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 161 - JMT Purple Lake and Tully Hole

We got our first glimpse of smoke far across the valley as we climbed higher. Up on a ridge after a morning climb, we followed a side trail to an open viewpoint beyond the trees. Selfie:) The smoke, while visible, seemed to give the mountains a blue glow-- like a highlighter to a sketch. You could still see the edges of the mountain ridges, the story of their creation. We could hike in this. But the smoke looked worse farther south. Or it was getting worse as time rolled incessantly forward. On day two we had ran into a northbound hiker we nicknamed Speedy Steve. Speedy Steve had hiked 18 miles a day through eight consecutive smoke-filled days, including atleast three "very bad days" when he couldn't see the surrounding mountains, the sun glowed a haunting orange and ash accumulated overnight. On the way to Purple Lake we ran into three dirty, beat up, tired north-bound hikers with a similar story. They had to spend one night in an emergency hut at Muir Pass to avoid the...

Day 41 - Escalante Coyote Gulch

This one or two night Coyote Gulch hike was an easy test of my newly learned navigation skills. Anxious to get started I awoke at 545 just as the sun was rising. I followed an obvious landmark, a tall thin spire called Chimney Rock, northwest to Hurricane Wash (a drainage running into Coyote Gulch). After a couple of hours of walking up over and around slick rock, I entered the famous Coyote Gulch. The walls around me raised up, darkened and th water flow increased--like nature hinting at the scenic beauty ahead. The normally crowded Coyote Gulch was fairly empty on this early Thursday morning, giving the canyon a very peaceful and quiet feeling-- fragile almost. Down steam, I ran into the famous Jacob Hamilton Arch and then thirty minutes further-- the Coyote Natural Birdge. Both were beautiful due to their see through the wall character, but both would be overshadowed in my memory by the Stevens Arch tomorrow. Pics. By 1pm, I had hiked for six hours...

Day 31 - Carlsbad Caverns

Everyone who enters Carlsbad Caverns inners as a child-- exploring an unknown world that over joys and surprises the soul. I had a choice of descending to the 800 foot down Big Room by elevator or by a mile long walk down the natural entrance. I chose the natural entrance and let me say-- what an awesome experience. You enter through a cave that thousands of bats fly out off at sunset each day. As you descend you hear the loud sounds of birds burping just inside the dark cavern. See video: http://youtu.be/Vpt4GQTCN-Y Hidden lights reveal the vastness of this cave making it possible to navigate an otherwise hundred percent dark space. The ceiling reaches hundreds of feet above you but it feels like thousands in this dark mysterious place. I kept stopping along the way to absorb the beauty of the cavern and capture it on camera but photos in caves are tough. Here were my best shots of the descent (look for handrails going down in first shot): I reached the Big Room, the ...

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