2020 Winter Camping Trip Day36 Last Hike in the Trip

 

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day36, 2020/12/31

Logo?

Last day of 2020, we had a last day hike of this trip, and last hike of 2020. There is a small trail near the National Forest campground. The trail is in the BLM. Basically the trail has lot and lots of petroplyphs. I had never see that many petroglyphs in a concentrated area. 

As you can see in the first picture, there are many similar logo's drawing. Circle and cross with many dots aronund. There is no way what this mean, but it is fun imagining. Is this something tribe's mark? Or telling not to close to this area to enemies?  Another common thing is face and animals. These are maybe more artistic purposes. Interestingly animals have arrows in this area's petroglyphs.  

After this morning hike we started driving to home for 3 days. It was sad to know that the vacation was becoming over, but now time is counting for adventure in summer! 

face

animal

For those of you who read the trip journal, thank you very much. I saw a lot, A LOT in this trip. We hiked in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky. We covered many National parks, a lot of BLM, National Forest, and some State parks. Although it was really cold, sometimes we camped below 10F, but it was still totally worth it. Every day I had a lot of wow and I was amazed by the scenery. Very happy with hiking in the West! Happy Trails!

Until the summer, we hike in New England. Then, end of August to early September, we will go to Alaska for the adventure. Blog entries will come. 

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day35 Guadalupe Peak and White Sands National Park

 2020 Winter Camping Trip Day35, 2020/12/30

The last night on Day34 after hiking in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, we drove to Guadalupe National Park. The first-come first-served campsites were all taken, but RV site had a lot of spaces. Since we had enough space in the back of car (if we take out stuff), we went there and camped. RV site allows people to camp there if you sleep in the car, it is not required to have a real RV. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunrise

Early in the morning before sunrise we started hiking up to the Guatelupe Peak. On the way the sun rose and the mountain was lightened up gradually. That was quite beautiful. About the half way (around 2.2 miles in) the grey clouds came in and started snowing. Wow! Snowing in the desert in Texas. Sure it is a rare event. 

Morning sun hits mountains

Soon we saw two guys already came back from summit. They started at 3 a.m. to see sunrise at the top. Hardcore! They said that the rest of the way could be slippery due to snow. Indeed it was, but we made it to the top. At the top we saw a guy from California. He had done the peak before and the last time was very sunny day. We took pictures each other. He had a newest version of iPhone as a Christmas gift. 

cactus with snow

When we almost came back to the trailhead (about half a mile from trailhead), we saw two Chinese guys. They asked if we went to the top and asked how long it would take to the top. They wore duffle coats and jeans. Obviously they were not experienced. I highly doubted they could make it to the top on the snow day, but hope at least safely turned back. 

On this trail I first time saw cactus covered with snow. It was very interesting and rare event for me. 

Snow continued and it was cold. So we went off to New Mexico where it was not snowing on the same day. We visited White Sands National Park. I knew a few years back it was White Sands National Monument. Now it is a National Park. Whoa. Driving from snowy Guatelupe National Park, I saw some white hill sand said, "Oh it snowed here, too"

Mr.N replied, "No, they are white sands! Not snow"

I was surprised and said, "Really!?"

Yes that's white. Really white!

For COVID practice the park would close at 6 p.m. We arrived at 3 p.m., so we had only 3 hours, but it was really great. We randomly walked up and down on the white (literally) sand hills and before sunset, we sat on the top of hill and saw sunset. It was amazing. The sky got blue to orange to pink and reflected on the white sand. It was beautiful. 

White Sands

This day we went camping at National Forest Lincoln. This was the last camping in this trip. It was sad and I had mixed feeling. I could come back to a nice comfy bed with heat, but no campfire for a while. Well, life goes on.  Logs were left from previous person and we were able to have a big campfire. Night and morning was below 20F, so fire helped a lot at least for me (even such temperature, Mr.N insisted on relying on fire is not good.....OK why?)

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day34-Carlsbad Caverns National Park

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day34, 2020/12/29

This was a jaw dropping experience. What a cave!

This day we went to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. I didn't know about this park, but Mr.N had been there and recommended it. 

This park is good, because National Park pass covers the cave entrance fee. In contrast, Mammoth Cave National Park requires everyone to buy a ticket to go into a cave even if you have a National Park Pass. 

Natural Entrance

There are two ways to go down into the cave big room area. One is a natural cave entrance, and the other is with an elevator. We took the natural entrance. This is much more fun! You go down, down, down with the natural entrance. The left picture is 5 minutes walk from the entrance. In the twilight zone, animals use there as a shelter. One of them is ringtail cats. I didn't know about the animal, but I saw a picture on the sign. Very cute! Even the sign says, "Ringtail cats are the cutest mammals you've never seen." I can't agree more. They are active at night and they can easily move around in the very rocky cave. 

There are thousands of decorations in the cave. Each one is different shape and it never gets you bored. Many formations are categorized where there are and its shape. For example, if it is hanging from ceiling, it is called stalactite (contains "c" in the word because it forms from ceiling: or at least you can memorize that way). If the decoration is forming from ground it is called stalagmite (contains "g" since it comes from ground). Columns are the connected formation of stalactites and stalagmite. In addition to that, flowstone, soda straws, draperies..etc. Many other formations are found. Some distinctive decorations are named like "Giant Dome" or "Totem Pole".

BIG

In the left picture is one of the biggest decoration in the cave. They are really big: it is hard to imagine from picture. In my guess they are at least 30 meters high. This is must see in person. 

Basically these decorations are formed by thousands of water drops from ground into the cave. The water absorbed carbon dioxide from air and soil and drip into a cave. These can dissolve limestone and absorb basic ingredient, because the water with CO2 is acidic. Then, once they come in, the carbon dioxide evaporate. In this state the water no longer hold ingredient: this forms the decoration.

From ceiling

Another picture in the right is decoration that amazed me. What a shape. Beautiful formation I had never seen. 

I had a lot of pictures, but too many to post here! 

After we enjoyed a lot, exit time. This was insane. It was not allowed to trace back to the natural entrance. People are required to take elevator. The line was so long. At first it was because social distancing. I thought the line was long because one household at one elevator ride. However, later we found it was just a chaos. No sign how many people can be in the elevator. The line didn't have 6 feet distancing enforced. Carlsbad Caverns NP is doing very bad job. 

I sent an email to the National Park Service. The email is as below. I sent in 2021 January. As of June 2021 I still had no response. I guess they will never respond.

Dear Carlsbad Caverns National Park,

I have a big concern regarding your social distancing practice. 

I had an insane experience and felt extremely unsafe and uncomfortable.

On December 29th, 2020. I went to Carlsbad Caverns National Park and toured the entire cave. I hiked in around 9:30 a.m., and I truly enjoyed the cave. 

Around noon, I was ready to go back and joined the line for the elevator. 

Along the line, there is no single sign to make people follow social distancing. Therefore, a lot of people were not leaving 6 feet space between households. 

For example, the family behind me was less than 2 feet behind. Besides, children took off their mask and parents didn't make the children to enforce mask wearing. 

Not only them, but many other children didn't wear masks AND screaming. 

The line continued until 1 p.m. It took exactly 1 hour to get to the elevator. At the elevator, there was no single sign of how many people are allowed to enter in the elevator together, or how many households are allowed to be in the elevator together. I saw 3 households entering the elevator together. I entered the elevator just with my partner to follow social distancing practice. 

This was an extremely unorganized and chaotic process. If this is continued, COVID for sure will spread in the cave. 

To avoid the worse situation,

• Need a sign for the line to enforce social distancing
• Need 6 feet apart sticker on the floor for the line area
• Need clear instructions how many people/household can be in the elevator at the same time
• Need rangers or volunteers to make people quiet and enforce social distancing near the line area
• Really need to limit number of people who can be in the cave at the same time

I went to Mammoth Cave National Park in November of 2020. This is a good comparison example, because it is another cave touring national park. 

Mammoth Cave is doing well for social distancing. They limit the number of people to be in the cave at the same time. They have rangers every 0.2 mile in the cave.

The rangers not only explain about caves, but also help people keep social distance. 

I hope Carlsbad Caverns National Park immediately revises social distancing practice policy and I hope I won't see clusters emerging in the park. 

Best regards.

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day33-Big Bend National Park Day4

 2020 Winter Camping Trip Day33, 2020/12/28

First part of the trail

Day4 in Big Bend National Park! We did 3 hikes on the final day in Big Bend. First one was Chimneys. 5.6 miles with 400 feet elevation gain. First 2 miles are completely flat in the great plain like in the left picture, then there are hills. These hills are quite interesting, because there are many petroglyphs and home of Native Americans remains intact. 

Chimney in the distance

On the way we saw cactus, but they were mostly red. I heard that it was drought in 2020-2021 winter, probably that was the reason they were red. Some were completely dead. Hope they will get some rain soon. 

Chimney is the rocky portion in the distance ahead in the right picture. The most interesting area is the most left rock. 

Petroglyphs

There are many petroglyphs on the rock. It is literally a lot. For me it was hard to tell what they meant, but it is exciting to see them. Some are wavy lines some are like faces? Some are circles and crosses. It is interesting to think what they were trying to convey by these, or maybe they just had fun drawing. 

house

Next interesting stuff was a house! There is a rocky area with flat ground with roof: rock is a shape like roof for the flat area, as you can see in the left picture. Wow. People lived there. This is a harsh environment: super hot in summer and cold in winter. How could they live there? How did they sleep? On the rock? In the cold? A lot of questions. It is fun thinking about them. 

Hole

Another evidence they were actually living there was many holes. As you can see in the left picture, it is obviously human made. These holes were used to grind stuff like grains and nuts etc. The holes were really used for years since they were very deep! One of them were more than 30 cm deep. Also I saw some portion of rocks were black, maybe due to fire. They might cook over fire. 

This hike was really nice: somehow this is not popular and nobody in the chimney area when we were. On the way back some people were going to the chimney area. I highly recommend this hike. 

Mule Ear

The second hike of the day was Mule Ear Spring hike. It is 3.8 mile out and back with minimal elevation change. 

Why is it called mule ear? It is a cute reason. You have an answer in the left picture. You can see the trail as well in the picture. The trail go towards and pass along the mule ear and goes to the spring. Spring itself is not very impressive, just like a small paddle, but it was okay. 

Mule Ear

This left picture was taken when we were passing the Mule Ear. It is a cool rocky structure. 

It was very nice to see the Mule Ear, so we sat down on the good viewpoint and enjoyed seeing it with snack. The Big Bend was quite a way: Texas is big and Big Bend is the real south end of Texas, but it was definitely worth going there.

Santa Elena Canyon

The last hike we did was Santa Elana Canyon. First of all, it was very popular trail and hard to get a parking spot at the trailhead. Besides, this was our third hike of the day, which was evening. For most people this might be the first or second hike of the day. 

The canyon is massive. That's real immense. As you can see in the left picture, it is very tall. The right side in the picture is US side and the left side is Mexico. This is amazing sight. Only down side was that there were many yahoos. Maybe early morning would be a good time to go there.

 

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day32-Big Bend National Park Day3

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day32, 2020/12/27

3rd day in the Big Bend!

The first hike we had was Window. The trailhead is in the back of Chisos campground. Usually you can drive into the edge of campground and park in front of the traihead, but it was closed due to COVID. To be honest that didn't make sense at all. Instead everyone was required to park in the overflow parking and walk inside the campground. The overflow parking lot is big. Sometimes National Park Service seems to close the area for no reason, although they claim because of COVID. In fact they close to be lazy: I am sure about that.

blue jay

Anyway, we started hiking. The trail is less than 5 miles total. This kind of mid-distance trails are relatively crowded, but still able to do with social distancing. On the way there were few people since we started early. A blue jay was along the trail and one particular bird stayed close. He might have been expecting food, but instead I just took a picture. I don't want wild birds tamed. I looked at zoomed in picture and amazed how furry he is! Also the legs are thin but look sturdy. Impressive body. 

potholes

The last portion of the hike is in the wash: this is the way to the window. We saw many potholes. First time I saw potholes was in New Zealand. It is massive power of water to make such holes. 

Walking in the wash is usually not straightforward, but it is in National Park. Why?

steps in wash

National Park Service (NPS) made steps multiple places as you can see in the right picture. Ha! If this was in the BLM, there would be no stairs for sure.

Window

Then we reached the Window. It is like a window! (left picture) Blue sky is in the window and the big rocks lines made a nice window shape. I liked it. We took pictures at the edge of the window.

The edge of window

Below the window is the cliff. So there is no way to go beyond that. Actually it is dangerous to go too close to the edge. As you can see in the left picture, the rock at the edge is extremely smooth. I touched it and it was like silk! I can imagine all the water go into this point and drop into the valley below: the force to smooth rock by that tremendous amount of water should be huge. 

After we enjoyed the edge and took pictures, we sat down side of window to make room for other people and had snack. While our picnic, more and more people reached the window and took pictures in turn. Among them one guy was extremely chatty and he talked to every single hiker. He is around 40 years old now and was he was telling people his father and he as 10 years old took a picture at the same spot as he did on that day with his daughter. 

After Window we went to the top of the hill to have a nice view that guy was also there again. His name is Dan, and he is from Dallas, Texas and with a wife from Vietnam or Malaysia (I forgot but she is from South Asia) and his 10-year old daughter, and he was talking to every single person again on the hill. One of them was a guy from San Antonio, Texas living in now California. They agreed that California is beautiful but not sure about Californians: they think that people in CA are too progressive. It was interesting to hear what Texans think about. Not many opportunities exist like that. 

Another hiker trapped by Dan was an old German female. She is at least 65 years old. She was going down to the valley to another end of trailhead. Her husband would pick her up at the trailhead. After she talked with Dan she proceeded descending. From the top of the hill she was all the way visible. At some point she took a break and stopped for a while. Then Dan got dramatic and said, "She doesn't know what she is doing. I will go back to trailhead and tell a ranger." We were thinking, "She is fine." And she was fine walking after taking a break. 

Amazing view

Dan was a little too chatty, but other than that, it was great. The view was amazing! Before I came to Big Bend, I had no idea what it looks like, but I loved Big Bend so much. Also December is a great time to visit there. It is not too cold and totally manageable camping there. 

 

 

Not only this! We had another hike. Lost Mine. Since parking lot was full, we parked in a turnout. We saw at least 10 cars got tickets due to parking along the road (not turnout). There are multiple signs of no parking on road, so they deserved them. FYI be careful. 

Interesting colors

Lost Mine is a good medium size hike, 5.3 miles with 1237 feet elevation gain. The view is continuously great. There is an interesting story why it is called lost mine. Spanish settlers came and they found mine having gold. The native Americans these area who were forced to work as labors for mining were told to wear blindfolds not to get an idea where the mine was. This is why it is called now Lost Mine. Is it true? Nobody knows, but according to the sign, most likely the mine didn't exist but just this is known as a storytelling.

Great view

On the way back to the Lost Mine summit, we saw deer. We saw really really interesting and very funny male deer's behavior. It was a mating season when we were there, and one male was chasing a female. The female was absolutely no interest at all in the male. She ran away very fast and went far away from him, however, he didn't give up. Then he approached her and stopped 10 meters away from her. She kept ignoring him and continued eating. Then abruptly he started walking toward her by stomping his foot. It was so funny to me. Was he trying to impress her? It seemed like that to me. Sadly to him, the female deer again ran away. She was not impressed at all but annoyed. It was very interesting sighting.

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day31

 2020 Winter Camping Trip Day31, 2020/12/26

Day2 in the Big Bend National Park. We had 3 hikes!

First one was Marufo Vega Loop. 14.4 miles with 2726 feet elevation change. We worried a bit about parking at the trailhead, because there was a sign saying breaking in would occur. The trailhead is not far from Mexican border and actually it is accessible from Mexican side. The river between US/Mexico is shallow and I heard that Mexicans cross the river by riding horses and steal stuff from cars. Due to that, we hid everything in the car that was visible from outside.  

The hike was absolutely solitude. We only saw 2 people at the end of hike. So from morning to evening nobody visible! I loved the solitude. 

The first couples of miles was in the wash and the vast desert area. Interestingly, we saw wild horses. The morning light and horses are pretty view in the desert (left picture). The wild horses: I didn't know that wild horses exist. Considering the location, however, it makes sense. Horses in Mexican villages escaped from their farm and crossed the river and stayed in the U.S. They are immigrants, or 2nd generation of immigrants. Somehow they wanted freedom. 

Rio Grande

Going further and further, the view got more and more dramatic. The trail goes down to the canyon and reached the Rio Grande, which is US-Mexico border. The canyon is very deep and huge rocks there were quite impressive. Then we reached the ridge. Below the ridge is the Rio Grande. The view between the river was amazing. Massive rocky mountains are in the both side of the river. The river was clear beautiful blue. It was extremely quiet and peaceful. I felt like I was in the middle of the different planet, since it was not the imaginable scene, even though I was still during the domestic trip. The only animal I saw was a couple of horses in the distance along the river. We sat on the ridge and had a lunch. This is one of the best views in my memory. For sure this will reside in my heart forever. 

donkey

2nd hike is a mini hike of 1.4 mile. This hike, Boquillas Canyon trail, also goes to Rio Grande, but it is far from the one we went in the hike I mentioned above.  Boquillas canyon is very close to Boquillas village in Mexico. Indeed we saw Mexicans from village kids were playing along the river. Adults were also there, too. Interestingly, along the river of the US side, they put souvenirs for Americans. There is a container to put cash (US dollars) there. In the river they had a kayak. Obviously they cross river and trying to sell stuff. It is illegal, and I am sure park rangers know it, but it seems that US park service or border control not really arrest them. I heard that US border control cooperate with Boquillas people so that border control can arrest very serious people like drug traders. In return US officers unofficially approve those Boquillas peoples' illegal "non-serious" crimes. Usually before COVID, there is an official boat tour from Big Bend National Park to go to their village several times a week. If Americans go there officially with passport, buying their souvenir goods in Mexico is totally legal. It was interesting to see such kinds of stuff. 

 

 

Another interesting thing we was was a horse and donkey along the river. Maybe they are belongings of those Mexicans. The donkey is following the horse. Then the horse went into the river, probably because the horse wanted to cool down (it was a warm day). Since the donkey was much smaller than the horse, the donkey couldn't go into the river. The donkey looked frustrated. He said, "Mmmmmmm" several times. His breathing got bigger. He seemed angry that the horse left him. After a while the horse came back to the shore and the donkey looked happy. Cute and funny!!

horse in the river and the donkey is staring at that

Finally we walked a mini nature trail near the campground and finished a day! I believe that not many people staying there, "hike, hike, hike" like us.

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day30-Big Bend National Park

 2020 Winter Camping Trip Day30, 2020/12/25

First day in the Big Bend National Park, we had a big day hike. 18 miles with 3600 feet elevation change. First we planned to hike up to Emory Peak, which was 10 miles, but we ended up hiking more. 

Emory Peak

I loved hiking in the Big Bend. Now it is a very different view from Arizona. The mountains in Texas are more brown and rocky at the top. The shape at the top are more rectangular and straight up to the sky.  Trails are built in the area with great view. Sometimes it is on the ridge looking down mountains below and in the distance, sometimes in the valley looking up in the mountains. 18 miles were long, but almost non-stopping view was had! 

Rim Trail

In Big Bend, there are a number of backcounty campsites. Especially East Rim campsites, we found them with great view. In 2020 the availability is limited, since at least half of them were closed due to COVID. For sure some time we need to go back for backpacking. Another cool thing was I was able to see Mexico. In the right picture, for example, the mountain range in the distance is in Mexico. I knew that US and Mexico are next each other, but seeing it was kind of exciting. It looked like that a lot of mountains in Mexico as well.

Evening Light

 

In the evening the orange sunlight reflected on the mountains: it was really beautiful! This day we went to a different campground: Rio Grande Village campground. Rio Grande means river Grande in Mexican and actually the river is the border between US and Mexico. The campground capacity was limited due to COVID. It looked like more than half was closed due to COVID. It was good. The campground was huge, probably 100 campsites, but 50 were open and all opened ones were occupied. It seemed that everyone was on vacation on Christmas. The majority of people had RV, and us tent campers were minority. 

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day28/29-Arizona to Texas

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day28/29, 2020/12/23-24

This day we traced back to the trailhead. It was easier, because water was gone, which was the heaviest part of the stuff, and it was downhill. We pleasantly again enjoyed a lot of Saguaro. Every tree is different, so it was not boring at all to see thousands of them. 

After completion of the hike, we saw a coyote crossing a road leaving Saguaro National park and going to the Tucson city direction. We saw and heard many coyotes during this trip. They are cute and their voices are interesting. 

Then we left the park and went to again Salsa Verde, a Mexican restaurant. Why not?!

Beautiful morning light

At night we camped at Cochise Stronghold Campground. There was a little Nature trail and historic trail with sign and panels. It was interesting. Cochise was a leader of this region. As you can see in the picture, Dragoon Mountains, rugged rocky terrain helped them to hide and attach their enemies. Actually the terrain is really beautiful. I need to go back there to explore more the area. 

Next day we drove to Big Bend National Park. 

On the way we stopped by a Mexican restaurant for take out. It is in Texas, why not having Mexican food? We did it in the El Paso. 

Big Bend is most south of Texas (US-Mexico border) and Texas is a big state: so the drive was a whole day. There we went through the border control checkpoint. Because it is near US-Mexico border, there are sporadic border control stations. There each car must stop. Then an officer asks a driver if all the passengers in the car are American citizens. In our case, Mr.N says he is American citizen, and he says that I am a green card holder. Then the officer asks me to show my green card. I handed it over to the officer. Usually the officer looks for a second and gives back to me and tell us good to go. I knew that there were border control stations so I brought my green card. It is interesting that American citizens don't need to show anything! What if a person lies?

We arrived at Chisos Basin Campground, which is inside the Big Bend National Park around 8 p.m. and pitched a tent and went to sleep. 

 

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day26-2nd day in Saguaro National Park

Saguaro

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day26, 2020/12/21

This day we traced back to the trailhead. I enjoyed Saguaro in the morning sun. The picture in the left is one of the impressive Saguaro. There are many arms, meaning it is at least more than 100 years old. It is very cool. Also I am grateful to be able to see such a historic Saguaro in person.

After backpacking, what do you do? 

Feast.

We went to a Mexican restaurant to have a take-out. We were in southern Arizona, why not having Mexican food? I first met Mexican food when I lived in California. There are so many authentic Mexican places in California. In my neighborhood there, there were 4 Mexican restaurants within 3 blocks.  Now in Massachusetts, I don't see a single authentic one, although I know some fake ones. We yelped and we went to the place called Salsa Verde. Although they took long to be ready, which made me impatient, but it was paid off by authentic food. Ah! This was the one I was looking for in the East. 

Then we went to the car campground run by the National Forest. The campground name is Gordon Hirabayashi. I immediately noticed that Hirabayashi is a Japanese name. Since the first name Gordon is American name, I suspected that he was Japanese American and I thought that possibly the place was the internment campground during WWII. Sadly, usually those Japanese-Americans' internment camps are in the harsh environment area in the mountains and I saw several of them while my outdoor camping trips. For example, Manzanar is near Mount Whitney. Another example is Tulelake, near Lava Beds National Monuments. 

There was a sign and panel at the campground about Gordon Hirabayashi and we were able to learn about him. He challenged the interment camp order in 1942, and he turned himself into FBI and been sentenced. The government at that time didn't transport him to prison, so Gordon Hirabayashi hitchhiked from Washington state to Arizona. Wardens at the prison camp didn't have papers for Gordon Hirabayashi, so he had to go to a movie. In 1987, over 40 years later, his case was overturned. More detail can be found here in Wikipedia Hirabayashi vs United States

sunset

From the hills behind the Hirabayashi campground we went to see a sunset and the Saturn and Jupiter conjunction. The sunset was amazing. From the hill, the sun set over the mountains and far below Tsuson town was seen. This day right after sunset was supposed to be Saturn and Jupiter conjunction. We saw Saturn and Jupiter, but two were not combined. They were very close, but definitely apart! Hummmm. Anyhow it was still good to see such close planets in the amazing place with admiring Gordon Hirabayashi.

Two planets

After checking out the sunset, we had fire and dinner. Because we were able to forage as much as we want in the National Forest, we had enough logs to have long campfire. For dinner we had salad from Safeway to feed veges to our bodies.

 

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day25 First day in Saguaro National Park

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day25, 2020/12/20

 First time visiting Saguaro National Park!!! So exciting. 

Saguaro National Park is in the area with many Saguaro as the name indicates. There are two regions: West and East sides. Between the two region is the city of Tucson. The Saguaro National park has an interesting setting. There is no car campground, but there are backcoutry designated campsites. You need a permit to do overnight backpacking and have to stay at the designated campsite. Permits can be obtained via Recreation.gov or walk-in at the visitor center.

We booked backpacking campsite permit a few days in advance. We got one at the campsite Douglas Spring. Although the campsite is close to spring as the name indicates, a lot of time of the year the spring is empty. Before we start backpacking we wanted to ask a ranger if 2020 winter's water situation. 

The visitor center was open, but indoor area was closed due to COVID practice. There is an outside table and 3 volunteers were working there. There was a separation between them and visitors and everyone was required to have face covering. Arizona is doing well regarding social distancing. The volunteers were Tucson people and answering questions. They said there would be no water at Douglas. We were thinking about doing 2 night/3 days backpacking if Douglas Spring campsite had water source, but based on their comment we decided to do overnight backpacking as out and back. 

At the trailhead we saw a person with a dog: he was told by a ranger at the trailhead that dogs are not allowed on the trail. There is huge national forest around Saguaro National Park, so he went there -> this is just FYI for readers. 

Saguaro

From beginning, we saw many Saguaro!! Some are tall, some are short. Some have a lot of branches, some have a tiny one. Everyone is different. Oh so wonderful to see Saguaros! Not only Saguaros, Saguaro National Park is full of cacti. It is a Cactus Forest. 

Saguaro is a very long life. First 6-8 years it is only 2-3 cm. It takes 70 years to have a first branch. They reach the full height at age 150. It is very impressive. They survive in the desert with severe weather, lightning, drought, etc, a lot of things happens for 150 years. 

Surprising is not only Saguaro's lifespan. In Saguaro National Park, black bears live. I didn't expect black bears in the desert. They live in a higher elevation above 6000 feet. Actually I didn't expect that high elevation in Saguaro NP either. The highest point in the Saguaro NP is 8666 feet at Mica Mountain. 

Curry pan

In our backpacking we started around 3000 feet and Douglas Spring campsite is 4800 feet. The uphill is gradual, so I didn't feel tough. First 2 miles were full of Saguaro and other cactus, as well as day hikers. After 2 miles of hiking, there were not many hikers, maybe we saw only 2 trail runners. I liked the solitude in the desert. As we go up higher, Saguaro disappeared, maybe environment is not suitable for Saguaro. We sat down on a hill and had Japanese curry pan (pan means bread in Japanese: the same in French), which we bought at a Japanese bakery in Phoenix. This was also unexpected experience! The pan was delicious!

nice view

Going up, the view got even more marvelous. You can see a trail in the left picture and the town Tsuson in the left. Desert mountains are very cool. After 6.6 miles of hiking, we arrived at the campsite. Douglas Spring has 3 sites. 3 groups can book permits, but not specify which site. We were the first one to arrive there, so we assessed all 3 sites and took the site1. Actually nobody came that night. 

 

campsite

The site picture is in the left. It is spacious and there is a bearproof locker. It is nice they provide it: that saved our weight a lot, because we didn't need to carry a bear canister. One interesting fact is that this locker is not only for bears, but also for javelinas. Javelina. I didn't know about this animal. They look like wild boars, but much smaller size, with pig-like nose. Their visions are not great, but smelling skill is excellent. Technically they are vegetarians, but they also eat small rodents, dead birds, etc if there are opportunities. Javelinas are usually not aggressive, however, they can be aggressive when food is involved. That's why animal proof boxes for campers for bears and javelinas.

After we pitched a tent we walked around the campsite, AND we found WATER! It was just some puddles, but it is enough to go backpacking another night. Hmmmm. Volunteers didn't tell us. We could have done another night, but we didn't bring food for another night. Oh well. 

evening light

Jupiter and Saturn

Anyway we went up to the hill and had dinner. Nobody around. So quiet. Looking at sun going down gradually was extremely priceless. This experience is literally priceless, since you can't just buy this!

Orange light hitting the sun was beautiful. Eating hot udon noodles was perfect for that chilly night! 

 

By the time we eat cookies and hot tea, the sun was set and we were able to see very close Jupiter and Saturn. Since we were camping everyday, we observed each day them getting closer and closer.
How lucky we are! I could even catch the Jupiter and Saturn with normal digital camera. They are very bright. 

Very nice day in Saguaro!

 

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day24-Siphon Draw

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day24, 2020/12/19

We went more South in Arizona and did a hike in a state park near Phoenix.  The hike is called Siphon Draw and the Flatiron. It is a 6 miles with 3000 feet elevation gain! Coming this south, cacti appeared in the field. More specifically, Saguaro! Saguaro is an iconic cactus. When you type cactus on your phone, Saguaro emoji automatically shows up. It is that famous, but actually I had never seen Saguaro in person. Saguaro and other cacti in the field was really beautiful and I loved the cactus scenery! The hike was very steep (fun), pretty, but crowded. 

Going up

The hike starts in the state park, but only a half mile it enters national forest. State park charges hikers but only a half mile is actually in the state park! Hummm. First 2 mile is only 1000 elevation gain.

The first 2 miles were like in the left picture. Going up to the flatiron in the beautiful rocks was nice. On the grass there are some Saguaros. I loved this kind of geology. My English teacher when I learned English in California is from Phoenix and this reminded me of her. She says she loves desert and sometimes need to go back there since she now lives in Vermont. 

flatiron

Going up more, the flatiron got in the sight. In the left picture, the most left rock is the flatiron. The destination of the hike was there. You now might think, "Oh it is up high!" Yes it was. The last mile is 2000 feet elevation gain. There is not an official trail and you just climb up a gully. I was surprised that this type of hike exist in the West: very similar to New England steepness. Surprisingly, despite the steepness, many people were here. Probably because 1) it is not far from Phoenix, 2) it was Saturday, 3) more people are already off on Dec 19th, 4) students are definitely off (we saw many student-looking hikers). Since we are used to this type of steepness we had no problem, but we saw many people stopped before the gully, especially people with whining dogs for the steepness. 

From flatiron

From the top, I saw very very West-ish view. I love this kind of scenery. I always think this is the America. Japanese don't call United Sates as US or USA, we call it America. Since my first place to live in America was West, I always think the West-ish view the America. The Western view always linked to my new chapter with mixture of fear and excitement. If you are an immigrant, you know the feeling. The feeling something you had never had before. Looking at the vast West view always brings such waves of sense into my heart.

After we enjoyed the hike, we stopped by a Japanese grocery store in Phoenix! I was really happy to learn that there is at least one Japanese store in Phoenix! We stocked up some camping food there (always Japanese one is good!). Next to the grocery store there was a Japanese bakery shop: of course we stopped by and had some bread for the hike next day. Yay! Phoenix....big enough and a lot of hiking, and warm. Not bad to live there.

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day23-Fay Canyon and Brim Mesa

 2020 Winter Camping Trip Day23, 2020/12/18

This was the 2nd day of the hikes in the Sedona area in Arizona. Since there are so many hikes in the area, it was hard to pick one. After searching for a while with our trail App, we picked Fay Arch and Fay Canyon for the first hike. We knew that people in the Sedona area are rather touristic type hikers, we started early to beat them: usually those people start later morning. Actually a day before we overheard the representative conversation from those tourists. The guy said, "I hike a little then look for a brewery. That is my kind of vacation." 

Fay arch

The parking lot was large, but only a couple of cars were there at 9 a.m. However, there are 10 toddlers and a couple of adults were there. Hummm. Anyway we first headed for the Fay Arch. The side trail to go to the Arch is from the main trail to the Fay Canyon. The side trail is not a official trial, and very steep, however, it is worth it! The arch is a little hidden from the main trail, but once off the main trail it will appear gradually. You can see the view through the arch, once you reach under it. In the morning nobody was at the arch and we had really nice time under the arch. Looking great view under the blue sky was priceless. When we were enjoying the scenery, we heard toddlers passing by the trail in the distance. Toddlers' voices were loud and they were continuously chatting. 

Then we headed for Fay Canyon. The rock formation in the canyon are interesting and the color is beautiful.  We climbed a little towards the most interesting rock in the canyon area and enjoyed the view. The color....what a color. It is hard to describe with words. Pictures help, but it is totally a different experience to hike in the rocks and see the actual color in person. I really recommend hiking in the desert in the West. By 11:00 a.m., more and more people hiked in the area and some yahoos started doing drone. It was very annoying! 

Canyon

To avoid drone-flying area, we went to the deeper canyon area with off-trail. The deeper canyon is really beautiful. It was a nice sunny day and the contrast with blue sky and brown layers colors of rocks were appealing. We even found a small pile of rocks that seemed to used for a house/shelter for native Americans. We sat down in the "house" and ate lunch. Lunch was again salad from Safeway. We are very happy with great view with healthy salad! 
 

What a view

In the afternoon, we tried another hike, Brim Mesa. This was my favorite hike in the Sedona area for sure. Somehow this hike had much less people, which is a big plus, but it was really marvelous view. Trees and orange rocks with blue sky....very Sedona-ish scenery. I could sit and admire the view forever. 

secret cave

The hike contains some off-trail portion, so we tried to cut off the on-trail portion, however, we encountered the cliff, so we went back to on-trail. Then again we went off-trail. The off-trail portion leads to the secret cave. The cave is above the arch, and you can actually walk on the cave. It was super cool. I was a little scared of walking there, but indeed it was a special experience. 

In this hike, the last "whoa!" thing was Devil's kitchen sink hole. The picture in the right picture. How it was formed? Rain, slightly acidic, dissolve limestone and make a cave inside. Then over a long time, finally sinkhole is made. Actually this was my first time seeing a sinkhole. What a dramatic sinkhole. It is really impressive and even shocking drop off of gigantic rocks. 

I really loved Day15's two hikes.