Grand Sawtooth Loop, Idaho

 Grand Sawtooth Loop, Idaho

Total Mileage: 80 miles (including side-trips)

Total elevation gain: 15,000 feet (approximate)

Scenery: 10
Solitude: 7
Difficulty: 5

Our itinerary: 6 nights 7 days (due to small wildfire, trail closure/open occurred during the trip: that made us hike an unusual loop of grand sawtooth loop)

Day1: Grandjean traihead -- North Baron Creek 
Day2: North Baron Creek --Alpine Lake
Day3: Alpine Lake --Lake 8861 (side trip)
Day4: Lake 8861--10 Lakes Basin (side trip, off-trail) --Three island Lake (side trip)
Day5: Three Island Lake--a mile before Grandjean trailhead
Day6: a mile before Grandjean trailhead --Grandjean trailhead --Sawtooth Lake

Day7: Hike out

2022 summer, we chose Idaho for our adventure destination. Not many people go to Idaho for backpacking by flying, but we knew it would be beautiful. We have a "Backpacking Idaho" book, and we searched and dreamed for a while to go to Idaho for backpacking. One of our main backpackings we wanted to do was Grand Sawtooth Loop. This is 70 mile loop in the Sawtooth mountain range and go through a lot of lakes. I got interested in this hike, because 1) I like loop hikes, 2) I like backpacking relatively long (more than overnight but less than 2 weeks), 3) I love lakes, 4) I love hiking above a tree line, 5) I like hiking with solitude.

When we arrived at Grandjean trailhead, we saw a sign put by Sawtooth National Forest service. It indicated that a part of a loop was closed due to wildfire in the area. Luckily most of the loop was still open, and the sky was not smokey at all. So we started hiking. Since we hit the trail at 4 p.m., we only hiked 3 miles on the first day. Besides, we heard thunders in the distance, so it was better not to climb too much and we camped in the trees. Although it was just 3 miles, we saw a black bear!!! The bear was on the trail. As we approached, the bear stood up and checked what was coming. Then as soon as the bear saw humans he ran away. Idaho bears are very scared of humans, probably due to hunting and they knew they were not protected like ones in the National Parks. 

Next day we started hiking at 5 a.m. (and every day at 5 a.m.) The first lake of the loop was Baron Lake. Oh my goodness. The Baron lake is super beautiful. The mountain over the lake is very spiky, "the Sawtooth", which I hadn't never really seen the shape before. Very cool.  The mountain shapes were mirroring on the lake. It was so pretty and to spend some time at the lake we had an early long lunch break there. Gorgeous!

Baron Lake

It was hard to leave the Baron lake, but we headed for the upper Baron Lake next. Upper Baron Lake is a little above the first Baron Lake. Upper one is slightly smaller than lower one, but this was equally attractive blue color. Then the trail goes up to Baron Divide. On the way up to the pass, two lower and upper Baron Lakes can be seen below. The two lake surrounding by massive mountains was such a wowing view. There are many ways to admire the beauty of lakes. Being at the same level as lake at the shore is great, and looking below lake's blueness is another way to enjoy them. When multiple lakes can be seen below, it is extra gorgeous.

Baron Lakes

Alpine Lake

Upper Crammer Lake

At Baron Divide, we had snack. I ate anpan (Japanese bread, red bean paste inside) as my mountain top snack as usual. Food is always more delicious in the mountain. Then we descended to the other valley. We wanted to camp by lake above a tree line, so we stopped a little early in the afternoon at Alpine lake. Alpine lake is another beautiful lake and glad we had a great campsite. Mr.N as usual swam in the lake, and even I did, because it was a hot afternoon probably over 85F. In Idaho summer in the dry climate at high altitude, it gets hot after sun comes out but it is chilly in the morning. Two not-so-good things about this campsite was related to the fact that day hikers have access here. Due to that, chipmunks got close to human and expected to be fed. I am sure that they got food from human before. They came again and again so I had to scare them. Also when I scare them I noticed they always ran and hid in the dead tree. So I had to block the entry to the tree. Then those brat chipmunks had to run uphill to run away. They were very fat: they need to run more. Another OK thing was that campers were not only us, actually at least 4 parties were camping along Alpine Lake. Far enough not to see humans, but one party was chatting loud until 9 p.m. We went to sleeping bag at 8 p.m., so they bothered me for an hour. Other than that it was really nice. Those people were I guess just overnighters. Next day we went down to the tree area then again climbed up above tree line. The first lake of the day was Crammer Lakes (lower, then upper). Especially upper Crammer lake was pretty. The water was extremely clear. We filtered water here for the upcoming climbing to the pass. 

unnamed heart shape lake

This pass, Crammer Pass.....I really really loved it. On the way to the pass there are many unnamed lakes. In Sawtooth, many lakes are gem even without names! First lovely one on the way to the Crammer pass was a shape of heart. What a color and what an amazing mountains around. Magnificent. 

pika

Climbing more and more from there, more talus field appeared. Cute residents in the talus at high altitude? Pika! One pika appeared from big rock at the top of hill and said, "Peeee!" for four times. He shouted towards below talus field. I was very impressed how big their voices considering their body sizes. I love seeing pika.

The most impressive thing at the pass was that the shape of mountain as below! This is really cool needles and I couldn't stop staring at them. We sat at the top of the pass with view of these and had a long lunch. What a gorgeous place to have a meal. I again had anpan and Japanese bars (I only eat Japanese bars. I can't bear with American chewy bars. They stick to teeth too much).

Crammer Pass

 

unnamed lake

After the pass we descended into another valley and saw more unnamed lakes and named lakes. The first unnamed lake after the pass is in the left picture. Very deep greenish blue. Each lake has its own unique color and each is mesmerizing.

 

 

 

Hidden Lake

Then We descended to Hidden Lake. Beautiful. I was wondering why it is named hidden. Very big lake and obvious. One thing I can think of is access. From any trailheads, it takes at least 2 days to reach here, meaning 4 day trip at least to come to Hidden lake and go back. Maybe that's why it is called Hidden lake. Mr.N jumped into the lake and I took pictures and had snack here. A guy was fishing here. Some lakes have trouts in Sawtooth.

 

Edna Lake

Next lake was Edna lake. You can tell by now we went to so-many-lakes. It was a dream backpacking route visiting lake after lake and all are amazing. Edna lake was a good option to camp of the day, but it was crowded. We saw at least 4 tents already set up when we arrived around 3 p.m. there. 

 

lake8861

We love solitude, so we went to a side trail and a little bit of off-trail to camp at lake 8861. Some lakes don't have official names and they are called at their altitude. This lake is at 8861 feet. We chose that lake, because backpacking in Idaho book by Wilderness Press indicates that lake 8861 is deserted and very beautiful and worth doing a side trip there. Despite of the off-trail portion to reach to lake 8861, there was a couple already set up camp at the lake. We went to the other side of them and set up a tent. Later one other guy came on the other side to camp. I was a bit disappointed to see three parties, because my expectation was "deserted" as written in the book. Anyhow, the lake was pretty, especially mountains mirroring on the lake in the evening and morning. Another interesting thing at this campsite was that we found that deer was sleeping very close to our tent. When we got up at 5 a.m. and got out of tent, deer ran out near the tent. There was a spot grass was very flat: obviously the deer was sleeping there (and actually we heard noise to make bed when we went to bed, it was deer).

Ardeth Lake

Next morning we came back to Edna lake from side trip, then continued the loop. Next lake after Edna lake was Vernon Lake. We heard a horse crying (sounded like complaining) there. Then the next was Ardeth Lake, which is Mr.N's favorite lake during Grand Sawtooth Loop. 

10 Lake Basin

Here we were ahead of schedule, so we decided to do off-trail adventure around Ardeth Lake. As you can see in the picture of Ardeth Lake above, there is a basin above Ardeth Lake. Map shows "10 Lakes Basin"with many lakes (about 10). The left picture is the first lake we reached on the 10 Lake Basin. If you compare Ardeth Lake picture and left picture, you can tell we went up the hill. Mr.N swam here. There was absolutely nobody in the 10 lake basin, therefore Mr.N jumped into the lake naked. After we enjoyed the first lake, we decided to explore more lakes. These below pictures are more lakes on the 10 Lakes Basin. This basin was soooooooo pretty. 

10 Lake Basin

10 Lakes Basin

10 Lakes Basin

 After half a day we explored the 10 Lakes Basin where there is nobody else, we got back to an official trail and continued trekking.  Now going up to the pass. It was really nice to see below Ardeth lake and multiple lakes on the 10 Lake Basin from the pass. 

Looking 10 Lakes Basin Below

 

 

Spangle Lake

After the pass a chain of lakes still continues. After Edna Lake, it will take more than 2 days from any trailhead,
so it was quite quiet. We passed Spangle Lake, Lake Ingeborg, Rock Slide Lake. Every single lake is pretty. Then we took another side trip to Three Island Lake. Just 1 mile side trip and it is easy: on trail. 

Three Island Lake

Three Island Lake is named so, because there are three rock islands on the lake. We camped here at the lake. Nobody was there; complete solitude. First night at Alpine lake, and second night at lake 8861 were both not only us at the lakes camping, thus this campsite was extra great due to solitude. What a wonderful experience having beautiful lake in alpine only for us. As usual, Mr.N dove in the lake and I took pictures of the lake. Then we had dinner. 

Fern Falls

The next morning was a little sad, because we had to leave the high alpine lake area and needed to descend the valley to complete the loop. Oh well we had more backpacking to come in the trip, so it was okay. It was a long descend: this day we covered 17 miles. There were two options to camp. One is a car campground at the trailhead, or backcounty camp a mile before the trailhead. We saw a flat space when we started this loop a mile after trailhead. Since car campground is not free (we love free), we decided to camp a mile before trailhead. The plan was finish early in the morning and head for the next backpacking. Although I wrote the 17 mile was boring, it is actually scenic, especially Fern Falls was pretty.

 

First Trail Creek Lake

The next early morning we came back to the trailhead: we thought we did all the grand loop open that time. Then I looked around and noticed that partial trail closure sign was gone!!! Oh WOW. Probably the closure was due to a very small fire and I guessed it was totally contained. We then decided to do the missed part. We sorted out the food and started backpacking within an hour. After 5 miles of uphill, we came back to the alpine lake area again. Happy. The first lake we reached on this day was Trail Creek Lakes. An official trail goes to the first Trail Creek Lake of several. The color of lake is deep greenish blue. Really pretty. The lake color changes depending on what time of the day. We arrived there before sun hit the water, so it was deep blue. I loved it. 

 

Upper Trail Creek Lakes

Then we decided to explore the other Trail Creek Lake, which requires off-trail portions. One of the reasons is that first Trail Creek Lake is 5 mile away from the trailhead, so some day hikers were at the lake (for them 10 mile out and back day hike). Dayhikers were crammed at the end of official trail and no hint going off-trail to upper lakes. We wanted some solitude at the lake, so we explored other Trail Creek Lakes. We walked around at least two more upper Trail Creek Lakes. It is very beautiful and I am glad we did that. Also it was nice to see look down the first Trail Creek Lake: another angle is nice too. It was hard to leave Trail Creek Lakes, but we moved on. 

 

On the way to Observation Peak

Next we did a side trip to hike up to Observation Peak. An official trail exists to go to the top of Observation Peak, but obviously not many people go there, since this is a side trip in addition to the standard grand Sawtooth loop. On the way to Observation Peak, we saw in the distance Trail Creek Lakes (lower and upper) as you can see in the left picture. Whoa. Another beautiful scenery. 

 

Observation Peak

As you can see in the left and above pictures, there was wildfire somewhere. The sky was smokey. If there was no smoke, it would have been even better, but I was still happy to see such mountain range.
From the top, 360 view of the Sawtooth. This is the reason the mountain range is called Sawtooth indeed. Unique and beautiful. Then, we headed for another lake. 

 

McGown Lake

Because Trail Creek Lakes and Observation Peak are both side trips, when we arrived at McGown Lake, it was already 6 p.m. It is a very pretty lake and nobody there, so we thought about camping there, but the campsite had a burnt leaning tree that looked like it could fall on the campsite. After we discussed, we decided to climb 200 feet more to go to Sawtooth Lake. 

I liked the decision. I really loved the Sawtooth lake. Very big lake!

Sawtooth Lake

 

 

Sawtooth Lake in the morning

It is one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen. If I had to choose the favorite lake of this backpacking, Baron lake and Sawtooth lake. It was really lucky to spend by a favorite lake. The next day, the color was even more amazing. Sooooo blue. Azure blue. 

 

For this Grand Sawtooth loop, we saw 40 lakes at least I remember now. Some are big with name, some are no names. I think this is the most lake filled backpacking course I have ever done. I love lakes so much. Also this loop includes a lot of mountains. Mountains are indeed sawtooth-ish. Priceless.

 

Franconia Ridge-#1 rated New Hampshire Hike

Franconia ridge hike is the most popular hike in New Hampshire.

Hikers who know both West and East, you know how many trees in the New England. In addition, altitude is not very high in the East compared to West. Thus, a lot of hikes are below treeline, in the forest. Usually only the small portion of a hike is rocky above tree line with view, and many hikes never get out of forest without open views. Based on that, Franconia ridge hike is categorized unusual in New England in a good way. The biggest reason is one third of the hike of 8 miles is on the ridge with quite open view. I totally understand why this is so popular. As you can see in the picture, ridge walk has a good view. 

Due to this popularity, the parking lot is insane. The lot is large, at least 40 cars can be parked, but it will be full by 8 a.m. On this hike we left the Boston area at 4 a.m., and arrived at the parking by 7 a.m. Already 2/3 is full by then. People used to park along the highway because of the situation. The parking along highway was over 1 mile. So.Many.Cars were parked. Yes, you can imagine it is not safe to park along highway. State of New Hampshire thought so too (phew, good), and one day they put a red cone along the highway. Each cone is tied with rope with next cone so that car can't park. The rope-tied corns continues more than 1 mile to north and south. 

In addition to the ridge portion, Franconia falls on the way is pretty. This is another plus for this hike. In contrast to West, East is much more wet, meaning more lakes, river, or falls. Franconia falls have a lot of water due to snow melt in May. This is nice to check it out. Your feet will be wet for river crossing, though. I used to wear waterproof hiking shoes, but some point I switched to non-waterproof. You can stay dry just going through small paddle with waterproof shoes, but if your feet have to go in the river many times? Waterproof shoes get wet and now never get dry. In contrast, non-waterproof shoes can get much quicker when they get wet. If you go for a real adventure, actually non-waterproof shoes work better. 

One more interesting thing about this hike: Greenleaf hut. New England has mountain hut system. You can stop by a hut and most of the time potable water is available. This is nice to take a rest. If you are interested, they sell coffee cake, tea (just tea packs), lemonade, brownies, chips etc. I don't like any of those, so I have never bought them, but if I was in a real hunger, I would. This Greenhut has hut dogs (2 doggies!) and they lay down on the floor. I pet them and they are calm and cute. I love hut pets. European huts usually have cats (probably for rodent hunt). I loved petting those cats during Tour du Mont Blanc. 

Camping at Silver Lake in Vermont

We felt like we wanted to go camping over the weekend. Why not?! We looked at Vermont hiking book and found Silver Lake campground in Vermont interesting. 

This campground is a little different. This is not a car campground, but not really a backcountry campground, either. You need to hike in 0.6 mile into the campground. Another way to reach the campsites is 1 mile of narrow dirt road walk. This is first-come first-served style and there are 15 sites total. 

We left the Boston area around 8:30 a.m and arrived at the trailhead 11:30 a.m. We hike in. Some sites, maybe 5 or so, were already taken, but we were able to secure a good site. 

campsite

One of the missions of this camping was to use hammock! In New England, it is sometimes very hard to find a flat spot to pitch a tent, because trees are so dense. Hammocks solve the problem, but before getting into hammock camping, we wanted to test, because we never slept whole night in a hammock. The picture in the left is our hammocks. I had never slept in hammock for whole night. 

 

 

hammock

My concern was that I didn't know if it would be comfortable to sleep with a body U-shape. As you can see in the left picture it is no way your body lay flat. When I put sleeping bag and pillow inside, pillow sled. I thought, "ummm, maybe I don't need a pillow due to the structure"

 

 

 

Silver Lake

After setting up hammock and sleeping bag, it was lunch time! Tuna sandwich was nice to eat at the Silver lake. This is an artificial lake (reservoir), but it is beautiful. Someone was canoeing--looked fun.  

 

 

 

 

 

Falls of Lana

After lunch is a hiking time. I wanted to see Falls of Lana. It was unclear which point is a fall overlook. Actually signage was wrong. That made it somewhat the hike like a maze, but it was fun! This fall is in the unique shape. It is between the two solid rocks.

 

corn, meat, mashroom

After the hike was dinner! Always, ALWAYS, food is one of highlights of camp, isn't it?
Firstly, as you can see in the left picture, we cooked meat and enoki mashroom in the small frying pan. Of course we don't carry a pan for actual backpacking, but this mini-walk, we can do. It was, sooooo tasty. Then you can see we also cooked corns over the fire. Nom nom nom... 

 

Udon

Then next was cup udon with hard boiled egg. Then finally sweet potato. Sweet potato was wrapped with aluminum foil and cooked in the fire (buried inside) for 2 hours during dinner. I eat cup noodles at only campsites, because it is not very healthy and tasty, but it is great at camping. Then dessert was chocolate. Recently I limit myself from eating too much chocolate, but why not at camping!?

Then we went to sleep in hammock. Well, compared to tent, not so comfortable, but I can do it again. I think. I fell asleep soon after I went inside, BUT I was woken up by somebody's firework sound. Ahhh. SO annoying. It was huge ones. After several fireworks followed by music. It was super disturbing. It was an early season, so a camp host was not yet there. I wished camp host had been there so that s/he could have scolded them. 

Lake in the morning

Finally I went to sleep at some point but not a good sleep, however, morning was pretty. Trees reflected on the calm peaceful lake. 

First thing to do in the morning is to make morning fire. I love evening fire and morning fire as well. After enjoying morning coffee and breakfast over the fire, we did a mini-hike: walk circle along the Silver lake. Nobody there and peaceful (especially on the contrary to fireworks of the night before).

Morning Coffee

Except for noisy rude people at night, it was a nice camping.

Lake

 

Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area

The very last day of 2021 winter trip: however it was January 3rd in 2022. Our flight was 11 pm from Las Vegas, so we had a full day. We found a perfect place to spend a day not to far from Las Vegas: Red Rock Canyon Conservation area. 

In this park, there is a big circle of scenic drive road. If you don't have time to hike, only scenic drive is great. Many trailhead were there along the road. There are many not too long hikes there. We didn't study much in advance, but each trailhead had a great description of the hike (distance, elevation gain and nice map).

Turtlehead Peak

First hike we did there was Turtlehead Peak. Why it is called so? Look at the picture in the left. Well, I thought it is because how it looks. However, I don't know the fact. This is 4.6 miles out and back (2.3 mile one way) hike with around 2000 feet elevation gain. The sign said "strenuous". Usually in the West, I consider moderate when there is sign as strenuous. Because in my experience, a real strenuous place does not have sign. When there is sign warning for people I think it is less hard than the sign says. In this case it was a bit exception. It was actually strenuous. Some portion in the middle, the trail was quite faint. Also near the top the path was icy. Despite that, it was really fun hike in the crispy morning.

amazing view from Turtlehead Peak

The view was incredible from Turtlehead Peak. It was quite vast as you can see in the left picture. Mountains are circled around the flat area in the picture. The scenic drive is circle along the mountains and each trail goes into canyon or mountains from there. From the summit Las Vegas skyscrapers were seen. It is weird contrast: looking at the most artificial city in the world from really rugged landscape in the nature. 

 

trail sign

Second hike was Calico Tanks. 2.2 miles total (out and back), with mostly flat terrain. As the name of hike indicates, there is a tank at the destination. It is a nice water source in the desert. In this red rock canyon trail is indicated like in the left picture. Because the path is in the rock, this was helpful. The rock formations and colors are really unique and interesting to observe. Also those are photogenic too.

 

 

Tank

The left picture is the tank. Probably it will be water source for wild life here and native Americans who used to live in this area. Official trail ends at the tank, but we did a little off trail beyond the tank and sat on a good spot with view. We had lunch there. My favorite lunch time is always in the nature with great view! Food is more tasty in the setting. 

 

 

Petroglyph Wall

The third hike is mini. Petroglyph wall. Just 0.4 mile out and back with flat. As the name indicates, the destination is to go to the wall with petroglyph. I don't know the meaning of drawing, but it is fun imagining what they wrote and why they did. Some look like human, some are mark or symbol to convey message or signal or warning. Maybe are territory thing. 

 

 

Interesting rocks

The fourth hike is La Madre Spring. The destination is spring. 3.6 miles out back, mostly flat. This is not very popular hike, maybe because relatively long (for this area...still just 3.6 miles though). You will see interesting and massive rock along the way. Less people is a plus, too. 

 

 

 

Pine Creek Canyon

Then, very last hike of this 2021 winter camping trip was....Pine Creek Canyon trail and Pine Creek Loop trail. This is lolipop (stick portion: Pine Creek Canyon trail, then loop portion is Pine Creek loop trail). Total is 2.4 miles. The canyon is really pretty. The cone shape rock in the middle of picture is magnificent. 

 

 

super clear water

In the canyon there is creek and the water was super clear! You might sense how clear is it in the picture. When we were about to finish the loop portion, the sun was about to set. Every second the sky color was changing. It was really pretty, and a little sad to see the end of camping trip. I thought positively, "the end of vacation is the start of countdown of the next vacation." It was an awesome trip!

what a color in Pine Creek Canhon

Angels Landing Again!

In 2020 winter camping trip, we did some hikes in Zion. One of them was Angels Landing. One year later in 2021 winter camping trip, we came back to Zion. And.....we hiked Angels Landing again. Last year it was snow-free hiking, but this time Zion was full of snow in January (Actually the day we hiked was Jan 2nd, 2022).

We went up to Angels Landing----if you have done it before, you know it can be dangerous. The last part to hike up to Angels Landing is quite steep with chain (speaking of chain, this is maybe similar to Japanese Alps). If the rocks were with snow and ice? Yes it adds extra challenges. However, it is more rewards. Snow in the West is really dry, meaning really powdery. That is covered with Zion-color rocks. Well, it is easier to see the picture below rather than my explanation.

Winter Zion

99% of people who go to Anegles Landing go back to trailhead after summitting, however, we as avid hikers, proceeded more on the West Rim trail. Last time we didn't do this, but this time we wanted to add some new sections. The entire West Rim trail is a multi-day backpacking thing, but this time we just hiked around a couple of miles to get taste. Below picture is one of the best view on the West Rim trail. It is really beautiful! I like the interesting triangle cone shape rock in the middle of picture. Such magnificent rock formations with pure white snow is truly an amazing view.

West Rim Trail

 

Another bonus for West Rim trail is deer on the snow. How cute she is. Probably fur protect from being cold on the snow? Now I have been to Zion 3 times and done these (OK nobody requested to list what I have done but I do): Angels Landing, Kolob Arch via Hop Valley trail, Northgate Peaks (off-trail), Canyon overlook trail, Chinle trail (10 miles total out and back), Emerald Pool trail, some West Rim trail, all East Rim trail. 

Still I want to go back to Zion and want to do Narrows, Subway someday.

Kayaking in Moss Landing

Kayaking to see wildlife in Monterey. I wanted to do it while I lived in California, but I didn't have a chance. During 2021 winter trip we had an opportunity. Why not try it? 

We looked up and found Monterey Bay Kayaks for rentals. For 4 hours, $35/person for 2-person kayak. Not a cheap option, but it is worth it. This includes life jackets, wet suits. Staff were friendly. 

Sea otter

Got ready and we went out for the water! First part was a little rough, because it is in the ocean. Once we entered the slough part, it was much calmer and peaceful. The most exciting part is wildlife! During kayaking we saw total at least 50 sea otters!!! Some were swimming, some were catching fish, some were sleeping, some are floating. All of them looked happy and enjoying the water. I had never seen so many sea otters in a day!

Excitement is not only the number of sea otters. We saw sea otter babies! In the below picture you might be able to spot fluffy baby on the mother's belly. I believe both of them are mother + baby. 

Sea otter baby

 

seals

Another wildlife I enjoyed are harbor seals. Most seals were sun bathing on the shore. We also spotted several seals swimming in the water. In the left picture a number of seals are sleeping. One of them looking over the water. One black one in the front is half body in the water and sleeping. Cute cute! 

The next picture below is the swimming seal. Good at swimming in the water, but also good at swimming with head above water. 

 

 

swimming seal

In California, there is no problem kayaking at the end of December! In New England all rivers and lakes are frozen and no way to kayak. It was a good destination to go to West in winter.

Montaña de Oro State Park

 Came back to Pacific Ocean! During 2021 winter trip, we decided to visit some people in California: why not go for hiking on the way then!?

Mr.N chose Montaña de Oro State Park. Mr.N is from Montana. What is the connection? He chose this particular park due to that. As you may know, Montaña means mountain in Spanish. Since California was a part of Mexico, a lot of nature stuff is called with Spanish.

We arrived at night at the park and camped at the campground inside the park (we had a reservation). This car campground is not really close to beach or ocean view, but it was spacious and still able to hear some wave sounds. Admittedly, Big Sur campground is much more attractive than this one, in terms of ocean view, but we stayed there for accommodation. 

Next morning, we saw a cat coming out from RV. That is my dream----road trip with an adventurous cat! This was my second time a cat came out of RV. First time was in New Zealand! Now RV road trip with a cat is becoming a trend?

Hiking up the hill

Anyway we started hiking to go to Valencia Peak. The highest hill in the park. As a typical California weather pattern, it was cloudy in the early morning. So the ocean was a bit gray, but still a good view. I had forgotten the weather pattern of this. Later on blue sky came out. Good timing--we started walking along the ocean. Bluff trail is about 5 miles or so, is quite nice to see blue ocean.

Arch Rock

 

Ocean and the rugged cliff creates such a nice view. I liked the view in the above picture especially. There is an arch rock! Arch rock is fragile and someday it will collapse, so I feel lucky to see it. This Pacific Ocean's blue is always my rout. Being from an island in Pacific Ocean, my DNA always feel home with this blue!

Sea otter

Another very exciting thing about Bluff trail is that you can spot sea otters. Some spots you can see 15 sea otters of group. I think that I saw total more than 50 sea otters. According to Ms.L, sea otters in this area were gone for a while, but now they came back again. It is good. 

Next day we visited Mr.N's uncle and aunt, Mr.E and Mrs.G. It was first time in five years to see them. We had sushi takeout, watched documentary, had poke, went to Mexican place. A lot of enjoyment. Kindly Mr.E let each of us drive his Tesla! Whoa. First time in life. There are so much information on the panel at front. It was fun driving Tesla along the Pacific coast in Monterey. How many lucky people can do that in the world?

Then we visited another Mr.N's aunt Ms.H. We visited San Luis National Wildlife Refuge to look at Tule Elk. It was a driving tour. I had never done driving tour in the park. It was interesting. It was nice to see elk protected: at the same time a little sad to see elk was locked in a way, although it is a huge area. Then we went to Merced National Wildlife Refuge next day, I had never seen so many many many birds in a day. This is definitely a unique place to go if you are in the area.