Day 130 - Oregon Coast to Redwood

While waiting for the repairman to test my phone, I visited Harris Beach. My digital camera was working again, although the timer and digital zoom and menus were not functioning. The rocky crag beach views were sublime.

I've found myself afraid of water now...so I climbed a rock to take this picture.

Then I got the bad news: my phone was fried and data gone. My attempt to charge the phone had likely fried the motherboard. As my friend Bobby said when I told him of the dead phone: "Such is the lot of the adventuring phone." I didn't want to plop down $750 for another iPhone, so I called my Dad and had him mail my old iPhone 5 to my sister's house (thanks Dad!). I bought a $20 Android phone to use over the next few days and continued my west coast journey.

I drove to the Redwood Park, but the campgrounds were full, so I drove through the northeast section of the park and found a campsite along a winding National Forest road. I stopped at a few groves along the way. 300 foot Redwood trees climbed effortlessly towards the sky.

The tall Redwoods, the tallest trees in the world, were enchanting. It felt good to be back in action, back in nature.

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Day 57 - Rocky Mountain National Park

Ever since I decided to go west for my big trip, I had dreamed of high mountain lakes with snowy peaks arching in every direction, with chilly air making every moment crisp, and with clear skies bringing all into perfect focus-- pure bliss. Today was the first of many great mountain lake days to come. Hiking here was far easier here than in the San Juans because the snow was packed down on the trail, but I brought my mini crampons for the downhill. I made it safely past a narrow ridge with narly black peaks across the gorge (pic 1), then up to Mills Lake (pic 2) then Jewel Lake then the Loch (pic 3) then down before the afternoon rain started falling. I hiked around some lower, more accessible lakes but the sky was now overcast and pictures no good. I drove up the open portion of the Ridge road amid a very light dusting of snow before heading back to camp for dinner and bedtime. I did manage to capture some fine Elk grazing in a meadows on the return trip and a g...

Day 54 - Great Sand Dunes

I awoke to clear skies, a dry mattress and pillows, a second hot shower and a waffle-filled motel breakfast. I decided to head east to Great Sand Dunes National Park in order to climb 700 foot sand dunes surrounded by snow-covered alpine mountains--a rare site. Just about every road in Colorado goes over a pretty high mountain pass eventually, and this three and a half hour journey didn't disappoint. And Great Sand Dunes didn't disappoint either. After securing a dune-side campsite and waiting out a rainstorm, I set out to climb the dunes for a sunset view. Great Sand Dunes is also famous for its Medano Creek wave-like flow and ankle-deep water, making it popular with young kids. I hiked through it and started climbing the dunes, first to a high dune on the east side and over to the next highest dune and then the next highest et until I got to the highest one-/ properly called High Dune. I sat down, setup my phone to capture a time-lapse of the beautiful sunset my eyes were ...

Day 67 - Badlands

Badlands means very difficult and dangerous to travel through-- Badlands lived up to this name. I began my eight mile loop hike by climbing up a steep canyon side to the mesa wall on top. From here I travelled east towards the popular window, door and notch trails via a wet, muddy and slippery Medicine Root trail that left me covered in mud up to my knees. Of the popular trails the notch was my favorite because it involved a wooden ladder climb and then a hill scramble past crumbling rock up to a six foot "notch" step that required a almost-rock climbing move to ascend. The views up at the top cliff were sensational. Even more fun, two girls from New York-driving to Portland and a young couple saw me up there and followed the path up-- with a bit of my help at the notch. I love helping people get a bit beyond their comfort zone. We all enjoyed the view then descended safely to find that this notch was not actually the trail but a side canyon-- haha. I then hiked ...

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