Blog Post

Yosemite National Park

  • By Aaron
  • •
  • 28 May, 2019
  • •

Uplifted Batholith

Half Dome rock is one of the coolest rock formations I've ever seen. Formed by the crystallization (cooling & hardening) of molten rock deep in the earth's crust, then thrust upward by several geological forces, referred to under the umbrella term "orogenesis".

Getting there...

"Ugh, we still have 42 miles to go!"
On the drive through the hills on the way into Yosemite Valley, you can see some of the recent wildfire devastation. There were a few places that had been setup with what looked like makeshift lumber mills, each having large stacks of charbroiled logs piled high. They maintained sprinklers on them to keep them wet, for some reason. I couldn't find that I took any pictures of these burnt log mills. Not sure if they can still salvage some of the wood deep inside the logs, if they grind them up for sawdust, or just stack the logs out of the burned zones to remove any future wildfire fuel.
Burnt forests....

Yosemite: Family Portrait...

Picturesque viewpoint from a conveniently located road turnout.. Felt like cheating it was so easy. From left to right: El Capitan, Yosemite Valley, Half Dome Rock, Yosemite Falls
Yosemite falls, at2,425ft, reminds you of the waterfalls typically shown in movies. Looking up at it from a distance, it made me wonder what it would be like if you could ride a raft at the top and then somehow fly off and not die at the bottom. Maybe using a hang-glider or something. It strongly resembles a scene in the "Homeward Bound" Disney movie (90's remake) where the cat falls down a huge waterfall, it supposedly took place in the Sierra Nevada range, so who knows, maybe they shot it here...
You wouldn't believe how many tries it took to get us in the picture frame. All of the water spray obstructed my view of the screen so I had to guess as to the correct angle...
El Capitan, 3000ft of solid granite, has an amazing 'presence', that just does not get captured on camera. The sheer amount of volume this takes up in person gives you a strange feeling... ALSO - This is what Captain Kirk climbed in Star Trek V.
I tried to zoom in on the cliffs to find climbers, or evidence of climbing routes.. I heard the tour guide talk about that and point things out, but alas, I couldn't see anything but rock...
Panorama of Valley grassland. Very nice place to go and have a picnic lunch. Tour guides take trainloads of peope around the valley and talk about points of interest.

Misc...

Leaving Yosemite NP to the west, we encountered a really cool area halfway to Stockton, with repeated sightings of "tabletop mountains". They look really unique, something I would expect to see in the jungles of Africa, not in the US. (Also caught what I think is a golden eagle or juvenile bald eagle in the center of frame).. It reminds me of the scene from the Lion King where Simba is held out over the valley below...
"Everywhere the light touches... that is your kingdom"

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Crater Lake National Park

By Aaron • 02 Jun, 2019
In the list of top 10 deepest lakes in the world, Crater Lake is pretty cool for several reasons. In addition to this lake being in a volcanic caldera (a crater-like hole that forms after a volcanic eruptions leave the ground deep underneath unstable and unsupported).

It's also a lake with no connected sources (streams, etc). So that makes it crystal clear. Interestingly, there's actually a way to measure the clarity of a body of water: the Secchi disk:

Redwood National & State Parks, CA

By Sarah • 28 May, 2019

By the time we made it to the Redwoods, we had already been on a whirlwind tour visiting Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park, and a number of national forest and state parks. Between the long drives, lack of sleep, and altogether crankiness of the four of us, we were less than excited about seeing more trees.

Yosemite National Park

By Aaron • 28 May, 2019
On the drive through the hills on the way into Yosemite Valley, you can see some of the recent wildfire devastation. There were a few places that had been setup with what looked like makeshift lumber mills, each having large stacks of charbroiled logs piled high. They maintained sprinklers on them to keep them wet, for some reason. I couldn't find that I took any pictures of these burnt log mills. Not sure if they can still salvage some of the wood deep inside the logs, if they grind them up for sawdust, or just stack the logs out of the burned zones to remove any future wildfire fuel.

Sequoia National Park

By Sarah • 16 May, 2019

Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon Park are lesser known parks compared to their northern neighbor, Yosemite. Although they lack the grandeur of Yosemite's rock formations and waterfalls, Sequoia National Park is still pretty magnificent in its own right.

The park is set up on a half loop, encompassing over 400,00 acres with an elevation climb from 1700 feet to the higher elevation points of around 7000 to 8000 feet with varying biospheres by elevation. From start to finish, it was by far the most diverse park we have been to, yet.

Death Valley National Park

By Aaron • 13 May, 2019
Death Valley has plenty of living things. Campgrounds, resorts, swimming pools, restaurants, and more tourist amenities can make it quite the opposite kind of experience that its name would suggest.

But the landscapes are probably the main attraction in this place. It feels like the closest thing you can get to standing on a desolate Martian landscape. Many of the photos you could take here, resemble those sent back from the Curiosity rover.

Not being huge fans of hot weather, we decided to do the whole trip in one long day. Which probably was a mistake, because there were so many things to see that we hurried from place to place, spending much of the time driving between viewpoints, hiking trails, or other destinations. I could easily spend another couple days seeing things that we passed by, and hiking some of the longer trails. It's a big place. The entire park comprises nearly 3.4 million acres. It's more than 4 hours just to drive from one end to the other, which you'd never actually do. You loop around the park, meandering in and out of different areas.

Here are the highlights:

Trek Tales is official

By Sarah • 20 Apr, 2019
Four months late, but Trek Tales is officially up.  We named it after our RV, a 1997 Safari Trek (class A motorhome).

We won't be able to write about each and every day's event, but will cover the highlights and points of interest. We're hoping to get at least one post up a week.

Also,  you can view our map to see where we are currently at.

We hope you enjoy the Trek Tales!

Big Bear Solar Observatory

By Sarah • 13 Apr, 2019
Big Bear Solar Observatory Tour
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