The next morning I woke up pretty early again (this is becoming a pattern),this time due to more loud boy nonsense from the camp next door. I don't know if they actually slept at all. Anyway, morning in the desert is nice and cool, at least before the sun gets too high in the sky, so I decided to make the most of it and go do something. The day before I had driven past a sign for Key's View, a lookout point where you can supposedly see all the way to Mexico. I was of course intrigued.
So I drove the 20 minutes out to Key's View (still in the park...I told you it was enormous) and walked up the ramp to the viewpoint. I hate to be all jaded but the view, while pretty great, was nowhere near as fantastic as I wanted it to be. It was neat to be able to see the San Andreas Fault, and the mountains were beautiful, but it wasn't quite what I wanted. I did get to see some lizards up at Key's View and on the way back I actually saw a roadrunner (!) so it was still a worthwhile diversion, to be sure. Next I headed over to the Hidden Valley picnic area across from my campsite to check out the 1 mile Hidden Valley nature trail. The ranger had given me a newspaper with Joshua Tree info when I entered the park and one of the pages has a list of all of their trails. There are ten or so hiking trails and about the same number of "nature" trails, which I took to be a euphemism for, you know, your grandmother could walk this trail with no problem. Yes, well, my grandmothers probably could have..they were both tenacious old ladies...but I think most average people would have found the trail a little...challenging. I walk a mile to the gym and back twice a week, so I was all "oh a mile...piece of cake" but I had no idea what it would take to walk a mile over uneven, rocky terrain in the beating down sun. Luckily I had brought plenty of water with me, I had liberally doused myself in sunblock and I had my hat, so all that remained was to take my time and hike that trail.
Despite the unexpected toughness of the terrain, I loved the experience. I saw all sorts of incredible plant life up close, plus plenty of lizards and chipmunks. There were rock climbers on a rock bank in the middle of the trail so I stopped and watched them for a bit. Fascinating...I still may want to take that up one day. It was still early, so nobody else was on the trail for the most part, which was nice. When I got to the end of the trail I headed back to my campsite. I was roasting, the interior of the car was roasting, the sun was beating down on my tent, so I decided it might not be a horrible thing to go into town and do some laundry to escape the heat. So that's what I did. I had seen a laundromat in the town of Joshua Tree just before I entered the park, so I headed over there.
Laundry didn't take nearly enough time and I had no desire to hang out in the sun at that point so I decided to head into Yucca Valley in search of a movie theater. Luckily they had one...I saw a late matinee of The Taking of Pelham 123 which, I'm sorry to say, was one of the most ridiculous movies I've seen in a while, and by the time it was over it was 4pm and the sun was starting to set. I headed back to my campsite, a little irrationally nervous that someone might have either messed with my stuff or just poached my campsite altogether (since that day was a fee free day and the ranger had said it would probably get crazy crowded). Turns out I needn't have worried about what the other campers would do...nature was already messing with me.
When I got back to my site, my tent was gone. For a split second I started to freak out until I realized that the wind had just blown it away and it had rolled behind a giant rock. See, the thing about camping in the desert is that it's hard to stake your tent down. Either the soil is sandy which doesn't do a very good job of holding onto stakes, or, as in this case, the ground is solid rock a few inches down, so you can't drive stakes into it at all. My solution had been to weight the four corners of the tent down with heavy rocks, but apparently they were no match for the wind. That's another thing...it's really windy at Joshua Tree, which is nice when it takes the edge off the heat but not so nice when it's rattling your tent in the middle of the night.
So I managed to pull my tent back to where it should be, observed a few minor tears in the rain fly and scuffs on the tent poles, and reconfigured the whole heavy rock situation. After that I felt nervous about leaving the tent alone again, so I ended up not going to the star party I had been looking forward to. I did get to see the stars you can see with the naked eye, and let me tell you, the night sky in JT is lousy with them. Just exquisite. I sat up with my book and waited for it to get dark, then I spent a fair amount of time stargazing. Eventually I realized I was having trouble keeping my eyes open so I went to bed.
The next day I woke up early, ready to get out of the desert sun and get going, so I packed up my gear and got on the road. The way the park is configured, I could either go north 17 or so miles and leave the way I came, or I could drive down south, all the way through the park, maybe another 40 miles or so. One of the great things about being on a trip like this by myself is that I don't have to be in any particular hurry to get anywhere, so I decided to see the rest of the park. This is an experience I would recommend to anyone, especially at 7am. There are some incredible things to see in the southern part of the park (conversely, if you stay in the south you should take the time to drive up to the north...the vegetation is so different...but gorgeous in both places). Even the rock formations have a different character in the south. Also, I saw quail on my drive through the park...quail! At first it was just one and I was suitably excited but about a mile later I saw a quail parent followed by at least nine little quail babies! So that was definitely worth the extra time it took.
The plan for the day was to drive to Picacho Peak State Park between Phoenix and Tucson, AZ. When I was making this plan, it never occurred to me that a park in the middle of Arizona might be very deserty and hot, but as I got closer to it, I found myself wanting to stop less and less. The temperature was already above 100 and all I wanted at that point was some air conditioning and a bed. So I ditched Picacho Peak and dipped into my reserves to book a hotel room (btw, I pulled the car over and used my iPhone to find the best rate and book the room. Took ten minutes, tops. Such a handy little gadget). Once in the room I took a hard look at my itinerary and realized I needed to make some changes. The whole southern part of my trip would take me through some really hot temperatures and I knew I wasn't going to want to camp in that heat any more than I had that day.
So, change of plans. The next day, instead of continuing west I headed north to Albuquerque. Driving in New Mexico was such a glorious experience...there's never a moment when the scenery isn't beautiful. Also, I got to drive through Truth or Consequences, which was fun. In the end it looks like just another town, btw. Today I'm planning to head down to Roswell and see what all that alien business was about. Tomorrow it's back up to Santa Fe to camp for a few days in the Santa Fe National Forest, then out to Oklahoma City and then to Memphis before hitting Atlanta. Looks like I'll get to see Graceland after all!
xo,
C
Monday, June 22, 2009
Los Padres and Joshua Tree part 1
I confess, I am a total planner. Before any big undertaking I tend to draw up numerous lists, do all sorts of internet research, and yes, there are usually even spreadsheets involved. I love a good plan. The funny thing is, as much as I agonize over making the perfect plans, there are times when I delight in breaking them just as much. This is one of those times. But first...the desert!
So I left San Francisco on Thursday morning and headed out to Los Padres National Forest. At first, the campsite seemed not all that impressive. It was kind of small and really close to the road...hard to lose yourself in nature if cars keep flying by..and they did. Also, it seemed the only other inhabitants at this campground were a hippie couple living out of their van who liked to run their generator late into the night and an older gentleman named Bob who seemed to live there permanently in his RV(he functioned as the camp host and collected all of the fees and reminded people of the rules, etc). He seemed friendly enough but I remember thinking as I set my tent up that if I were writing a murder mystery about this campsite, he would totally be the secret murderer that nobody suspects until it's too late. So anyway, at first I was a little grumpy about the campsite. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something furry pop out of a hole in the ground and scurry away and I was instantly delighted. I asked Bob what was living in the ground over there and his answer was 'ground squirrels', which was not the exotic prairie dog/kangaroo rat type thing I was hoping for, but I was excited to see wildlife nonetheless. I watched the ground squirrels for a while and attempted to get a good picture of them but they were very good at disappearing into their burrows when I got close enough for photography. Later that evening I also saw a fox (!) down by the road.
Los Padres was definitely growing on me because of the wildlife, but it was the stars that completely won me over. I had been sitting outside reading Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey all evening with the help of the book light Mom and Dad lent to me (thanks!) and when I started to get sleepy, I just happened to look up and was just struck by the number of stars in the sky. It was incredible, just incredible...a moment that begged to be shared with someone. Unfortunately the only people nearby were Bob, the hippies, and some late-arriving frat boys with their own generator and a giant cooler full of beers. So I enjoyed the stars by myself and then went to bed.
The next day I got to experience even more Los Padres wildlife as I came upon a couple of ant hills on my way to the bathroom that hadn't been there before. I always find it fascinating to watch great numbers of ants as they scurry around on top of each other getting their business done. I soon noticed that a lot of these ants had wings, which creeped me out a bit. Later I saw a million tiny specks flying away from the anthills, so I guess they had business to attend to. Luckily it wasn't the business of attacking me and consuming me from the inside out (I may have seen too many ant-based horror movies as a kid). Los Padres also had its fair share of other bugs, that had all decided to cling to my tent in the night. I hadn't experienced this with either of the other campsites I had been to...must be something specific about that climate that brings out the little bugs. Anyway, I shook off the tent, packed up the car, and headed down to Los Angeles for supplies before going to Joshua Tree. As it turns out, I needn't have bothered to stop because you can get anything you might need in the town of Yucca Valley, less than 20 miles before you get to the park. But I didn't know that, so I ended up getting off the freeway and going to a supermarket in Tarzana for water more sunscreen and other supplies (I had a craving for Pepperidge Farm Milanos for some reason...not the most practical desert food, but okay!).
I finally got to the park, paid my fees and headed off in search of a campsite. The vast majority of sites at Joshua Tree are first come first served, so I had some anxiety that I wouldn't be able to find a good site at the campground I wanted, but it wasn't necessary as there were several good sites left when I got there. The only thing my site didn't have that some of the other occupied sites did was natural shade. Kind of important in the desert. So it's around 3PM, I've just gotten to the park and claimed my site, and naturally the next thing I do is haul everything out and set the tent up. It didn't even occur to me to wait until later when it had cooled down...I was full steam ahead on getting everything squared away. Well, as you can imagine, I was freaking exhausted and roasting by the time I was done. All I wanted to do was get out of the sun somehow. So I pulled the chair into the tent, put batteries in my portable fan that I hadn't even had to use until now, and attempted to relax and read a little. There was a nice breeze outside but I had situated the tent next to a rock in an attempt to hopefully take advantage of natural shade at some other point in the day so the air inside was heavy and hot and not at all breezy, even with the fan.
Eventually I decided that I needed to cool down back to normal before I could be remotely comfortable at my site, so I hopped back in the car and drove around exploring a little bit. Thank god for air conditioning, seriously. Finally I was cooled down enough and enough time had passed to give me a little patch of shade on my site, so I dragged my chair into it and sat down with my book and a giant bottle of water. I read for a while, looking up when other campers drove into the area in search of a good site. Eventually the air was cool enough for me to get up and do a little exploring on foot. In situations like these, I find I'm constantly bumping up against things I believed were entirely off limits to me and realizing those beliefs are entirely false. Case in point: rock climbing. Now I'm not saying I'm going to go buy some crampons and rope and scale the tallest peak in the park (though instantly i'm thinking 'why not?' and wondering what kind of shape I would have to be in to take rock climbing lessons), but I'm certainly capable of doing a little simple climbing. There was a medium sized bank of rock behind my campsite that had a shady ledge that interested me. I thought it might be nice to climb up there and sit on the ledge and read my book some more. I couldn't readily see how to get up to the ledge from where I was at so I walked around the structure to an unoccupied campsite and climbed up from there. I think that's what I liked about it, the systematic problem-solving aspect of it. When I got to the ledge I felt elated and powerful, a big change from how defeated and weak I had felt when I was worn out from the heat. On the way back down I slipped a little and had to catch myself with my hand, giving me a little gravel indentation pattern on my palm for a few minutes. As I sat back in my chair I marveled at it and realized I hadn't felt that particular sting since I was a kid. It was an exhilarating feeling. I climbed up even higher a little later that day and again on the next.
The campsite on my right was occupied by an older couple with a complicated tent and a whole lot of gear, and the campsite to my left seemed like it would remain empty until a whole pack of extra testosterony guys pulled in around 8PM. They were...not quiet. They had also brought with them some kind of gun-type thing (expressly forbidden in the park, btw) that they kept shooting off, well into the night. Some of their conversations were definitely not for the faint of heart (there were a lot of drunk stories and sex stories and drunken sex stories) but they were such caricatures of men I just had to laugh at a number of boneheaded things they had to say. They didn't really quiet down much or stop shooting their gun-type thing all night but luckily the desert heat had wiped me out enough that I was able to sleep through most of it.
So I left San Francisco on Thursday morning and headed out to Los Padres National Forest. At first, the campsite seemed not all that impressive. It was kind of small and really close to the road...hard to lose yourself in nature if cars keep flying by..and they did. Also, it seemed the only other inhabitants at this campground were a hippie couple living out of their van who liked to run their generator late into the night and an older gentleman named Bob who seemed to live there permanently in his RV(he functioned as the camp host and collected all of the fees and reminded people of the rules, etc). He seemed friendly enough but I remember thinking as I set my tent up that if I were writing a murder mystery about this campsite, he would totally be the secret murderer that nobody suspects until it's too late. So anyway, at first I was a little grumpy about the campsite. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something furry pop out of a hole in the ground and scurry away and I was instantly delighted. I asked Bob what was living in the ground over there and his answer was 'ground squirrels', which was not the exotic prairie dog/kangaroo rat type thing I was hoping for, but I was excited to see wildlife nonetheless. I watched the ground squirrels for a while and attempted to get a good picture of them but they were very good at disappearing into their burrows when I got close enough for photography. Later that evening I also saw a fox (!) down by the road.
Los Padres was definitely growing on me because of the wildlife, but it was the stars that completely won me over. I had been sitting outside reading Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey all evening with the help of the book light Mom and Dad lent to me (thanks!) and when I started to get sleepy, I just happened to look up and was just struck by the number of stars in the sky. It was incredible, just incredible...a moment that begged to be shared with someone. Unfortunately the only people nearby were Bob, the hippies, and some late-arriving frat boys with their own generator and a giant cooler full of beers. So I enjoyed the stars by myself and then went to bed.
The next day I got to experience even more Los Padres wildlife as I came upon a couple of ant hills on my way to the bathroom that hadn't been there before. I always find it fascinating to watch great numbers of ants as they scurry around on top of each other getting their business done. I soon noticed that a lot of these ants had wings, which creeped me out a bit. Later I saw a million tiny specks flying away from the anthills, so I guess they had business to attend to. Luckily it wasn't the business of attacking me and consuming me from the inside out (I may have seen too many ant-based horror movies as a kid). Los Padres also had its fair share of other bugs, that had all decided to cling to my tent in the night. I hadn't experienced this with either of the other campsites I had been to...must be something specific about that climate that brings out the little bugs. Anyway, I shook off the tent, packed up the car, and headed down to Los Angeles for supplies before going to Joshua Tree. As it turns out, I needn't have bothered to stop because you can get anything you might need in the town of Yucca Valley, less than 20 miles before you get to the park. But I didn't know that, so I ended up getting off the freeway and going to a supermarket in Tarzana for water more sunscreen and other supplies (I had a craving for Pepperidge Farm Milanos for some reason...not the most practical desert food, but okay!).
I finally got to the park, paid my fees and headed off in search of a campsite. The vast majority of sites at Joshua Tree are first come first served, so I had some anxiety that I wouldn't be able to find a good site at the campground I wanted, but it wasn't necessary as there were several good sites left when I got there. The only thing my site didn't have that some of the other occupied sites did was natural shade. Kind of important in the desert. So it's around 3PM, I've just gotten to the park and claimed my site, and naturally the next thing I do is haul everything out and set the tent up. It didn't even occur to me to wait until later when it had cooled down...I was full steam ahead on getting everything squared away. Well, as you can imagine, I was freaking exhausted and roasting by the time I was done. All I wanted to do was get out of the sun somehow. So I pulled the chair into the tent, put batteries in my portable fan that I hadn't even had to use until now, and attempted to relax and read a little. There was a nice breeze outside but I had situated the tent next to a rock in an attempt to hopefully take advantage of natural shade at some other point in the day so the air inside was heavy and hot and not at all breezy, even with the fan.
Eventually I decided that I needed to cool down back to normal before I could be remotely comfortable at my site, so I hopped back in the car and drove around exploring a little bit. Thank god for air conditioning, seriously. Finally I was cooled down enough and enough time had passed to give me a little patch of shade on my site, so I dragged my chair into it and sat down with my book and a giant bottle of water. I read for a while, looking up when other campers drove into the area in search of a good site. Eventually the air was cool enough for me to get up and do a little exploring on foot. In situations like these, I find I'm constantly bumping up against things I believed were entirely off limits to me and realizing those beliefs are entirely false. Case in point: rock climbing. Now I'm not saying I'm going to go buy some crampons and rope and scale the tallest peak in the park (though instantly i'm thinking 'why not?' and wondering what kind of shape I would have to be in to take rock climbing lessons), but I'm certainly capable of doing a little simple climbing. There was a medium sized bank of rock behind my campsite that had a shady ledge that interested me. I thought it might be nice to climb up there and sit on the ledge and read my book some more. I couldn't readily see how to get up to the ledge from where I was at so I walked around the structure to an unoccupied campsite and climbed up from there. I think that's what I liked about it, the systematic problem-solving aspect of it. When I got to the ledge I felt elated and powerful, a big change from how defeated and weak I had felt when I was worn out from the heat. On the way back down I slipped a little and had to catch myself with my hand, giving me a little gravel indentation pattern on my palm for a few minutes. As I sat back in my chair I marveled at it and realized I hadn't felt that particular sting since I was a kid. It was an exhilarating feeling. I climbed up even higher a little later that day and again on the next.
The campsite on my right was occupied by an older couple with a complicated tent and a whole lot of gear, and the campsite to my left seemed like it would remain empty until a whole pack of extra testosterony guys pulled in around 8PM. They were...not quiet. They had also brought with them some kind of gun-type thing (expressly forbidden in the park, btw) that they kept shooting off, well into the night. Some of their conversations were definitely not for the faint of heart (there were a lot of drunk stories and sex stories and drunken sex stories) but they were such caricatures of men I just had to laugh at a number of boneheaded things they had to say. They didn't really quiet down much or stop shooting their gun-type thing all night but luckily the desert heat had wiped me out enough that I was able to sleep through most of it.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
San Francisco
One of the cool things about hostels, at least the two I've been to so far, is that they give you free continental breakfast. Apparently here continental just means toast, bagels and coffee, but it was free so it was perfectly fine with me. This hostel used to be a hotel and they do the breakfast in a little restaurant off the lobby so there's limited seating. About halfway through my first piece of toast, a total stranger (!) asked if she could sit at my table. I'm trying to stop being such a timid mouse around new people (and also, what am I going to say? Leave me alone so I can eat my toast in peace?) so of course I said yes and she sat down. I got up for more toast and coffee and she got up to get her breakfast arranged but finally we were both sitting down and had no choice but to talk to each other.
I'm pretty sure she talked first, maybe asked me where I'm from, I don't remember. Anyway, we had a nice discussion about where we were each from, what brought us to the hostel, etc (her name's Kelly, she lives in nearby Stockton, CA but she takes classes in SF and the commute is too much to make several times a week so she stays at the hostel in between). I mentioned I was thinking of going to Golden Gate Park today and she pointed out the free day for the science museum she was planning to go to and suggested we head over there together. So yes, I met a complete stranger at breakfast at the hostel and we went and did something fun. That actually happens. Crazy.
So we took the bus over to GGP, which I enjoyed immensely because it seems no matter where I go, taking the bus is pretty much the same. For a moment, I felt entirely in my element. :)
When we got to the park we found that the line for the science museum (California Academy of Sciences, to be technical) was genuinely, literally, a mile long. Clearly folks in San Fran enjoy their free museum days. Kelly had a class in a few hours so waiting wasn't an option. We headed instead to the nearby de Young art museum where we did have to pay to get in but at least there was no waiting. We saw just about everything on the main floor which included the Art of the Americas and the Collection of Contemporary Craft (which contained several beautiful glass pieces by Dale Chihuly). There was another floor and a half of art to see, but at that point I was getting tired of looking so we found a bench to hang out on while Kelly figured out how to get to class from the museum. Soon afterward she took off to her class and I headed next door to check out the Japanese Tea Garden.
I had read great things about the Tea Garden but maybe I was too tired to appreciate it or maybe there were just too many people. I kept hoping I could find a quiet corner and relax and think about things but there weren't any quiet corners. I took some photos and found a bench outside to figure out my next move. I had seen some information about the Conservatory of Flowers online but I didn't quite know where it was in the park so I just started walking in what I hoped was the right general direction. I like to think I have a pretty good sense of direction, so it was gratifying to see the conservatory roof peeking over the trees before long.
I was hoping for a giant room overflowing with gorgeous colorful flowers that you hardly ever get a chance to see in nature, like a Portland garden times 100, but it turns out when they say flowers, they really just mean plants. Bummer. Still, there were some interesting plants and a handful of beautiful flowers for me to see so I enjoyed myself anyway. The rooms had to be sweltering and humid to provide the right environment for the plants to thrive, but at the same time the humidity sucked all of the energy right out of me. When I got to the gift shop (which they must plan somehow) I was all worn out and ready to buy things :D Somehow the voice of reason chimed in to remind me that no matter how many lovely seed packets and growing pots I bought, I was still likely to kill these plants too, so I should save my cash. Good advice, especially since I'm about to go to the desert so anything that might be alive now would probably not thrive there regardless of my influence.
At that point, I was all out of juice so I figured out where the stop was and caught a bus back to the hostel. If I had more days here I'd go see more things, but tomorrow I'm off to Santa Barbara and the Los Padres National Forest. It may be July before I have internet access again, so until then...
xo,
C
I'm pretty sure she talked first, maybe asked me where I'm from, I don't remember. Anyway, we had a nice discussion about where we were each from, what brought us to the hostel, etc (her name's Kelly, she lives in nearby Stockton, CA but she takes classes in SF and the commute is too much to make several times a week so she stays at the hostel in between). I mentioned I was thinking of going to Golden Gate Park today and she pointed out the free day for the science museum she was planning to go to and suggested we head over there together. So yes, I met a complete stranger at breakfast at the hostel and we went and did something fun. That actually happens. Crazy.
So we took the bus over to GGP, which I enjoyed immensely because it seems no matter where I go, taking the bus is pretty much the same. For a moment, I felt entirely in my element. :)
When we got to the park we found that the line for the science museum (California Academy of Sciences, to be technical) was genuinely, literally, a mile long. Clearly folks in San Fran enjoy their free museum days. Kelly had a class in a few hours so waiting wasn't an option. We headed instead to the nearby de Young art museum where we did have to pay to get in but at least there was no waiting. We saw just about everything on the main floor which included the Art of the Americas and the Collection of Contemporary Craft (which contained several beautiful glass pieces by Dale Chihuly). There was another floor and a half of art to see, but at that point I was getting tired of looking so we found a bench to hang out on while Kelly figured out how to get to class from the museum. Soon afterward she took off to her class and I headed next door to check out the Japanese Tea Garden.
I had read great things about the Tea Garden but maybe I was too tired to appreciate it or maybe there were just too many people. I kept hoping I could find a quiet corner and relax and think about things but there weren't any quiet corners. I took some photos and found a bench outside to figure out my next move. I had seen some information about the Conservatory of Flowers online but I didn't quite know where it was in the park so I just started walking in what I hoped was the right general direction. I like to think I have a pretty good sense of direction, so it was gratifying to see the conservatory roof peeking over the trees before long.
I was hoping for a giant room overflowing with gorgeous colorful flowers that you hardly ever get a chance to see in nature, like a Portland garden times 100, but it turns out when they say flowers, they really just mean plants. Bummer. Still, there were some interesting plants and a handful of beautiful flowers for me to see so I enjoyed myself anyway. The rooms had to be sweltering and humid to provide the right environment for the plants to thrive, but at the same time the humidity sucked all of the energy right out of me. When I got to the gift shop (which they must plan somehow) I was all worn out and ready to buy things :D Somehow the voice of reason chimed in to remind me that no matter how many lovely seed packets and growing pots I bought, I was still likely to kill these plants too, so I should save my cash. Good advice, especially since I'm about to go to the desert so anything that might be alive now would probably not thrive there regardless of my influence.
At that point, I was all out of juice so I figured out where the stop was and caught a bus back to the hostel. If I had more days here I'd go see more things, but tomorrow I'm off to Santa Barbara and the Los Padres National Forest. It may be July before I have internet access again, so until then...
xo,
C
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