Author: linfordfisher

Day 17 (7/15) (Everyone – joint post) Another early start today to beat the crowds in Yosemite Valley and grab a parking spot. We opted to hike the Vernal Fall trail. It started out as a steep, paved, uphill trail, and we thought that was tough enough in some spots. And then we reached the stairs – 600 of them, often large and really steep! Well before we reached stairs, however, there was a nice bridge that crossed the river and gave a far-away view of the falls. The trail is called the “mist trail,” although the reason for it mystified us until we felt water in the air, which we almost missed. (Sorry – we pass time with bad puns.) The stair section of the trail afforded gorgeous views of the falls and the valley below, including a full rainbow created by the mist. The stairs took us right up almost even with the main part of the falls, and then hugged the cliff to the very top of the falls. Coming down was a bit easier, but more treacherous, especially in the misty wet area. Still, a very long six miles and up and down 1,000 feet in elevation!

After a quick lunch at the van, we fought traffic in the valley and found parking near the main visitor center, where Helena and Harrison handed in their Junior Ranger Paperwork (they had been fulfilling various duties throughout, including filling a trash and recycling bag of things they found along the trails). We also watched a movie and grabbed ice cream and drinks.

It’s amazing how crowded the Valley gets – just lines and lines of cars waiting to park and move through intersections. Back in the van, we drove until we were along side of El Capitan, likely the most famous and hardest rock climbing face in North America. Lin and Eden especially really wanted to hike in to the base of the face, but there isn’t an officially marked trail. We lucked out, though, and found a pretty decent unmarked rock climbers’ trail that took us straight to the dawn wall of El Cap (so called because the morning sunlight hits only that face), close to the nose that runs up the entire face. It was spell-binding. We all just sat or laid there, looking up 3,000 feet to the top. We all took a crack at climbing it, but couldn’t even make it a few feet. I’m sure there are other better places to start. And, ahem, we aren’t exactly rock climbers. But it gave us a whole new appreciation for people who go up that face. Wow. After 45 minutes or so of just basking in the power of that sheer granite wall, we hiked out again and headed back to the hotel for a quick swim and dinner.

After dinner we took a long drive up to Glacier Point, which is an incredible overlook high above the valley floor. On the way, though, we stopped at the Tunnel View lookout, which gives an amazing view looking eastward of the entire valley. The evening sun was just perfect and soft. As we climbed the long road to Glacier Point, it got brighter, as we got up out of the valley. So bright, in fact, that we decided to try to quickly hike to the top of Sentinel Dome (close to Glacier Point, and famed for its 360 degree views of the valley), but after half a mile, we realized it would take us too long, and we’d miss the sunset at Glacier Point. So we ditched that and headed to Glacier Point, where we watched the truly beautiful sunset over Yosemite Valley. The colors in the east (away from the sunset) turned an amazing pink and purple, and the light lingered on Half Dome, Cloud’s Rest, and all the other peaks for minute after minute. Finally, around 9, it was dark, but the mountains in the distance were still bathed in a soft glow. It was magical. Lin is pretty sure Glacier Point is one of his happy places.

It was a long, 14 hour day, and we likely logged over 10 miles of arduous hiking. I think we will all sleep well tonight!

(Note: if you click on the pictures, you can see them all larger in a slide show. Still very slow internet, so only a few pics.)

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Day 16 (7/14) (Lin) After a solid night’s sleep in South Lake Tahoe (and gorging ourselves on the continental breakfast), we wanted to see a bit more of Lake Tahoe before heading south to Yosemite. We drove to Emerald Bay, on the southwest side of the lake, to Inspiration Point, and then hiked a short trail to Eagle Falls. Both were lovely, and we had to pull ourselves away. There were also a lot of people at both places! Parking was difficult for the hike especially.

On the road again, we headed south through the Sierra Nevadas to Mono Lake, just outside the eastern entrance to Yosemite. The road south to Mono Lake, however, took us through several astonishing mountains, passes, and valleys! Steep curving roads through the mountains, rugged snow capped mountains on either side, and then sweeping valley vistas, always with mountains in the distance. Our kids cannot believe this is all within one state! Spoken like true Rhode Islanders, I guess.

Mono Lake, like the Great Salt Lake, has high levels of salt and minerals. We drove to the south side of the lake to where a significant collection of tufas (mineral stalagmites) were along the water. It was super hot, but really beautiful, with the blue sky, the multiple blues of the lake water, and the whites and grays of the tufas. It reminded me a bit of Barbados, which has a lot of coral rocks. We opted not to swim (since there weren’t any showers).

From Lake Mono, we finally headed into Yosemite proper, via the east entrance through the Tioga Pass, which was in itself amazing (9945 ft. elevation, our highest so far, I think!). From there we descended into the Toulumne Meadows in the high country of Yosemite. Granite domes started popping out everywhere — huge towering mounds and mountains, mostly free-standing. We stopped at Tenaya Lake, which is a gorgeous lake tucked between towering granite mountains.

After Tenaya, we stopped at Olmsted Point, which is an amazing lookout that gives you a view of Half Dome from a long way off. It was really pretty, and cool to see Half Dome. The rest of the drive to the valley floor of Yosemite was highly wooded, although often with beautiful redwoods or some sort of very tall redwood type trees. Occasional lookouts allowed amazing vistas out onto and over the mountains. As we descended into the valley, one particular lookout gave a really unique view of El Capitan and Half Dome close together, although from miles away.

We reached the valley floor around 7 pm, and decided it was too late to make it up to Glacier Point for the sunset. So we did a loop around the valley and took in the incredible views of the towering mountains and formations above us. The moon was out, and the soft setting sun illuminated the upper portions of many of the mountains and granite walls. The Upper Yosemite Falls were also beautiful, although the were in the shadows. I admit to being totally mesmerized by these towering granite mountains and walls!

After a quick tour of the valley, we went to our hotel in El Portal, which turned out to be a huge complex with four swimming pools. Dinner by the pool with the sunset in the background and a nice swim made for a good end to an excellent day. Tomorrow we get up early to beat the crowds for some hikes.

(Note: Due to a slow internet connection, I wasn’t able to upload as many pictures. Hopefully that will improve in the next few days. Perhaps this is good, since I’ve been posting too many pictures anyway!)

Day 15 (7/13). (Elliot) We got up this morning and we got ready for the long drive ahead – about nine hours to Lake Tahoe. The landscape across Utah and Nevada was mostly flat, with mountains in the distance. Sometimes the road was extremely straight and it looked like it went on forever. It was so hot and flat that we saw mirages on the road and sand – it looked like the mountains were floating.

The coolest part of the drive was beating a hard level in Geometry Dash. Okay, really, the coolest part was these amazing salt flats [in northern Utah]. The salt flats were super white and flat and went on and on, about seven miles to the mountains in the distance. We stopped and walked out on them – some of us ran way far out on the flats, but we didn’t seem to get any closer to the mountains! The salt flats were so bright they hurt our eyes. The salt also stuck to our feet and shoes. Some of us walked and ran barefoot on the salt. Close by was the place where the record for the land speed was set – over 600 miles per hour! [The Bonneville Speedway.]

To pass time on the drive, we played screen time, read, slept, ate, looked at the landscape, and watched a movie. When we got close to Lake Tahoe, we had to drive through the mountains. We finally saw the lake from up in the mountains. My Dad told us that it is 1,600 feet at the deepest part!

From our hotel we walked a short distance to a nice beach on Lake Tahoe. The lake was super shallow at the beach, and we could walk way out and it was only up to our waist. Lake Tahoe’s water was fresh and we sank easily – compared to the Great Salt Lake we swam in yesterday, that was salty and made us float. The water was fairly warm. It was weird seeing snow in the mountains above us as we swam in the lake! It was so beautiful, so we stayed for several hours and ate our dinner on the beach as the sun went down. We played in the sand and then also went swimming after sunset since the water felt warm compared to the cool air. The sky had a cool orange glow for a long time. As it got dark, we could see Mars close to the moon. And now, off to bed in our hotel.

(As always, the best way to view the photos is to click on the first one and scroll through the slide show).

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Day 14 (7/12). (Harrison) Okay, so this morning we ate breakfast and changed and had some screen time. We went to Salt Lake City and we saw some Mormon temples and buildings and we saw some cool buildings. We met one of Daddy’s friends who is from Salt Lake City and he showed us around some of the Mormon buildings. We went into the Mormon Tabernacle building and heard a guy playing a huge pipe organ that had gigantic pipes and pencil-sized pipes. After that we went into a library and we saw some old books, including an old early Mormon hymnal from the 1830s and a first edition of the Book of Mormon. [Lin: okay, so I’m prompting Harrison a bit here. It was a heavy history and religion day for a 7-year-old!] We also went into the visitor center and saw a large statue of Jesus.

After that, we were STARVING, so we went to the Red Iguana for some good Mexican food. My dad said it is a famous place to eat [thanks to those who recommended this place! Yum.]. Then we did a short but steep hike up Ensign Peak. It was high at the top! We could see a lot from the top, including the city, the mountains and the Great Salt Lake.

After the hike we went to swim in the Great Salt Lake [Antelope Island], and it was very salty. You could float without helping yourself float! We just floated around for a long time. There were also a lot of small flies near the lake that would fly up in small clouds when we chased them. Elliot loved to chase them, and he looked like Pigpen from Peanuts. Then we dried off and had a quick shower to get all the salt off of our bodies.

Then we went to Target for snacks for our long drive tomorrow, and then we went to In-N-Out for burgers. That was my first time at In-N-Out. Mommy and Daddy say it is a famous place, but we don’t have any of them in Rhode Island. Then we went to bed.

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Day 13 (7/11). (Helena) Today when we woke up in our Yellowstone Lodge, we packed up and we drove to Grand Teton National Park [Lin: we unfortunately learned today that the three largest peaks of the Tetons were called “les trois tétons” by French fur traders. The translation? “The three breasts.” Uh…time for a new name for this national park, anyone?] While we were driving there (still in Yellowstone), it started snowing. Mom said it was 34 degrees! When we got out at the Tetons, it was freezing, so we layered up. We stopped at a lookout at Jackson Lake, but the peaks were all covered by clouds. We kept driving along the lake and stopped at Jackson Lake Lodge. We went for a hike on the Lunch Tree Trail, which ended at an amazing lookout. Along the trail there were many unusual plants, and one kind that looked like super-sized dandelions with seed pods that we enjoyed blowing off. From the top of the trail, normally we could have seen all the mountains, but the tops of them were still in the clouds. It was still beautiful. From the lodge, we could see a large flat valley between us and the mountains, and my mom really wanted to see a moose. But we didn’t, even though there were supposed to be moose in that area. After the hike, we got hot chocolate and pastries while we sat in the lodge and looked at the mountains.

Then we drove to Jenny Lake, where we took a ferry boat across the lake. We hiked a one-mile trail that went up almost 500 feet to Inspiration Point. Our trail took us past several falls on the river. From the top, we could see the whole lake below and lots of mountains in the distance. There were also lots of chipmunks that came right up to us. The trail got pretty scary at the top, with a drop off on the right. We hiked down and took the boat back across. The weather was clearing a little bit, and the main mountain, the Grand Teton, actually peeked through the clouds enough for my dad to finally get his picture.

Then we got back into the van and drove through Wyoming, a corner of Idaho, and then into Utah, to Ogden, where we are staying in the home of some friends.

We forgot to mention that we saw a bald eagle yesterday and some sand hill cranes. We also saw a bald eagle nest along the highway today after we left the Tetons.

(As always, the best way to view the photos is to click on the first one and scroll through the slide show).

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Day 12 (7/10). (Eden) We were off to an early start this morning, after another short stop for the night in Canyon Village. Unfortunately, it started pouring soon after we got on the road, but Yellowstone is beautiful in any weather! The rain did get annoying, and our trip to a petrified tree (which seemed to petrify Helena and Harrison) wasn’t as enjoyable in the downpour.

The animals didn’t seem to mind the rain that much because right away we saw a deer and two more black bears! I’ve almost gotten tired of bison because they’re everywhere, but it’s still cool to see any animal.

Our next stop was Mammoth Springs, a series of small springs that spewed warm sulfur-y steam. The formations created by the years of bacteria leaking out of the springs were amazing!! They created weird stairs and bubbly foam shapes that were super unique and colorful.

From there, we went back to Montana and walked back a half mile trail to where the Boiling River meets the Gardner River. It creates a warm place to swim, like a natural hot tub. It was kind of gross once you stopped to think about all the bacteria that was probably in the water, but felt lovely compared to the chilly air. We just sat and soaked up the warmth before bracing ourselves for the trek back to the van.

Then we headed to more mini springs. The contrast there between the bright orange rock and vivid blue pools was amazing! In other areas, with the steam, gray and black rocks, and half-sunk bare trees, it seemed almost post-apocalyptic, and had a different sense of beauty.

Next was the Grand Prismatic Spring! There was so much steam surrounding the boardwalk that my glasses fogged up and I couldn’t see two feet in front of me! The experience might be compared to walking in a cloud–you come out with tiny water droplets all over your clothes and body–except pleasantly warm. (I also don’t know what walking in a cloud is like….) Unfortunately, all this steam obscured most of the famous colors of the Grand Prismatic. We could see the bright orange and some blue, which was still pretty, and some of the nearby pools had great hues too.

And then, what we’d all secretly been waiting for: Old Faithful! (Or, as we like to call it, Young Traitor, because we’re weird and opposite like that.) We had to wait almost forty minutes and by this point, the temperature was around 40 degrees, so we were lucky there was a nearby lodge that we could seek refuge in. Almost exactly at the predicted eruption time, finally, finally, it started to spray water! It didn’t reach the 100 feet height we’d been looking forward to, but the amount of steam that it released was terrific!

After that, it was a quick dinner, a quick stop at the Continental Divide, a quick look at the fresh snow on the mountains way across Yellowstone Lake, and on to the lodge we’re staying at on the shore of Yellowstone Lake. Like last night, it has sketchy wifi but it’s an interesting experience to be in the middle of the country without reliable connection!

(As always, the best way to view the photos is to click on the first one and scroll through the slide show).

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Day 11 (7/9). (Lin) Up early and on the road after a shorter night and big breakfast in Sheridan, Wyoming. It was dark when we arrived at midnight last night, so we woke up to a nice view of the mountains looming to the south and east. We chose to take Rt. 14 through the Bighorn National Forest to Yellowstone (instead of 90), and it turned out to be totally amazing. Climbing up through the mountains was so beautiful, and then on the backside we descended slowly through gorgeous rugged passes and valleys. Even afterward, the mountains were constantly in the distance, with more rugged bluffs a bit closer. Cody was a surprisingly large town, and seemingly bustling and fun, nestled in the mountains. It is really the last large-ish town before Yellowstone when approaching from the east.

Climbing into Yellowstone was also amazing. Ascending up to Sylvan Pass, there was, rather inexplicably, a bison trudging uphill in the middle of the road. I’m not sure how it got on the narrow mountain highway (with a sheer rock wall on one side and a guardrail on the other), but there it was (pic below). There is still snow on some of the higher mountains (including the Tetons, which we saw way in the distance at one point). We stopped to frolic a bit at Yellowstone Lake after descending from Sylvan Pass. Since the weather was lovely, we headed straight for the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone to see the upper and lower falls. They didn’t disappoint! Eden, Elliot, Helena, and I also hiked down Uncle Tom’s trail, which involved a steep and precarious descent of 350+ steps to a little outlook close to the lower falls (the larger of the two). Artist’s Point was also very nice, although more crowded.

From there we decided to drive through Lamar Valley, where wildlife abounds. We saw so many bison that, frankly,after a while we hardly stopped unless one (or 50!) were crossing the road, which happened several times. In addition to bison, we saw pronghorn deer, pelicans, and various birds. Oh, and BEARS! That was outside of Lamar Valley, on the way back. A mama bear and her cubs were grazing and hanging out right on the side of the road. Really lovely. But no wolves, as Jo wanted. We did manage to reach Montana, however, by driving almost the whole way out to the northeast entrance! That made Helena happy (since Helena is the capital of Montana). Hilariously, we were not the only ones – a whole line of cars turned around almost immediately after crossing over into Montana! I think that makes 28 states we will hit on this trip.

The drive back from Lamar Valley was really lovely in the soft late evening glow. At one point a thunderstorm moved through, which created a full double rainbow (a bit faint, but pic below). And then later a sudden hailstorm hit, too. A little nuts. Tonight we are in the Canyon Lodge, were there is no internet (except for up the hill in the main lodge), so this will be posted sometime in the future.

Our overall impressions of Yellowstone so far: 1) it is huge (takes really long to drive everywhere!); 2) it has super diverse terrains and topographies (and changes between them quickly); 3) it is stunningly beautiful. Overall, the crowds have not been crazy, even with it being the 100^th anniversary of the National Parks System, and with Yellowstone being the most popular of them all (and in peak season).

Note: if you click on individual pictures, it pulls up a larger version of it (can see them all in a slideshow).

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Day 10 (7/9). (Lin) Continued our exploration of South Dakota today. Up early to visit the incessantly self-promoting Wall Drug Store (we saw something like 50 signs for it coming across Wisconsin and South Dakota). It was as crazy as advertised. Essentially a large complex of kitschy stores and a large cafe, we could have spent an hour or two there just looking around. Instead, we opted for five-cent coffee and homemade ice cream.

Since it was another beautiful blue-sky day, we decided to drive a few miles back into the Badlands again, given that we drove through the last half at dusk the night before. It was stunning, of course. After pulling ourselves away, we got on Rt. 90 and drove to Mount Rushmore. The kids were underwhelmed at first. I had been there as a 5-year old, but it left quite an impression on me. Things are built up quite a bit more than they were in 1981, with a series of new buildings, a large restaurant/cafe, and a little walkway of state flags. Still, it was impressive just to sit there and imagine undertaking that project. We talked a bit about how the Lakota and other Native nations see Mount Rushmore as an enormous insult, having been carved out of their lands and rocks they consider sacred.

From Mount Rushmore we drove south into Custer State Park, following the Iron Mountain Road as it twisted and turned up and down the mountain. The kids enjoyed the “pigtail” turns (where the road corkscrews back over itself again) and the one-lane tunnels through the rock. Also neat were the many places where you could see Mount Rushmore from different angles and from far away.

Another highlight in Custer State Park was the Wildlife Loop Road, from which we saw bison, deer, prairie dogs, burrows, and bighorn sheep.

While in Custer we decided that it was too late to drive the Needles Highway and tackle a hike or two. Instead, we drove to see the monumental Crazy Horse Memorial. I have been showing my students pictures of this thing for years now (under construction for over 60 years), so it was really meaningful to see it in person. It is much larger than I expected in many ways (although the visitor center is far enough away to slightly diminish the effect of its size). The visitor center complex is really huge, and they have lots of cool local and national tribal things going on. Two thumbs up.

Due to anticipated colder and wetter weather in Yellowstone Sunday and Monday (31 F on Sunday night and snow and sleet Monday morning!), we decided to cancel our hotel in Custer and drive a bit closer to Yellowstone tonight. So I booked a hotel in Sheridan, Wyoming. We thought this meant we had to cut out Devil’s Tower National Monument, but at the last minute we decided we could beat the sunset and still do it. It was so worthwhile – an amazing 867 ft. columnar monolith that just rises solo out of the Wyoming plains. We could see it over 30 miles away at one point. We hiked the 1.3 mile trail around its base in the soft sunset light. So gorgeous.

The price we pay is a late night – a midnight hotel arrival. But a fun, full day. Harrison said before he drifted off to sleep: “We did so many things today I can’t remember all of them!”

Note: if you click on individual pictures, it pulls up a larger version of it (can see them all in a slideshow).

Day 9. (Lin) Today we were up early for a quick breakfast with our super lovely hosts, the Harrells, before hitting the road. Minnesota was nice (windmill farms and crazy clouds), but it was really in South Dakota that the scenery turned from modestly different to mesmerizing. The turning point was really the Missouri River. After stopping briefly at the Chamberlain overlook (which gives a sweeping panoramic of the Missouri River valley), we crossed the Missouri and immediately felt transported into an amazing landscape of small rolling hills of wheat and hay and then, later, the pure flat beautiful nothingness of the grassy prairie. And, of course, hitting 80-85 MPH (legally) on the arrow-straight roads is also fun. Our loaded Odyssey handled the extra speed like a champ.

Perhaps somewhat regrettably, we did swing through Mitchell to see the famed Corn Palace. It was a bit “eh,” but the delicious Mexican lunch we had just down the street made the stop worthwhile.

We arrived at the Badlands at 4 pm, after the pleasant surprise of gaining an hour en route. The weather was perfect — warm, but clear and breezy. We hiked a few of the shorter trails before heading to the visitor center, where we watched a surprisingly honest video in terms of local Lakota land loss and treatment by the U.S. Government.

Although we planned to drive through the park in the late evening, we didn’t anticipate how large the park really is. The sun went down on us before we were even halfway through, which, while beautiful in a soft way, was a much different experience than it would have been during full light. But the one advantage to finishing the drive at dusk was the number of animals we saw: bighorn sheep, fox, rabbits, deer, goats, and prairie dogs, in addition to the chipmunk and birds we saw earlier in the park (pictures below!).

All in all, a great day. I’m tempted to go repeat the drive through the Badlands in the morning, but I think we may head to Custer Park and Mt. Rushmore instead. After, ahem, a brief stop at Wall Drug.

Note: if you click on individual pictures, it pulls up a larger version of it.

Day 8. (Lin) Minneapolis, we were told, is all about the lakes! So today we tried to experience them a bit, as well as a few other iconic Minneapolis spots. A bit of a lazy start allowed Jo, Eden, and me to go for a run from our friends’ house to Lake Harriet, in the southwest part of the city. Afterward, we drove to Wild Rumpus Bookstore, a totally fun youth/young adult bookstore with live animals (birds, a ferret, rats, etc.) and a fun atmosphere. From there we went to Uptown, parked, and rented a canoe and a paddleboat (don’t judge — a favorite of some of our crew!) to explore Lake Calhoun, the canals, and Lake of the Isles. All that paddling (and the heat!) made us hungry, of course, so we had to grab some excellent fish sandwiches at Tin Fish, perched on the edge of the lake. From there we drove to the Minihaha Falls, just off of the Mississippi River, which were fun and impressive (although better to see it now before the Yosemite Falls sets the bar impossibly high).

Because we were fully embracing our tourist status, the only next logical stop was…The Mall of America. It was, as advertised, huge. The Lego store was fun and entertaining as always, and then it was off to the main attraction: the sizable amusement park in the center of the gigantic square-shaped mall. The kids enjoyed a few rollercoasters — including one ridden by the girls that went upside down twice and all over (so much so that Helena almost lost her glasses). Impressive. It was also amazing how many Somali families were there, comprising 30-40% of the people there. Felt fun and diverse.

Having had our fill of middle American commercialism, we drove north to the Mill Ruins and the Stone Arch Bridge, which is a lovely bridge across the Mississippi with the Minneapolis skyline in the background.

Our final stop for the day was to have dinner with some old Boston friends. 4 kids + 4 kids = lots of rowdy fun.

All of us are excited to hit our first National Park tomorrow! Badlands, here we come.