Joshua Tree National Park

Posted on June 2, 2016 by Feisty Harriet — 2 Comments ↓

Joshua Tree National Park in the desert/deserted part of Southern California is a completely other-worldy place. I mean, I’ve seen Joshua Trees many times as I criss-cross the dry and seemingly barren spaces of the Wild West, but I’ve never wandered around dozens and dozens of them, and I’ve never seen them glow with that low afternoon golden light.

My late afternoon hike in Joshua Tree consisted mostly of my trying to get plenty of photos that I liked, while trying NOT to get stuck by cholla cactus spines. I was moderately successful on both fronts.

These trees really do feel like a cross between some kind of alien life-form and something Dr. Seuss/Tim Burton would dream up. And the hills are COVERED in them. They weren’t super close together, there’s definitely not enough natural water for that kind of density, but I felt like the Joshua Tree soldiers just went on for miles and miles, never thinning out, never clumping up, just well-ordered spike-balls on sticks, marching away into the distance.

So weird, so alien, so gorgeous.

My visit to Joshua Tree included spending a night solo camping; I have never been afraid of road tripping by myself, but it was a new experience to go camping by myself, and one that at times made me a wee bit uneasy. I mean, I was staying in a well established campground at a national park, it’s not like I was camped on the side of the road near a high security prison, or anything. But still, there were nerves.

I’m glad I didn’t chicken out and go stay in one of the motels in town, honestly, they looked quite sketchy. Besides, the sunrise over the trees was just gorgeous. For the record, I stayed in Black Rock Campground on the north side/Yucca Valley side, mostly because they accepted reservations and I didn’t want to be solo camping AND short one camp spot, and then end up on the side of the road. Ahem.

One of my life goals is to visit 50 National Parks, after last weekend I am sitting at a pretty reasonable 19, I’ve got a lot more adventuring to do! That being said, I would definitely visit JTNP again to do a little more exploring.

Until next time, Joshua Tree!

You can view my whole photo album here.

Have you been to Joshua Tree!? What kind of hiking or exploring did you do?

Petrified Forest National Park

Posted on April 1, 2016 by Feisty Harriet — Leave a reply

Once upon a time, in the middle of a very long drive from Salt Lake to Phoenix, I took myself on a little detour to Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. It was a park I’d never visited, was literally right off my route (which was already a detour to include stops at Four Corners and Shiprock, NM), and I figured a quick stop to check it out would be a good way to stretch my legs. It was….well, it as nothing like I expected, and not in a very good way. I mean, the stripey desert was gorgeous, with layers of red and white and purple and green on the dunes and hills glowing in the late afternoon sun. It was too warm for me to really enjoy a little hike (when I’d left that morning it was in the low 30’s, the weather in Petrified Forest NP was in the 80’s with no shade and very few substantial clouds), and I had been subsisting off gas station snacks for a day and a half already.

So, instead of hiking down among the hills, I wandered around the look out places, and then drove to the next, and the next, and the next. Petrified Forest NP isn’t large, and there is a 20-ish mile loop that takes you through the most popular parts of the park. After an hour of driving and wandering and driving and wandering I still hadn’t seen any actual trees petrified into rocks, I’m not sure what I was expecting, but, I don’t know, maybe a few rocky stumps here or there?

Nope, just more striped hills. Pretty, stunning even, but for me this part was not As Advertised, and that usually leads to disappointment.

Towards the end of my drive through the park I pulled over to view Newspaper Rock, which is best seen with binoculars (or the zoom function of your best camera lens), humans aren’t allowed anywhere near the engravings, probably with good reason; time and time again humans in the general public have shown they are the worst for taking care of ancient spaces. That being said, I do wish I would have been able to get a closer look at these drawings, don’t they look so cool!?

As I headed out of the park the red striped hills gave way to gray and blue and green striped hills, they look a lot more like The Badlands in South Dakota than anything I’ve seen in Red Rock Country. And then, my camera battery died. I did see a few rocky stumps and sections of fallen trees before I exited the park, but most of my little adventure was striped and petrified desert. Again, that kind of geology is pretty cool, but it wasn’t what I was expecting.

The town of Holbrook, Arizona is just a few miles from Petrified Forest National Park (population: 5,000), they have petrified logs lined up like vehicles at a car lot, hundreds of them for sale, giant ones, medium-sized ones, smaller ones. So, if petrified logs is what you are hoping to see, you will probably have a better shot of seeing them in town than in the park–although it kills me a little to actually type those words out.

Have you been to the Petrified Forest? Have you ever been disappointed in a National Park? Do you pack extra camera batteries, prepared like a girl scout, to avoid lack-of-battery predicaments!?

Bryce Canyon National Park in the fog

Posted on February 5, 2016 by Feisty Harriet — Leave a reply

On one of my trips between Salt Lake and Phoenix I decided to make a slight detour and stop at Bryce Canyon National Park. I was hoping for some gorgeous photos of soaring ruddy cliffs and orangey spires in the setting sun. The weather had very different ideas. The entire canyon was smothered in fog, from the rim you could hardly see anything below.

On a whim I decided to hike down into the canyon, hoping for a few awesome shots. I was absolutely unprepared for such a hike, I was wearing sandals, no water, and no real rain protection. But, the Navajo Loop trail is just a little more than a mile, descending down the canyon walls, through Wall Street, wandering along the bottom of the canyon with the creek and the pine trees, and then back up again. I figured it couldn’t be that bad.

This is Wall Street, it’s easy to imagine these soaring cliffs as enormous sky scrapers, right? The trail was wet and pretty slick, I carefully picked my way down the switchbacks, big camera in hand. It’s hard to imagine how enormous these cliffs are, how tiny the hikers seem. But, lawsy, those views!!!

From the bottom of the canyon looking back towards the rim, I felt like I was in a completely different world from the one at the surface. There weren’t may people there, and it only added to the creepy-beautiful feeling, eerie and other-worldly and heart-breakingly quiet.

The weather cleared up as I made my way out of Wall Street and onto the rest of the Loop trail, there were cedar trees and sherberty colored stripes and outcropping hoodoos everywhere.

As I began to ascend the canyon wall, the weather began to make me a little nervous. The drizzle of rain turned much more sleety, it got colder and the wind whistled through the formations. The trail was slick and muddy, my sandals slapped and slipped on the rocks. I carefully picked my way upwards, trying to shield my camera from the rain and simultaneously keep my balance with my very inappropriate footwear. It got foggier and foggier, I could really only see about 20 feet ahead of me when I came across Thor’s Hammer, one of the more photographed formations in Bryce Canyon.

Within 30 seconds, the fog had swallowed this formation completely. I hurried as quickly as I could back to the rim, picking my way, slipping and sliding on the now completely empty trail. The fog topside was thicker and heavier than before, I was relieved to get back in my dry car and crank up the heat. Even though this was a very quick stop, I really loved my short hike and these images.

Have you been to Bryce Canyon? Have you ever hiked in the fog? Tell me your stories!

Moments on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Feisty Harriet — 15 Comments ↓

You know those moments, the ones full of wonder and awe? The moments when you feel both incredibly small and remarkably lucky to see and experience and know the things you do? I know many people feel those moments often with their children, I know I do sometimes with brand new babies or a particularly delightful moment with a niece, nephew, or one of my stepkids. More often than not, however, I feel those moments in the great outdoors, exploring mountains and wild places where it is quiet and full of the Great Everything.

On one of the many trips between Salt Lake and Arizona last year I stopped at the Grand Canyon and watched a storm roll over the canyons and ridges. It was mostly quiet, a few off-season tourists, and I could smell the rain and feel the strength of the storm in the wind.

It was one of the most delightful moments, the kind that fill you up to your brim and let all the heart-healing goodness slop down your sides. Sometimes I forget how much I desperately need moments like that, the ones that heal your soul and give you a little push in the right direction. Whether those moments are with mountains or babies I want to actively seek those opportunities this year.

And if that means a solo trip back to a lonely spot in the Grand Canyon, so be it.

Hiking Wheeler Peak, Great Basin National Park, Nevada

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Feisty Harriet — Leave a reply

Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada is full of ancient Bristlecone Pine trees, a couple of grueling hikes, and gazillions of stars. In late summer a friend and I packed up our camping things and drove across hundreds of miles of nothingness to reach the park; we had our sights set on the tippy top of Wheeler Peak, tallest mountain in Nevada at 13,065 feet.

We woke up ridiculously early and were on the trail with that giant rocky peak towering above us. We hiked for a couple of hours on a relatively easy trail, nothing too steep, nothing too exposed, a little lake…

Then suddenly we were above the tree line, the trail was going nearly straight up the side of the mountain, the wind was ferocious and unforgiving.

Honestly, the switchbacks were so narrow and tight you were essentially ladder-climbing and scrambling up a hunk of loose rock for nearly 2 miles. That picture up there shows the trail disappearing into the steepness of the mountain, but this was before it was super windy or super scrambly.

After a lot of stopping and wheezing in the thin air we reached the summit and were able to look out onto dozens of tall, rocky peaks, just like the one we were standing on.

A kind soul had built a little round fort-type thing up on the top out of loose rocks that gave some blessed shelter from the wind. We stopped for lunch, chatted with hikers as they reached the summit, and tried to psych ourselves up for the descent. It took us about 5.5 hours to reach the top, but we cruised down and were back at our car two hours later.

I had pretty low expectations for Great Basin National Park, but was completely bowled over by the brutal natural beauty and the incredible stars at night. GBNP has one of the darkest skies anywhere on earth, the number of stars we saw was completely outrageous, including the International Space Station crossing the sky, lots of shooting stars and meteors, and layers and layers and layers of pinprick constellations. The other thing Great Basin is famous for is groves of ancient Bristlecone Pine trees, some 5,000 years old! The thing about Bristlecones is they have no natural killer; the cause of death of most of these great trees is their roots are exposed and the tree eventually topples. What that means is the mountain they are growing on erodes faster than the tree dies…these trees are literally older than mountains!

Their bark shows scars of hundreds and hundreds of years of rain and wind and snow. I probably could look at and pet tree bark all day long and not get bored, it’s just so fascinating. (Yes, I know my nerd is showing, just bear with me, okay?)

Great Basin is also famous for the Lehman Caves, vast underground caverns with all sorts of formations. However, the tours were completely sold out by the time we got there, so if you have plans to go, be sure to buy cave tickets in advance. And, if you are the photography type, take a tripod to get some shots of the night sky. And then send them to me so I can swoon all over again at the number of stars!

Feisty Harriet

"i" before "e" except when I'm feisty.

Tag Archives: National Park

Joshua Tree National Park

Petrified Forest National Park

Bryce Canyon National Park in the fog

Moments on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon

Hiking Wheeler Peak, Great Basin National Park, Nevada