Skip to main content

Last full day in Yosemite —> Prairie Creek Redwoods State Pk.

May 11, 2019
   The last full day in Yosemite we let the kids sleep in a bit and then we set out on foot to the Mirror Lake Trail which has been popular since the 1800s.
   It took between 2 and 3 km from our campsite to reach Mirror Lake. It is beautiful and true to its name we saw and photographed it in mirror configuration. We then decided to take the trail around the lake. The first part of it up to the river where there is a bridge was flooded, as seems the seasonal norm. So we followed an off-trail route with other people. We were trailing a deer for a part of the trail by only a few feet! We ended up hiking around 8 km which was great but farther than had been promised to Miriam.
   In the afternoon we headed out to try and spot climbers on the base of Yosemite. This proved easy. There were dozens of climbers. They were in small groups along different parts of the mountain (some near top, some just starting) and the size of ants. We enjoyed watching them through our binoculars.
   The next morning we headed to San Francisco. It was a long (4hr ?) drive but it was very cool as we crossed over the Bay Bridge and could see Alcatraz Island and the city.
   Our hotel was Cow Hollow on Lombard Street. We went out for tacos to a local restaurant — it was tasty but expensive as everything is in S.F.
   The next morning I went for a run down Lombard Street until it ended at the ocean (3.9 km one way). My GPS watch reported overall elevation loss of 160 m and gain of 160 m. (~500 ft.). The hills were very difficult to run.
   The best thing was that Lombard happens to be the only main street in S.F. that has a wavy (think sine wave) portion called Lombard Gardens that lasts about a block and has residences along this brick laid road surrounded by gardens. Lombard then returns to being a regular street.
   We walked leisurely toward the 10 am Alcatraz Ferry. We stopped into an absolutely delicious smelling bakery on the way and vowed to get sourdough (for which S.F. is known) on the way back. Book note: read the novel “Sourdough” for more on San Fran’s bread culture.
   Alcatraz was pretty awesome. We all took the self-guided tour which is narrated by a former guard and includes audio clips of guards and inmates. It was awesome to be able to stand in jail cells, walk the hallways and stand in the places where escapes unfolded while having the details explained. You could even stand in a D-block solitary confinement cell. Creepy and made me think of Andy Dufrane.
   On the way back to our car at the hotel we bought a 1 lb sourdough. We walked home via Lombard Gardens so Amy and the kids could see the prettiness. We then got into the car, drove across the Golden State Bridge and stopped at a park in Sausalito where we engulfed our bread with hummus, cheese and butter. It took about 5 minutes for complete bread annihilation. 
   We continued to drive (3+ hrs) to Van Damme State Park. The place is gorgeous. There was a gently babbling brook behind our campsite.
   The next morning we went to visit the park’s beach and a pygmy forest before leaving. A pygmy forest has really old trees that are small and thin (ex. 80 yr old, only 1-2 ft high and a quarter inch in diameter). This is because of old soil that is acidic with limited nutrients. It looks very cool, science aside.
   On our way we stopped at Chandelier drive-through tree. This was really cool. We couldn’t drive our own car through because it is too tall with the rooftop carrier and although Miriam wanted us to remove it Amy and I couldn’t fathom the effort. The tree is awesome.
   At 5pm we arrived in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park Elk Prairie Campground. I should mention that the windy (winding, not strong winds) coastal highway 1 (and 101 too) is a gorgeous way to drive. We are in a cute newly built cabin. It has bunk beds and electricity but no washroom or kitchen. Very cute though. Amy and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary. The park has a huge field with benches set up for elk viewing. Supposedly sometimes (often) there are elk herds but we only saw a cluster of about five. We’ll see how many elk the day brings today.
  

Elk at our campground

Our cabin

Sourdough!

Mirror Lake

Climbers on El Capitan

Alcatraz, view from the city

That's a big tree!

In the tree

Alcatraz cell block

San Francisco from the ferry

Near the Chandelier tree

Car wouldn't fit! About 4" too tall.

Bakery in San Francisco

On mirror lake loop trail

San Francisco street view

Labels:

Comments

  1. Lightsmith3 June 2019 at 21:05

    I too have annihilated a San Fran sourdough boule (with a quarter-pound of butter) in under 10 minutes. Sometimes I don't even need the butter (he lied).

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ontario is Very Big

Today is the last day of the trip. We have been in Ontario for nearly a week, and driving across this huge province has been an education on its size. We knew it was big, but now we have an idea of how big ‘big’ is. As soon as we entered Ontario the landscape was becoming more familiar. We were back on Canadian Shield territory, with rock cuts along the highway and lovely lakes dotting the landscape. We stayed at Aaron Provincial Park the first night. It was a beautiful park. Our campsite was on a small peninsula which allowed us to enjoy the sunset and sunrise. It is definitely a place I would come back to if we make this trip again. The next night we passed through our last time zone change on our way to stay in Thunder Bay at the home of a friend. Deb, John, and Noah were great hosts. We enjoyed the opportunity to share a meal and conversation with other people! Their home is lovely and back onto some really gorgeous country. We loved hearing about life in Thunder Bay and...
1 comment
Read more

Manitoba

Manitoba June 20, 2019 Yesterday was a day for everyone to just relax and recharge one’s batteries. The kids played at the playground and beach at Echo Lake. I went for a 10km run, a first in a while and therefore tough. Today we headed out on the 3.5 hr drive to Riding Mountain National Park in our penultimate province: Manitoba. We’re staying at Wasagaming Campground that has more than 700 sites.  The visitor centre had some really well done taxidermied animals: wild cats, black bears, owls, deer. We also walked to the beach of Clear Lake, which is lovely. Troop moral is a bit low these days. Lucy and Amy are quite home sick from what I can see. Miriam is quite happy to plan things like the pool game at Grollis’s house a week after we return. I’m sad that less than two weeks of our trip remains and then only 2 months before going back to work. June 21, 2019 Last night Lucy came back running from the washroom. She was freaking out because she had discovered...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mt St Helens to Olympic National Park

May 23, 2019    The next morning we packed up our wet tent and drove to Seaquest State Park in Castle Rock, Washington. The park is nowhere near the sea.    The first day we had an early fire with wet wood that Amy lovingly cajoled into burning. The next morning we headed to the Silver Lake Visitor Center for Mt St Helens just across the highway (we drove, but there is a tunnel you can walk through from our campground) which is run by Washington State Parks. There was a brief video and some pretty cool interactive exhibits. The video taught me that Mt St Helens started to rumble with frequent earthquakes on Mar 20, 1980 and it wasn’t until May 18th that it erupted. I’d later learn that 53 of the 57 people that died were outside of the evacuation zone the government had set up. So clearly no one was anticipating the eruption to be as immense as it was. The blast zone levelled everything with 500 MPH (800 km/h) force.    We then drove (about 1h) to...
Post a Comment
Read more