Cabin Fever

Like many of you already know, we love visiting Tif's family cabin in Boulder, Utah. In fact, many of you may have already been there with us. This last month we got down to the cabin twice, once with Tif's sisters and once with John and Christine Bishoff. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll spare you the text and get right to the pics.

With the sisters, we hiked up to Blind Lake on Boulder Mountain. Tiffani and I had tried to hike there on our honeymoon, but we went too early in the year and there was too much snow. We had a nice picnic at the lake and we even dared to jump in the icy water. Our swimming consisted of just that though, jumping in and jumping right back out.

This is Tiffani along the trail to Blind Lake.The next day, we didn't do too many hikes because Sarah was feeling pretty sick. So, all we did was visit the Escalante River and Devil's Garden to take some senior pictures for Sarah. Tiffani and I decided we should take some best friend school pictures too.

A couple weeks later, we headed back to Boulder with John and Christine. The first day we spent hiking to Maverick Bridge and Phipps Arch along the Escalante River. There has been so much rain this year that the trail was overgrown with greenery, which contrasted beautifully with the bright red rock, white sand, and blue sky.


We arrived at Maverick Natural Bridge with no hitches. Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of Phipps Arch because we accidentally left our camera sitting next to Maverick Bridge. Luckily, we were the only hikers that had been up that way, and we found our camera right where we had left it on our way back down the trail.

To cool off, we walked for a ways up the shallow Escalante River.
Right by the trailhead, you can even see some remnants of an ancient Indian granary in the alcove of one of the huge cliffs.
The next day, being Sunday, we went on a few more low-key adventures. First we hit up the famous (at least to our family and our cabin guest) crevice along the Burr Trail.
There we got some pictures of John and Christine in the Birthing Tree along with some classic shots of the red/green contrast of the crevice and some goofy pictures in the cheeseholes of sandstone.
After the Crevice, we drove up to the old bridge across the majestic overlook known as Hell's Backbone.Monday, Labor Day, we had to head home. But before we left, we went on one more adventures, this time on Boulder Mountain. We visited three different lakes on our hike.

Deer Creek Lake
Green Lake... you can see where it gets its name
And Moosman Reservoir, where we even let John do a little fly fishing before we called it a day.
By the end, we were all tired, especially the pregnant lady. But we were also glad for the opportunity to get away and explore some more of God's wondrous creations that surround us.

Bryce Canyon

A tradition in Will's family has always been to spend the 4th of July in Alton, a little town in southern Utah where his grandparents live. This Independence Day, we made the trek down as usual. On Friday, we spent the day in Bryce Canyon with Will's family and his cousin, Sondie.

We went on a short, 3 mile hike to see Sunset Peak, Sunrise Peak and much of the rest of the park. 

Along the trail, someone had gotten a little carried away making cairns. Instead of being a trail guide, they became environmental art.

Here we are at Twin Bridges. 

After the hike, we had a picnic. Sondie was a little afraid of the ravens, but she managed to gulp her food down anyways. Then we did a little bit of drive-by tourism and stopped at every overlook. This was one of the more popular ones. 

Yosemite National Park/Lake Tahoe

To round out our trip to California, we spent two days at Yosemite and a day at Lake Tahoe. Our first day, we spent in Yosemite Valley, riding our bikes around to see all the sites. The park is very visitor friendly and stunningly beautiful.

Bridal Veil Falls

El CapitanMirror Lake

Half DomeYosemite Falls across the meadow

There is even a historic pioneer chapel built by the early settlers in the valley. They hold services every Sunday, including an LDS sacrament meeting.
We camped overnight just outside the park off of a forest service road. The next day, we took on the ultimate stairmaster hike--Upper Yosemite Falls. I believe it gains just over 2,700 feet in about 3 miles, so basically, you are climbing a huge set of stairs. I'm no mathematician, but if each story in a building is ten feet, we climbed a 270 story building. The hike was intense, but the views were amazing.

Yosemite Valley looking towards the majestic Half Dome. I can't believe people actually climb the face of that!

Tiffani at the top on the overlook platform. She kept teasing me about my fear of heights, but when you look over the edge, you can see how you could get a case of vertigo.


We also noticed that there was a face in the rock at the top of the falls, or at least that's what we thought it looked like.
After we made it back down the trail, we went and checked out the more touristy lower falls. I suppose everybody goes there because you walk up a little paved path to see it. We learned however, that the intense hike to the top was worthy the effort, even though the lower falls were pretty too.

Yosemite Upper and Lower Falls

We then decided to drive across the entire park and up over the Sierra Nevadas to Nevada. We took a few additional pictures of the drive through the lesser-known part of the park.



Apparently the pass you drive through up through the mountains is one of the highest in the country, around 9,000 feet above sea level. They have to blast the snow off of it which dynamite to make it accessible for the summer times, sometimes blowing through drifts that are up to 30 feet thick!

We planned on driving straight through to Lake Tahoe and finding a campsite there, but we were so exhausted from the trip, the hike and the driving that we ended up getting a cheap motel room in the metropolis of Gardnerville, Nevada. After our fourth day of camping and traveling non-stop, the shower and the bed were heavenly. We also got to catch the U.S. world cup game with their victory over Algeria.

The next day we carried on the journey and circled Lake Tahoe. The water is so incredibly blue and clear. We also learned that Lake Tahoe is the second deepest lake in the U.S. at around 1,700 feet. So pretty though!



We were going to camp the night there, but Tiffani, being in the early pregnant stages, wasn't feeling well, so we decided to make the long trek home that same day. Let me just say, after that drive, I am tempted to unofficially proclaim I-80 as the ugliest, most boring interstate in the country. Nevada is a whole bunch of nothing. Anyway, we made it home safely late that night, glad to be home, but glad to have been able to see so much more of the world.

Part II: Central California, Atascadero, and Highway One

Will's cousins, the Greens, also put us nomads up for a night in Atascadero. The twins, Jason and Danny, showed us the sights. We went four-wheeling up on this ranch which provided us with a spectacular view. Unfortunately, Will and I failed to take pictures of anyone else but ourselves this trip. Next time, we'll have a group pic with the whole family.

 

After our brief stint in Atascadero, we took Highway 1 up the coast to San Fransisco.

 

Will was delighted by the angry waves of the north--here he is acting as King Triton, conducting his symphonic swells.

I was imagining myself on the helm of a great seafaring vessel.

This little guy wanted some food.

And this one's life-thread was cut by the Fates. It's a hard world for starfish apparently.

Part I: Southern California-Los Angelos Area

Even though our stay in L.A. was quite short, Will and I had a fabulous time. Uncle Donny and Aunt Wanda were kind enough to put a roof over our head and treated us to some delicious meals and local sightseeing. After dining at a fun Italian restaurant, we strolled along the Venice canals to admire the rich and the famous' houses. Donny kept saying how we were going to be "peeping Toms". As we were walking along the canals, gazing into the huge open windows of the well-to-do, Wanda and I caught sight of a naked man... no shame, dressing in his kitchen. Donny and Wanda assured us that was the first time they actually were "peeping Toms". We only wanted to see cool houses and we got a little more than we bargained for. 

The next day we went up to the Getty Museum, which is really a huge complex of buildings and gardens up on the hill in Los Angelos. Paul J. Getty was a huge oil tycoon in the 1970s with a passion for art. Our pictures do not do the museum justice. We spent five hours there! 

This was our hotel in Anaheim . . . yeah right. We really enjoyed looking at the largest collection of French furniture and decor during the nineteenth century.

The gardens were almost as amazing as the museum. Our pictures do not do them justice.  

After L.A., we headed to Anaheim for our free hotel. Although we were right across the street from Disneyland, we chose to save our money for Wicked tickets. We opted to spend two days at Newport Beach, relaxing and building sandcastles. 

 

San Francisco Bay Area Adventures

As you can see, since we are now on post #3, this was an epic vacation with a whole lot packed into a little bitty space of time. San Francisco was so much fun... especially for me since I'd never been before. There were just so many things to do and see.

Fisherman's Wharf

Wicked, definitely worth the money and the scary walk through the streets of San Francisco at midnight.

The Golden Gate Bridge

Muir Woods, the oldest Coastal Redwoods forest in the United States and a haven of beauty.

Mount Tamalpais State Park: camping and mountain biking just fifteen minutes away from the big city