2021 California National Parks

Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree NP - Ryan Mountain Hike

Located a couple hours east of LA and within the Mojave Desert, Joshua Tree National Park is a place of stunning landscapes. Named for the Joshua Tree (which is actually a tall shrub) that dominates every wonderful vista. The rock formations, mountains, and plant life (mostly cacti) are spectacular. What we appreciated most were the colors.

After a long and not especially joyous journey, this park was wonderful to experience. We hiked the Barker Dam Trail, the Cholla Garden Trail, and the Ryan Mountain Trail. They were all wonderful, but Ryan Mountain was extra challenging. I’m happy to say that we made it to the top, and the views were outstanding.

We stayed in nearby Twentynine Palms, and that was a cool location in the desert.

Cholla Garden

Ryan Mountain Trail (Can you find Debbie?)

Channel Islands National Park

Cavern Point Loop Trail, Santa Cruz Island (that's Dan at the top)

Island Packers, the ferry service to the islands is located in Ventura, and we stayed in nearby Carpinteria. This seaside beach town is a neat place in itself with beaches and bluffs galore. There is a lot to explore, and explore we did, by running and also a morning walk.

Channel Islands National Park consists of five main uninhabited islands that are remarkable for their unique animals, plants, and archaeological resources found nowhere else on Earth. And as for the hiking, the landscapes and seascapes are superb.

There were a few dolphins along the way over to Santa Cruz Island, where we’d spend the day. Oh, wait. Did I say a few? Sorry, I meant a few thousand! Never saw so many in one spot, and they happily swam all around our boat as we cruised by. When we disembarked, we received a short orientation talk from the park ranger, and then we were off to explore.

Ready to cruise

A few dolphins

We picked up the Cavern Point Loop trail from the nearby campground, and immediately went up, up, up. There were no trees – it was all grassland, probably due to the wind. It was a wonderful hike, and we loved the views of the ocean from the rocky cliffs.

Speaking of wind, we were pretty well wind-blown as we sat and waited for the afternoon ferry. But it was a pleasant wait, nonetheless. I also explored a second trail up to a seaside cliff while Debbie sat and read at a picnic table.

Cavern Point

Pinnacles National Park

Pinnacles NP

It’s only an hour from Monterey, and about 90 minutes from San Jose. But it sure seems remote. We had the Prewett Point Trail entirely to ourselves. It was the same with the Jawbone Trail, but we did see others on the part of the Juniper Canyon Trail that we did. Loved those trails and the great vistas of all the pinnacle rocks. What a wonderful park! We could have hiked all day, and there are plenty of great trails. Too bad we were in the middle of a long day of driving, and that we weren’t able to get to the eastern part of the park at all. That would have taken hours longer.

Pinnacles NP

Pinnacles NP

Overnight, we stayed in Marina, which is near Monterey on the bay of the same name. We explored Monterey town a little as well.

Wine Drinking National Park

Time for … A Brief Interlude for Some Wine

We stayed a couple of nights in American Canyon, adjacent to Napa in order to sample some wine.

It’s idyllic. You drive through wine country, enjoy the wonderful scenery, and you stop to sample some wine wherever it suits you. You taste the great varieties of these, the best wines of the world, and you enjoy every sip and the entire experience. You consider buying a bottle or six... Then you move on and repeat at different places.

You would think that that’s how it ought to work here in wine country. And in fact, it did thirty-three years ago, the last time we were here. It also does in our part of the universe. But here now - not no more. For one thing, you need a reservation. Just to stop in and have a taste! You don’t have one? The usual reaction is, hahahahaha. For another thing, it’s expensive. VERY expensive. And the thing about that is, almost everyone else in the world likes this idyllic experience, and too many of them are willing to pay big bucks for it.

We did get a couple reservations ahead of time, and we also tried to just go unplanned into a couple joints, and we had varying results. But whereas tastes used to be free, then they were a couple bucks, and now they are $20 to $45, on up. For just a few two-ounce sips!

Up and down through the streets of San Francisco. Then across the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. And then over to Muir Woods National Monument. After a great and scenic morning, we learned that you needed to have a reservation here as well. Oh well (we didn’t need it 33 years ago) – we should have researched this better. Then we visited the BR Cohn Family Winery, Mayo Family Winery, and of course, Gundlach-Bundschu Winery, all in Sonoma valley. Of those, Mayo was the best, and Gundlach-Bundschu, which we liked 33 years ago, was disappointing.

Golden Gate Bridge

The Napa wineries were more strict about reservations, so we had them for Hagefin Winery and Sequoia Grove Winery. Both were great, but we spent $300 for tastes and three bottles of wine. Really.

Wine country definitely is idyllic. But next time we will opt for the decidedly less expensive Ohio wine country instead.

Cohn Winery, Sonoma

I jokingly entitled this section, ‘Wine Drinking National Park,’ but we did unexpectedly manage to visit (and walk and run in) a nifty park: Wetlands Edge Park in American Canyon. It’s wetlands and a landfill all being restored back to nature. The trails and park system connect to others here in the Bay area, and they go on for miles and miles. It’s great for wildlife viewing. (I saw coyotes, domestic but wild chickens and goats, and plenty of waterfowl. I also heard turkeys and saw <wild> hot-air balloons heading toward wine country.)

Redwood National and State Parks

Lady at Front Desk (after checking us into the Klamath Holiday Inn Express): “Your dining options for tonight…”

Debbie (after a very long day of traveling and finding Klamath somewhat lacking in restaurants): “Oh, that was our next question. It’s so good to hear…”
Lady at Front Desk (without missing a beat): “Are somewhat limited. There’s only the bar across the street, and they only have burgers.”

Dan: “That’s all? What about the casino?”

Lady at Front Desk: “That’s closed. But tomorrow, things will be better. There’s an additional restaurant that will be open.”

Debbie: “What do they offer?”

Lady at Front Desk: “They have burgers too.”

The five and a half hour drive up had taken about eight, after detouring on the fabulous Avenue of the Giants, one of the planet’s best drives, and hiking the Lady Bird Johnson Grove Trail.

Lady Bird Johnson Grove Trail

 

Lady Bird Johnson Grove Trail

Lady Bird Johnson Grove Trail

“Expect delays of up to two hours,” state the blinking U.S. 101 signs. “Merely a scare tactic,” answers Dan. They wouldn’t really hold us up so long, would they? Unfortunately, they can and they do. The bad news is that said delay destroyed any chance of hiking the Boy Scout Tree Trail as planned. On the plus side, we did two shorter hikes instead: the Yurok Loop Trail (while we were waiting), and the Simpson-Reed Trail (up in Jedediah Smith State Park). They were wonderful! On top of that, we finally got some good local seafood at a local wharf joint in Crescent City. We then had to hoof it back to make it through the afternoon construction window.

Yurok Loop Trail

Yurok Loop Trail

Klamath River

Simpson-Reed Trail

Simpson-Reed Trail

Yet another highlight of the Redwood Park area was the Tall Trees Trail Hike. We needed a backwoods permit, but the hike was another gem. THE tallest tree (in the world) had been in the grove that we hiked to, but the top fell off, so now the tallest tree is located someplace nearby.

Tall Trees Grove

Looking down at Tall Trees Grove and the Ocean

Redwood National Park is spread around a couple of sections, and there are several adjacent and nearby state parks. All – and I do mean all – of them have wonderful northwest scenery and the lovely huge high trees that we came to see. (It was extremely sad to see some being logged.) I love these trees so much, I could hug them all. But that would be difficult, and I’d probably get bark in my clothes.

Lassen Volcanic National Park and Redding

The ride from Klamath to Redding (which is 45 minutes from Lassen Volcanic National Park) was nothing short of spectacular. It was mostly on California Highway 299, which is cut through the mountains in Six Rivers National Forest, Shasta-Trinity National Forest, and Whiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area in dramatic fashion. But the latter one, the part closest to Redding was different. The mountains were just as fantastic, but nearly all the trees had been burnt to a crisp. It was mile after mile of desolation. We later learned that this was the site of the famous Carr Fire of 2018.

Lassen Volcanic National Park was mostly impassible due to snow. We were only able to drive ten miles into the park to the “Devastated Area.” It was devastated by the explosive volcanic eruption of 1915. Lava and rocks of all sizes wound up landing here. We couldn’t see very much because at this elevation, it was mostly covered with snow. We did our hike at Manzanita Lake, where the elevation was lower but we still had to hike over some snow. The views of Lassen Peak were great. We saw bald eagles and plenty of other wildlife.

Lassen Peak from Manzanita Lake

Snow on the trail at Manzanita Lake

After visiting Lassen, we had an entire extra day to spend in and around Redding. And spend it, we did. First to the Shasta Dam, back in Whiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area. It's what created Shasta Lake, and it's sprawling. We walked back and forth across the top. Secondly, we drove up to Castle Crags State Park. This set of rock formations look an awful lot like those of Pinnacles NP. We also had a great view of nearby Mount Shasta. Then it was on to McArthur-Burney Falls State Park, where the falls are peachy keen, and there's a nice hike down and around them. Finally, we hit some breweries and walked across the famous Sundial Bridge that spans the Sacramento River. That's a lot for a "day off."

Mt. Shasta

Castle Crags SP

McArthur-Burney Falls SP

Yosemite National Park and Merced National Wildlife Refuge

Yosemite Tunnel View

After sitting in the car for nearly six hours (the final one of which was with white knuckles due to the scary roads with steep drop-offs), we were relieved to finally make it to Yosemite. It was initially disappointing to see the wildfire damage in some parts of the park. Luckily, the Valley was not affected.

We’d been here sixteen years ago, and it was grand... It’s still grand, but this time there are more people. Way more. Perhaps because it was a Saturday? We managed to park a couple of times to get out and take photos, but we mostly sat in traffic. Hours of traffic. Mostly non-moving traffic. Traffic throughout the entire valley.

Yosemite Falls

Yosemite Valley Traffic

We’d had a hike planned, but because of the time we spent in traffic and the utter lack of available parking, we decided to just head back out. Moreover, we decided to not return the next day as planned because a huge snowstorm at these higher elevations was expected.

In order to see and enjoy this part of California at least a little more, we visited Merced National Wildlife Refuge. There were birds galore in this natural wetland and grassland area. We were able to get some walking in as well.

An owl in Merced NWR

Sequoia National Park

Park Sign: Tire chains are required!

Dan: That's merely a suggestion.

We recognize that the several feet of snow that just came down above 6,000 feet was desperately needed here due to the drought. But did that really have to happen whilst we were planning to enjoy these here mountains?

We almost didn't make the scene at all. We'd visited Sequoia and adjacent Kings Canyon National Parks in the 1990s, so we didn't really need to go again. On the other hand, Sequoia was sort of on the way to where we'd be staying next (Ridgecrest), and besides, it looked like the weather just might be clearing up. At least from what we could see from the lower elevations. Sure, there were some clouds hugging the mountaintops, but that was nothing to worry about, right?

Funny things can happen when you drive up into a cloud. It might rain. It might snow. It might get so foggy that you can't see five feet in front of you. Or, all of the above and more may occur. 

We managed to get a short hike in (the Big Trees Trail), and we did a whole lot of very scary cliffside driving through the snow, sleet, rain, and fog. It was kind of fun!

Next time, I will bring the tire chains.

Death Valley National Park

"Look! Asses! Wild ones!!!" They were right along the side of the road just outside the park. Unfortunately, Debbie was looking at the map and didn't get to see them. We didn't see any more, but we did encounter occasional ass poop on some of the trails.

One thing to know about Death Valley is that it's hot. But you already knew that. Another thing is that it's huge. Expansively huge.  It's America's largest national park. From our home base in Ridgecrest, it took about 75 minutes to get to the entrance. (By the way, Ridgecrest is home to the China Lake Naval Air Weapons testing station. Also by the way: there is no lake here (it's a desert) and it's not in China. Furthermore, there is no ridge, nor is there a crest here in Ridgecrest.) Then it took another hour-plus to get anywhere at all within the park.

But we wanted to see the place, so we did. Its grandeur is indescribable, so I won't even try. But I will say that hiking the justifiably famous Golden Canyon Trail was great, as was seeing Badwater, the Devil's Golf Course, and the Furnace Creek area.

Golden Canyon and Red Cathedral

Badwater

On the way over to the Darwin Falls Trail. our small family unfortunately became victims of Shaken Wife Syndrome (SWS). We've experienced it before, even on this same trip at times. It's similar to Wife Afraid of Driving Along a Cliff Syndrome (WADACS), which has happened to us even more frequently.

The Darwin Falls Trail would be our final hike and our final visit to a national park for this trip. It's cool. And you can take that literally because there's actual vegetation and even some shade along the way. The falls are year-round, and they make a nice payoff for the hike.

Darwin Falls

Darwin Falls Hike

California Dreamin’

The National Parks were …. You read down this far, so can probably tell that we absolutely loved all of them. We had planned to get to ten of the nine California National Parks (including Crater Lake in Oregon), but we only made it to eight. The other one we missed, Kings Canyon, had been visited by us in the nineties. So it was all good.

I should also say that the 4,000 or so miles that we drove were much too many. And too often, I'd finish a drive by peeling my fingers away from the wheel, after the big-time cliffside driving. Even so, all in all we loved it.

In fact, we love almost everything about California. The weather was (mostly) great, and the varied scenery is unsurpassed. There’s really only one problem: everyone else thinks so too. There are 39 million people who live here, and countless additional visitors. That’s just too many. Too many people clogging the roads and other infrastructure. Too many people driving their smog-producing cars (the haze was bad in and around SoCal). But the worst part was Yosemite. That was a shame. And too many people who need freeways to get around. Of course, we were there, so we also became part of the problem.

Don’t get me wrong. Despite the crowds, California is still a wonderful place. I’d go back in a minute.

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