Homeward Bound

Our final national park of the trip was Arches NP in Utah. We spent a full day driving, hiking, and rock scrambling through the park. It was another truly bizarre landscape to explore - brilliant red slick rock, towering arches, windows and holes, twisted scrubby junipers, and crystal blue skies.

We hiked a great loop trail through the Devil's Garden area at the north end of the park. It wound its way past some of the more well known formations, including Landscape Arch, pictured above. It was actually a fairly challenging hike, just trying to find the trail through the twisted maze of rock. It was marked with small carins, but often we would find the trail and remark, "It can't possibly go up there!" The hike required shoes with good traction and a bit of trust that you wouldn't slide straight down the face of the rock.

We enjoyed the park... and apparently so did about half the population of Utah who were there with us that day. It was very crowded, almost as bad as Yosemite Valley, due to a school vacation week in Utah (in October?). I guess it is so hot in July and August that late September and October are actually the busy season there. We must admit, the weather was splendid, perfect sunny days in the low 70's and down to the low 50's at night.

The park campground was full, not surprising, so in the late afternoon we left the park in search of a place to camp. There is a whole string of small BLM campgrounds along the Colorado River, extending northeast just outside the park. As our luck would have it, every single site was occupied, and before we knew it, our search had led us across the Colorado state line and into darkness. This was the first time in the entire trip that we could not find a place to camp. We finally ended up at a motel in Fruita, CO. It wasn't all bad though - there was a town festival in full swing, so we enjoyed a warm evening of live bluegrass music, pizza, and beer in the town square.

Having travelled so far from Arches and Canyonlands, it didn't make any sense to go back to Utah, so we found ourselves with an unexpected and unplanned day in the Colorado Rockies. This turned out to be one of our best days of the whole trip. We drove a couple of hours through the mountains and ended up on a forest service road to Kebier Pass and the back way into Crested Butte.

All the official forest service campgrounds had already closed for the season, but fortunately we stubbled upon a "horse camp" that appeared legitimate for open camping. There were a few horses tied up and some horse trailers parked, but we essentially had the place to ourselves. What an absolutely beautiful place to camp - big open meadow with a brook running through it, surrounded by stunning high mountains, cloaked in the golden glow of fall aspens and sunshine.

After setting up camp, we of course headed off for a quick five mile afternoon hike up to Beckwith Pass. Hunting season was in full swing, so we geared up with our brightest tie-dye and bandannas. We were awarded once again with stunning views -back to the valley we were camped in and of all the surrounding peaks.

This was our last night of camping, and we regretfully packed up the tent and gear one last time. We had officially run out of time and needed to high-tail-it back east. From here we basically made it back home in five days. Along the way we spent a night in Denver to stop in and visit with Larry (Tammara's board chair) and Nancy, and a night in St.Louis to visit with Jack (Tammara's brother) and Debbie. Both stops were a much needed break from the monotony of the interstates and we enjoyed the company, conversation, and hospitality immensely.

So after a little over 10,000 miles and eleven weeks on the road, we finally arrived home in Greenwich on Thursday, October 21. We were greeted nonchalantly by the cats, as if we had only been around the block. Things haven't changed too much since we left, the grass is still green, there's still a few colorful leaves on the trees, and the farm fields are pretty weedy - it just looks like home. After all the incredible places and beautiful scenery we have seen in the past weeks, there is still something special about this place... I think we'll stay for awhile.

PS: Thanks to everyone who followed us on the trip through this blog, and encouraged us to keep making posts. We really enjoyed sharing our experiences with all of you. If you want to check back in the future, we'll leave the site active for awhile (do blogs ever really go away), and hope to edit, label, and organize all the photos we've uploaded. Double click the mini-slide show box to link to our Picasa photo site.

Happy Trails,

Chris and Tammara

Vagabond Farmers

In Varied Terrain; from Muir country to Abbey country

So much to see, so little time... We left Point Reys and drove the nerve-wracking, death defying coastal road southward to Mill Valley, just a little north of San Francisco. Here we met up with our dear old Peace Corps friends Bob and Beth and their son Ben. It's been years since we last saw them, but it didn't take long to get reacquainted. We had a great time hiking in the hills behind their house, attending the school production of Our Town (in which Ben gave an outstanding performance), checking out the local farmer's market in San Rafael, and eating great food.Saturday night we went into SF and had an incredible dinner at The Greens, perhaps one of the most famous of all vegetarian gourmet restaurants. What a treat to have multiple options to choose from on a menu.

On Monday we took a ferry into SF to check out the city sights. We spent most of our time in China Town, climbing Telegraph Hill, and taking the bus over to Golden Gate Park. It is really a beautiful city with far to much to see in one day.

Tuesday we bid Bob and Beth a fond farewell and drove across California to Yosemite NP. We stayed at a great funky hostel/rustic resort, The Yosemite Bug, located about 25 miles outside the park. We had hoped to camp in the park, but literally every campsite and hotel was full inside the actual park - California is beautiful, but there really are just too many people trying to live here.

We spent our first day checking out the valley and doing the classic hike up to the top of Yosemite Falls. The next day, after figuring out the back country permit system, we packed up our gear and started a two night backpack to Merced Lake. This was an amazing hike up the Mist Trail past Vernal and Nevada Falls and up the little Yosemite Valley. The trail was very crowded to the top of the falls, but then we saw almost no one for the next two days. We camped in the most idyllic spot imaginable - open rock slabs, rushing water, towering sheer cliffs, and about a bizillion stars!

Our last day in the park, we traveled through the north side, hiked into a lovely Sequoia grove and then up to a serene high elevation pond above Tioga Pass. We left the park via the amazing road over the pass, which had just recently been reopened after closing for snow and ice.

The next day was a long driving day, the first in quite a while, crossing the lower half of Nevada, over the extraterrestrial highway, into southern Utah, and arriving in Zion NP late in the day. What an amazing contrast of landscapes, mountains to deserts to canyons - we haven't been bored since North Dakota.

Our time in the southwest is limited, so rather than try to see it all, we opted to do a nice day hike in a few of the parks and enjoy ourselves on the trails, rather than just driving the scenic roads. We did a great eight mile hike in Zion NP up a side canyon, up a small narrow slot canyon and then up to a breath taking observation point.

The next morning we headed over to Bryce Canyon NP and did another amazing hike which started at the rim and led down to the base of the hoodoos. What a truly bizarre landscape. From Bryce we traveled across canyon country stopping at a very chilly Forest Service campground at about 8000 feet.

Today we did a quick pass through Capitol Reef NP and then hustled over to Moab,UT, for a much needed shower, laundry, internet, brewpub, and comfy bed. Tomorrow we are off to Arches NP for a last bit of hiking and camping before seriously heading east.

Coasting Along

The journey continues... we've had a busy couple of weeks cruising through Oregon and northern California. I have to confess it's all starting to blur and meld together - so many beautiful and stunning landscapes to absorb. It's a good thing we've taken so many photos and kept a few notes so we can keep everything straight.

The last posting left off on our departure from Breitenbush Hot Springs. From there we drove a couple of hours northwest to Portland to meet up with our friends Glen and Sue. Once again we were warmly welcomed by friends with wonderful hospitality and thoroughly enjoyed our stay. We had a great and diverse weekend taking in the sights and culture of one of our favorite cities. We were treated to an evening watching a women's college soccer match - the Portland Pilots are one of the most winning teams in the nation and were amazing to watch in action. Go Pilots! Saturday morning we ventured downtown to shop at the city's premiere farmer's market. It is an outstanding market with hundreds of vendors, and an incredible array of produce - lots of local fruit, vegetables, cheese, bread, and even an abundance of wild collected mushrooms. It was really strange to be on the other side of the table for once, but we enjoyed seeing what other farms were growing and how they marketed there produce. Even though our own Saratoga market is a fraction of the size, we left the Portland market thinking we actually do a pretty good job on quality and variety. We left the market with a pile of food, took it home and cooked up a truly gourmet feast. Before leaving town we also got a quick visit with relocated Saratoga friends, Ezra and James and their newly adopted baby daughter, Vivian. They are all doing well and are happily getting settled in a great neighborhood.



From Portland we drove south to Crater Lake National Park. We intended to camp, but the weather had taken a turn back to a miserable 40 degrees and raining - we made a vow that this was our limit - and found a reasonable motel outside the park. The next day the weather cleared and we had a great time circling the lake, hiking a couple of peaks on the rim, and climbing down to the bottom of the crater to check out the lake up close. Another national park not to be missed. Again the color of the water was just stunning and changed intensity from every angle - thus another excuse to take lots of pictures.



Before heading out of the Cascades and going to the coast, we spent a frustrating morning trying to find a remote hot spring spot on one of the national forests that we were driving through. It took a a couple of hours of misreading maps and getting turned around, but after much perseverance we finally found the Umpqua Hot Springs. The scene was a little sketchy - with some "interesting" bathers hanging around, but ultimately worth the effort to find them.

Ahhhh.....

Finally, we hit the Pacific Ocean - what a beautiful sight. We didn't take the most direct route, but we finally got there. Oregon has a wonderful state park system stretching all along the coast. The vast majority of coastline is protected and free from development. It really makes you realize how much we have lost along the Atlantic shoreline and what a crime has been commited there.We spent the next few days slowly working our way south along the coast, camping in some beautiful spots.

We crossed into California and took a break from beach camping to explore the Redwoods; it was truly an antediluvian delight. Our necks were sore from all the straining to look up. We did some very nice walks through some of the old growth groves and a few of the classic drives. The only mishap was a pretty bad case of poison oak from all the tree hugging we did - oh well, should have worn long pants.

We continued driving south, trying to keep to the coast as much as possible, checking out the sights along the way. We explored another excellent farmer's market in Arcata - the oldest continuous market in the state - and had a chance to chat with a few of the growers. We then headed out to Cape Mendocino and the lost coast. Man, talk about remote, driving along the twisting, steep roads that make their way along the headlands were an adventure in and of themselves. The cape is the most westerly point in the continental US - another milestone for the trip.

We spent two nights camping at a state park just south of the pretty little coastal town of Mendocino. The 27th was Chris' birthday, so we took the day off from traveling and rented a canoe to explore the Big River estuary. It was beautiful and relaxing - we paddled upstream with the tide and downstream as it shifted - how nice. We also had time for reading on the beach and exploring the local brewpub. Pretty much a perfect day.

We cruised down some more crazy coastal highway and then briefly headed inland to visit our friend Elizabeth in Napa. The weather here is as crazy as the roads - it was about 60 at the coast and 104 when we got to Napa - but at least it was as they say "dry heat". We had a great visit, ate good food, checked out the community garden that Elizabeth spearheaded to get started, and got caught up on land trust gossip.

We needed one more dose of the coast - it's going to be awhile before we see it again - so we headed over to Point Reyes National Seashore. We were here a couple of years before and knew we wanted to come back. We backpacked in to one of the campgrounds on the beach for two nights. It was beautiful weather at the top of the hills, but stayed foggy and damp along the coast. To get our fill of sunshine we hiked up to where it was clear, read books and dozed. It was lovely.

So here we are in the first week of October, starting to look east. A few busy weeks to go: friends in Mill Valley, San Francisco, Yosemite, across the southwest, and then hightail it home. I think we need another 12 weeks...