Yo-Yo-Yo It’s Yosemite in the house…

Actually, it was the Eastman’s in the house of Yosemite National Park.  Dave and the family report that Yosemite is as spectacular as billed.  Unfortunately, this was again one of those un-dog-friendly parks.  So, I spent most of the time back home.  Luckily, it was a nice campground and site.

I overheard a discussion in the car whereby Dave and Kirsten gave control of the itinerary to the kids for the three days they were in the vicinity of Yosemite.  I was a bit concerned at first but realized they did have the whole family’s interest in mind as they chose their activities.  The first day they decided to head to the very crowded but beautiful Yosemite Valley.  They visited the village and hiked out to the Lower Yosemite Falls.  

After that they enjoyed lunch during which they had another wildlife close encounter.  Kirsten wants to know what this critter thinks it's going to get from them. 

While Anika just has no clue as to which way is up (or down).

And then the family set off for Mirror Lake.  That first picture in this post was taken there for obvious reasons.  This lake is normally dried up this time of year.  At Mirror Lake Caleb found yet another inanimate object from which to again jump into the water.  

Anika found a nice beach to create castles, rivers and ponds. 

The following day the kids chose to spend more time in the water (big surprise).  So, the family went on a calm full-day rafting trip down the Merced River.  This is the same river, together with a few glaciers, that carved the Yosemite Valley.  It might not have been as cold as the river in Sequoia N.P. but it was reported to be awfully close.

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words and this picture of Kirsten sure demonstrates exactly how cold this water was.

The family sure looks like they were paddling in a picturesque setting.

And here they are in action:

The last day of the visit to this region the children chose to stay at the campground and hit the pool for just about the entire day. 

Now we are off to see Kirsten’s Cousin Laura for now the third time on this trip.  And I couldn’t be happier, as I will get to see my good friends Autumn (canine) and Chandler (human/ dog lover).  Dave and the kids hope to show Tony and the boys a little about fly fishing and landing some trophy Provo River trout while at the Muscat’s house in Park City, Utah.

Big wet kisses, Mookie, “The Bloggin’ Dog”

A Bit About the Pyros: The National Park Service

Sorry for the interruption for the public service announcement – but I thought you should be informed that the National Park Service (NPS) are a bunch of pyromaniacs!  Almost every park that we have accessed has had some of what the NPS calls prescriptive burns.  Their goal is to manage the forest so that any fuel for a fire is burned prior to any non-manmade fire starting and going out of control.   Wildfires are a major concern in the West.  However, I am a dog, and even I know that the forest has been managing itself for millions of years.  So, what gall it takes for the NPS to believe that they will do a better job than nature?!

From what we saw – everywhere that prescriptive burns had occurred one of two things happened.  First, the fuel that was removed was quickly replaced by more fuel from all the dead limbs and trees the NPS had created with their burns.  Or second, the NPS had lost control of their prescriptive burns and caused a wildfire that burned far more than they intended and they caused the very thing that they were trying to prevent.  But, as a consolation – the NPS did put up some nice signs trying to explain what can happen with prescriptive burns…and oh yeah sometimes we lose control.  Not an apology in site though.

Now, in Sequoia National Park, they claimed that fire was a natural part of the needs of the giant sequoias.  Excuse me, but I must return back to my argument before that the forest has been managing itself for millions of years.  These trees are thousands of years old.  They seem to have been doing awfully well before the NPS came along and started creating fires for them.

The results are ugly.  Almost every where we have hiked or driven there is some portion of the forest that is burned out.  It leaves an ugly site:  fallen, burned and blackened trees.  And where there have been active prescriptive burns, like this one in Sequoia National Park

it creates an unbelievable amount of air pollution.  We could not only smell but often would cough going through areas of this smoke.  The smog created by these fires was worse than we saw hanging over Los Angeles.  That’s pretty bad – Dave said that LA’s smog was worse than he had seen in Mexico City and that is some of the worst in the world.

So, doing a cost benefit analysis on the work that the NPS is doing it seems like the costs of doing these prescriptive burns far outweigh the benefits.  But then again that is just the opinion of one dog….

Big wet kisses, Mookie, “The Bloggin’ Dog”

A Pleasant Surprise…from Sequoia National Park

I’ll get to that pleasant surprise in moment.  But, first, a little about a pleasant surprise from Yosemite…connectivity that is!  We found that our campsite did have some limited free internet access:  an hour that is.  So I will type fast – which is not that easy with these big paws of mine. 

Now to Sequoia National Park which was a natural jewel of a surprise.  Dave said that had he known the extent of the beauty and the variety of wilderness experiences available, he might have booked us a longer stay in this park.  That is, if it weren’t for the road construction…more about that in a minute.

 Our campsite was one of the best in the park.  And, the family voted it the best on our trip so far.  The facilities were pretty poorly maintained.  I only know this because Dave actually made me sit in there while he did his business.  I guess this is only fair considering how many times he’s seen me do mine.

When we first arrived we were a bit surprised to find a little tiny parking space that would barely fit our camper, let alone our car too.  But, once we parked the camper we realized that this was only a small portion of our site.  It also included a palazzo if you will, an elevated courtyard. It would be where we spend most of our time.  It included a fire-pit that was framed by large boulders on one side.  In fact, there was a field of large boulders that extended up the hill from the site for almost one hundred yards.  Caleb and Anika made many a fort in these rocks.  It is also in these rocks that we would find this mule dear and a mate grazing for most of the first evening we were there. 

I will admit I had a weird reaction to this deer, perhaps latently and belatedly instinctual.  This buck had been grazing some 30 yards from our fire where we cooked dinner for most of the evening.  And then when darkness fell, we found it nestled in a group of rocks about 50 yards away and there we thought it would stay.  For the 3 or so hours of its local grazing I ignored it. I might have glanced in its general direction a couple of times.  But, it received nary a bark nor even a sniff while it was in my neighborhood.  That was until later when Kirsten would hear it munching.  She shown her light on it and found it about 10 yards away from where we all sat.  And still, I ignored it.  The moment struck me almost ½ an hour after that when Dave had decided to loosely tether me.  I was swift upon my attack.  But alas I listened to the shouts of commands from Dave and Kirsten when they advised me to stand down.  I did give that young buck a good scare though.

Oh yeah, and Dave wanted me to mention there were the big trees in the park:

Here Caleb attempts the assent of one of the largest trees in the world as Anika takes the low road.

Here is the largest tree in the world.

Dave on the other hand decides to insult this giant sequoia.  This will teach Dave for giving Caleb a camera.

Anika takes over the camera for this beauty shot of D ‘n K.

Caleb was the brave one of the bunch (or craziest).  He decided to jump right into the river right near the campsite.  This is a river that is fed by melting snow from the surrounding mountains.  And this year they had record snow fall in the area.  So this water was still being fed by snow we could see on the mountains.  The family reported that it hurt to stand in.  It was definitely below 40 degrees.  But, there goes Caleb…

If it weren’t for the very poorly managed road construction that seemed to be everywhere in the park and ended up re-routing our attempted arrival by an hour and a half, and the fact that they woke us all up at 6:30 AM paving a parking lot in the campground that would probably be unused by the public; well then perhaps we would have sought out a longer stay in these beautiful surroundings. I certainly would have enjoyed the time to chase more deer.

Big wet kisses, Mookie, “The Bloggin’ Dog”

Barely North of the Border: San Diego, California

We came to San Diego to visit the final of Kirsten’s three cousins.  Here Anika hands Kirsten’s Cousin Jennifer the last of the three bottles of maple syrup that we brought from Vermont to give to these three.  So, we did it!  We completed the cousin trifecta.

Unfortunately, we visit Jennifer and her son Marshal also shown here, (along with Cousin Laura who just keeps popping up everywhere we go), at a tough time for their family.  Jennifer and Jackie Crowe’s son Weston had been cancer free for almost 6 years since his initial battle and was found in the last week to have two masses in his lungs determined to be cancerous.  As he just started his chemotherapy yesterday – the family was a bit preoccupied to be able to hang out with us much.  And this is how it should have been.  We missed them of course – but appreciated having this nice dinner with Jennifer and Marshall (and Laura).  But, their time needed to be focused on Weston.  We all have been thinking about and praying for Weston. (Yes, dogs can pray – remember what dog spells backwards!)

We still enjoyed our visit to this beautiful city.  And Jennifer gave us great beach recommendations.  We all had a chance to take our first dips into the Pacific Ocean today.  It was wonderful. 

I even got to frolic at this dog friendly beach called Del Mar. 

Look at me with my new dog friends.

We also went to the La Jolla Beach community where there were these dog-like water creatures.  They barked sort of like dogs – but they sure seemed slippery…

The campground we stayed in was very nice and only 8 miles from the Mexican border.  Dave in particular liked shopping at the local grocery store El Super where all the signs were in Spanish, Mariachi music blared over the grocery speakers, and where he got to pick up inexpensive treats grown just across the border including avocados, key limes, poblano peppers, and fresh cilantro.  Sounds like the makings for some yummy guacamole tomorrow.  I wonder how that tastes on kibble…  He also picked up a prickly pear cactus fruit – I have no idea what he plans on doing with that!

Well, we head north now to Sequoia National Park and then to Yosemite National Park.  Neither of these places have internet connections so it may be a while until I make my next post. 

So, until then…

Big wet kisses, Mookie, “The Bloggin’ Dog”

Vegas Baby!

Well, the title of this posting is about all of the excitement that you will get out of this family for their Vegas experience.  I think we all just confirmed that we are not into the bright lights and the spectacle that is Las Vegas.  The KOA campground was right on the Vegas strip at the Circus Circus Casino.  I did not get to see much past the camper for this portion of the trip.  Fortunately, it was only for an afternoon and evening.  Frankly, I was much more comfortable in the air conditioned camper than being out in the 100 degree heat in this campground that was not much more than a paved parking lot.

The kids did have some fun swimming in the pool and eating way too much at the all you can eat buffet in the casino.  Caleb ate 5 desserts!  Oops, I think I just violated the rule:  “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”.  The casino sounded pretty crazy – Dave said they had at least 20 different snack bars and restaurants.  They even had an amusement park in there with a full sized roller coaster inside the building.  Caleb and Anika both enjoyed the bumper cars.  Luckily they did these before their pig-out dinner.

Well, we are off for better temperatures near the coast and our first collective gander at the Pacific Ocean.

Big wet kisses, Mookie, “The Bloggin’ Dog

They Ain’t Lyin’ about Zion & The Very Grand Canyon

(Sorry –Dave has actually been coming up these corny titles.)

Next on the canyon tour was Zion National Park for just a brief 2 night one full day adventure.  But, wouldn’t you know it – dogs were not allowed on the park paths.  This did not exclude me from jumping into the Virgin River near our campsite.  We also would meet Lou, Janet, Luke and Caroline from New York State.  They’re practically neighbors back home.  And they were neighbors here in Zion and at our next stop at the Grand Canyon.  Most importantly, they were dog lovers.  Lou had a dog Pablo that he showed us pictures of, that could have been my twin!

Caleb and his new friend Luke found a log to jump off over and over and over again. 

Anika and her swimming buddy Caroline were like two peas in a pod.

Caleb and Anika were really missing having a pool at the campsite.  I think they had been a bit spoiled to this point in our trip.

The Virgin River which carved the canyon would be the very trail my family would hike during their stay here.  After a one mile hike on a trail alongside the river, the trail just ends and then the canyon is so narrow that you hike up through the river in what is appropriately called The Narrows.  Anika would discover that the water would be over her head in spots, but she didn’t let this stop her. 

And Caleb seemed to prefer the return trip as he would take every opportunity to simply float down the river in the deeper and stronger currents.

I think that Anika and Caleb probably exhibited more advanced skill in wading against the current taking this hike as Caleb has been hiking up water falls in our neighborhood in Vermont since he was three years old.  And both Anika and Caleb have gained further skill wading rivers as they fly fished with Dave.

As we exited Zion, I learned that Big Horn Sheep greet each other much as I do with my canine friends. 

The Grand Canyon is Really…Well…Grand

When we first arrived at the Grand Canyon there was quite a malaise over the campsite.  Dave had to prod, poke and lure us all to the edge of the canyon to view the thing that we had come to see.  The problem was, I believe, that we were all a little road weary and to be honest – a little tired of canyons.  It’s not like they don’t all offer something different – it’s just that the desert climate and the colored rocks do tend to be a little overwhelming, perhaps even emotionally draining, and then to experience as many as we have in just about 10 days gets a little overwhelming.  So, while I do recommend coming to see all of these canyons – maybe do it over a longer period of time – or better yet do 2 at a time (per trip). 

Having said all that, the Grand Canyon IS truly grand.  There really is no better word for it.  We can try by calling it the “mack-daddy”, the big Kahoona, the biggest baddest canyon this side of anywhere. 

And we figured this out upon our first stare in to the big chasm.  We all hiked out to the start of the Bright Angel Point Trail.  From there the family took shifts out to what would be one of the best vantage points to see the canyon.  I was not allowed to travel any further than this point.

So, Anika and Dave would take the first hike out on the point.  What they found was a storm on either side of them.  They said it was truly amazing.

But, it was Anika that would point out to her father that the storm on the West side of them was moving east towards them rather quickly.  So, they snapped a few of these photos and began boogying back up the trail. 

The rain started upon which time Caleb, Kirsten and I would seek cover at the North Rim Grand Canyon Lodge.  We would see Dave and Anika approach as small hail would start to fall.  As soon as they dove for cover, this larger hail would fall.

After that bit of adventure, the skies would clear for the rest of our stay around the Grand Canyon.  We would be treated to some of the most perfect weather we could hope for coming from northern climes.  Low 70’s during the day and 50’s at night was just perfect for us all.

The family would also be treated to amazing sunsets which we could enjoy perched on rocks just on the outskirts of the campground.  They didn’t trust me to sit quietly on these rocks that were perched thousands of feet above the canyon floor.

I would just hang out back at camp.

The family took other hikes around the canyon rim.  On this one they had a close encounter with a pair of mule deer.

Boy I would have loved to chase them!

And finally, the family splurged for one of their dinners and had what sounds like an amazing meal at the Grand Canyon Lodge.  They had the best seats in the house, right next to the windows over looking one of the best views of the Grand Canyon.  And you guessed it…again, no doggie bag.

So, now that we are a bit canyoned out, now it’s time to hit Vegas baby!  I let you know about my winnings when I post next.

Big Wet Kisses, Mookie, “The Bloggin’ Dog”

Canyon Country

Well it’s been a while since I last barked at ya.  The truth is I have been writing all along – I just haven’t been able to post to your/my blog because we haven’t had any internet connection for quite some time.  Since I last posted we have stayed in one state park and two national parks.  We have seen some amazing places as the pictures below will try to depict.  But, the reality is what we have seen and what we have experienced can never be captured in pictures.  So, I will try to fill in the blanks a bit with my words.

First...a bit about a couple of stops on our way to the canyons...

On the way to our first stop in canyon country we made two stops.  First, the Natural Bridges National Monument. 

Next, as we drove along Rt.95 in Utah we had an unexpected encounter with the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area; an expansive canyon area carved by the Colorado River (shown here) before it gets to the Grand Canyon.  This river can do some damage!

Kodachrome Basin State Park

Our first stay in the canyons was in a little known jewel of a place called Kodachrome Basin State Park.  This turned out to be my personal favorite as they were dog friendly!  That’s really me hiking on some amazing trails. 

I will admit that the first trail we attempted here, while beautiful, was HOT!  And for a furry black haired creature like me this desert environment was enough to make a dog melt.  That's me and my boy Caleb hiking and sweating along the trail.

But, later in the evening we hiked an amazing trail that included extremely narrow paths that if I misplaced on one of my four paws – I was sure to meet that kennel in the sky. 

The girls demonstrated their acumen with heights by walking out on these extremely narrow paths that simply lead to nowhere – just a shear drop off hundreds of feet below.  They are either the bravest or craziest girls I have ever met!

Filled with spires that reached for the sky carved by ancient winds and water, the colors were spectacular – even for someone like me that is only supposed to see in black and white.  Later some of my family would rank Kodachrome Basin right up there with Bryce and Zion National Parks.

Bryce is Nice

Speaking of Bryce – that would be our next stop on this canyon tour.  It was within about ½ hour drive from Kodachrome.  Unfortunately, they weren’t quite as dog friendly in Bryce Canyon National Park.  So, my family visited there leaving me behind in the air conditioned comfort of the camper.  This was cool with me.  Although the family did report that Bryce was consistently 20 degrees cooler than Kodachrome. 

My family tells me that this was an amazing place to hike.  Chased by threatening skies they walked narrow canyon trails, some of which had been carved right through the rock. 

It sounds like the kids were extremely strong as they worked their way through thin air from elevations of close to 9,000 feet above sea level.  This is the highest any of my family has ever been while still on the ground.

They dropped into the canyon and back out with a change in elevation of over 500 feet.  In the canyons what goes down – must come back up.  They tell me that pictures here of the switchback trails just don’t do the climb justice.

I am sure you will hear my echo when I bark at you again soon from the next canyon.  

Big wet kisses, Mookie, "The Bloggin' Dog"