Yosemite 2011

As indicated from Linda's distribution of some our pictures, we're back from our epic great circle tour through our western National Parks. We had a great time and are still speaking to one another, which is impressive considering we had to take turns blowing up the queen size air mattress every couple of hours when it died on us in Sequoia Nat'l Park. What was worse, getting up to visit the privy in 45 deg temps in the middle of the night, or feeling your rear gradually contact the cold hard ground - or both?! We made it through replacing the air mattress, breaking and jury-rigging two tent poles, and replacing a leaking propane cook stove.

We finally got to see the North Platte train yards (impressive) after many years of passing through, visited roommate John Latourrette and his wife at their mountain cabin NW of Reno, NV, and then hiked until our legs were putty in Tuolumne Meadows (pronounced "two owl on me"), Yosemite Valley, Sequoia, King's Canyon, and the Grand Canyon. The vistas were dramatic and we were extremely fortunate to be able to see active waterfalls in all areas due to the high snowpack from last winter. The ranger at Yosemite told us in her twenty years she had never seen Yosemite Falls still active in September. We saw lots of bears, elk (one right in camp sniffing in our car), marmots, deer, coyotes (one howling at the moon outside our tent one night), California Condors, bluebirds, magpies, woodpeckers, bison, etc.

We were conscientious about keeping hydrated and allowing for adapting to altitude changes, so we avoided those problems and were pretty much able to do everything we wanted. We didn't suffer from a lack of food either in spite of cooking dinners with the camp stove on a picnic table. We became expert at one-pot meals. We also splurged once in a while and took in dinner at the lodges in the parks, all of which were great quality at reasonable prices. We had to be extremely careful with our food and anything with a fragrance to use bear boxes and not leave anything in our car or the tent. Bears are known to pull the doors off of cars to get at any food left inside. We had no such encounters, thankfully.

We ended our great circle route by passing through Durango, CO and taking the narrow gage train up to Silverton and back. We decided to get up into the Rockies since we knew that at the end of September the aspens begin to turn a brilliant yellow. Sure enough, we hit it perfectly with the mountains streaked with golden foliage amidst the dark green firs and pines. What a sight! All the way home through Nebraska and Iowa we were trying to figure out what we should do next.....