Convict Lake in the High Sierras

Hello Everyone! Happy August to you! It’s been an intensely busy few weeks out here on the road and I have barely had time to think, much less write a blog post. These last few weeks I’ve been on a mad dash around the Sierra Nevada Mountains and through the desert and it has been really great to be back in some of my favorite places. I’ve had good groups with me who have been supportive and enthusiastic, and I’ve been having a lot of fun with them. It’s monsoon season out in the desert, so rain clouds have been a constant companion, but the desert needs all the rain it can get and I’ve been able to work around them for the most part. Temperatures have soared as high as 114° out here and I’ve been doing my best to stay hydrated and healthy in the extreme conditions. All of that being said, it’s been a heck of a few weeks as I’ve spent most of it on the kind of trip I cut my teeth on many years ago. It’s always good to get back to your roots now and again.

Echo Lake Near Lake Tahoe

When last I wrote, I was headed off on a 5 day walking tour in the mountains. The Wawona Fire was blazing in Yosemite, so we had to make adjustments to make it work. We still got into the Valley, but it was quite hazy and the air quality was poor. We made up for it with a hike out at Hetch Hetchy and a hike up Lembert Dome in the high country. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best I could do and my group was very appreciative that they could at least see the highlights of the park. From there we headed out to Mammoth for the night.

Weird and Wonderful South Tufa

The next day we hiked out and around Convict Lake, a first for me. It’s always nice to check out some new places and this trip had a few new spots in store for me. Convict Lake gets its name from a standoff between a local posse and a group of 29 convicts who had escaped from the prison in Carson City. It was a beautiful place for a walk and my group enjoyed a nice swim afterwards while I pulled the van around. From there we made our way north to the South Tufa area of Mono Lake. Mono Lake has several inlets but no outlets, making it one of the saltier lakes in the country as the water evaporates and the minerals remain. Natural springs under the lake percolate calcium rich water which deposits as calcium carbonate, leaving fascinating formations called Tufa Pinnacles. After some time there, we headed north again to the shores of beautiful Lake Tahoe. There was music, beer and food trucks at the public beach, so we spent our evening there – swimming in the lake and enjoying the show. It was a heck of a way to spend the last evening of our trip. We hiked to the postcard-perfect Echo Lake the next morning before returning to San Francisco.

Joshua Trees

I had a couple of days to get ready for my next trip and then made a beeline for Los Angeles where it would begin. I was happy to have a couple of hours to spend with my dear college friend, Craig, and his lovely family who I haven’t seen since 2018. I met my group in Santa Monica the following day and we were ready to head out into the desert.

Skull Rock in Joshua Tree

This trip began with a visit to Joshua Tree National Park and its weird and wonderful namesake trees. We also saw beautiful cactus and my personal desert favorites, the Ocotillo. From there we still had quite a drive to get out to Lake Havasu City and pulled in just before dusk. The following morning we went for a swim in the lake and then set off for Grand Canyon with a stop in Seligman along Route 66 on the way. We had a nice sunset over the canyon that night and a full free day there for hiking the following day. We left the Canyon for Vegas where I said goodbye to half of my group and picked up some new passengers for the next leg of the journey. This trip was split into three segments with some people leaving and joining at each city and six wonderful people staying with me the whole way.

The next segment of this tour took us out into the beautiful parks of Utah. We started with two days in Zion, where we got some nice hiking in and enjoyed a cushy camping resort in the evenings. Then we were off to Monument Valley Tribal Park for an overnight excursion with the Navajo. I’ve done this tour a hundred times and this was the best one I’ve been on in years which was nice. We tried to sleep out under the stars, but a windstorm eventually blew us back into the Hogan (a traditional Navajo home) which was a little warm, but better than the sand blast of the great outdoors. From there we were off to Moab with a stop at Goosenecks State park along the way. We were pretty tired from our windy and warm night in Monument Valley, so some nice cabins were a welcome sight. We had the chance to clean up and get some rest before an evening hike to Delicate Arch. The next morning I took three people out at the break of dawn to hike to Landscape Arch, one of the longest arches in the world and definitely a sight to see. In the afternoon, I sent some people on a float trip down the Colorado River and went with two others on a cool Hummer tour up Hell’s Revenge. In the evening I took about half of my group out for a sunset picnic at Dead Horse Point State Park, one of my favorite state parks in the country. The last night of this segment brought us to Bryce Canyon, one of the most stunning and surprising landscapes in the country and a crowd-pleaser for sure. I was thrilled to be back there myself. And then it was off and back to Vegas to clean up a little bit and prepare to head north to the mountains.

Monument Valley

The last segment of this trip started with a hike in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, home of Methuselah, the oldest living thing on earth at 4,853 years old. There are probably only a small handful of people who actually know which of the trees out there is Methuselah though, and it’s a closely guarded secret so that people don’t carve off souvenirs etc. But you do know that it’s out there and that is pretty cool. The grove is up at about 10,000’ and there were thunderclouds threatening, so we did a short hike and then dropped down to Bishop, CA where we enjoyed an evening dip at Keough Hot Springs. The next day we stopped in for a wander at Mono Lake and then made our way up and over Tioga Pass and into Yosemite. We were in the park for three days and enjoyed hiking, biking, swimming and taking photos before heading to our final destination in San Francisco. All-in-all, it was an exhausting but amazing trip with some truly wonderful people from all over the world. It made me feel extremely happy to be out in some of my favorite places and doing what I do best.

The Snow Cap on Route 66 in Seligman

And now I’m back in San Francisco for a few days where I can catch my breath and catch up on some sleep. I’m headed off on Tuesday to a reunion for the company that I spent most of my career working for. It’s going to be great to see some familiar faces from the last 20 years and to meet some of the people from the generations before I started. It’s going to be a great couple of days in Northern California and I’m looking forward to telling you all about it when next we meet.

It’s been too busy to write these last few weeks, but I’m still thinking about y’all out here. I hope you’re having a wonderful summer whatever it is you are doing and that you’re not working too hard. I’m working my behind off, but it’s only for a few months and then I’ll be off on my own again. As for what this winter will bring, I’m still watching the gas prices and thinking about it. Time will tell. I do hope to write again sooner rather than later, but I’m sure the rest of the summer will be pretty busy as well. I promise I’ll write when I can though. Take care and thanks, as always, for reading.

 

-Mike

Sunrise on a Smoky Grand Canyon

Beautiful Zion

Guided Tour in Monument Valley

Sunrise in Monument Valley

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