US Road trip: ID, UT, NV, CA, OR & WA
October 6 – November 2, 2022
When Francis and I met, he was dealing with some burnout from his software job at Amazon. Seeing me (unemployed at the time) taking off on all these cool adventures was really the push he needed to quit and take some real time off. When he finished his last day of work in September right before our Chilcotins trip, I decided to push looking for a job back by a month so we could do some travelling together. We talked about going abroad to all sorts of dream destinations, but in the end (due to my budget mostly) we decided to do a road trip around the US: something we’d both had on our bucket lists for awhile. It was an especially exciting opportunity seeing as we’d both fairly recently found a love of climbing, so we could stop at all sorts of dream climbing destinations.
Kaslo, BC
We planned our trip to be around the end of climbing season in Vancouver/Squamish so we could escape the rain, and as such the timing lined up so that we’d end up spending thanksgiving with Francis’ mum! She’d bought a beautiful cabin on a lakefront property up in Kaslo, and with it being such a long drive, Francis hadn’t even been out to visit yet.
We spent three days in Kaslo, exploring the town, enjoying family dinners and a bonfire with s’mores, and doing a couple small hikes. The first of the hikes was barely a hike since we drove most of the way, but the summit of Mount Buchannan offered some lovely views and interesting history with a fire tower. We enjoyed looking over the large valley and trying to identify peaks we’d never seen before.
The second hike we did was more of a half day up to a summit called Texas peak. Francis has lots of details on his blog here, so I’ll just make a few short notes 🙂 We started up on a service road, which quickly turned into a lovely ridgeline filled with colourful plants. There are lots of mountain bikers on this trail, so the track is well worn out and we even ran into a few of them enjoying their day as well. We really enjoyed all the fall colours – it’s not only the leaves on the trees changing colour but also the small bushes and grasses throughout the meadow. The whole day had a really lovely soft fall vibe, though it was still warm and sunny.
As we approached the summit, crossing over a false summit, the terrain became more rocky and loose, and there was lots of slippery shale (?) along the path. I’d imagine this would be fun on a bike ride but more so on the way down than the way up! On the summit, we ate snacks and listened to our chosen Texas peak theme song: Texas sun (one of our current favourites)
Checking out the lake at the cabin
Mount Buchannan fire tower
The side of the tower with some views
A look at the inside of the tower with all the old equipment
Francis heading up to Texas peak
Some of the beautiful fall colours in the meadows
City of Rocks (ID)
Early in the morning of October 10, knowing we had a long day of driving ahead of us, we caught the earliest ferry possible from Balfour to Kootenay bay. This would be the fastest route for us to get down to Idaho, but I’m glad it was because the sunrise on the tiny ferry’s deck was wonderful. We bundled up in our puffy jackets and quietly enjoyed the colours over the huge lake.
We made the border crossing into the US (to officially start our trip!) at Porthill in Idaho, which was such a tiny border crossing in contrast to what we’re used to at Peace Arch into Washington. We then crossed into Montana and spent the better part of the day driving South through lovely countryside.
I’d asked Francis to find us a hike for this day to break up the drive since I was so focused on planning other parts of the trip, and he stumbled on a small peak called Red Mountain. As the sun was beginning to set, we pulled up to the trailhead in my car, navigating some service roads that were probably a little much for my low clearance Subaru. It was a short hike to a fire tower at the false summit, and I decided to stay and watch the sunset while Francis jogged up to the true summit. The fire tower there I found to be kinda creepy, and as the wind rattled the shutters that were for some reason locked, I decided to stay back and sit atop a little hill to wait for Francis. When we linked up again we were all smiles: he’d had his exercise for the day and I’d stretched my legs to break up the drive. A success!
The sunrise ferry leaving Balfour
Beautiful lake sunrise !
The fire tower at Red mountain
A contrast to the fire tower at Buchannan.. this one is creepy!
Feeling stoked 🙂
Heading back down as the light fades
Being true bums. We had dinner at a gas station hahaha
The rest of the drive to City of Rocks was honestly quite the push. When we finally pulled in to the tiny town of Almo it was past 2am and we were unsure if we were even in the right place. There were no street lights, it was completely silent, and it had such an eerie vibe that we almost wanted to turn around and drive home! The gas station we drove into was the only thing lit up, and in an extra strange contrast to this dark night, each of the pumps was playing video ads on a loop. The laughs of the strangers from these ads echoed through the place, and it felt like we were in some creepy apocalypse movie. To add to this strange night, the pump didn’t stop when my tank was full so we had a bit of a gas spill with absolutely nothing around to help us clean up. With no attendant working either, we shamefully put my car in neutral and pushed it out of the station before driving off.
With the day’s adventures behind us, we were now especially ready to sleep. However the campground I’d reserved turned out to be tents only, and we quickly realized we’d forgotten our tent at home! Well no worries I suppose, we’d planned to sleep in the car some nights anyways so we curled up in our blankets and passed out pretty quick.
The two days we spent in City of Rocks went by quickly. On the first day we checked out some of the crags, quickly getting sandbagged by the difficulty of these routes. My hardest lead was a completely unprotected chimney leading into an off-width that we didn’t have gear for… and Francis’ hard lead was a parallel crack that turned out to be MUCH harder and steeper than it looked from the ground!
On the second day, we decided we were better off staging ourselves to get to Indian Creek sooner since that’s what we were most excited for, so we chose a short but fun sport multi-pitch for the morning.
City of rocks landscape
Francis in the rock fields
Views from the top of my first climb
Coming up second on Francis’ long pitch
The prettiest sunset over our next day’s objective (Steinfell’s dome lit up)
Steinfell’s dome overlooks the “city” of rocks, which means it’s a beautiful and prominent peak on its own. We discovered later in the visitor center that it’s actually one of the oldest pieces of exposed rock in North America! There are multiple routes running to the top, but our bolted sport line was easy to find after leaving the approach trail especially with beta from Mountain Project. We swung leads on pitches along very easy slab, before reaching the 5.8 crux. This was Francis’ pitch and although we both found it pretty stiff for 5.8, it was well protected and he cruised up it no problem.
The summit also had excellent views, although I will admit there is a lot of nothing out there! City of Rocks is this strange hidden valley with random large granite boulders in a grassy field. Outside of this valley… it’s just vast plains, farmland, and lots and lots of endless, straight roads. You could see the dust kicking up off trucks for miles as they drove by at full speed.
After a couple quick rappels, we were back on the descent trail.. and on our way to Utah!
On the approach trail
Me starting up the first pitch
Francis leading the steep crux pitch
Francis on the summit
One of the raps back down
Indian Creek (UT)
The drive down to Utah was long and flat, with endless straight roads that slowly turned into more rocky desert landscapes. As the weather grew warmer and warmer and the rocks and countryside turned from yellows to oranges our excitement grew. We stopped briefly in Salt Lake city to grab a copy of the Indian Creek guidebook, and to sleep in our first Walmart in my car; but our favourite stop along the way was in Moab. We found the contrast of this town absolutely hilarious. It’s surrounded by these incredible landscapes with beautiful natural rock sculptures, caves and rock towers, but the “vibe” of the town seems to be the hardcore 4×4 Jeep community. We saw all sorts of crazy rigs driving through town, Jeeps parked up sideways on gravel mounds, and many stores advertising “EXTREME ADVENTURE” type experiences. We didn’t stop for long though, as we were feeling the anticipation of getting so close to our destination!
Our first day in Indian Creek was overwhelming, but I think in a good way. We arrived mid afternoon with an ambitious list of routes to try, but we almost immediately got smacked down by the easiest one. “Chocolate Corner” is a route that was highly rated (and highly popular), which provided excellent vertical hands for me, but a very difficult thin hands challenge for Francis: being only in #1 and #2 sizes. He asked a local for tips on thin hands and the guy made some vulgar looking repetitive motion and told him to “just keep fuckin jammin ‘er in there till she sticks!” Okay guy, not incredibly helpful!
That said, the sandstone blew us away. The splitter cracks were as promised: perfect cam placements that are guaranteed to be bomb-proof, and not to mention the sandstone that feels much nicer on the skin than granite crystals or limestone edges.
One of the long and very straight roads somewhere in Southern Idaho
Walking in to our first Indian Creek route!
Chocolate corner!
A lovely sunset from the road
On our second day, we hiked out to another area that might have some even easier jams for us, with Indian Creek’s (maybe only?) 5.8. It was again in my hand size, and I made pretty light work of it, feeling proud of myself for even being able to take some rests! Francis finally found a lead in his own hand size too in a crack called “Lightning Bolt Crack”: a very aesthetic looking line that turns into a zigzag near the top. We spent the rest of the day climbing some random huecos we found, and doing our best to beat the heat. Surprisingly, such a small number of routes tired us out, and we promised ourselves we’d have to come back here when we became much stronger crack climbers.
On this day we also discovered that our dirtbag camping was for nothing, and Indian Creek actually has an amazing “real” campsite. We paid in cash for a little more luxury that night, setting ourselves up in a nice flat spot with clean bathrooms and incredible views of the surrounding rock walls as they became lit up with sunset colours.
The approach to a new area
An amazing looking line I’ll have to come back for!!
Me climbing up the lovely 5.8 crack we found
Francis below the awesome lightning bolt crack
The huecos wall we found
Our awesome campsite!!
Dinner with a view.
So beautiful!!
Our third day, we decided to take a recommendation to go try one of the local classic multi-pitches: South Six Shooter. We started pretty early in the day for a couple reasons – it’s supposed to be a mega classic so would probably be busy, and because we weren’t sure my car would be able to make it to the route.
Our suspicions were confirmed quite quickly when we reached a large bump that would certainly bottom out my car, and despite my best efforts to flag down a passer-by, we saw no one else and were forced to walk the road. Being the desert though, the biggest challenge for this hike was the heat. It was a completely flat walk over the sandy road, so we set a consistent pace and made off on our way, stopping every time we found a tree for some shaded breaks (there were two, lol). A highlight of this walk was playing the song “A Horse With No Name” which felt very fitting for our journey through the dried up river beds.
Eventually, we made it to the base of our short elevation gain, up to the base of the tower. We were dismayed to find that despite not running into any other folks on the road, there were two other parties waiting to start the route, one of which was a party of five 🙁 We weren’t about to waste more of our day walking back along the road though, so we posted up under a boulder and decided to wait for as long as it took.
The wait though…. oh man. It took hours. In those hours, we had much time to assess and people-watch the other parties on the tower. Here is a short list of stories we collected about them:
– The party of five ahead of us: two mormon parents with three of their 15 (!!!!) children, who we ended up spending considerable time talking to
– A party of 3: a dad with his two VERY young children. He bragged about them being only 5 and 7 years old, but this made me question (since they clearly couldn’t belay) why a parent would chose to solo a route while roped up to their children? He caused all sorts of slow downs due to being unwilling to let others pass, and the rappel situation he created was questionable… He went first to fireman rap his kids, which seems like a smart idea in theory until you realize a FIVE and a SEVEN year old have to be the ones to set up their ATC’s alone while safely attaching and un-attaching themselves from the anchor. The poor kids truly did not seem to be having fun.
– Another party of three, two of which were a couple that would not stop loudly fighting about everything under the sun
– Another party of two way up ahead who were unproblematic themselves but equally frustrated at the thousand slowdowns of the day.
We led each pitch SO slowly, wanting to kill time, but even so Francis began to get frustrated. I found the situation more comical than anything, although I’ll admit how stupid it is that it took us a full day to do THREE pitches of 5.6!
The summit was the most interesting lead, and Francis took us up the farther tower in hopes that it was the taller one. We both enjoyed the airy exposure up there, and we even exchanged via airdrop some photos of ourselves taken by the Mormon family on the opposite tower.
The rappels were mega fun, and with the heat and the soft sandstone we were able to comfortable do them in bare feet. What an absolute treasure! When we got back to the base, the lovely family ahead of us offered us a ride in the back of their truck rather than having to walk the road again, which we happily accepted due to the late hour. I believe this was the first time I’ve ridden in a truck bed, and I giggled the whole way back over every single bump in the road. It was a beautiful warm night, and I think I caught a glimpse of Francis’ kind smile, glowing back at me under the desert stars.
The Sixshooters from afar
A bit of our road walk
South Sixshooter in view now
Starting to finally hike uphill
Francis hiking up
Some cool textures along the way
From the base of our climb looking over towards North Sixshooter
Some typical blocky desert tower terrain!
Francis belaying me up to the summit tower
Summit selfie!
On the rappels back down !!
My views to the left..
My views to the right..
Maybe my favourite photo of me ever
I like this photo because I look like gandalf
It just kept getting more orange as the sun set!
Our ride back in the truck lol!
Southern Utah & Nevada
When we woke up the next morning, we were admittedly pretty sore and tired. We’d planned for a few more days in Indian Creek if we wanted them, but we were starting to feel the effects of sleeping in my car every night, and decided that we’d probably really enjoy driving more slowly towards California. We tried ONE more climb on the way out which ended up being much wider than anticipated, so much so that I actually lowered Francis mid-lead and ran back to the car to grab the #5 cam. We felt at this point that we’d been smacked by every size crack, so we settled nicely into a bit more driving and sightseeing time.
This drive was nothing short of amazing, and the natural beauty of the desert and forests was unlike anything I’d ever seen. We stopped in a forest of the most golden Aspen trees I’ve ever seen in my life, and I discovered that it’s one of Francis’ favourites. I wanted to lie down in the grass and bask in the beauty of this forest for hours.
We ended up driving back up through Moab to use the showers in a local hostel, and we accidentally stumbled on the best vegetarian burger of maybe my entire life (or was I really hungry? We’ll never know 😉 ) We then joined up with the main highway heading South West, towards an area I’d checked out with my sister many years ago: the slot canyons!
Driving out of Indian creek
The fall colours are super surreal here
The amazing golden forest
An incredible sunset we witnessed from the highway in southern Utah
This pit stop was unexpectedly one of the best things we did on this trip. I remembered being totally thrilled by Peekaboo and Spooky slot canyons the first time around, and I was even more amazed the second. We LOVED squeezing through the narrow passageways, and touching the smooth and cold walls. For two people that normally like scrambling in the mountains, it was really cool to change it up and do some scrambling underground.
We tried to find some other slot canyons along the road as well, and although we found some very very pretty striped rock and cool formations, we didn’t stumble on anything as amazing as the ones we’d already been in.
The drive through Zion was also a highlight for us. We didn’t have much time to stop so we just picked a single day hike that would give us an overlook of the canyon. Observation point was the choice, which I’d also done with Heidi back in 2018. This hike provides awesome views of Angel’s Landing from way up high as well as many of the other big walls. Francis also found a very small summit (highpoint?) along the way called “Blew By Peak” that truly is only for peakbaggers as there’s no exceptional view and just a small cairn to mark its location. You can see his trip report here. The drive through the canyon itself was also exceptional, and we stopped in one of the gift shops where I bought a shirt as a low key promise to myself that I’d be back to climb some of these incredible walls one day.
After two nights along the road to Nevada, and some really nice camping along Lake Mead and a few other “cowboy camps,” we drove into Las Vegas itself. Francis and I had heard from basically everyone that you “just need to see it once” so that’s what we did. We booked ourselves a relatively cheap but hilariously luxurious hotel, and set about discovering the craziness that makes up the city.
Francis in the slot canyons
How cool are these shapes!?
Francis walking through
More cool textures
The lighting was stunning as well.
More nice desert scenery
Desert textures… endless!
Coming back for you Zion…
Observation point!
Lake Mead camping
Las Vegas (NV)
Our first observation of the place is that they really take their gambling seriously! You don’t even need to go to the main strip to gamble, there was a full size casino right in our hotel, slot machines at every gas station, and poker tables at local restaurants. What an incredibly strange place!
We wandered into the main strip after some dinner, feeling quite excited by the energy of the city. We brought a 20 with us to jokingly gamble away, which of course disappeared quickly, and we spend the rest of the night wandering as far as we could on the strip. The lights, the big hotels of all different themes, the billboards and the sounds were impressive at first, but our spirits quickly dwindled as we became thirsty and wanted to sit down somewhere. This city is big and very, very overwhelming for two little introverts!
Las vegas is best summed up by a collection of crazy and colorful images !
Red Rock Canyon (NV)
After a morning brunch and a swim in our hotel pool, we felt more than ready to get back on the road, to days spent in nature and our nice peaceful campsites under the stars. We drove only a short distance away to Red Rocks, which was already much more our speed. Unsure if a multipitch would be in the books, we decided to hike up to a cool looking 5.8 route I’d found called “The Alchemist.” Once there though, we spotted another way more appetizing line, a beautiful splitter crack on the other side of the canyon. I gave Francis the lead since it looked more his hand size, and he optimistically quested up it, promising me he’d surely find something to sling up there so we could come back down.
Much to his surprise though, he didn’t, and brought me up on gear. This now posed an interesting problem for us since it seemed like our only reasonable rappel option was an insanely spiky and thick bush of brambles. We looked around for other options on the small ledge, and then eventually decided that slinging a sturdy feeling chockstone was our best route. We backed it up with a nut, and when it held just fine for Francis I pulled the nut and cautiously rapped back to the ground. We think this might have been an accidental First Ascent, and are waiting to see if anyone will contest it on Mountain Project!
On the second day, Francis’ shoulder was feeling too sore to climb, and I was also pretty tired so we opted to split off on our own hiking adventures. Francis went for a hike (run) up to a nearby summit called Turtlehead peak, while I did some fun scrambling and easy climbing around the park where there was some cool looking rock. By early afternoon we were both ready to get back on the road and head towards the coast – although here is another destination we most definitely need to come back to explore!
Our crack route which Francis named “Cinnamon Swirls” after his favourite pasty back home
The hike in to red rock canyon
More views of the park on day 2
San Diego with Heidi & Dan
Hitting the halfway point in the trip marked a great time to take a break from sleeping crammed into my car, and my parents were kind enough to treat us to an Airbnb close to where Heidi was living! We timed our arrival in San Diego to line up with a weekend when her boyfriend Dan was also down from Vancouver to visit. This way, we had a great weekend to hang out just the four of us!
We spent the weekend totally relaxing and splurging on fun activities. We got ramen, went surfing, ate tacos, wandered the beaches and the SCRIPPS campus where Heidi is doing her master’s, and she even made us crepes in her tiny university apartment. Feeling totally at ease, we even extended our San Diego stay by a day so we could check out the Air & Space museum, gardens, and spend a little more time at the beach with Heidi. I knew before this trip that Francis likes his big machines, planes and rocket ships but man I was blown away by just how many cool facts he was able to dish out, and the childlike smile he gets when he sees a big helicopter he likes.
Our final night in San Diego was spent at the beach, where Heidi introduced us to a pizza place that makes THE biggest pizzas EVER. You have to see the photo for evidence. We were convinced that with four of us we’d be able to get through it, but we were definitely mistaken.
Tacos in San diego!
Francis and I crammed in the back seat with the surfboards 😀
Heidi with the XL pizza
Heidi & Dan & the pizza
The best beach sunset ever lol
Tahquitz or "Lily Rock" (CA)
After one more sleep in a nice bed, Francis and I were reinvigorated and ready to take on some more adventure. Our first stop was in Tahquitz, which we soon found out is the location where the Yosemite Grading System for climbing was invented. We weren’t just about to climb a 5.4 route, we were about to climb THE 5.4 route! For this reason, it was presumed that a lower grade choice would be ideal, since back in the day 5.9 was the highest possible grade. A 5.4 would probably be equivalent to what 5.8 is in Squamish today.
The beginning part of the day was cold, and I was happy that along the approach we stumbled on someone’s North Face jacket. I wouldn’t have taken it with me, but I had literally read on Mountain Project the night before that someone had dropped an identical jacket off the climb a few days prior, so I decided I would see to returning it to them. In the meantime though, this jacket would make a faithful companion for me for the rest of the trip!
We shivered up the first couple pitches, before finally breaking into the sun on a nice ledge. When I brought Francis up after this lead the poor guy was cold to the bone, and we took a few minutes to warm up with the sun on our faces.
The next pitch that I led after that involved an airy step-around move that I won’t soon forget, it had my legs shaking for a few moves after! The rest of the climb went smoothly though, and we really enjoyed the variety of climbing across the pitches. It was a perfect outing for this area, and we both really enjoyed all of our leads.
On the summit, the sun was already setting. We’d been stuck behind 2 other parties all day, and the days were now quite short with it being mid October. We’d read that there’s a 4th class descent line, but we were convinced there must be something easier. We took a big risk that there would be, and headed for the col behind us. In dwindling light, we made out some small cairns and a faint path, and decided we would follow it and bushwhack back to the car if need be. Thankfully this was the right call, and we made it back to the car by moonlight.
Me shivering away in the new jacket I found (side note – I did manage to ship it back to its owner many months later who was thrilled! He never thought he’d see it again!)
Francis on one of the final pitches
Francis on the summit at sunset
Joshua Tree (CA)
Despite the late hour, we were both pretty excited for Joshua Tree as one of the main stops on our trip, so we decided to at least make part of the drive in the middle of the night and go camp out in a Walmart in Palm Springs. Palm Springs is too…. high class….. though, and did not allow overnight parking anywhere in town. We ended up driving all the way to Joshua Tree that night and camping in the Walmart there instead. It was a good thing we did too, since we were able to restock on our favourite camping supplies that morning before heading into the park.
Our familiar Walmart food was starting to get somewhat tiring, but after our break in San Diego we were ready to go back to it. Our menu for this trip mostly consisted of:
– Puffins cereal (Or Gorilla Munch for Francis) with Oat Milk since it keeps longer
– Mini croissants with Swiss cheese
– Random fruit, usually blueberries
– Snacks for lunches including jello cups, pudding, apple sauce, or granola bars
– Packaged tortellini or a variety of premade soups in cans for dinner
– Chocolate or mini Walmart pies for dessert
Anytime I eat tortellini now I will always think of this trip. I still don’t think I could get tired of them!
By mid morning, we were driving into the land of Dr. Seuss trees and stacks of boulders. Joshua tree is endlessly beautiful and although I’d already made a trip earlier in the year, I was more than happy to return and see what other new things I would discover. The park is huge, and I guarantee it would take a lifetime to feel like you really know it.
We spent our first afternoon in the Hidden Valley area, getting a surprising number of pitches in on amazing rock, and then walked over to a climb called “Sail Away” just before sunset. Francis took this lead, which brought us on top of a fairly large boulder in the area, giving us beautiful views of the pink and orange lighting for sunset. I suppose we were both feeling the magic of this moment, and it was on top of this rock that we exchanged “I love you’s” for the first time. It was hard to leave, but as the light slowly faded and the warm sun from the day turned to desert cold, we knew it was time to walk back to the car.
We were lucky enough to meet a couple fellows who were just leaving, and gave us their amazing campsite among the rocks. We camped there in our car the first night with them, then went back on the following day to pay for and reserve the site for the rest of our stay. We were incredibly lucky, since we saw many cars driving around unable to find somewhere to sleep.
Our first sunset in Joshua Tree
I hope you can see why I found it so magical
Two little goofs in love 🙂 maybe the best feeling in the world was falling in love with him. <3
On our second day, we hiked out to an area that had a few off-widths Francis wanted to try. It was on this day that I was reminded how truly spiky everything in Joshua Tree is, as every approach trail is a game of dodging spiky bushes or trees! When we arrived at the base of the area we wanted to climb, we were faced with another reminder for me: even the approaches in this park can be pretty sandbagged! We were looking up at what the guidebook calls the “approach,” which to us looked like a mid-5th class route on its own. Thankfully for us though, there was a couple nice folks rappelling down this “approach” who kindly offered to belay us up on their rope.
Now standing on the big ledge under a bunch of routes, we left most of our gear and Francis plowed up an off-width crack. I’ll admit that this one seemed impossible to me, and I pulled on cams the whole way up. Much more in my style though, was the route we did afterwards, a steep and overhanging (at the top) fingers crack called “Bird of Fire.” Although I did not get a clean send, I am very certain I’ll come back to do this route when or if I’m ever back in Joshua Tree. It was stellar!!
We wandered around a bunch after that, but didn’t find anything else that inspired us, and eventually made our way back to the campsite for a nice dinner and some stargazing.
Some of the routes we climbed on this day
Extremely spiky desert bushes !
My favourite walmart delicacy: mini pies!
What a unique looking plant.
Another fantastic sunset with the Joshua Trees
Our third day was much more chill. Francis’ shoulder was again in pain, but I felt like I wanted at least one more pitch to make the trip worthwhile. We went back to one I’d climbed on my previous trip, which I was now proud to get a clean send, and we hung out for awhile at the top of this lovely route before heading back to the road. Francis was totally pooped, and there was some finality to putting our gear back into the climbing bin on this day. Although I knew we’d be passing through Yosemite, I had a feeling this would be our last time climbing for awhile!
We then spent the afternoon doing a small hike to Inspiration Peak, to get a summit for Francis but also to be able to look over the area. Joshua Tree didn’t look crazy exciting from up there, but from the other side we were able to see into Palm Springs which is pretty cool! I always imagines Palm Springs to be a bit more of an oasis.. with a few more springs? But it’s really just as hot and dry as the rest of the desert is.
Scrambling around in the rocks!
Feeling quite happy and accomplished 🙂
Death Valley (CA)
Heading North from Joshua Tree, we again found a little rec center to stop for a shower. For only $4, I felt lovely and bouncy again, as my clean hair blew around my face. The drive felt a little more pleasant now, despite still being a long one. Due to flooding earlier in the year, we had limited options to drive through Death Valley, so we planned a route that went in from the South, and out from the West.
By sunset, we were seeing our first sights of some rainbow hills, and our timing was perfect with the evening light. Our legs had never been happier to leave the car, and we took off at a jog up towards the viewpoint, racing the dwindling light. When we set up camp in the park, it was pitch black but somehow still very hot out. We went for a long walk around the campground, and played cards in our t-shirts for awhile before settling into bed.
In the morning, we went to check out the expansive salt flats, called “Badwater Basin,” which sits an impressive 86m BELOW sea level! They even had a little sign on the nearby hillside marking where sea level would be, which was a little disconcerting to think about.
We also made a couple other tourist stops according to a map we found – one at the sand dunes (which will always be a highlight for me since I LOVE putting my toes in sand) – and the other at a ghost town, which was not very impressive. The people there were pretty strange, and despite a cute dog and a donkey, we were happy to make our exit.
I’d skipped getting gas in Death Valley itself, since it was the most expensive place to buy it in California, but with all the detours in the road due to washouts, I was getting nervous that we’d be stranded in the middle of nowhere. When we hit less than a 1/4 tank, I stopped someone driving the other way to see where the nearest station was, and I was relieved to find out we would make it. It was a close one!
Sunset in death valley
Some salt chunks in the Badwater basin!
Francis & I on the salt flats
The sand dunes!
Very hot shadows across the sand..
Yosemite (CA)
We spent another couple nights cowboy camping on our journey North to Yosemite, and stopped only briefly in Bishop for an amazing bakery we’d heard of, and a nice greasy burger for dinner. Our final camp was just outside Tolumne meadows where we planned to do a hike on the following day.
Due to weather, I was indeed correct in my assumption that we wouldn’t be climbing anymore since snow would be rolling in soon, but that didn’t take away from our enjoyment of a hike I’d found called “Cloud’s Rest.” Because it’s in a National Park, the trail was extremely well maintained, and we enjoyed cruising around a new type of forest, and enjoying the progressively more epic views of the expansive granite walls.
From the summit we were able to see into the rest of the valley, which was truly amazing. We had a long lunch up there, and appreciated that with it being a less popular hike, we were able to get some peace and quiet in the sun. I think the realization dawned on me that it was close to the end of our trip, the weather was starting to turn, and it was impressive that we hadn’t had a single day of bad weather for the entire month so far. The good stars were definitely shining on us, and I tried not to think of the busy-ness of life that would await me on our return.
As the sun was setting that night, we made the drive into the valley itself, to see it just once, and to dream about the many adventures we could have there one day. We somehow timed it perfectly, and as we drove around the corner to El Cap, our jaws dropped. It was completely lit up by golden light, and it was easy to see how climbers spend a lifetime dreaming about this absolute monolith of a wall. We then quickly drove further into the park to catch a glimpse of Half Dome in the pink lighting before the sun set entirely.
We thought here that the sights were over, but soon, little dots of light began illuminating the walls around the park, and we realized we were looking up at hundreds of climbers, invisible to us moments ago. We spent a while watching them move around as they set up camp for the night on their little portaledges, and my dream of being up there one day was truly solidified in my mind.
Francis hiking up to clouds rest
Summit views!
El cap at sunset. Mind. Blown.
Half dome also looking really beautiful.
Stars & lights from climbers. More and more came on after this photo too!
Redwoods, Coastline, and Home (CA, OR, WA)
After Yosemite, we had only two goals remaining: to see the Avenue of the Giants Redwood forest, and some nice coastlines. So from Yosemite, we booked it straight to the forest, skipping over the California coast entirely to save ourselves a lot of driving time. We arrived in the Avenue of Giants as the sun was setting, which meant the beautiful golden light was bouncing around between the enormous trees. Francis was more excited than I’ve ever seen him before, pulling the car over every 5 minutes to take photos and tell me how “no, THIS one actually is the biggest tree. Wait, THIS one!”
Here I was thinking Francis loved mountains above all else, but now we know his secret: a very nice large tree will 100% top his excitement for anything else. 🙂
I think I also posed under every tree, and even our phones on 0.5x zoom couldn’t capture the full size of them. It was one of the crazier things I’d ever seen, and it’s one of those things you absolutely need to witness in person in your lifetime.
This night also fell on a special day: It was Halloween! We’d been talking about how we could celebrate for most of the trip, and we’d eventually decided to find a spooky campsite among the big trees, eat the Halloween cookies that we’d purchased in the Bishop bakery, and watch a horror movie on my laptop. One thing I will tell you though is I am not good with horror movies, and have avoided them except one for all of my life. Francis on the other hand has a long list of great horror films to show me, and chose his favourite one: the IT movie. For some reason, I was surprised that people started dying in this movie, and then at the amount of blood. I thought it would just be some creepy clown…. 🙁 We made it about 15 minutes in and I was already horrified when Francis paused the movie:
– Andrea you know it only gets worse from here, and I think right now we’re at a turning point where you have to commit. If you’re not enjoying it we should probably pick something else.
– It gets WORSE? Oh Francis 🙁 I thought I could make it through on about this level of fear but I don’t think I can do more!!
I’m a notoriously stubborn girl and don’t like to give up on things easily, but I simply couldn’t make it. We ended up watching our backup film, which to me at this point was still scary… but not like the IT movie!!! What the hell folks. How do you do it?!
Arriving in the Avenue of the Giants
Francis beside a VERY large tree
We took a night walk and found some even larger ones!
Even the ones fallen over are mindblowing. It’s wider than he is tall!
Me inside (!!!) one of the trees!
Our Halloween cookies from Bishop 🙂
In the morning we went for another lovely hike, and now with the sun out and shining through the large trees, the world felt a little less scary again. What a spooky Halloween! I think we outdid ourselves.. lol!
It was hard to leave the forest and its immense beauty, but I was also excited to see the coastline. Francis had already previously done a trip down the Oregon coast line, so he was able to recommend a few favourite spots. We stopped many times along the way, walking along beaches, looking at waterfalls and tidepools, and enjoying the wild rock formations along the highway. By lunchtime we made it to Canon Beach, which is the most famous of all of them, and we grabbed coffees and went for a walk along the sand. It was a sunny day, and the thin layer of water on the sand made a perfect glass reflection of the sky.
After Canon beach, we only stopped one more time in another small seaside town to grab some customary fish & chips, and clam chowder soup for dinner. The diner we found was very small, in one of those wooden buildings along the water that has been slowly eaten away by seawater, and the family that owned the small restaurant was very friendly. The customers were mainly local old folks, and although the service was slow, the food was delicious, which is good because it was my first time trying clam chowder.
I wish this wasn’t the end of my writing, because I never wanted this trip to end, but after one final night sleeping in a run-down campsite by the highway, we were less than a day’s drive away from home. On this very final stretch of the journey, the sky finally opened up after its month long dry spell for us, and it poured and poured. We decided any further stops would be futile, and so pushed on until we were across the border and cozied up back in our apartment.
It was maybe my favourite trip I’ve ever taken, and I hope it won’t be the last time I feel that level of pure freedom, happiness, and love.
Coastline views
beautiful.
I loved these mirrored beaches