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.