Awesome!

I tried climbing once....and very quickly decided hiking was a better life choice for me

We have one full day in zion next week on our way to california.. what is a must do?

We are staying in st george, so a full day minus 2 hour rt to hotel.

2 boys 8 and 9, we like hikes (nothing terribly long or extreme), waterfalls, rivers, and have been to canyonlands and arches and kids liked everything we saw at those parks.

Wife will kill me if I end up on another road like shafer trail in canyonlands so nothing like that either.

Here's a portion of my itinerary when we visited. Angels Landing is great but too much for your crew... I kept that on here as FYI only.

I added commentary on the stops you don't want to miss

Leave at 5:00 am - Drive 45 minutes to Zion National Park Visitor Center. Park & Ride 6am shuttle bus.
o Shuttle to Stop #6 Angels Landing 5 miles, 1.75 hours up, enjoy view 30 minutes, 1 hour down.
o Shuttle to Stop #5 Zion Lodge rest under the huge shade tree ice cream and coffee. GREAT!
o Shuttle to Stop #8 for viewpoint The Great White Throne, but be sure to hike down to the river GREAT!!
o Shuttle to Stop #5 for Lower Emerald Pools 1.2 mi RT (this was just ok would skip.)
o Shuttle to Stop #4 to hike Court of the Patriarchs lookout to see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob peaks. OK
o Shuttle to Stop #7 and the Weeping Rock Hike .4 miles RT.
o Shuttle to Stop #9 and the Riverside Walk Hike 2.2 miles - 90 minutes.

Drive 45 minutes back for dinner at Thunderbird Restaurant

Depending on where you are coming from, you might try Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park

Angels landing. Hike up the river.

I've done most but those two are two best

mpl35 said:

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Hard pass for me! But those wall in Yosemite are something else. Congrats on the sweet pic and climb

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Yosemite walls are incredible. And I'm convinced the people that climb them are elite athletes. There's no way I could have gone 2-3x as hard and 6x the vertical distance like those guys and gals do. It's mostly slab and crack climbing. There aren't handholds like you get at the gym. I trained five months for that climb in my gym and was totally unprepared for that rock. That said, it was awesome. A real challenge for me. So much so that the training for next year's climb started two days ago. Haha.

Oh, if you ever watch Free Solo and he's talking about no holds and only getting grip with his feet on small texture variations on the rock, it's 100% accurate. My hardest part (where I fell the first time) was what he did for multiple pitches. Insane!!!!

Here are two climbers low on the nose of El Cap:

A few more pics:

Very cool! I'm jealous. I was wondering where the trail was to go up. That's a long day!

The drive into the valley when El Cap comes into view and fills up your entire windshield....that was a full stop, holy crap moment for me

Man we're driving like 20 miles from Yosemite but won't be able to stop because the road ain't open yet.

62strat said:

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Man we're driving like 20 miles from Yosemite but won't be able to stop because the road ain't open yet.

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on the east side?

mpl35 said:

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62strat said:

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Man we're driving like 20 miles from Yosemite but won't be able to stop because the road ain't open yet.

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on the east side?

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yeh tioga road. Was hoping it would be open so we can spend a few hours crossing the park on our way from mammoth to Sacramento on Tuesday. It says not opening Memorial Day weekend, so I can only assume Tuesday is the same fate.

Yeah I haven't checked progress but the timing is always an iffy. You get great views along the mountains in the east side. Should be fun still.

The tacos at The Mobil are well worth the stop over in Lee Vining

Bruh.

62strat said:

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Man we're driving like 20 miles from Yosemite but won't be able to stop because the road ain't open yet.

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update: Tioga Road (continuation of Highway 120 through the park) will open to the public on Monday, June 10 by 7 am. We are so excited to welcome visitors and staff back to the high country of Tuolumne Meadows.

Please make sure you are prepared and stocked up before setting off on your way to the high country. There is no food service or fuel available, and campgrounds aren't open yet.

A reservation is required to drive into Yosemite on weekends and Juneteenth this month, every day from July 1 through August 16, then weekends and holidays through October 27even if you are only passing through the park.

Bears, deer, marmots and birds have gotten accustomed to life without visitors, so please drive to posted speed limits and keep your eyes peeled for critters on the road. Mosquitoes, however, are eager for your return; bring long clothing if they bother you.

Be ready to encounter some snow and lots of water on trails, please stick to trails so as not to damage fragile ecosystems.

All of the things that make Tuolumne Meadows such a special destination also make it a challenging place to open each season. A huge thank you to all of our crews for their dedication to providing safe visitor access to Tioga Road for 2024.

Welcome back!

Our third visit to Kenai Fjords National Park.

Like usual, we hike in the park and then get on the water to see the wildlife and glaciers. Yesterday was the boat tour day and the weather was absolutely terrible. It was cold and rainy all day. But the animals loved it. Especially these humpback whales who we witnessed bubble net feeding. I was blown away. I never thought I'd see this in person. And we saw it occur three times! I tried to get a video but it sucked so I just sat back and watched the show. Here's a grainy still shot from that attempted video. The last time we saw them do it, they had come up right by the boat so got a really good view. But didn't try to get that on video. That one was for me.



And here's Dave dropping some science on what bubblenet feeding is:

Very nice. RMNP is definitely one of my favorites. I need to go back soon. August sounds good!

Kenai Fjords National Park

Obviously, this park is best explored by boat. We did the Exit Glacier hike and it was nice. Much of the Harding Icefield Trail was still closed.

But wow, once we got on the water, did this place impress. We were able to visit Aialiak Bay and kayak near the impressive Aialiak Glacier. The wildlife we saw was insane, with humpbacks, sea otters, seals, bald eagles, puffins and a host of other sea birds. And SO many orcas! We also spotted a moose and a mountain goat in the Exit Glacier area. Kenai Fjords NP the highlight for us in regard to wildlife.

I've been to Kenai Fjords three times now and it's never disappointed.

I'm so happy to see so many folks enjoying Rocky Mountain NP this summer! And quite jealous of some of these other trips y'all are knocking out!

It appears I'm way behind on updates (as usual).....

I did my annual solo Big Bend trip in April.






Over Memorial Day week we took the kids to DC (it was so weird for our family to do a "city" trip...it was definitely a different experience for us).....from DC we drove west and rafted in New River Gorge NP - it was a fantastic rafting trip. From there we drove to Shenandoah and I fished (outside the park) but my son got sick and I followed suit about 12 hours later so spent the rest of our time there in bed so we'll have to go back.




We spent 4th of July week in Rocky Mountain National Park again. This was the first time since they started the entry passes that we showed up there without one, which made me (the planner) super nervous, but we had a fantastic time.

• Hiked Aluvial Fan
• Hiked Upper Beaver Meadows
• Hiked to Bierstadt Lake
• Fly fished Big Thompson River
• Hiked Adams Falls
• Hiked Coyote Valley
• Hiked Calypso Cascades/Ouzel Falls/Ouzel Lake/Bluebird Lake
• Hiked Lookout Mountain

We did pickup a 4pm Bear Lake Corridor pass that someone canceled the day before and that was how we did Bierstadt Lake, but you could still roll in after the pass time limits and hike it in the summer before dark if you wanted to.

This trip proved to me that the entrance pass is not the end all, be all must have. With some thought and purposeful timing you can still really have a great trip.

My wife and son left on the 4th and I got to spend the first three nights in our cabin doing some "camping" (camping because we don't currently have water on, usable septic, or usable mattresses - it was basically shelter - and renovations began the following Monday).
















My wife and son left because they picked up my mother in law and the three of them did a cruise up to Glacier Bay NP. My son is down to Indiana Sand Dunes, stupid St Louis Arch, & Shenandoah (2nd attempt) remaining in the lower 48....and Kobuck Valley, Gates of Arctic, Virgin Islands, and American Samoa outside the lower 48 - of which we've told him he'll have to hit on his own dime as an adult.

Next up, for our 20th wedding anniversary, my wife and I have splurged on a few nights at Jenny Lake Lodge and then a couple nights in Gardiner so we can get more time in Tetons and Yellowstone for some fishing and wolf watching. Expectations are well below what we experienced/lucked into last summer but we're still excited!

That's amazing - both the trip and the photos!

Is that Diablo Lake?

AgRyan04 said:

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Is that Diablo Lake?

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It is. Technically it's not in the park but it was quite beautiful so I picked it as the picture to post. All the other pics from inside the actual park are of cloud covered mountains. The weather was terrible. The plan was to hike Thornton Lakes or Sahale Arm but it was just to rainy.