September 27, 2017
Today was a looooong drive from Fes to the Sahara just outside of the city of Merzouga. A friend of a friend runs the Sahara Garden. Brahim coordinated everything for us and welcomed us upon our arrival with open arms. Truly an amazing human being. We were welcomed with dinner and singing and dancing around a bonfire.
September 24, 2017
Our second stop in Morocco was the blue city of Chefchaoen. A small city located up on a hill, wandering thru the medina surrounded by so many shades of blue was quite a different experience from Tangier. We stayed at Casa Perleta, a small bed and breakfast recommended by our friend. It was perfectly located within the upper hill area of the medina. The blue hues of the walls of Chefchaoen are believed to have originated when the Jews came while escaping Hilter in the 1930s. The blue is said to serve as a reminder to lead a spiritual life while symbolizing the sky and heaven.
September 11 - 15, 2017
Enroute to our close friends' wedding in Greece we found a cheap flight to Paris via Reykjavik, Iceland and decided to take advantage and do a little stopover in an effort to (fingers crossed) see the northern lights. We decided to restrict our few days to just the southern highlights along the coast. The first thing we noticed was that even though it was supposedly shoulder/low season in Iceland there were significantly more people than when we came the year before in August.
We went here with the mission to get permits to hike The Wave. If you haven’t heard of this hike, google “The Wave Grand Staircase” and take a look at the pictures. It's insane. So here’s the deal…only 20 people per day are allowed to hike in the Coyote Buttes North area. 10 of those spots are done thru an online lottery 4 months prior. The other 10 spots are done in a lottery for those who show up the day before they want to hike.
All formed by erosion, the hoodoos begin as long tall fins of rock and slowly erode to form windows and eventually hoodoos. Native Americans believed that hoodoos were “legend people” who were turned to stone by the trickster coyotes.
The first night we drove the scenic route and just stopped at the many overlooks throughout the park. The view from above was amazing, but the following morning we hiked Queen’s Garden and the Navajo Loop descending down into the hoodoos. It's one thing to see these from the rim of the canyon, but being down below is a completely different viewpoint and definitely worth the trek.
- Jonathan
This was mine and Allie's second time doing the Narrows hike, and first time in a long time with my parents. When we were kids, my brother and i were too young to bring on the hike, so we only ever made it to the beginning and just played in the water building rock dams apparently. So this was our chance to give my parents the full Narrows experience. Needless to say…they loved it.
The Narrows hike is rated as one of the top 10 outdoor adventures by National Geographic. A definite must for anyone visiting Zion.
Make sure you rent shoes and a walking stick!
- Jonathan
This hike is only 5 miles long, but the last ½ mile is pretty gnarly. The park puts chains into the rock to help hikers climb the last section. It's not for those fearful of heights by any means. There were a couple sections where I got pretty scared my parents were going to slip and fall. Needless to say the view of the the valley from the top was worth it. There was even cell phone reception at the top…we know because my dad’s phone rang ridiculously loud and he answered it and proceeded to take a call from a wrong number.
Tomorrow we hike the Narrows!
- Jonathan
HUGE trees…some of the largest in the world. Seriously unreal…they look a little bit fake actually. These giant Sequoias take thousands of years to grow to this size and apparently never die of old age. They only die once they fall. Just imagine what these trees have seen in their lifetimes. In 1891, the Mark Twain Stump (a 1700 year old tree) was cut down by two men in thirteen days and they transported a cross section of the trunk to the East Coast where people refused to believe it was real. With these two parks being in our own backyard, it was a definite must see stop on our way toward the Grand Canyon. - Jonathan
This is just a rest stop off the side of highway 80, but it's incredible. I don’t claim to know how these salt flats formed, but how far they span and the beautiful pattern they make when drying is definitely worth the stop.
Halfway home…we’ll be home before sundown. It’ll be a few more weeks before our next trip, tentative plans to hit Zion for a week on our way to the Grand Canyon for a two week rafting trip thru the full canyon!
- Jonathan
Badlands was badass. The plains literally just end and the Badlands begin, no soft transition, it just drops off into what you see below. It's always cool to see the layers in rock when erosion has done its dirty work over thousands of years. Really cool place to visit and just take in how long something like this must have taken to create.
Tomorrow we begin the long drive home to California. The first trip is coming to an end.
- Jonathan
Also known as the presidents who make up Mt. Rushmore. We got to Mt. Rushmore at about 6am to catch the best sun light for photos. As hard as it was for me to get up early, it ended up being worth it and we had the whole place to ourselves! We even spotted a mama and baby mountain goat coming down the mountain.
- Allie
From Grand Teton, we made our way to Devil’s Tower, which became the very first national monument in the United States in 1906. It definitely couldn’t be missed from miles away, standing at about 1200 ft.
Scientists claim that this was made by magma, blah blah blah or even that it’s the neck of an extinct volcano. But I like the following version the best (pulled from Wikipedia):
According to the Native American tribes of the Kiowa and Lakota, some girls went out to play and were spotted by several giant bears, who began to chase them. In an effort to escape the bears, the girls climbed atop a rock, fell to their knees, and prayed to the Great Spirit to save them. Hearing their prayers, the Great Spirit made the rock rise from the ground towards the heavens so that the bears could not reach the girls. The bears, in an effort to climb the rock, left deep claw marks in the sides, which had become too steep to climb. (Those are the marks which appear today on the sides of Devils Tower.) When the girls reached the sky, they were turned into the star constellation the Pleiades.
- Allie
Did anyone know there was a Grand Canyon of Yellowstone?? Apparently there is and it’s pretty nuts. The amount of wildlife here is crazy too. We were only able to snap a few shots of the bison, but so far we’ve seen grizzlies, black bears, a red tailed fox, elk, pronghorn antelope amongst others.
It’s like going on safari but not in Africa…
Onwards to Grand Teton tomorrow morning…
Both of these parks are must see parks. We only did a couple short hikes, but I can only imagine what the backcountry is like in each of these parks. We chose to do a hike to the Hidden Lake Overlook at Glacier National Park and we were not prepared to hike the 1.5 miles (one way) through snow. (Allie: It seemed like it was going to be miserable and I was ready to turn around…but glad I sucked it up to enjoy the amazing views and few close encounters with a mountain goat and her baby!) Definitely made us wish we had skis for the way back!
Off to Yellowstone and Grand Teton tomorrow morning.
- Jonathan and Allie
Stopped for a quick overnight at Sasquatch and camped next to Hicks Lake. The next night we pushed all the way to Yoho National Park and surprised my dad on his birthday (July 4th) with a strawberry cheesecake from the local market. Over the next couple days we visited Yoho, Jasper, Lake Louise, and Banff. I remember coming here as a kid, but I definitely don’t remember how beautiful it is. Driving up to the Columbia Icefields was one of the most scenic drives I’ve ever been on. Canoeing on Moraine Lake was insane. The water is this crazy blue color that doesn’t even seem real. And the mountains are unbelievable. It almost feels like it’s just a cardboard backdrop.
- Jonathan
Olympic National Park. Wow. First night we camped at Kalaloch on the coast. Insane beach with massive pieces of driftwood piled high. Second night we camped at Sol Duc deep in the forest and did a few short day hikes and then relaxed in the hot springs. What a peaceful, incredible place.
Today we head into Canada, our neighbor to the north. First stop Sasquatch, then Shuswap Lakes, Glacier, Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper and Waterton Lakes before heading back to the states. We won’t have cell reception so we will stack up the posts and load them when we get back in service.
- Jonathan
We’ve spent the past few days exploring the Oregon Coast and making regular stops to see what each area has to offer. The first few photos are from the Oregon Dunes just footsteps away from our camp site in the forest. Then, we stopped in Newport for some fresh seafood at Local Oceans Seafood (Jonathan had the Rock Fish Sandwich and I had the Crab Cakes. Not pictured, a yummy Garlic Dungeness Crab Chowder) then did a quick hike to the Yaquina Head Lighthouse where we saw a mamma whale and baby whale come up a few times. Our last stop along the coast was Haystack Rock; Jonathan had to stop here because The Goonies was filmed there.
Next stop is Olympic National Park for a couple nights.
- Allie
I came to Crater Lake with my parents when I was 3 years old and hiked Wizard Island, apparently in Chuck Taylors that were too small. I wasn’t really sure I remembered coming here except that I was always told that story time and time again.
Coming back was incredible. Crater Lake’s insanely blue waters are simply beautiful. It is the deepest lake in the US (7th in the world). We were lucky with a sunny calm day on the boat tour which gave us some amazing views. The Phantom Ship (the third picture) on the east side of the lake had almost no wind and made for an awesome reflection in the lake. My dad also spotted a bald eagle on the lake which was cool too.
Next stop…the Oregon coast.
- Jonathan
First night at Lassen Volcanic National Park was a little bit of a fail. We got rained on overnight and woke up to drizzle. Instead of hiking Bumpass Hell we pushed on to Mt. Shasta. We relaxed and played board games the first afternoon and woke up early to hike to the Sierra Club base, Horse Camp. The weather turned out to be amazing with clear skies following us as we hiked and some incredible view points of Shasta.
On to Crater Lake tomorrow morning.
