Day 32 - El Morro and El Malpais

Camping in a Walmart parking lot stinks-- the bright lights blaze in constantly despite black out window coverings and cars pull in all night. Parking in the very back could've helped. Camping there did put me close to the big city of Albequerque where I got my first oil change after 5k miles in 30 days and allowed me to resupply food at Costco, securing a months food supply for my May in remote southern Utah.

Business done by noon, I drove two hours to El Morro. A whiteish towering cliff with a permanent deep watering hole, El Morro was a popular stopping point for settlers, soldiers and explorers heading West. 2,000 people inscribed their names and some petroglyphs on the rock face, the earliest inscription carved in 1609, making El Morro a unique historical landmark. Pics.

Still having three hours of the best time of day left, I drove 15 miles to the dirt road entrance of El Malpais National Monument's lava tubes. The dirt road was passable when dry but impassable when wet. With the skies darkening but likely staying dry, I set out down the lonely dirt road eight miles to the lava tubes. Lava tubes were formed by lava flowing from a fairly recently but ancient volcano eruption and going underground in tubes. Eroding over time, the top edge of the tubes have collapsed leaving wide channels of dried lava and caves. Hiking on this stuff is bizarre, resembling exploring a far off dark planet. You follow cairns, human built piles of lava rock that blend into the surroundings, around the lava tubes to certain viewpoints. It felt a bit unsafe being out there alone, getting lost as easy as missing a cairn, but I pushed on, stopping whenever i couldn't see a cairn and back tracking to the last cairn carefully, always checking my heading on my watch compass. I felt a bit lost at one point thinking in my head I should be going one way back to the car but having cairns go the opposite way. I left the cairns to check a pass over a lava tube, but not seeing more cairns went back to the cairn path and followed it back to safety. The parking lot this way sign was welcome relief. I drove back to El Morro campground and camped at their free campgrounds. I have a gps locator beacon for SOS at all times so I'm never in grave danger. Pics.

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Day 171 - JMT Guitar Lake

Wow, was it cold this morning. After waking up and eating breakfast, we packed up quickly and found this scenic sunspot to warm our bones. We had a short eight mile hike to Guitar Lake today, the last viable campsite before the five mile hike to the 14,505 foot-high Mount Whitney summit. We stopped at this lovely meadow and looked for bears. We only saw deer but were able to enjoy the incredible peace of the far mountain range. Steady hiker traffic, the most of the entire trip, including one group of twelve elder hikers, passed us as we rested, and jumped! Views of Mount Whitney finally came into view at Timberline Lake, a quaint lake where camping was unfortunately forbidden. We passed a group of twenty Taiwanese hikers. The summit of Mount Whitney looked heavily defended when viewed from below. We were going to wake up tomorrow at 230am and hike up to the summit for sunrise-on-the-top-of-the-world*. The thought of this dark task was a bit foreboding. We made it to Guitar Lake by

Day 172 - JMT Mount Whitney

Our day began in silence, at 315am in pursuit of the summit. We walked carefully, looking for slick, sandy rocks and icy sections--not wanting to fall. Hiking along a cliff edge in total darkness was thrilling, vividly black and white. By 5am, we had reached the three mile marker and the turnoff up to Whitney summit. We removed the heavy items from our bags and set off towards the summit sunrise. The trail was spectacular, a special creation of this nation, winding from one side of the mountain to the other, going down and around one side before coming up to another, creating anticipation with each turn. Looking back, the sloping ridges caught the early sunset delicately. As we hiked along the two mile upper trail, the views east would open up for the narrowest of moments. This opening was my favorite. 14,000 foot cathedrals of nature thrusted towards the heavens at each turn. The summit was almost in sight, the highest peak in the lower 48 states nearly attained, the end of our 2

Day 170 - JMT Forrester Pass

The mountains had a surreal glow this morning as we climbed up towards the 13,200 foot high Forrester Pass. One of the wonderful things about the mountains is that they change appearance as the sun changes height, creating a movie-like experience as you walk. I felt so free and happy this morning--just in love with this light. After sixty minutes of walking, we stopped in the first sunny spot we could find to thaw out and rest. Another hiker came bustling up the trail behind us and stopped at the sunspot to shed a layer of clothing. Sly was a Canadian hiker, just turned 40, who seemed happy to see us. We struck up a conversation about travels and when we pushed off Sly asked if he could join us. We said yes of course. We hiked quickly up the trail, reaching a high plateau with epic alpine views. Selfie time! We skirted around a high alpine lake and then went up a ridge line ever further higher. We were at 12,000+ feet now and the world began to look small yet vast.

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