Resent Adventures

Anza Braggo State Park- Anza Braggo is the largest state park in California and only hours south of us. It was the first desert camping I’ve ever done. It was really fun and made for some great stories to share on Monday. We pulled in just before sunset on Saturday night. We made it to the wind caves to watch the sun go down. It was beautiful! The sun was pretty and the caves were so cool! It was basically this sand hills that had been carved out by the wind so it sort of looked like huge coral holes that you could climb in. They were really neat. We hiked to the top of the peak and watched sun go down then it was time to cook dinner and set up camp.

Here's a picture at the top of the wind caves.

No one was around us so we thought we might as well stay where we were and camp right there. It turned out to be the best place we could have picked. The stars were AMAZING and it was like we had the whole place to ourselves! We woke up to the sun rise the next morning and made breakfast. Jessica got greeted by an eight legged friend while she was changing behind a bush. It wasn’t on her but definitely gave her a fright. It was actually a tarantula! It was about the size of your hand if you can believe that! The boys picked it up but I didn’t really come that close to it. :)

Here's the tarantula Jessica found! Yikes! She's obviously a like scared of it in this photo. :)

Once we all were ready we set out to see a few sites before heading back. We went to the park information station to check out a few things and then decided to go hike to the Palm Oasis. I had never seen an oasis so I didn’t really know what to expect but once we got there I was quite impressed. We hiked about 8 miles of hot, dry weather to get there. Once we got there we found these huge palm trees that were growing in this small space together. There was this strange water source from under the water that allows these huge palm trees to grow in this desert area. Once we got there it offered some nice relief from the heat and the sun. I was laying on a rock and just happened to fall asleep while the rest of the group made its way. It was pretty cool.

Here's a photo of it from a distance. Pretty sweet huh?

Our next and final stop was to see The Slot which was supposed to be this cool rock formation off of the highway, but we didn’t quite make it. Our car got suck in the sand ditch. We tired avoid a part of the road that dips really steep but ended up off the road and suck. Not good. First we tried some techniques I new from getting stuck in the snow banks of Minnesota but that didn’t turn out as well as we had hoped. Then we tried to pull the car out using Christy’s Explorer. This strategy only led us to almost get her car stuck too and we ended up popping her tire trying to get her car out. This was not looking good. The first thing we did before all this was to call AAA so Drew, MaryHelen and I went out the highway to meet them. Once we got out there we called them again and they told us they wouldn’t come because they knew the off road we were on and didn’t want to take the tow truck on there. No what? This was not good! We only waited hopelessly for about 3 minutes when a huge white truck pulled over. I think they were stopping to go to the bathroom but saw use and asked us if we needed any help. (our guardian angels) It was two dirt biking guys and their dog. We explained the situation and they said they could just pull us out. It was pretty amazing because they did just that. They hooked us up bumper to bumper with a strap and gave it some gas. It was crazy! They were great! Thanks to them we weren’t late for work on Monday. :)

This is us trying to push Drew's car out. It didn't work. That's me by the drivers side window. :) Good memories.

John’s visit- A couple weeks ago I was lucky enough to have John came out to visit again! This time he didn’t have to work. I picked him up at the airport on Wednesday night and them he came to work with me both Thursday and Friday. Thursday he got a taste of my classes and a day in the field and Friday we put him to work in out project areas. He was great! He was helping in the kitchen and every where. It was fun! (I don’t know if he would exactly say the same.) Then we went on a road trip with some of my friends to Sequoia National Park.

Sequoia National Park- This Park is huge! There is so much to see and do! We all said we’ll have to go back in the spring. John and I road with Ange and Drew. It was really fun with crosswords and conversation the whole way. We made a few stops along the way and here’s a photo from one stop. The cow was along the highway on our drive and so we thought we needed a picture.

We all got there early enough so we didn’t have to set up in the dark. It was really nice and out site was amazing! Honestly I would recommend it to anyone! We stayed at Potwisha which it the lowest site on the mountain. The ranger suggested for us to stay low because most of the other places had snow. We were prepared for cold but not quite snow. Potwisha turned out great! The weather was fine and was the best was the small river that was right next to our site. We got to listen to the water flowing over the rocks all night. It was beautiful!

In the morning we go up, made breakfast and headed out to hike. We all started out hiking up to the summit of Moro Rock. Here's our group at the top.

This is a picture of me with Moro Rock in the background so you can see how far up we hiked. It wasn't as tough as Half Dome but still just as sweet.

Our group split in two after this so we weren’t so big. Some wanted to hit up the elevation and do a more intense hike and others wanted to just explore the park. I had a pretty bad sinus headache so John and I decided to check out the park. It was really fun actually! The hike wasn’t intense but the sites were beautiful! There was just a small blanket of snow on the ground which was really pretty in the sunlight and it was neat to watch the trees steam when the sun hit them just right.

We saw the Giant Sequoias, General Sherman Tree, Chimney Tree, and Tharp's Log. It was great! We all met back at the site to get dinner started and to sit around the campfire. It was a great day and a wonderful evening.

Then the next day John and I got up super early to hit the road so that we could get him to the airport on time to catch his flight. Ange was nice enough to let us drive her car back which was fun to have a little road trip together. We actually got to the airport early so we had lunch together and then said our goodbyes.