California Coastal Road Trip – July 2017 (Day 5) – Muir Woods National Monument

On Day 5 we got a slow start and had a breakfast at Green Gables Inn before starting our drive toward San Francisco. Our stopping point for the night would be Fairfield Inn & Suites Santa Rosa Sebastopol. Not as nice as the Green Gables Inn, but a good place to launch a Russian River area wine tour from on Day 6.

In classic road trip fashion the day was more about what we could see and do on the way up to Sebastopol than the destination. Five years earlier we had driven the coast and stopped in Halfmoon Bay for lunch. That had been an option again, but this time we decided to stop in Santa Cruz Wharf and the historic Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. We had lunch on the Wharf although there were a lot of choices we picked Gilda’s because it looked authentic/historic. They have great food and views of the Santa Cruz coastline.

After lunch we meandered through the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk area. Historic coastal amusement park has been there since 1907. We mostly just wanted to get a feel for the place and did not do any of the rides. But it would be a cool place to take younger kids or to hang out as a teenage.

After leaving Santa Cruz the next stop would be Muir Woods. There are several places we could have gone south of San Francisco like Big Basin Redwood State Park or Portola Redwoods State Park, but they were less accessible, and we had Muir Woods on our list for a couple of other previous trips and had not made it there. Also it would get us closer to our destination before we stopped for a break. We still stayed on Highway 1 up the coast and enjoyed the drive with the top down.

The drive into Muir Woods is deceiving you are driving through some dry grassy hills, then as you descend in to a valley the landscape begins to change. We passed the entrance, and had to park in one of the many small parking lots along the road past there. It was a bit of a walk back to the entrance but that was just the beginning of our walking for the day. We got the obligatory picture at the entrance. Five years later that is the only way I know we started at just after 4:30 PM. We also got similar pictures when we left after 6:40. Although the later pictures were actually brighter and less blurry (cell phone not camera), I think this one conveys the feel of the place better.

I would definitely like to go back again some day with a better camera closer to the middle of the day. I think the lighting might work better. In sorting through the picture a lot were blurry or had difficulty with exposure. But it also created some very dramatic contracts between bright and dark in some of the photos. This one of ferns was with natural lighting coming through the trees.

And this one of moss growing on a downed trunk was with the camera flash.

But the stars of this show were the upright redwood trees, the stream, and the trail through the valley.

Cathedral Grove in Muir Woods

Redwood Creek in Muir Woods

Bridge 4 Muir Woods

Bridge 4 is the end of the valley trail. You can turn around here and come back the way you came, you can go across the bridge and return on the Hillside trail, or you can explore some of the other nearby trails. We chose what looked like a short loop up the Fern Creek trail left on the Lost trail to Camp Eastwood, and then down the Camp Eastwood trail. It was definitely a cool side trip, although Jenny was certain we were lost by the time we got to Camp Eastwood on the Lost Trail. The trails were not as easy as the wooden valley trail, but I found that more fun.

Pedestrian Tree Bridge Muir Woods

The Lost Trail was a fairly steep climb but the the Eastwood Camp trail was a lot of switchback that came easily back down the hill. Jenny was relieved when we started to hear civilization again as we approached the bottom of the hill and saw the main trail again. We still were not ready to take the same trail back to the entrance so we crossed Bridge 4 and took the Hillside Trail back. It was well groomed but quite a bit higher than the main Redwood Creek trail. On the map it looks close, but you only saw glimpses of main trail below.

Hillside trail

Jenny on the Hillside Trail

View of the lower Redwood Creek Trail

When you get to the end of the Hillside Creek trail, you are not out of the woods yet (groan). You come out on the Bohemian Grove trail. We stayed on that trail until it joined the main trail near the entrance. The name of the trail sort of gives it away, but there is one more big set of trees.

At the entrance, in this case the exit, we took another try at a picture. It was brighter, and clearer, but did not capture the feel of the place as well.

We had a fun couple hours walking through Muir Woods. The memories are not quite as fresh five years later, but putting this post together finally dusted them off and made writing the post more worthwhile. We only had an hour drive to Sebastopol and our hotel. We scrimped on the hotel, but went all out on a Russian River Valley wine tour then next day. We did 4 wineries, one too many, glad we had a driver. I’ll save myself another post. Our favorite taste was the sparkling Wedding Cuvee at Iron Horse, we still buy bottles of that occasionally.

The prettiest grounds (and biggest bill) were at Lynmar.

The next morning, after sleeping off the ill fated last winery tasting, we got in the car, left the top up and took the most direct route home. As I write this and commit to myself to come back to chronicle more of our adventures, we have yet another trip to Big Sur planned this summer for our 10 year anniversary. This time we will be camping, spending most of the week at the Big Sur River Campground. but we did add a couple nights in Paso Robles for another day to check out wineries! Rather than trying to catch this blog up on all of the things we have done since 2017, I may just jump to that trip next. The rest of it was already shared with my Facebook friends. Here I’ve only put out about a post a year, but I have kept up with tracking my local San Diego hike on my Afoot and Afield in San Diego County Hikes page and my National Park visits on my National Parks Visited page.

California Coastal Road Trip – July 2017 (Day 3) – Big Sur Drive

We decided to start day 3 with a drive down the Big Sur coast from Carmel to as far as we could go until we came to a road closure. Due to bridge damage and a landslide it would be impossible in 2017 to drive the length of Big Sur the way we did in 2012.

We stopped for coffee and breakfast at the Big Sur River Inn. We had not visited here in 2012 so this was a new experience.  We sat on the back patio with a view of the Big Sur River.   While we waited for our breakfast to arrive a Stellar’s Jay flew on to the rail next to our table.  It’s likely that the possibility of a free meal was the attraction.

While sitting on the back patio we noticed some lounge chairs in the river below us.  After eating we went down to check this out.

There are several different groups of chairs in the river and plenty of rocks to step on if you don’t want to get your feet wet.  We decided to get a picture lounging in the river as we relaxed and enjoyed the peaceful morning in Big Sur

Then it was time to continue our way down the road.   The Big Sur coastal drive is beautiful for many reasons, the mixture of colorful hills, some blue sky, and fog are just some of them.

Add the beaches and water for even more beauty.

Finally add in the rocky shoreline and bridges to complete the picture.

We turned around not too far north of the Bixby bridge and then stopped on the way back at the Garrapata State Park Bluff Trail for a 1.5 mile hike with great views.  We parked along the road and hiked the north part of the trail first to a look out point.  We took a few pictures here with good views of the water, beach, and trails.

Then we headed back along the coastal trail.  

The trail turns back toward the road so you can cross a bridge over an ocean inlet and waterfall to get to the southern trails.

On the other side of the bridge the trail starts to remind us of the scenery we saw a couple days earlier at Point Lobos.

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We continued on the trail until we came to a group of trees, then headed back to our car to head back to the Carmel area.  There we drove through the 17 Mile Drive again, revisiting some favorites like the Pebble Beach golf course…

and the lone tree.

After the drive down memory lane we headed back to the Green Gable Inn to get some pictures there, including a few at the park across the street where we got married.  Five years earlier we had seen this inn across the street and mentioned how cool it would be to stay there next time we visited.  In addition to being a very cool looking place…

the location and views from our room were great.

We could also walk across the street to the park where we got married.  We found the tree we were married under and waited for someone to come along to get our picture.

We didn’t remember the bench, but thought they had added it since 2012.  After we got the picture, we pulled up the picture from 5 years earlier to compare it.

Then we realized they had not added a bench, we were taking a picture under the wrong tree!  We found the “right tree” and another willing photographer and got the picture we came for!

For the final memory of the day/night we returned to Casanovas restaurant for a nostalgic dinner.  It is a very cool restaurant with great food and ambiance.  My memory of what I had eaten before was not on the menu and the waiter who had been there for over 10 years did not remember a dish like that every being on the menu.  It’s funny how memories get twisted like that.  Anyway, we loved the food and refreshing, and maybe even correcting our wedding day memories.  

We stayed one more day and night in Pacific grove so we could enjoy the Green Gable inn, Pacific Grove and Monterey on the 4th of July. I’ll put the details for that day in another post (eventually)!

One Hundred Trails Done in San Diego County

I added “Hike at least 250 different trails in San Diego County” to my Bucket List in 2014. I’ve had good and bad hiking years since then, but I’ve stuck to the goal, and plan to achieve it regardless of how long it takes. In fact, I’m not in a huge rush. A few weeks ago I passed the century mark for trails and today I passed the century mark for completed hikes. The difference between those 2 things came to be on my 99th hike. I messed up on the navigation and we only completed a little over half of the 7 mile hike. We’ll go back one day soon to fix that mistake, but until then I’ll have a half of a hike on my list.
I’m following the list of hikes in the book Afoot and Afield in San Diego County. The list was started using the 4th Edition that had 250 unique hikes in it. The current, 5th Edition, has 282 unique hikes. I have not updated my Bucket List or tracking page, Afoot and Afield in San Diego County Hikes, but I will one of these days.
I don’t always go with the same people, my wife and youngest son are usually there, but not always. Occasionally we have a bigger group, but not often. I’ve only done 1 or 2 alone, but not long or remote ones. I don’t “redo” trails very often. Before I set the goal, I repeated several of the more popular trails in San Diego multiple times. Cowles Mountain, Iron Mountain, and Mount Woodson to name a few. These are gorgeous and popular trails, but the goal is to explore new trails, so that is what I’ve been doing. A few of the hikes in the book are loops that take you back over at least part of a different trail in the book. But in general I have not done a lot of repeat trails since starting the Bucket List tracking.
I tried to pick a meaningful hike, and of course a special place for my 100th trail. The hundredth trail ended up being Batiquito Lagoon. A very worthy hike in a beautiful coastal lagoon area. We had volunteered to clean up there a few years ago. Usually going out on the water is prohibited but for this special event volunteers are allowed on the water for the cleanup. We kayaked out onto the lagoon to collect garbage. The kayaking was fun and I was pretty proud of the tire I brought back to shore!

Batiquito Lagoon Cleanup September 2011

And as a trail for the 100th hike, it was up to expectations as well.

Red Wing Black Bird on Batiquito Lagoon trail

California Least Tern with stretched neck on west side of Batiquito Lagoon

Dusk view of Batiquito Lagoon

Jenny and Eric near the end of the Batiquito Lagoon hike

I will continue to get out and hike in San Diego regularly. Not every available weekend, I have other things I want to do, vacations, projects around the house, and of course friends, 6 children and 3 grandchildren to hang out with. Like any goal, I want to finish it, but it has to fit into my life, and I think I’m good to go to continue hiking for at least another decade and hopefully more!

Yosemite (September 8-10 2016 – Day 2)

On our second day in Yosemite, we got going at a reasonable time. It was still pretty cold in the morning until the sun had a chance to warm the place up a bit. Bridal Veil Creek Campground is at an elevation of 7000 feet so expect it to be a little colder than some of the campgrounds at lower elevation. We had coffee and a warm breakfast to help us warm up though.

The plan for day two was to head down into the valley to explore and to do the short hike up to the bridge below Vernal Falls. This would be our only full day in Yosemite for this quick car camping trip so we wanted to make the best of it. Our first stop on the way down to the valley was at the iconic Tunnel View stop. Don’t pass this parking lot up if you are coming in to Yosemite from the south. If you are not drive up here anyway. No visit to Yosemite is complete without seeing the valley from this angle!

It was a hazy fall day, so the valley features are blurred, but if every picture I took from this place was under the same conditions it would be a bit boring. So I love this picture as much as any I have taken from Tunnel View. Also take note of the yellow/dead trees in the foreground. Although the main Yosemite Valley area was mostly unaffected by the bark beetle when we visited in September 2016, the surrounding areas were affected and some areas you could see from the high roads leading into the park from the south were absolutely devastated. As I write this there is a huge fire, the 2017 Detwiler fire is raging west of Yosemite. Although I fear this fire could easily rage through these areas damaged by the bark beetle I have mixed feelings about it. Some area have 50% or more dead trees and so I don’t know what else could clear this many dead trees. I feel for the residents in this area who may lose their homes and I hope everyone involved stays safe, but unfortunately large fires in California are inevitable over the next several years until these large swaths of dead trees are cleared.

Our plan for our only full day in Yosemite was to hike up the John Muir/Mist Trail to at least the bridge below Vernal Falls. This part of the trail is fairly easy and paved to the bridge. It does have some steep parts, but walking up through the rocks and trees is worth it.

We came down at the end of our 2010 Panorama Trail hike in 2010. I thought back to that hike when I saw Dave walking backward up the trail.

In 2010 we had not done much training to prepare for the Panorama Trail hike, and we were really feeling it in our calves by this part of the trail. The youngsters (Sean and Matthew) were doing fine, but Dave, Richard, and I were feeling it. I don’t have pictures of us lower on the trail to Vernal, but I do have a picture of the 3 old guys on the Mist Trail just below Vernal Falls.

We would not go that high on the trail on this trip, and there would be much less water on Vernal, but this is a beautiful trail no matter what the conditions are. This time there would only be a trickle of water coming over Vernal Falls and even that was barely visible from the bridge.

We had our lunch on the rocks just past the bridge. As usual the squirrels, and birds were very interested in our food. We headed back down from this point and back to where we parked at Curry Village. Yeah I know they renamed it to Half Dome Village, but I’m not interested in what it says on the signs! It will always be Curry Village to me.

We did some souvenir shopping at Curry Village and the Main Yosemite Village stores, and then decided to get Pizza. It was fortune for us that the Pizza Parlor at the Yosemite Village was closed, because that lead us back to Curry Village to the Pizza place there. The pizza was good, but the real win was the lighting on the canyon walls when we got ready to leave. We stopped on the side of the road just outside Curry Village. From there we saw quite a show. Half Dome and North Dome were lit to a Golden Glow.

A deer was grazing on grass just a little ways off the road.

And the moon was just about to set behind Glacier Point.

With a little zoom, it was much more impressive…

As much as I love those pictures, my favorite picture of the trip would be a drive by picture at Tunnel View on our way back to Bridal Veil campgrounds. It was getting late and we still had a ways to go to get back to our campsite, so no one really wanted to get out to look take a second look. I snapped this picture from the car.

Normally I try to get up to the wall and leave everyone out of this picture. What I like so much about this picture is the people. The smiles, the families… this is really what I love most about Yosemite, sharing it with family and friends.

The lighting was great though, so I parked and ran up for one more picture, without the people.

Beautiful, but I like the first one better. We got back to camp, started a campfire and braved the cold for a few hours of visiting. Unfortunately we would be breaking down camp in the morning and heading home. It was a short, but fun trip, and we are always glad to hang with Dave and Wendy! We will definitely be back to Yosemite and I would love to stay at Bridal Veil Campgrounds again. I think our next visit is likely to be a back-country trip though. The High Sierra Camps most likely (just added that to the Bucket List not long ago). All the joys of a backpack trip without the backpack!

Updated Planning for a California Coastal Road Trip (2017 Revised Big Sur Plan)

In January 2017 I planned a road trip up most of the coast of California, including Big Sur. We wanted to enjoy another “top-down” road trip up the coast again for our 5th anniversary. Five years ago we rented a Volvo convertible for a trip up the coast through Big Sur. I loved the plan I came up with, but long needed, but “too much all at once” rains made the plan impossible to follow. Highway 1 through Big Sur will be closed this summer due to a collapsed bridge and landslides. There is no telling when it will open again.

Since we can’t do the original plan, I’ve decided to do more than just adjust the route, I’m going to make changes to the goals. First we will still be visiting some of Big Sur, but only what we can get to by driving back south from the north. Second, we will not be going all the way to Crescent City (northern most point of California). We’ll still enjoy plenty of driving up the coast, but we’ll spend more time in a couple of places and only go just past San Francisco to wine country.

Like the original plan we will drive up to LA the evening before the road trip starts. So day one will be the drive from Los Angeles to the Santa Barbara wine country.

Day 1.

Driving Time:  2.5 Hours
Places to explore:
Beaches from Malibu to Point Magu State Park
Ventura
Santa Barbara
Solvang

Although the original plan had us staying near the southern entrance to Big Sur, I now don’t see a good reason to drive past Solvang. This will make the drive shorter and give us more time to explore the beaches of my wife’s childhood. I’m really looking forward to more stories that being there will bring to her mind. Also it will make going past Solvang unnecessary so we will be able to enjoy the wineries in that area without having to worry about driving on to Moro Bay. We will likely do lunch in Santa Barbara now, but still plan to get to Solvang early enough to check out some of the wineries like in the original plan. Some of the best rated (on Yelp) wineries/tasting rooms in the Solvang area are: Carivintas Winery (they donate profits to animal charity, so part of the rating may be animal lovers), Shoestring Winery, Bella Cavalli Farms & Vineyard, or Cali Love Wine.  There are lots of other choices, but these are the ones that jumped out at me when looking at the reviews for the original plan.

Day 2.

Driving Time:  4 Hours (Most of this drive will be away from the coast as Highway 1 is not open all the way to Big Sur River Inn)
Places to Explore:

Point Lobos State Natural Reserve
Hurricane Point View
Bixby Creek Bridge
Rocky Creek Bridge
Point Sur State Historic Park

Changing the Day 2 plan is the biggest disappointment of the revised plan. I was really looking forward to this day of the original plan. Now instead of driving through Big Sur we will be driving up Highway 101, an inland route. We’ll definitely have to make up for this change on other parts of the trip. The day is not a waste though as we will still drive along the coast from Carmel to Big Sur River Inn. It will give us a chance to explore some of the areas that we originally planned for Day 3 on Day 2. We’ll get a second chance to explore these same areas on the drive back to Carmel on Day 3, but will not spend as much time exploring Big Sur as in the original plan.

Day 3 & 4.

Driving Time:1 hr
Places to Explore:

Second chance for the list from Day 2
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Berwick Park
Casanova Restaurant Carmel by the Sea

As part of the changes to the overall distance we are covering on this trip we will now be staying in the Pacific Grove for 2 nights and have one full day to revisit some of the places we enjoyed 5 years ago, and plenty of time to get to know the area even better. One of the options in the original plan was a bike ride along the Monterrey Bay Coastal Trail. That was pretty high on our list, but is now off the list as I injured my arm and will not be able to ride a bike this summer. We’ll have to save that for next time!

Day 5.

Driving Time:  3 Hours
Places to Explore:

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
Natural Beach State Park
Coast Dairies State Park
Shark Fin Cove
Pescadero State Beach
Half Moon Bay State Beach
San Francisco
Golden Gate Bridge
Sausalito
Muir Woods
Wineries near Santa Rosa and Sebastopol

(Day 5 is unchanged!)Leaving the Monterrey area it would be nice to drive along the coast as far as possible, stopping in Santa Cruz for breakfast, but if we sleep in we’ll probably take the fastest route past San Francisco to Muir Woods just north of San Francisco to explore. This has been on my list for a while, and I would love to be able to hike some (or all – it’s only about 6 miles) of the trails in Muir Woods. We had lunch in Half Moon Bay five years ago and really liked the vibe of the place. But then there are lots of cool places around here. Sausalito was another favorite on that trip and during our later visit to San Francisco when we bike across the Golden Gate Bridge. Either place would work for lunch before hiking in Muir Woods.

Then the second big change in our trip happens. Instead of a quick drive through visit to the Russian River wine country, we will be spending a couple of nights and one full day. The original plan was to stay in Sebastopol, but on the advise of our friend Eleanor, who has visited this are many times, we will be staying in Windsor.

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Day 6.

Driving Time:  0 Hours
Places to Explore:

Russian River Area Wineries (Lynmar Estate, Iron Horse, Gary Farrell Winery, Korbel Winery, and others)

Day 6 will be the last full day of our trip before the drive home. We plan to take a driving tour of several wineries. The details of that are not worked out, but we will not be driving ourselves. Our first choice is a private sedan tour of the area. Then we’ll end the day with a nice dinner near our hotel. After all the wine tasting, a good dark beer at a nearby Irish pub sounds great!

Day 7-8

Driving Time:  5-6 Hours to LA on Day 7, and another 2.5 hours home on Day 8

The next day the top would go up for a long drive on I-5 to Los Angeles. Then the next day we’ll head the rest of the to San Diego.

I did not like deleting the section of the trip above the Russian River area, but we wanted to drive less and enjoy a couple of areas for longer times. We will look to do another trip that takes us the rest of the way up the coast from San Francisco another time. Since there are lots of camping options up there, maybe we’ll take the Wrangler instead. Still a great vehicle for a drive along the coast.

Yellowstone and Grand Tetons (8 Aug 2016) – Garnet Canyon Trail Grand Tetons

We knew we would be hiking in Grand Teton National Park, but we had not chosen which trail to hike until the day before our hike. I had a list but was still doing research and we wanted to go with one that fit the way we felt when the time came. I’m not sure what source of info I was looking at, whether it was a National Park Service brochure, or some other guide, but the hike that jumped out at me was described as the easiest hike to an alpine meadow in the Grand Tetons. Easy sounded good and getting up high enough to feel like we were actually “in the Tetons” sounded great too. I do recommend Garnet Canyon Trail, but I would not in any way call it an easy trail. It is 8.4 miles out and back and over 2200 feet of climb. It is a very strenuous climb, and for much of the hike you will have panoramic view out over Grand Teton National Park, but you will have very little to look at “up the mountain”. But when you do finally get views “up the mountain”, they will take what little breath you have left away!

We got up fairly early to have breakfast, but we weren’t in a huge rush to get started. The temperature would be very reasonable even in the middle of the afternoon. We met up with Jenny’s cousin Charles to go with him on the hike. He had stayed nearby so we met at our hotel and then headed into downtown Jackson to get a light breakfast and a large coffee at Jackson Hole Coffee Roasters. The service and the coffee were very good.

The drive to the trail head was not bad from Jackson. We stopped at the visitor’s center briefly, then headed to the Lupine Meadows Trailhead. There is plenty of parking and it was fairly clear how to get to the trailhead from where we parked our car. We wasted no time in hitting the trail. The trail starts with a very misleading long flat stretch.

But eventually the trail turns toward the mountain and begins to climb.

The trail heads steadily straight up the mountain, gently at first and then getting steeper before starting long sweeping switchbacks. I may have under sold the lower parts of the trail in my intro. The trail climbs through the trees for much of the lower part of the trail.

If you look up during the start of the hike you are likely to catch a glimpse of the Grand Teton peak through the trees.

As you head up the trail further you won’t be able to see this peak, but you will be much closer to the Middle Teton and Nez Perce peaks. But before you get to that you’ll have lot’s of views out over the park, including some great views of Taggart and Bradley lakes at the base of this part of the mountain.

After about a mile and a half Charles went ahead of us quite a ways. We were not in the best “hiking” shape we could be in and we were also struggling a bit with the altitude. We kept a nice steady pace, but it was sort of slow. When we got to the 3 mile mark there is a fork in the trail which is well-marked.

Charles was waiting for us at the junction. The trail heads further up the mountain to some high mountain lakes. We talked to a couple of groups who were backpacking to this area to camp. We would be heading the other direction, more around the mountain than up it, to Garnet Canyon. Charles made a pitch to head back down instead, and decided he would head back either way. Although I was really feeling my lack of conditioning at that point, I was for continuing on. We decided to continue as we knew there would be some great view ahead of us.

After the junction the trail toward Garnet Canyon levels out quite a bit. The hike is easier, but we were pretty tired by this point. As we rounded the corner and headed onto the trail directly above Garnet Canyon excitement replaced fatigue. The Nez Perce peak came into view first.

There was no one else around so we took a quick selfie with this peak behind us.

We were tired, but happy we had continued. The bear spray we had bought the previous day while checking out the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone River was hooked up and ready on my chest. Luckily we would not need it during this trip!

From this point the views would only get more spectacular. Just a little further up the trail we got a great view of both Nez Perce and Middle Teton peaks.

Just a little further up the trail we ran into a group of hikers coming back down the trail. They let us know it was not much further to the end of the trail. They also took this picture of us.

We decided to have a seat and enjoy some snacks around the next corner. There was a nice boulder to rest on…

with a very sweet view! At this point the line of lava going up the face of the Middle Teton was very obvious.

I explored a little further up the trail, but it was quickly turning in to just a jumble of rocks. Although we could have continued a little further it was time for us to head back. I got these final shots of a stream going down Garnet Canyon in the distance…

and one last view up the canyon at the point I turned around.

The first part of the descent was beautiful all over again. I love when you get to see things from a different angle on the way back down a trail.

In this shot, the lighting was perfect to see the pines reflecting on Bradley Lake from our angle on the trail above the lake.

As we got closer to the bottom though we started to feel it again. Sometimes going down can take it out of you too. I prefer going down hill, but for Jenny it is harder than going up. Hiking poles help, but a good smooth well maintained trail helps too.

We were glad to come to landmarks that let us know we were getting close to the end. We woke Charles up from his nap at the car and headed back to Jackson for a light dinner and a well deserved beer!

I’m finishing this post up on December 31st 2016. During this trip I started to think of myself as “in the worst shape of my life”. I’ve done nothing in the nearly 5 months since this trip to change that. Over the last year I’ve only been in the gym intermittently, I’ve been unable to run, and I’ve not hiked enough to really make a difference either. It is a bit cliché, but I’m going to resolve to change my routine in the New Year. It may be a slow start as I have foot surgery near the end of January, but once I’m recovered from that I’m hoping to be able to get back to running. Before the surgery I plan to get a good start on getting out of the worst shape of my life! I have way too many things I want to do to be “out of shape” any longer.

Update Feb 13, 2017:  I got a good start on getting out of “the worst shape of my life” before my surgery.  It has been 3 weeks since my surgery and today was my first day in a regular shoe!  The foot is healing fast and already feels better in many ways than it did before the surgery.  So glad to have the irritating hardware out of my foot.  I’m hoping to get in to the gym by the end of this week (about a month post surgery) for some weight training and maybe a light elliptical workout.  I have an all-inclusive resort on white sand beach to prepare for!

Yellowstone and Grand Tetons (7 Aug 2016) – Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River

We were lucky enough to be invited to the wedding of the son of close friends in Bozeman Montana at the beginning of August 2016.  Unfortunately for us we already had floor tickets to Adele in Los Angeles the day before the wedding.  These were tough tickets to get and even tougher tickets to sell or give away.  For better seats Adele had set a rule to reduce/prevent scalping that the person who ordered the tickets had to present a credit card to get into the venue.  There were no tickets to sell.  We wanted to go to the wedding so we checked for flights from the LA area the morning of the wedding.  There were very reasonably priced flights from John Wayne airport to Bozeman early Saturday morning, so we decided to go to the concert, stay in LA, and drive to the airport early that morning. We also decided to add-on a visit to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National park to the trip. It would be a fast 3 day visit, but we would pack a lot of stuff into those 3 days.

The Adele concert was awesome and our hotel was walking distance from Staples Center, but we still got to bed fairly late and had to get up at 4 am to catch our flight. We got into Bozeman early, but by the time we got our rental car we had just enough time to go to our hotel, check-in, change and head to the wedding. The wedding venue was awesome, but there were dark clouds approaching.

We had a great time at the wedding, but started to feel the long day way too soon. We hung in there, but eventually had to head back to the room and catch up on our sleep. The next day everyone else was heading out-of-town early, so we got up fairly early, had breakfast at a terrific French coffee shop, then heading toward Yellowstone. Originally we had planned to go in the north entry into Yellowstone as it is closest to Bozeman, but later decided to go in the west entrance and leave out of the north entrance on the final day.

So we headed down Highway 191 through the Big Sky area on our way to West Yellowstone. A friend recommended this route and now that we’ve gone both ways, I would definitely recommend this route. It is has very scenic landscape, and we saw both elk…

and buffalo along the road. I believe the buffalo was a commercial herd, but still cool.

We only stopped briefly in West Yellowstone, but it looked kind of interesting for a future visit. Our first destination in the park was Canyon Village. Both Jenny or I have been to Yellowstone before, but neither of us had visited the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. We did end up having one unscheduled stop along our route though, Gibbon Falls.

We planned to just stop for a minute to take a couple of pictures from the closest view-point…

but ended up walking on a path for about a half a mile…

to get a better view of the falls. The view actually changes quite a bit as you walk along the path to the lower viewpoint. At first there view opens up so you can see the walls on both sides of the falls.

Then it opens up even more and there are trees in the view also.

We enjoyed the break from the car and the short walk, but then it was back on the road to the Canyon area of Yellowstone. The one advantage of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone over the Grand Canyon, is the much shorter drive from the North Rim to the South Rim.

We were able to see the canyon and falls from most of the view points in just a few hours. We did three short hikes during this time. We started with a drive along North Rim Drive. I would actually recommend going to the South Rim first as the North Rim Drive is a one way that takes you back the way you came for several miles. It just makes more sense to do it last. The first stop on North Rim Drive is a trail to the Brink of the Lower Falls. The weather was threatening rain, but of course we had forgotten to pack ponchos. We decided a little water would not hurt and started down the trail. The trail is less than a half mile, but descends about 600 feet. There are switchbacks, but it is still pretty steep. If you look up on the way down, you get a pretty good view of the Upper Falls less than a mile up the Yellowstone River.

The rain was threatening and we could hear thunder in the distance so we knew our visit would be a fairly short one. The falls are impressive. We’ve been to Yosemite several times, and the waterfalls are impressive, but the lower falls at the Yellowstone River’s Grand Canyon are right there with any falls in Yosemite. That is especially true this late in the year. The waterfalls slow to a trickle in the late summer and fall in Yosemite. Our first view was from directly over the top of the falls.

The view of the water, and the mist, and the green sides of the canyon set against the golden color of the rest of the canyon was spectacular. I can’t recommend visiting this place in strong enough terms, it is my favorite spot in Yellowstone.

I stretched the camera out a ways and got a slightly different angle/shot.

This shows how sudden the drop is and how much water is flowing. Finally we went up one level to get a different perspective. This shows the area we had just left, right on the “brink of the falls”.

It started drizzling at that point. We were really wishing we had ponchos, but it was a bit late for that. The walk back up was a bit tougher, but it was cool and the threat of heavier rain kept us motivated. There is also a trail from here to the Brink of the Upper Falls, but with the weather we decided to drive further down the road. The next place we stopped on North Rim Drive was Lookout Point. There’s a full view of the Lower Falls from here.

If you look closely in the picture from lookout point you can see a wooden trail heading down into the canyon below. Although the rain had started to fall, we decided to head down this trail to Red Rock anyway. The trail alternates between a steep and more gentle descent. It not only takes you down into the canyon, it takes you a lot closer to the falls. I enjoyed the trail…

but the view of the falls from Red Rock were even better than from lookout point.

There is something joyful about hiking unprepared in the rain. Sometime it’s hard to contain that feeling so you just have raise your arms to the sky!

Jenny seemed to enjoy it so much… I didn’t want to get left out!

We stayed to enjoy the view for several minutes. I managed to get a picture of this bird (Clarks Nutcracker I believe), resting for a minute in the top of a tree between us and the falls.

We waited just long enough to catch the blue sky starting to peek out at the top of the falls. Love the coloring of this picture!

On the way back up I took this picture of the wooden stairs that form the path for much of the bottom of this trail. You can see the rim of the canyon above us.

I got a couple more pictures near the top of the trail. One back toward the Lower Falls…

and the other away from the falls and into the canyon.

We were soaked to the bone by the time we got to the top. We did take some pictures (evidence), but the smiles could not hide the cold, wet, and a bit worn-out from the climb look. No need to share that look!

We decided to go the Canyon Lodge area for some supplies (bear spray and some ponchos) and to get a bite to eat. Then we headed to the North Rim. Even though the route we took was not the most efficient route, everything is pretty close together here, so we didn’t lose much time, just enough to dry most of the way out!

Our first stop on the North Rim was at Uncle Tom’s point. There is a trail here that leads to a metal staircase that takes you right beside the Lower Falls. The pictures from here were unbelievable. If you are in reasonable shape, definitely go down this trail! The trail is in good shape, but the fun part of the trip is the stairs and the views of the falls.

The first view you get of the falls are some of the best. You are close enough to see the size of the crowd on the Brink of the Lower Falls.

That is near the top of the stairs. There are lots of stairs – 328 per the sign.

The stairs are impressive mostly because of the spectacular view from them.

You get great views of the canyon down river…

of the walls straight across the canyon…

and of course of the falls.

Then you get to climb back out! At the top, we debated whether to go on to Artist Point or to hit the road to Jackson Hole, where we would be spending the night. It’s about a 2 and a half hour drive. I’m glad we decided on a quick visit to Artist Point.

From the parking lot at Artist Point it is a short walk to the end of the trail. The difference in the view you get as you walk is dramatic though. At first you catch glimpses of the falls through the trees.

The trail takes advantage of a curve in the river so as you walk down the trail the canyon seems to open up and fill your view. At first the trees still dominate the view.

But eventually as you approach the end of the trail you can see the full canyon and a long stretch of the river.

From the farthest point you can walk to, the view of the canyon dominates the landscape.

I could spend a whole day at this location just taking pictures with different lighting. It is obvious how this place got its name.

We had seen a lot, but not all of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, but it was time to head south. Our route would take us through a big chunk of Yellowstone, past Yellowstone Lake and through Grand Teton National Park. We were hoping there was enough daylight left to enjoy the drive. About a half hour into the drive we noticed a lot of cars stopped in the road. As we approached the area we could see why. There were several buffalo grazing near the road.

The traffic was just crawling past this spot and we were at a complete stop several times. We saw the “classic” behavior that can lead to big issues around such big animals. Too many people, too much activity, and people getting way too close. One young lady got to within 30 feet or so to take a selfie. She turned her back on the buffalo smiled big and took her picture. I was afraid to watch!

We took a picture (not great, but good enough for me) from the car as the traffic crawled along.

We zipped past Yellowstone Lake. We would be back here in a couple days, and we were anxious to get to Grand Teton Park. We got there in time to get some great views of the Tetons. Although we had zipped by Yellowstone Lake, we could not help stopping for pictures of the Tetons across the lakes we were passing in Grand Teton Park.

A few minute later we stopped again with a slightly better view of the mountains.

At this point we were worried about getting to Jackson in time to get a good dinner. We would be back to spend the whole day in Grand Teton Park the next day, so I told Jenny we should not stop any more. Of course a few minutes later I looked over at the mountains, exclaimed “Whoa Nelly” and pulled over again. The full view of the mountains as the sun was setting was too good to pass up. I took a landscape view picture with my phone…

and then this panoramic shot.

Our reservations in Jackson were at the Cowboy Village Log Cabin Resort. We checked in quickly and got our stuff into our cabin, then walked a couple blocks to have dinner at Snake River Brewing. The service, food, beers, and atmosphere were a perfectly relaxing end to a full day.

We would be having breakfast with a friend, Charles, in the morning, enjoying Jackson Hole for a bit and then going for a hike in the Tetons. We had chosen what was described as the “easiest alpine meadow hike in the Tetons”. But more on that in the next post.

Cuyamaca Peak via Conejos Trail

Distance	8.2 Miles out and back
Elevation Change	1762′ gain/loss
Difficulty	Moderately Strenuous
Rating (on the day we went)	4.5+ Stars (out of 5) – Had the day been clearer this could have easily been a 5 star hike.
Trail Conditions and Route	From the parking lot on CA 79, walk west on the unpaved fire road, Milk Ranch Road for 1.7 miles. Turn left (south) on the unpaved road Azalea Fire Road and follow it for .2 miles to Conejos Trail on the right. Conejos Trail is a clear trail with varying conditions. About half of the trail is relatively smooth, but the other half is small to large loose rocks. Turn right on the fairly steep paved Lookout Road to finish the climb to the top of Cuyamaca peak.
Comments	Although the area surrounding Cuyamaca peak was hit hard by the 2003 Cedar fire, this route is a great way to see nature as it recovers from fire. There are fewer “tree skeletons” than on the route up the paved Lookout Road, and most of the route shows strong signs of recovery.
Latitude/Longitude	32.976615, -116.581393
Directions	Take Interstate 8 East to CA 79 North, follow CA 79 North for 13.5 miles to the junction of Milk Ranch Fire Road. You’ll see a parking area on the north side of the road. This area also is the trail head for Middle Peak, and for trails toward Cuyamaca Lake. After parking carefully cross CA 79 and head straight west along Milk Ranch road. There will be a road that branches off to the left for horse trailers, stay right.

Cuyamaca Peak is the second highest peak in San Diego county, but only by less than 30 feet. Also the hike to the summit of the highest peak, Hot Springs Mountain is 500 feet less climb than Cuayama Peak’s 1700 feet plus climb. The one disappointment I had while planning this hike was that the route described in the book Afoot and Afield in San Diego is up a completely paved route. So I decided to look at other options. I decided to try the route that included Conejos Trail. Although the climb is slightly more and the distance about 2.6 miles more, I was glad to not be pounding the pavement up and especially down the hill! In order to get to Conejos Trail we started at the same parking area as for the Middle Peak trail head as described in the book Afoot and Afield in San Diego. For this route we followed Milk Ranch Road, instead of taking Minshall Trail north. We also continue past Middle Peak Fire road at .2 miles our destination was to the south, not the north.

I had been expecting to see a lot of dead trees on this hike as we had on our hike up nearby Stonewall Peak earlier this year. There were dead and burnt trees along the route…

but there were also areas of mature trees as well as areas that were starting to recover. Milk Ranch Road actually passed through a few areas with the shade of large groves of mature trees.

The healthiest of these trees were the Arizona Ash trees. Here is a closeup of the leaves on this tree. Not sure if these trees just mature quickly or if they were unaffected by the fires.

Although this area used to be known for old growth sugar pines, I only saw one mature, but very scorched looking sugar pine along Milk Ranch Road.

I really wish I had been here before the Cedar Fire.

There were also plenty of blooms along the road, the most spectacular were the clumps of Purple Lupine.

We’ve had a pretty wet spring, but I was surprised to see actual mud puddles in the road by the middle of May. I doubt these will be around much longer.

At 1.7 miles in there is a low wooden rail on the left side of the road with a dual track road, Azalea Fire Road, beyond the rail. This intersection is well-marked with sign posts. Turn south to follow Azalea Fire Road for just .2 miles to the start of Conejos Trail. As the fire road approaches an area of fire devastation….

take note of the trail that branches off to the right. This is the beginning of the Conejos Trail. This trail is also well-marked with a sign post, although the post is off the road quite a ways.

This area of “tree skeletons” was what I had been expecting for the entire hike. When you look at Cuyamaca Peak from the road or other peaks in the area, it looks like this stuff covers the whole mountain. I really had thought that this hike would be kind of depressing because of this. However, Conejos Trail skirts around this area and/or, they have cleared a lot of dead trees in the area Conejos Trail goes through. What we expected and what we hiked through were not at all the same. It was a very pleasant surprise. We loved the area Conejos Trail passed through. Although the beginning of the trail is surrounded by dead trees and the faintness of the trail through the grass makes you question how established the trail really is…

The trail soon becomes more established and the signs of recovery overwhelm the few dead trees left standing.

However, there are plenty of reminders of the mature forest that used to cover this slope.

There are areas with smooth trail and high bushes…

and areas that are steeper and rockier…

and areas with less growth which have better views especially as you get further up the mountain.

There is a ton of new growth pine trees along the trail. It is encouraging to see such strong signs of recovery especially after a few years of drought.

One thing I didn’t expect to see along the trail in mid-May was ferns. One area along the trail had several very healthy looking ferns.

As you approach the top of the Conejos Trail you can see a fairly large grove of mature pines that are near the summit of Cuyamaca Peak.

By this point we were pretty hungry, so we were glad to be getting to the top. We wanted to eat lunch at the summit to enjoy the views. Our normal day hike lunch is a very easy and convenient sub from Subway. It makes getting out the door so much easier than preparing sandwiches for the hike. It always hits the spot.

Before getting to the mature grove of trees we passed through one more reminder of the devastation of the 2003 Cedar fire.

Then a brief stroll through the tall pines to the junction with Lookout Road.

At the intersection we looked down the road a little, the pine forest in that direction looked very healthy. Only hunger kept us from walking back down the road a ways to enjoy this area.

We headed up the road, but a trail about 75 meters up the road caught our attention and spurred enough curiosity to push the hunger back down briefly. We walked out along the slightly descending trail and discovered a bench overlooking an amazing view to the west.

El Cajon Mountain (or El Capitan Open Space Preserve) in the middle of the view seemed much smaller and less significant that it does as you drive by it on the 8 freeway. Having hiked it a couple years ago, I know that it only looked small from here. It is a very challenging day hike and fun, if you like going up, then back down, then up further, then back down, then up even higher. Although it is only around 1900 feet above the trail head to the peak the hike has 4000 feet of gain/loss during the 14 mile out and back hike. We did this hike as one of our last hikes while training for our 2014 Grand Canyon rim to rim hike.

We briefly considered eating lunch here, but wanted to give the summit a look before lunch, so we headed up the rest of Lookout Road.

Although there were some surviving mature pines along this stretch of Lookout Road they were out numbered by the dead hulks of large trees. We did come across one more lone surviving Sugar Pine.

Although we did enjoy the views at the top of Cuyamaca Peak…

and checked out at least one potential lunch spot…

the hum from the ventilation system on the nearby buildings…

and an unbelievable number of pesky flying insects (never good at lunch time) made heading back down Lookout Road a half mile through the trees…

and past the California Lilac…

to the peaceful bench with a view seem like the best idea for lunch. During lunch I scanned the landscape to west below us to see if I could see any other familiar spots.

I thought I might be seeing an area near one of my favorite trails, Three Sisters Falls. I was pretty sure the road down there was Boulder Creek Road that we took to the trail head. However looking at the map and a little scrolling around on Google Earth and I could tell that I was seeing Boulder Creek Road, but that 3 Sisters Falls and the trail head were not visible, they were behind some of the mountains below us.

After lunch we headed back down the way we came. Parts of the trail seemed steeper and rockier than on the way up. If you go this way you may want hiking poles and you’ll want to take your time going down. I let Sean go first and we definitely did not go down slow. I think he may be part mountain goat! I managed to keep up with him, but my right knee paid a bit of a price. I’m hoping it will heal up quickly so we can get back out there soon! I think I’ll be bringing hiking poles next time. Near the bottom of the trail we saw a couple of wild turkeys in the small grassy area just off the road. They were huge! I got my camera out, but they were headed away from us pretty quickly I only managed to get one good picture of a single turkey crouching at the far side of the meadow. We looked around a little and saw a total of 3 turkeys, but they were elusive… moving away as quickly as we walked toward them.

Although I have not hiked up the route in the book Afoot and Afield in San Diego, which is the wholly paved route up Lookup Road, I think this route is a good alternative if you dislike hiking on steep paved roads. If we decide to try hiking to Cuyamaca Peak on a clearer day in the future, I might also try some of the other trails that start further south, or we could decide to just head straight up the paved Lookout Road to try it out.

Maui (October 2015) (Part 2 – Road to Hana, Pipiwai Trail, Haleakalā National Park)

On Day 3 in Maui we got up early to hit the Road to Hana!  This is a tourist must do, so if you’re a tourist… you do it.  It is a road in fairly poor condition.  That is probably because all those tourist keep driving on it and wearing it out!  But it is far from a tourist trap, it is well worth the drive.  It takes you through and to some of the most beautiful parts of Maui… if you’re one of those people who like tropical paradise anyway.

We got up early to head to the other side of the island.  The goal was to get to Paia and the start of the road to Hana before the traffic got too heavy.  We planned to drive fairly straight through to the end so we would have time to hike the Pipiwai Trail.  Then we would stop on the way back if there was anything else we were interested in.  The traffic was not too bad as we headed from Lahaina to Kahului.  There were some low clouds on the mountains, but it was a pretty clear morning otherwise.  We decided we would want to stop at Paia on the way back, it looked like a nice small village with several interesting shops.  We kept driving steadily until we got to the halfway point.  We didn’t stop along the way but we definitely enjoyed the drive!

There is a sign at the halfway point along the road that is also “conveniently” right beside a roadside stand that sells snacks and different varieties of banana bread.

 

We got snacks, drinks, and Wendy got some very tasty banana pineapple bread.  We wanted a little longer break from the car so we decided to sit on some picnic tables near the stand.  I got there first and noticed a small beautifully colored bird on a small wall beside the picnic tables.  I managed to get one good picture before he flew away.

Then it was back on the road!

I took a few quick pictures of falls on the way by, like this drive by shot of the three bears falls, but we did not stop again until we were past Hana.

The temperature and humidity were big factors in our day again.  It was well over 80 degrees and very humid by the time we started our hike along the Pipiwai Trail.  We took a wrong turn at the beginning… I’ll take credit for that… and ended up on the 7 pools trail.  I realized we were headed toward the water instead of inland after less than a quarter-mile, so we turned around quickly, but it had been all down hill to this point, so it was all uphill on the way back.  By the time we got to the start of the trail we were already very hot and sweaty!

The trail continued uphill through the Oheo Gulch.  The first sign I noticed was quite a serious warning.

As I looked up the trail past this sign I saw that my friend Dave had obviously ignored the warning as he was standing right on the muddy edge of the cliff.

My first thought was, “What could possibly be worth standing there?”.  As I walked up to see what he was looking at I realized it was indeed worth looking at, although I stayed a little further back and still got a great view of the falls of Makahiku.  Although it is hard to put this picture in perspective, the falls are about 180 feet high!

Next we came to a quite impressive Banyan Tree.  Unfortunately my camera had began to act up.  Between the humidity and sweat it began to have issues focusing and was taking mostly terrible pictures.   I did get one more decent picture that I snapped quickly as we walked by of a double falls below the trail.

After that picture I ended up taking better pictures the rest of the hike with my Samsung phone.  One of my favorite places of all time came next, it was a huge bamboo forest.  The trail cut through it up the hill, but you could see very little beyond a few feet off the trail.  I really didn’t get as many good pictures as I wish I had, but I’ll share a few.  This one was near the start of the trail.

I took a ton of pictures on this part of the trail.  The lighting was amazing, but I never quite got the picture I was shooting for, this was one of the trail…

and this one looking up, where the best I could get.

This last one was actually on the way back later but I like it because we are all in it and it also shows the wooden pallets that were on parts of the trail.  There were also a couple of bridges.  You can tell we were on the way back because Jenny and I were soaked to the bone.  We were sweating, but not that much… we had decided to take our chances and go under the water fall at the end of the trail.

 

After the bamboo forest, the trail continues though a very lush jungle.  It was actually a few degrees cooler in the bamboo than on the rest of the trail.  We missed the coolness as we finished up this last part of the hike up to Waimoku Falls.  We stopped just before the falls to have lunch on some rocks in a small stream.

There was an easy trail to a place to view the falls, but while Dave cooled off in a pool below the rocks, and Jenny and Wendy got the lunch together I decided to explore downstream.  The stream came to a merge point with another stream coming from the direction of the falls, so I decided to head that way.  After a little boulder jumping I got to a place where I could see the falls through the trees.

I was ready for lunch, but my curiosity got the better of me so decided to continue on to get a better view from this angle.  It was a very nice view and worth the effort.  I headed back the same way I had come after admiring the 430+ foot falls for a bit.  It was time to have a sandwich and relax a bit.

After lunch we all headed to the regular trail to the falls.  The trail stopped well back from the falls with a lot of warning signs to stay out of the area below the fall.  I imagine when there is heavy rains this area could fill with water very quickly.  We decided to go “a little” closer.  The path to the falls crosses the stream early then you walk along a very rocky path.  From this angle the view of the fall is not bad either!

 

I tried using my phone’s panorama mode to get a picture of Dave and Wendy near the base of the falls.  It turned out OK… they were a bit blurry, the falls are a bit distorted, and the whole picture is a bit over exposed, but I still love this picture.  Waimoku Falls is very impressive from this angle.

Jenny and I decided to take a little more of a risk and go in the pool below the falls.  Rocks and branches can come over the falls easily with the water, so I don’t recommend this to anyone.  We definitely cooled off though. Initially we both went under the falls.

I could not tell if Dave got the picture so I came out to ask. There was definitely no way to hear under the falls.

Just to be sure I went back under one more time.

We enjoyed the hike back out nearly as much as the hike in, but everyone was glad to get back to the air-conditioned car by the time we finished.  Although we had planned to do more stops on the way back, very few places were open, and we were ready to get back to civilization.  I did get a couple of nice pictures on the way back though.  We all decided if we moved to Hawaii we wanted this to be our front yard!

 

I also liked this view of this small village just off the Road to Hana.

 

We decided to stop in Paia for dinner.  We had heard great things about Mama’s Fish House, but we were definitely not dressed for it.  We decided to go much more casual and eat at the Flatbread Company.  It was a bit warm in the restaurant, but heck it was warm everywhere, but the pizza and cold beer were great.

When we got back to Lahina, we were ready to just shower, hang at the condo, relax, and visit.  We decided to get back to the beach the next day.  Our third day in Maui had been terrific, but it was also quite a workout.  We were ready to do a little more relaxing and there’s no better place to do that than in Hawaii!  I’ll continue in another post soon.  Hopefully I’ll finish this before we go back!  (Dave and Wendy were actually back in Kauai just a couple of weeks ago on a trip Dave won at work… very jealous.)

To see all our Tropical Vacation Posts go to our Tropical Vacation Posts page.

Maui (October 2015) (Part 1 – Lahaina, Kapalua Beach, Kahekili Beach Park, and Nakalele Point Blowhole)

We went into 2015 with the intent to have fewer planned vacations.  I started a new job with fewer vacation days to start.  I would have no vacation days early in the year, so we decided to plan a trip to Hawaii later in the year so I could save up a few days.  We decided to go the week of Columbus day to save even more of my vacation time (I only needed 3 days of vacation time).  Our last trip to Hawaii was to Kauai in 2011 and we had a great time.  For that trip we stayed in two different locations and both of them were right on the water.  We wanted to do things a little differently this time.  We decided to look for a condo near Front Street in Lahaina so we could walk to the shops and restaurants in that area.  We would drive to the beaches but be able to relax and enjoy ourselves in Lahaina without worrying about having to drive home.  We found a condo 2 blocks from Front Street.  The condo was in the Aina Nalu a condo property partially managed by Outrigger and partially privately owned condos. It has lots of amenities but the true appeal is the location. We ended up getting one of the privately owned condos in this property that was listed on Vacation Rental By Owner (VRBO).  It was a 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo which was perfect for us and the other couple Dave and Wendy who would be going with us.  We’ve had several terrific vacations with them over the past several years.  Although they live in Boise Idaho and we live in San Diego we actually got together 4 times in 2015; once for this trip, once for my daughters wedding in California, once for his daughters wedding in Idaho, and again for New Years eve and a trip to the Rose Bowl on New Years day.

We had a great time in Maui, but there was one unexpected thing that made Hawaii a little less of a paradise on this trip.  Due to the El Niño in the Pacific the temperatures and humidity were much higher than usual.  Most days were in the 80s with humidity in the 90 percent range.  This is not normal, and not what we expected for October in Hawaii.  Even though we only had a 2 block walk to Front Street in Lahaina, by the time we got there we would be dripping sweat.  I’m pretty sure this is the last time I’ll go to Hawaii during an El Niño year.  Our first day/night in Maui we just took it easy.  On the way from the airport we got some groceries to stock up the frig.  After we checked in to the condo, we walked down to Front Street to get lunch.  We decided on a burger place right on the water called… Cheeseburger in Paradise.  The food was delicious, the service good, and the view from our table was amazing.  We checked out some of the shops along front street which are mostly souvenir shops and art galleries and we spent quite a bit of time under the Banyan Tree at a regular art festival. Got a picture of Dave and Wendy under one of the trunks of the tree.

After the long flight and the unusual heat we decided to head back to the condo to clean up, catch-up and take it easy. Jenny and I took a nap for a few hours, then we decided to take another walk downtown after dark.  We walked under the Lahaina Court House banyan tree again.  It is an amazing tree, really hard to believe it is only one tree.

Then we walked out toward the pier and I got this image of Front Street lit up from the park behind the Lahaina Public Library.

As we walked back toward Front Street I noticed a place that was advertising an old favorite snack – Dole Whip (frozen pineapple juice).  I convinced everyone it was worth the calories!  After wondering around Front Street again for a bit, we gave in to the jet lag, and headed back to the condo to get a good night’s sleep.

Dave and Wendy had arrived a couple days earlier than us to do some exploring.  They found a beach they really loved, Kapalua Beach, so on day 2 we decided to check it out.  We stopped at a snorkeling/boogie board rental place on our way out of Lahaina.  The person working there was a wealth of knowledge and gave us some great tips for how to best do things we planned later in the week, like the road to Hana and a bike ride down from Haleakala after seeing the sunrise over the crater.  Her advice really helped us enjoy the rest of the week, and we got good prices on the equipment rentals and the bike ride reservations.

There were areas of rain just about every day we were in Maui, but luckily there also were areas on the island where it was not raining.  On the way to Kapalua Beach we saw some rain clouds, which were a bit concerning, but it was not raining near the beach.  There is a small public parking lot near Kapalua Beach which provides great access to the beach, but you have to get there pretty early to get a spot.  There were no spots available when we got there, but there was still plenty of parking along  Lower Honoapiilani Road.  Even that fills in fairly quickly so the earlier you get there the closer you will be to the beach.  We were only about a quarter mile down the road, so not too bad.

There are public bathrooms on the way down to the beach, and then you go through a short tunnel and on to the beach.  There were quite a few people there already, but still plenty of room to set up our chairs and beach towels (provided by the condo rental) in a nice shady area.  The beach is in a beautiful cove but it is just a short walk to nearby resorts and restaurants.

Even in the shade it wasn’t long before we were hot and ready to get in the water. My friend Dave was happy to lead the way by putting his mask and fins on in his chair and then walking down to the water. There are few things in life that are funnier than someone walking on the beach in fins. We all had a great laugh. Luckily I caught the whole thing on a video! I decided to share a screen capture of the video rather than the video. Definitely evokes memories of Charlie Chaplain’s walk as the Tramp!

Although we enjoyed the beach and swimming, we wanted to try a different snorkeling spot. We were hoping to see more coral, fish, and maybe some turtles. We had heard that Black Rock was a good place to snorkel so decided to head there. Not really knowing the area or the best way to approach the snorkeling area we decided to park at what we thought was a good public parking/access area at Kahekili Beach Park. That would mean hauling our stuff about .7 miles from the parking lot to an area near the Black Rock area. We had stopped at the Honolua Store on the way back to the highway from Kapalua Beach to get some sandwiches and drinks for lunch, so we were set until dinner. The walk on the path and beach took a little more effort than we expected and it was definitely starting to warm up.

We set up our stuff under a large tree to enjoy the shade again. After swimming for a bit, Dave and I decided to walk over to black rock area to see what snorkeling in that area was like. We headed out along the large black rocks. There was no coral and not really anything of interest. We decided to go out past the end of the rock and go around the corner to see what was out there. We passed an opening in the rocks and continued on for about another 50 yards. The water was getting deeper and deeper to our right and there was really nothing to see. I started to hear the Jaws theme music in my head, and kept looking into the murky deep water to our right expecting to see a shark coming our way at any point. After a brief discussion we decided there was nothing to see this way and decided to head back. On the way out we had not noticed we were being pushed along by a current. We definitely felt the current as we fought it back to the corner as we headed back. Progress was slow, but steady. As we approached the opening in the rocks, Dave decided to climb up on the rock and take a break. We were both a bit tired after fighting the current. As he was getting out he smacked his knee on the rock and after we both rested for a bit he decided to walk back to the beach over the rocks rather than get back into the water. Now it was time for me to look a bit silly. I have very tender feet. It’s actually a bit embarrassing. I was walking so funny it concerned Jenny and Wendy so they came over to see if we had gotten hurt. We were fine, but my pride was a bit bruised. Luckily no one got a video of my walk of shame!

We hung under the shade tree for a little while longer. It looked like a rubber tree or a magnolia based on the leaves, but as I sat there I noticed a bird fly in and land on a branch. The branch had what looked like nuts on it. Just as I mentioned this to Jenny a nut fell off the tree and landed on her. To avoid getting pelleted by more nuts, we decided to pack it up and to head further northwest toward Nakalele Point and the blowhole. We stopped first at an overlook just past the Honolua Bay, a great snorkeling area that we planned to check out later in the week. We drove out on a dirt road to a parking area not far from the main road. This area not only has great views of Honolua Bay…

there is also terrific views of a surfing area near Lipoa Point.

It was a beautiful place. We decided to come back later in the week to snorkel at Honolua Bay then come up to this overlook afterward to have some wine and cheese and enjoy the view.

The Nakalele Point blowhole was next. As we walked down the path we came upon this very welcoming sign.

It may seem a little over dramatic, but there have been people who have died at this place. Jenny and Wendy were in flip flops and decided to not go all the way down. They could see the blowhole, but Dave and I decided to go a little closer. This area is basically an outcropping of old lava. It is surreal rough terrain, but I think it was well worth the climb down.

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But the best view was not of the blowhole it was back toward the coastline from Nakalele Point.

Jenny and I braved facing into the sun for one more picture before we headed back toward Lahaina.

When we got back to Lahaina, it was very close to sunset. We wanted to see it while we ate, so rather than going back to condo to clean up change we just looked for parking on Front Street. The parking gods must have been on our side because we came on a parking spot only a couple blocks from the restaurant we had decided to eat at – Bubba Gumps.

We definitely had a great view from our table of the sun setting behind the island of Lanai.

As we ate dinner we decided to do the Road to Hana the next morning.  We planned to hike the Pipiwai Trail to Waimoku Falls at the end of the Road to Hana.  The very helpful lady at the equipment rental business had recommended that if we wanted to do this hike we should leave early and drive all the way to the end of the Road to Hana without stopping, then do any stops we wanted to do on the way back.  So that was our plan at the end of our first full day in Maui.  We were tired, satisfied that we had “stuffed” enough fun into this day, so after dinner we headed home to get some sleep so we could get up early for the Road to Hana!

To see all our Tropical Vacation Posts go to our Tropical Vacation Posts page.