day 1’ movie clips and trying to decide which bottle to put in the cooler after they removed their supper. I love people watching and this group was great. They went from old songs to history lessons and everything in between. Evening entertainment. They were super nice and we talked to them for a bit.

I got up before the kids and went for a walk through the big trees. Our campsite was right beside General Grant Grove that has a whole handful of huge, named trees. I thought the redwoods were big, and Bryon kept saying he thought the sequoias were bigger… he was right. Redwoods get to 20’ in diameter, but General Grant the sequoia is 40’ in diameter. It would take at least 20 people holding hands to go around the base that is 107’ around. It has the widest base of any known tree, and is the third largest in volume. There was another fallen sequoia with the middle burned out that had been used as an employee camp, house and saloon, and stable for the military.

After breakfast we headed on another waterfall walk. 2 miles down into the valley, played in the waterfall and hiked 2 miles back up. Ella waterfall wasn’t near as pretty as Grizzly was yesterday or near as tall but we still managed to get wet and the kids had fun.

Lunch was late and consisted of peanut butter and jam for the kids and chips with salsa and a jar of Kalamata olives for us. Salsa, hummus and olives, when we can get them have been staples of a good meal on the road for us so far.

We took the kids over to the big trees during lunch. They were tired, but the got a kick out of the tree they could walk through and went through it twice.

We got to meet up with some friends for supper in Fresno. Found a nice India restaurant and had a great evening catching up.

Bryon was the first to try it out.  The pool at the bottom was much deeper and I was more worried about the kids but Bryon found a good stone to stand on to get close.

Between Ian and me being chicken about him walking out to the falls himself I just picked him up and stuck him in. 

This was Lily’s second try.  It took her a while to get brave enough to try it.  The water was cold.

My fabulous photographer husband caught this and I just think it looks cool. 

Taking a break on the way up the kids found a caterpiller to play with.

Had to get a picture of both of them with it…. to be fair.

40′ base, biggest tree around at the bottom.  We couldn’t go close to it because their roots are really shallow.

The fallen monarch.  They arn’t sure how long it has layed here because the Sequoias don’t decay like other trees.   Just huge!

Well, we found the worst campsite yet. Arriving in pitch black again we managed to find a registration station only to have them be clueless and unhelpful. Maybe I shouldn’t say unhelpful, but clueless combined with willingness still doesn’t help much. Azalea campground has 110 camping sites, most of which were filled, and only 4 tiny restrooms. Not only that, but the campsites were often ridiculously close together. We looked at a few, but we would have had to set up our tent within feet of another tent so we finally settled on a larger one, far from any bathrooms, and right next to a large noisy group. The kids and I can sleep through most anything, but Bryon was kept up by taking and then loud snoring… and woke up grumpy.

We headed off to find hiking as early as we could get going, but still didn’t end up getting started until almost 11. We started to hike up toward Granite Pass. It ended up being a great climb straight up like we wanted, but was almost all exposed and the sun was getting hot. Ian had all kinds of trouble walking. Not sure what his problem was, but he basically refused to walk at all from the beginning. We carried him for a while, but then Bryon decided to take him back down for a nap and Lily and I continued up. We were able to climb for a while, but then the heat got to much and we turned back down as well. We are really wanting to hike down into the Grand Canyon in 3 days which is even more elevation change and heat….

I was really affected by the heat and I noticed it as the afternoon went on. We explored the Roaring River Falls and hung out in the air conditioned visitors center with lots of cold water, but it wasn’t until lots of salt, sugar, and Grizzly Falls that I felt better. Grizzly Falls was awesome! At least 60’ tall, but shallow at the bottom. Everyone got their feet in and cooled off. I waded over to the base of the falls which was only about 3 feet at the base and got soaked from the spray. It was awesome! It made the whole day… (which, with grumpy, bad camping, and heat, was turning bad) oh so much better.

On the way back we filled up at America’s oldest double gravity pump (1928) in Kings Canyon. Probably the most expensive gas in America too, but we needed it.

Headed back to camp to go to bed early. Sooooo tired.

The kids found 3 of these huge pineones just at the start of our canyon hike.   So fun!  Pinecones ‘as big as your head’.

The kids standing infront of Grizzly Falls.  Right after that the climbed down and put their feet in the water. 

I waded over to the falls here and it only got up to my knees but the spray completly soaked me.  It was so fun!  If only we had dressed properly before we left camp.  We are camped at 6500 feet and I thought it would be much colder,… boy was that wrong. 

We got 8 1/2 gallons of gas and it cost almost $50.

I love California!

After a fabulous breakfast of pancakes and fresh local fruit we hit the road. We stopped at a fruit stand later in the morning for even more fruit. The strawberries especially were so sweet! Yum.

The goal today was to see Yosemite and then drive down to Kings Canyon/Sequoia to stay for the night.

We tried Burger King for lunch. Being vegetarian, we were wanting to find a veggie burger to hit the road with fast, but it was our biggest money waste in the whole trip. $30 for 4 burgers fries and drinks that tasted terrible and the kids refused to eat. For $30 we have eaten at some nice restaurants and gotten some really good food. Oh well, lesson learned.

We got to Yosemite around 2:00 in the afternoon and wanted to get in a quick hike and explore the park a bit. When we left this morning we were told it would probably be busy in the Yosemite valley area, but we had no idea what ’busy’ in California really meant. Half the population of California was there! There was enough people to be downtown San Francisco and as much parking as downtown New York city. We drove for over an hour to get only a few miles down the valley and find parking. When we finally found parking there was no time to hike. We found our way to the visitors center to use the bathroom and buy Lily a rock, and had to hit the road again. So, Yosemite is beautiful, but next time we will have to try and see it as ‘off-peak’ as we can!

Yosemite Valley was beautiful with rocks, mountains, waterfalls. There looked like there was great hiking too. Looking at the park map there was very few roads, but most of the park could be explored backpacking. I am sure that could be so much fun! In a few years when the kids can walk and carry a little we might have to come back and really explore the park.

We stopped in Fresno at Trader Joe’s for supper and groceries for the next few days. Then drove up into Kings Canyon.