adventure time

Ahoy,

We met my parents in Salt Lake City for an adventure. My dad wanted to go to Yellowstone, but after some research I discovered it is closed in November due to snow. So I arranged a trip to Capitol Reef and Bryce. My mom asked 'Is it famous? Because I only want to go if it's famous...' She has to impress for friends.

First thing my parents told me when we met them at the airport was that my mom had found Chinatown. And it was 18 miles away. So we went to Chinatown which was all of one little strip mall on a street of strip malls. Probably the most underwhelming of Chinatowns we've seen. We walked in and out in under 10 minutes.

Capitol Reef was about 3 hours east of Salt Lake City and we were on our way. We stayed right outside the park so we could go straight there the next morning. There were cows grazing right next to the hotel. The town right outside Capitol Reef is pretty small. The last time we were there, A and I arrived too late and everything was closed. So we went straight out to dinner upon arrival.

I managed to get my folks out on 3 hikes the next day: 3 miles, 3 miles, and 2 miles, which is more than I can say for some of my friends. We hiked through a canyon to an arch while my parents stopped to admire every tree. We saw quite a bit of the park, and a fallen long horn sheep in the middle of the trail. When we finished the hike, we saw rangers heading in - one of them with a shotgun. I suspect the sheep had some sort of spinal injury because his hind legs were not moving at all. Capitol Reef has a lot to offer, but we had just missed harvest season. Apparently, you are allowed to pick fruit from the many orchards there left over from Mormon settlers. It is also probably the least crowded park we've visited, which we really appreciate compared to Yosemite in the summer.

My mom was complaining after each hike hoping it was the last one. She only wanted to go on one hike, she kept insisting. So the next day, we went on one hike that was almost 8 miles.

It's about a 2-3 hour drive south from Capitol Reef to Bryce. We took the scenic route and made it in time to grab dinner in town. I thought it was a small town given how popular Bryce is. I had been to Bryce a while ago and was eager to show A how cool it is. I've always thought it was so unique. We took a hike that went down into the hoodoos and saw a lot of different views. That hike was so varied and really gives a satisfying taste for a first trip. It was perfect weather for Bryce - just before snow and ice, and not muddy at all. We encountered ice only once at a waterfall, just enough of the elements for some excitement.

We spent our last day back in SLC. It was a Sunday so most things were closed, which didn't occur to me would be a problem until we got there. We spent the day wandering around the city. It's somewhat sleepy and suburban, which is not a surprise for a Capital city. A and I went to a bourbon bar to end the night, which had surprisingly good food for a good price and really good cocktails. Also, it was not busy at all. LA standards really make us appreciate smaller cities. I probably wouldn't like to live there, but it's nice to visit.

best,
jt

3 weekends in tents

Ahoy,

I had booked 3 weekends of camping back to back: Joshua Tree, Yosemite, and Yosemite again.

That first weekend in Joshua Tree rained so much! Lightning and thunder - the works! We happened to be camping outside in a tent during one of the most torrential rains of the year or past couple years. It rained for what seemed like all night. Fortunately it didn't start until after we were in our tents, probably from 11pm to 5 or 6 am. I was awake for much of it. Water started to come into our tent. It's waterproof to a certain extent, but there really was a lot of rain pouring down at a moderate to heavy pace for a long time. This made it really difficult for me to go to the bathroom. I really needed to pee, and I thought it would slow down at any minute. But it did not. I decided to just change my outfit so I could get it wet and change back into my pajamas. But when I got outside, I realized I totally forgot my headlamp. So I meanderingly made my way to the bathroom. A slept through this whole fiasco.

We awoke to a relatively undisturbed, but soaked campsite. Elsewhere in town and in the park was a different story. Apparently there were people stuck in their cars overnight, the roads were closed and washed out, there were boulders in the road, etc. All the park rangers were warning us extensively. But once we got into JTree, everything seemed fine. It was less crowded and more puddly, but we had a great time bouldering and scrambling around that day.

We got 2 weekends in Yosemite as a type of weather insurance - in case it rained one weekend, we could just bail and go another. It turned out to be great weather both weekends. We hiked one weekend up to Glacier Point and spent the following weekend just bouldering and eating ice cream.

A advertised that Glacier Point would just be 4 miles. In reality, it's 4.8 miles to the top and then 4.8 back down. The trail is mostly switchbacks resulting in over 3000 feet of elevation gain. It pretty much took the full day. The next day we went to watch the dawn wall at dawn before checking out the Camp 4 bouldering briefly.

The 2 weekends made it so we could do different things each weekend. And the leaves were changing color, so we got to see the progression of colors over the course of 2 weeks. It was pretty special to experience a seasonal shift since weather in LA is always the same. The first weekend we were able to fit 4 people, camping gear, and a bouldering pad. The second weekend, A had a fun time driving his first wife, the s2k, into the wilderness.

Camping was fun to do for 3 weekends back to back, but maybe it would be advisable to space it out some more in the future. We had all our camp gear out all month. It was nice to be able to put things away after the last trip.

best,
jt