Write My Life

With a week off from school for “Fall Break” we drove to Yosemite intent on passing through Tioga Pass to reach the one California national park and/or monument we had not reached: Devil’s Postpile. The plan hinged greatly on the Tioga Pass being open as it does sometimes snow and closedown in late October. A few days before our trip the road did close for a day, but reopened. It turned out that we had absolutely gorgeous weather the entire trip!

The roads were still open and we witnessed some beautiful fall vistas of the high country of Yosemite. We stretched our legs at Tuolumne Meadows, taking the 1.5 mile roundtrip hike to Soda Springs.

Then we continued on to Mammoth Lakes, our outpost for the next day’s events at Devil’s Postpile.

White cascades of water flowed down Eagle Creek. We scrambled on the rocks of the hiking path next to the falls. Each step brought us a new view of the cascades. Its beauty prompted me to stop and take photographs over and over again. Here are a series of shots from the top meadows, along the cascading falls and then at the high point of the falls.

Us.
Here we are enjoying the hike along Eagle Falls Trail.

Mosquitoes.
Here are the mosquitoes enjoying us enjoy the Eagle Falls Trail.

It was a beautiful trail but the mosquitoes were well fed.

It’s not every day we witness the earth’s geothermal activity. At Bumpass Hell, we saw bubbling mudpots, steaming fumeroles and boiling water.

Along with us 4 other families visited Lassen Volcanic National Park together. First we visited Sulphur Works then we hiked the Bumpass Hell trail. We made a long procession of tourists with 15 people!

With a map in hand our family headed off the paved Garden of the Gods trail. We walked to several well-marked sites with great success, but eventually it became clear that we were no longer on the map. We wanted to be walking toward the car but we were walking away from it.

When we saw the main road and a picnic area with a map, we figured out our position. Our trail was not on the picnic area map and we were far from the car with two tired children. Fortunately, Mike’s parents saw us from their car and stopped. The drove Mike to our car and Mike picked up Jackie, Jennifer and I.

We checked the map and found our trail was not marked on it. Blame it on a poor map.

At Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument we learned about the Redwood trees in Colorado and we saw the petrified Redwood trees. We hiked on the Petrified Forest Loop trail and saw the petrified Redwoods that had been buried almost 35 million years ago by volcanic eruptions.

“The fossils, rocks, hills, and valleys that make up Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument reveal to us an ancient story of ancient redwood forests, volcanic eruptions, and a climate much different than today. In addition to a rich ancient history, the Florissant valley also contains the stories of the prehistoric hunting and gathering Paleo-Indian, the Ute people, the travels of a pioneer nation taking advantage of the Homestead Act of 1862, and of early scientists making their way through discovery into a different time. This land once secluded by its mountain terrain is now easily accessible to be enjoyed by all.”

July 6, 2006

Questions. Often on hikes we pass things about which we wonder. How did it get there? What is it? When was it made?

On the hike around Bear Lake we spotted a series of trees that had been chopped down. We marveled at it. It raised questions for us. Who did this? Beavers? When had they been so hard at work? Where were they hauling all the wood?

Questions without answers. The questions were entertaining, even if we didn’t know the answers.

Our hike on Wednesday in the Rocky Mountain National Park took us on a trail featuring 4 lakes.
Our hike began with a quick walk around Bear Lake. Afterwards, we headed uphill to Nymph Lake, where yellow water lilies covered the lake. Our path meandered along the lake, then uphill again. As we climbed we saw beautiful meadows, streams and wildflowers. We continued past Dream Lake to Emerald Lake. At Emerald Lake a magnificent mountain stood behind the lake and reflected itself in the water. Ahhh, yes. Another gorgeous hike at Rocky Mountain National Park.

Our first Rocky Mountain National Park hike proved to be an outstanding hike among gorgeous Aspen trees, a variety of wildflowers and several flowing waterfalls.

Along the Wild Basin trail to Ouzel Falls we saw several outstanding waterfalls including Copeland Falls and Calypso Cascades.

Uncle Jack chose our hike for its waterfalls, but there were other features as well. The hike gave us some outstanding exercise. We hiked 5 1/2 miles roundtrip with a stead climb uphill to Ouzel Falls. Jackie and Jennifer did an outstanding job hiking this trail. Mike’s mom, dad and sister hiked to Calypso Cascades – an impressive hike for them since they are accustomed to flat trails.

The trail featured an outstanding variety of wildflowers. Each turn had wildflowers we had not seen yet. We had outstanding timing too. When we returned to the parking lot from our hike to Ouzel Falls we meet the rest of the hikers who had gone to Calypso Cascades. They had just arrived a few minutes earlier.

Outstanding.