Death Valley National Park

Thanksgiving is time for our travel. This year we headed to the Death Valley National Park which is around 500 miles from Sunnyvale. We started the day before Thanksgiving, encountered heavy traffic, stopped overnight at Bakersfield and continued the next day until we finally reached the park.

Stovepipe Wells Village Hotel

It is the largest national park in the US and is also the hottest and driest place in North America. The park is located in the valley between several mountains. Winter is the best time to visit as the temperatures are bearable and not too harsh. The hottest month is July where temperatures can rise up to a sizzling 47 degrees Celsius! During the day the sun heats up the land and the air and at night, the mountains recirculate the hot air as a result, temperatures do not drop much at night unlike most deserts. 

Death Valley is the size of Connecticut so you can imagine how many points of interest there must be. A lot of the sites do require a vehicle with 4 wheel drive and high clearance as they are accessed only by unpaved roads. This meant that our sports car will not be able to take it so we stuck to the sites with easy access. Over three days, we covered quite a few places. Here is is list of places we visited:

Badwater Basin: This is the lowest place in North America-about 500 ft below sea level. The basin is in the valley between the Black Mountains and the Panamint Mountain ranges. Erosion from the mountains causes minerals to be deposited in the basin as a result there is a crust of salt crystals on the basin. There is a small pool of undrinkable water in the basin but it doesn't last long due to the high rate of evaporation due to the extreme heat. It is said that the mountains continue to rise at the same rate as the basin continues to sink each year. However, the erosion of soil from the mountains into the basin offsets this change.

Badwater Basin

Salt from Badwater Basin

Devil's Golf course: These badlands have such a rugged topography that only the devil could play golf on it :)

Devil's Golf Course

Artists Drive and Palette: This is a wonderful loop through which you can drive to see some really beautiful vistas. The rocks on the mountains are colored due to the presence of minerals in them. It actually looks like someone has sprinkled color powder on them-like an artist's palette.

Artist's Palette

Golden Canyon: This is one of the many canyons in the park. A short hike through it leads to the views of the Red Cathedral rocks. Water once flowed through this canyon and into the valley. Observing the rocks provides indication of this. Now, it is barren, hot and dry.

Inside the Golden canyon

Dante's view: This was my favorite place in the park simply because of the breath-taking view. It is located about 5485 ft above sea level and gives you a view of the valley. It was very windy, cold as well as closer to sunset which meant no proper pictures. If I were to pick one place to visit in Death Valley, this would be it.

Dante's View

Zabriskie Point: One of the most popular spots of the park, this has some stunning view of erosional landscape. It is composed of sediments from an ancient lake which dried up millions of years ago. We visited it at both sunrise and sunset-both absolutely gorgeous.

Zabriskie Point

Ubehebe Crater: This crater is relatively newer (that is a few thousand years old as opposed to millions of years old) and was formed due to volcanic eruption. It is half a mile wide and about 500 ft deep. One can see black soil and rocks all around the crater which is proof of the eruption. One of the Native American tribal legend has it that this was the place where humanity crawled out of the earth and spread in all four directions. Best time to visit this crater is when the sun is directly overhead so as to get the best lighting for photographs.

Ubehebe Crater

Mesquite Sand dunes: These were located about a mile away from our hotel and are quite popular (read crowded) due to the proximity. These are pretty to look at but was difficult on my injured knee. So I did not walk all the way. Both sunset and sunrise are good times for some beautiful pictures.

Mesquite Sand Dunes

Owen's Lake: On the way out of the park, we saw this lake which was dried up but gave the illusion of having water due to the high quantity of salt accumulation. The area is extremely windy and we had difficulty even open the car door due to the wind. The view was gorgeous.

Owen's lake

It was a very hectic trip mainly due to the long driving distance but I would say it was worth all the effort as the vistas and the landscape stole my heart. 

Spectacular Niagara Falls

Two days in Niagara and my mind is blown away by the sheer beauty of the falls. All the time, effort, money and hardships (yes, loads of them but don't want to dwell on those for now) we endured to reach the place were absolutely justified.

I booked a tour on Viator that took us to all the important places. It picked us up at 1.30 pm from our hotel on Rainbow Blvd and took us to Goat Island. This is a small island in the Niagara River between the Horseshoe falls and the Bridal Veil falls. Our first stop was Cave of the Winds behind the Bridal Veil Falls. We were given sandals to change into and made to stand in line waiting for our turn. After a 45 minute wait, we got into the elevator that took us down the cave which had access to the Bridal Veil and American Falls. Ponchos were handed out to us as protection from the water. I will not be able to do justice in describing the magnificence of the falls. Take a look at the pictures to see for yourself.

We then walked over to see the Horseshoe falls photographed below. Again not much to describe but to visualize and soak in the sight.

Our tour guide then led us to the Maid of the Mist falls. It being a Memorial Day weekend, there was almost an hour and a half wait time. After a tiring wait and what seemed like eternity, our turn finally came. The elevators took us down towards the boats. 600 people on board at a time! The moment we started getting close to the falls, I was speechless. The stunning view, double rainbow and the cool water spraying on my face made for a moment that I will forever cherish. I was so grateful to have been given a chance to be at that scene made me incredibly happy.

Our last stop was the whirlpool located in the Niagara Gorge. This whirlpools flows anti clockwise during normal flow but during the winter months changes direction.

This was one of the most tiring but truly satisfying trips I have ever taken. If you do not care much about the history and can manage transportation on your own, then you don't really need to take the tour. It is much cheaper if you go on your own. 

Pinnacles National Park

Our most recent day trip lead us to the Pinnacles National Park in Soledad. Until last year, it was known as the Pinnacles National Monument and it is now the newest National Park in the US. Ancient volcanic field led to the formation of the famous rock spires, talus caves and canyons. Popular activities are rock climbing, hiking, camping and bird watching (we did spot some condors).  The Bear Gulch caves are home for the Big eared bats which rest there in the winter and raise their young ones during late spring and summer. We did not go to that side of the park so didn't have a chance to see them. Always a good idea to check the status of the caves here before making plans to visit.

We left Sunnyvale at about 11am on Sunday and it took us 1 hour 45 minutes to get to the West entrance of the park. Note that there are two entrances to the park namely the West and the East-they are not connected to each other through the park. This means that one has to drive outside the park to get from one entrance to the other. So it is important to know beforehand which entrance you need to take depending on the activity you plan on doing. The East entrance is about 85 miles from Sunnyvale while the West Entrance is at a distance of 105 miles.

We took Highway 101 S followed by Highway 146 E which took us right to the Park entrance. It is quite a windy road with several one lane stretches which makes for challenging and interesting driving.

There are some Ranger led hikes at specific times and I was keen on attending one such walk that was being conducted at the Balconies cave accessible through the West entrance. Hence, we decided on driving there. It being a 'Free National Park Entrance Weekend' the parking lot was crowded and so the Rangers were following a 'one car out and one in' method. This resulted in us missing the Ranger led hike.  After a brief 15 minute wait, we were allowed to the parking lot. The main parking lot near the picnic area was full so we had to park at the overflow parking area. A short ten minute walk took us to Chaparral.

The easiest hiking trail is the Balconies Cave trail. It is a 2.4 miles loop with an elevation of 100 feet. We covered it in 3 hours as I had to slow down considerably for the ascent. We walked through the Balconies Caves which was a thrilling experience. The caves are dark and one needs a flashlight to find your way through it. There are parts of the caves through which we had to crawl, crouch and even squeeze our way. At one point, there was a small trickle of water flowing through the rocks. It was refreshing to wash our faces in the small waterfall after walking in the sun for so long. Once out of the cave, the incline begins and there is very little tree cover to keep out the sun.

Walking through the Balconies Caves

By 5.30pm, we reached back to the parking spot tired, exhausted but satisfied after a good days workout. We stopped for coffee and some frozen yoghurt on the way to recoup our energy. We made it back to Sunnyvale by 8.30 pm with sore muscles and great memories.

What: Pinnacles National Park
Where: Please use the following coordinates in the GPS or online map for directions.
For the East Side of Park (Pinnacles Visitor Center): 36.493545, -121.146646.
For the West Side of Park (Pinnacles Visitor Contact Station): 36.477352, -121.226114
When: East Entrance is open 24 hours and the West Entrance is open between 7.30am-8pm

Fees: $5 per vehicle

Mount Rainier National Park

 

Mount Rainier in the "window of opportunity"

Aside from the regular city attractions, I wanted to experience nature. So I picked Mount Rainier National Park. Instead of driving down ourselves, we decided to book  a guided tour. Luckily, I found 50% discount on Goldstar.com for the tickets which made it totally worth it.

 The bus picked us up from outside the EMP museum at 7.30 am and after an hour of picking up the rest of the members, we were on our way to the national park. It is almost a two hours drive from Seattle downtown. Mount Rainier is an active volcano and is the most glaciated peak in the US. There are subalpine wildflower meadows, thick forests, mineral springs and lava ridges on its slopes. The visitor center has a short 15 minute film that talks about the geography, ecology and climate of Mount Rainier. It is quite interesting and informative.

During the afternoon, the clouds from Puget Sound envelop the peak and it is impossible to view it. We reached there just in time to click a few pictures and then it disappeared behind the clouds. The guide kept referring to this particular time as the "window of opportunity" to view the peak. 

Mount Rainier making its own clouds

We stopped at the Christine falls, Narada falls, hiked along the Paradise meadow trail and saw the Reflection lakes which are subalpine lakes where one can catch a glimpse of Mount Rainier's reflection. All these spots had fantastic views. There are regions of the old forest where the trees are more than 500 years old!

Narada Falls

Christine Falls

Myrtle Falls

Reflection Lake

Despite being so breathtakingly beautiful, it is interesting to note that Mount Rainier is one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world capable of causing large scale destruction caused by the lahars (lava+snow).

Mount Rainier covered by clouds

The Grand Canyon

As promised before, I'm writing about my trip to the Grand Canyon-a natural wonder of the world. It is an enormous canyon formed by the Colorado river in Arizona. On our third day in Vegas, we took an organized bus tour (yes, we still don't drive!)

After scouring the internet for various discount deals, I realized that there is only one single company that conducts these tours and the tickets are sold by a hundred different websites. I booked the bus tour to the South rim of the Grand Canyon. They do have tours to the west rim too. But that one is expensive and I hear the view isn't as good as the southern rim. In fact, the western rim is not even a part of the Grand Canyon National Park. The website mentioned that the entire trip would take 15 hours. We were prepared for this and slept early the previous night. The bus was supposed to pick us up at 6.30 am!

 We diligently woke up and got dressed on time. We even managed to finish breakfast and as expected the bus was late-by half an hour. I could have happily used the extra time for some more sleep. The bus arrived and took us to their office, not far from our hotel. There, the south and west rim passengers were separated. Each of us was given a colored tag, a meal voucher, a danish, orange juice and coffee. Since we already had breakfast, we packed it all up for use during the journey.

It was a double-decker bus with a seating for 75 people. The driver announced that there would be three stops before Grand Canyon-Hoover dam, Mc Donalds and IMAX theatre (a hour show on the Grand Canyon on the big screen for those who purchased tickets).

We were told interesting facts about the villages we passed and about Hoover dam when we reached there. Most of which I have forgotten :D We drove through the Mojave desert and it was a very scenic drive. My idea of a desert was sand dunes but this was a rocky desert. Vast expanses of rocky lands and nothing else around.

We arrived at Hoover dam in about 45 minutes. This dam was constructed to control the flooding of the Colorado river and also to provide a means of employment during the Depression. It saw the influx of workers from all over America. The chief in charge of the dam was a ruthless man who ensured that nothing or nobody stopped the project. When workers developed carbon monoxide poisoning, he pressurized the doctors to falsely report their condition as pneumonia so as to not create a controversy that could potentially stall the project. We only had 15 minutes to see the dam and click a few pictures. There are separate dam tours for those who would like to explore it more.

Next stop was Mc Donalds to get a quick snack. No vegetarian food so I didn't step out. And then the bus began to slow down. It seemed like the engine was having some trouble. The driver continued to drive at snail's pace for about 45 minutes and then it began raining. He slowed down even more. After a while, he stopped and restarted the engine. This seemed to improve things. However, it started snowing. My first experience of snow and I was super thrilled. I had always wanted to see how it looked when it snowed. All the trees were covered with white flakes and the ground had a thick layer of white. It looked serene and mesmerizing. The bus slowed down as the roads were narrow, inclined and icy. We reached the IMAX theatre an hour later than we should have.

We were given meal vouchers and we supposed to get the food at the theatre canteen. The only problem was that all 75 people were queuing up with vouchers. Everyone was hungry as it was well past lunch time. I was glad that they had 2 vegetarian options. By the time my turn came, they only had one cheese pizza left. I quickly grabbed it and gobbled it down.

The driver wasn't sure if the Grand Canyon gates would be still open to tourists due to the heavy snow. The helicopter tours were already cancelled. Luckily, the gates were open and we reached the spot. First look at the snow covered canyon and I was amazed at how such a thing of beauty can ever exist. It was tall and wide and beautiful. I was freezing. I quickly took a few pictures, walked around the rim and the sun set. We got only about 45 minutes of viewing time and the show ended!

We headed back with just one stop on the way back-Mc Donald's again. It was dinner time and they did not have any vegetarian options so I had to make do with french fries and a milkshake. I have strong doubts that the tour company has some kind of contract with Mc Donald's. It was 11.30pm by the time we got back home.

Tired, sleepy, half-hungry yet satisfied at having laid my eyes on such a marvelous natural beauty.

San Diego-Day 1: Cabrillo National Park

I had read a lot of interesting things about the Cabrillo National Park and had put that on our itinerary for two reasons. One, it would give V a chance for photography and two, it was supposed to be one of the most scenic places in San Diego.

Cabrillo Monument

We were in for a surprise when the cab driver said he had never heard of such a place. He had to ask at the hotel front desk for directions. I was prepared to be disappointed because cab drivers told me that he lived here for 25 years and had never heard of this place. But the drive to the top of the hill where the park was located was totally worth it. We could see the bay and the city skyline from there. A breathtaking view. I even learnt that the harbor view is considered one of the best in the world!

The two most famous things about the par were the Cabrillo monument and the old light house. We learnt a little bit about the history of the place as well. Cabrillo was a Spanish adventurer who along with his team entered California through the harbor at San Diego. He came on the famous ship 'San Salvador' which is currently being reconstructed by the San Diego Maritime Museum. There is a museum near the visitor center that has a collection of tools, instruments, clothing and other artifacts about the Spanish conquistadors.

The old lighthouse at Point Loma is also another attraction. Visitors can climb up the lighthouse and take a peak at the house of the keeper. The rooms are furnished in the old fashioned way and gives you an idea of what life was back in the day.

Point Loma Light House

Also, there is an area for tide pooling. During low tides, one can see a variety of sea life in the rocky intertidal zones. We weren't able to see that as it wasn't the right time of the day for it. For those who are interested in hiking, there is a beautiful hiking trail that starts from the lighthouse. Since I was already tired with all the walking, we walked for 10 minutes and returned. 

Harbor View

What: Cabrillo National Park
When: 364 days (except Christmas) 9 am-5 pm
Where: 1800 Cabrillo Memorial Drive San Diego, CA 92106
Entry Fee: $5 for vehicles, $3 for walk-ins and bicycle