It’s a good thing we have a very small trailer. We’d never been to Portola Redwoods before, but I was somewhat familiar with some of the roads, having grown up around there. For example, I remember La Honda being rather windy and hilly. That turned out to be a gross understatement, but then, it’s not like I ever towed trailers around those roads when I was a kid.
I was in a major brain fog by Friday afternoon, as teachers are now back in full swing. Kids come Monday. I hadn’t really looked at the route or anything, so I was just following the Acura navigation. Richard, despite previous vows, was still looking at Google Maps. At one point, when I was about to make the turn off up into the hills, he sort of strongly suggested we take “a more direct way.” Not his fault really, I should know better by now. But I listened and turned up Old La Honda Road and immediately regretted it. This road is so narrow, it barely counts as a single lane. And it has nonstop blind corners, and drop-offs, and no guard rails of any kind. No chance of either turning around or backing up once committed. Thankfully, we did not have to go too far before we came to a residential loop that provided a turn around. Sort of. Well, we made it anyway. You can bet we got some looks from cars and bikers alike wondering what the hell we were thinking trying to take a trailer up that.
We backtracked, slowly, and returned to the also narrow and windy road that took us to (not Old) La Honda and from there it was maybe ten miles before we got to Skyline, and then Alpine Road. Alpine down to the campground was mostly single lane, blind corners, and drop-offs. BUT, at least it was nicely paved, and it was an honest single lane, sometimes even sort of two lanes.
We got down to the park around 7 and we were both tired and hungry. Richard offered to make dinner since I had done a pretty good job not killing us. I put up the new and improved screen room awning while he cooked. Glass of white, and all was right with the world.
I’m going to go all fan girl about the awning now. Ever since before we even got Dory, I have envisioned a screened in area attached to the trailer, but no one made exactly what I wanted. I have spent hours pondering separate screen rooms, only to convince myself I’d never put one up. I’ve come back to this idea repeatedly and Pahaque delivered. I’m super happy. What they did was hard sew a front screen wall across the front opening. They already sell a screen wall, but it’s elastic toggle attached and there are openings along the top for bugs to get in. The sewn in seam works perfectly. Then they added screen mesh panels to the sides. I think, with a couple of strategically placed suction cup hooks, I can seal up that sucker pretty good. Even so, with the side flaps hanging loosely, there were maybe two flies that got in all weekend. And there were definitely mosquitos there. I thoroughly enjoyed napping in my zero gravity chair, feeling protected and mosquito free. I also got to do my evening yoga stretches outside while Richard was taking a shower, thus improving nighttime routine efficiency significantly. If I could sew, I would have made this exact thing for myself. Instead, people good at making things made the absolute perfect solution to spending outside Dory time with fewer bugs. If I wanted to go nuts with it, I could work on a screened skirt to go across the bottom, but really, we were virtually bug free without it.
Saturday we actually got my pretty blue bike off Dory (it’s been a while) and we took a trail along an old railway line. But first, you have to go up a pretty steep up and down paved trail. We walked our bikes on the steepest sections. It wasn’t very long, so it was ok. Once on the Old Haul Road trail, it was much flatter, but unpaved. We came across many a sign telling us the trail was closed and dangerous. Did we listen? Well, we worried, but continued on because other people had told us it was ok. There were a couple places I wouldn’t have tried if it had recently rained because it looked like the whole road was falling away. For those sections a bit of walking and one spot of scrambling was required, but we felt like it was all something we could handle. Eventually, we’d gone plenty far, had lunch, and turned back. We figure it was about 12 miles all told and that was a pretty good day. Back at the Visitor Center, we enjoyed M&Ms and a fudgicle. Yum. Then nappy time, then dinner. Then bug free yoga stretches, then deep sleep.
Sunday we took a different route, recommended by a ranger, along Skyline primarily, all the way to Highway 92. We totally should have gone that way to begin with. Much easier. The ranger’s eyes got all wide when I told her we’d gone up Old La Honda by accident. Those same eyes appeared when I asked if we should continue on Alpine to the coast. Nuf said. We needed to head over to Half Moon Bay to dump tanks and that was a great spot for lunch. Richard was not allowed to ask if there were available sites. First day of school Monday, so “just one more night” not an option. Summer is officially over!
Total miles: 87.8, 15.1 mpg, 3 hours 22 min (including wrong way and backtrack). Site: 4, private, away from the thick of other campers, private, no solar, no cell service. Richard got 3g back at the Visitor Center which was enough to check email and texts, but nothing more.
And thus endeth our summer experiment. Our last stop before coming home was Donner Lake. Originally, we were thinking we’d maybe last up to three weeks. I had a meeting on the calendar for August 1st and I was thinking we’d be home in plenty of time before that. But the whole work/travel thing for Richard went so swimmingly well that we just kept extending our time and adding to our destination list. So we were aiming for getting home the last weekend of July. Then, well, how about Sunday? Then, Monday. Then my meeting got cancelled and we didn’t end up getting home until Wednesday and that was only because we had forgotten to cancel that week’s Blue Apron delivery. It went really well is what I’m saying. Sure, there were things we had to figure out in order for me to not feel cut off and lonely since Richard really did work part of the time. But we figured it out as we went.
Which is also how we handled campsites. I truly had no idea it would go as well as it did in terms of finding places to stay without reservations ahead of time. Sometimes we were able to book the day before, sometimes we called on the road, and sometimes we just showed up. What I liked about that was that it gave us the ability to be flexible. Want to stay an extra day somewhere? You can do that without messing up a whole chain reaction of reservations. One thing is for sure: do not try national park first come first served campgrounds on Fridays or Saturdays. Popular places were much easier to get into during the week. And there seem to be enough last minute cancellations, even in popular parks, that often times things just work out. As long as you’re not counting on a great site, and you’re willing to stay in weird places sometimes, it’ll probably be fine. And we were totally prepared to stay in a Walmart parking lot if need be.
Donner Lake itself was a nice place to stop. There was strong LTE for Richard so he was able to fully work on Tuesday. Monday we got to be a bit lazy and Tuesday I got to jump in the lake with my kayak when it got hot. This is a very popular lake and there were people and boats everywhere. But the campground has a nice, less populated, feel.
We love finding places like this. They’re like little unexpected gems, hidden in between popular destination campgrounds. I only knew about this one because it appeared on the Allstays campground map and I was looking for something along Highway 50, roughly in the middle, between Great Basin and the Sierras.
And that’s about how attractive I have always found the place when I’ve crossed it as quickly as possible on my way somewhere else. Highway 50 doesn’t try to avoid the ranges, so the route is more direct, though definitely less flat. That means you get to avoid all of the trucking traffic. It is known as “The Lonliest Road in America” for a reason, and I found it to be quite beautiful and far more relaxing. Now that we know about this little midway spot, I think this will be our route of preference heading East.
I have to say, one of the things I have been most pleased with on this trip has been the fact that altitude is just not nearly as much of an issue as I thought it would be. For about a year, we’ve been mindful of the elevation in any campground we wanted to go to because I had an unpleasant experience at Lake Tahoe. This trip has proved, I think, that I don’t need to be worried about it. I will still take precautions, like not drinking alcohol, and downing tons of water. But if I can be fine up at 10k, it’s all good.
We weren’t sure if we were going to make it all the way to Great Basin on Thursday, or try to get in early Friday. There’s really not a lot along Highway 50 though, so I just kept driving. We got to the visitor center in Baker around 3 and they said there were sites, so we headed for the largest campground at Baker Creek. To get there, you have to traverse about 10 min of gravel road. We found a great site with lots of solar and an amazing view, with just the small downside of being very unlevel. That’s where the BAL Leveler shines, as does the Caravan Mover. After a little creative stabilizing, we were in and very happy campers. 
Oh yeah, except for the fact that I whacked Bruce’s front bumper again, this time on a rock. I tell myself that he’s still a happy car because he gets to go to national parks rather than to the mall and soccer practice, like most other luxury SUVs. He’s a luxury camping car, and that means he’s gonna get battle scars. Sorry. And I promise I’ll get that fixed!
Thursday evening we got a surprise! As we were sitting inside Dory, another Alto pulled past us in the campground. I was so excited, I ran outside to flag down the owner. Luckily, he was not at all put off and turned out to also be from California. The family is super nice and was thrilled to be introduced to the Altoistes group. We have seen one other accidental Alto, way back in Acadia, two years ago. Then recently we saw a Safari Condo van in the Tetons. But all other Alto sightings in the wild have been arranged. So this was a big treat for us.
Friday we had the whole day to explore, except Richard needed to get in some good work at the outset. Not a bad remote office at all! I couldn’t get tickets to the cave tour until Saturday, so we decided to do the Bristlecones hike in the afternoon. This trail started after climbing up the park road to 10,000 feet at Wheeler Peak. It wasn’t a long or difficult trail, and the payoff was a huge grove of hundreds of Bristlecone Pines. We’ve seen a couple before, but never a grove like this. Many of them are thousands of years old!
Saturday we got to do the 
Saturday afternoon, Richard pondered riding up the Wheeler Peak road. But first, afternoon espresso back in Dory. Our timing was such that right when we got back, a big hail storm moved in, so we hunkered down and enjoyed being safe inside, rather than biking in hail. After an episode of “Star Trek Voyager,” the skies cleared and we decided to venture just one more short hike before the end of the day. So we chose the Baker Creek Trail as a little 3 mile loop. 
If you look closely at the trail map on the trailhead sign, it would seem to indicate that the return trail, bottom part of the loop, crosses Baker Creek at several points. This is untrue. We happened to pass our Alto friend on the trail and he gave me his trail map. Everything we did made sense on that map, and did not make sense on either the sign posted at the trailhead, nor on Galileo Pro, which is what Richard relies on at all times. Going up the trail was a steady climb, and I’m really slow. I could say it was the elevation, but I think I’m just slow. So it was getting kind of late before we finally hit the bridge and junction to start heading back down. 
I was expecting it to be all downhill, and it wasn’t. And that caused Richard to look at Galileo Pro, which told him we were on an entirely different trail. So he panicked and insisted we go back the way we came. I maintain that if we had continued just another hundred feet, we would have seen the next junction, a clearly marked sign, and probably a moving sidewalk that would have taken us right back to Dory. With cocktails provided along the way. His way meant we had to go all the way back uphill, then downhill along a million switchbacks, easily tripling the distance. When I’m mad, I am a super speedy hiker. This is dangerous information for Richard to have. He just did his best to follow, thinking, “You go girl!” as I tore off down the trail at a record pace. Even so, it was well dark by the time we got to the campground. My hiking backpack now has flashlights and I have made a decree that we will no longer hike without paper maps.
Reluctant as we were to leave the Tetons, I will say, we got to enjoy a very beautiful drive. Heading south, down Highway 89, we followed the Snake River for a good long time. Eventually, the route takes you past Bear Lake and then up a significant, sustained climb. Once you finally descend, the grade is more gentle and you end up going through Logan Canyon in Utah. Wow, what a lovely area this is! In fact, overall, Utah seems to have more than its fair share of beautiful scenery.
We blew through the city of Logan as we exited the canyon and made our way to a one nighter in Brigham City. This place was called a “Journey KOA,” which apparently means it is geared towards one nighters. I’m not exactly sure how that is different from a regular KOA, but it was certainly cheaper. Nevertheless, they had laundry facilities, and wifi, and we took the opportunity to run a hose down the toilet to see if we could get the sensor to stop always reading “2” or “3” even when we have just dumped. The procedure worked for all of about ten minutes and it read “1.” Then we used it one time and it went back to “3.” Oh well.
This place will certainly go down as one of our all time favorite parks. The scenery is just breathtaking and there are so many things to do. Still, it does not feel overwhelming or crowded like Glacier did, even though there were lots of people.
We had the whole day to explore and had reserved three nights. We first went to the Visitor Center in Moose to get the lay of the land. We then drove up the park road to the northernmost park, just to check it out, stopping for lunch on our way at the Jackson Lake Lodge. Lizard Creek is a smaller campground and we came away deciding we preferred our spot because of the great solar and view. Lizard Creek would be very nice also though, close to Jackson Lake, and with more of a woodsy feel.
That afternoon, we took a short hike up to Taggart Lake. The trail followed an idyllic creek and wound its way through beautiful alpine forests, dotted with wild flowers everywhere. The trail was easy and spectacular. The park apparently needs to put up signs that pictorially indicate it is not ok to pick wildflowers, because that information was only posted in English. However, the dog symbol with the big red line through it was ubiquitous, and that didn’t stop some people from bringing their dogs on the trails. Oh well.
Monday we had big plans. Some of them worked out, some did not. Richard’s plan had to do with biking from our site, up Signal Mountain, and back down to Jenny Lake. My plans involved kayaking at either Jenny Lake or String Lake, so we’d be able to meet up there (the lakes are next to each other). On my way however, I ran into our Finding-Dory-in-Zion Altoiste friend, Shannon, who just happened to be at the same national park at the same time as us. Again! She was waiting along the side of the road for her husband to do an impressive alpine run, so I pulled over and chatted with her. Richard just so happened to bike up to us as we were standing there. Group pic!
His day was going quite well. I was cheered by seeing a huge elk right by the road and Richard, feeling kind of bad for me at that point, said that he’d drive me anywhere and drop me off if I still wanted to try kayaking. So we headed back to String Lake and I went for a cleansing afternoon paddle for a couple of hours. This lake is perfect for kayaks, as there are no motorized boats allowed. It is also very long and thin, as the name would suggest, so there’s lots of shoreline to stare at. By the time I was ready to get out, the crowds had thinned and parking in the lot was no problem.
Our last day in the park was rainy. Besides the fact that it made the river float plan less likely, it suited us fine. I had purchased rainy weather gear after our experience in Zion and I was eager to try it out. Plus, the rain made for nice, cool temperatures and fewer people out on the trails. All good. We took some good advice and went up to Phelps Lake, but first we stopped at the 
Likewise, the trail that takes you gently up to the lake is so nicely laid out, with lookout points and boardwalks that allow you to fully immerse yourself in the spectacular surroundings, it has to be one of the most beautiful trails I have ever seen. There were meadows filled with wildflowers. The rushing river cascaded over rocks as the trail followed it up to the lake. And then, the lake itself, with the Tetons as a backdrop, appears as a reward at the top. We decided to do the loop around the lake since it wasn’t looking like kayaking was going to happen. The gentle rain steadily increased and I can confidently say that my jacket and rain hat both do the job quite nicely. It made the hike very enjoyable, as opposed to wet and cold.
A highlight of the hike was spotting a comically adorable little tailless mammal, jumping around in the rocks. I thought I’d seen something about Pikas in the Visitor Center, and sure enough, we were lucky enough to not only see a Pika, but chat with it for a few minutes while it jumped around and amused us with its huge cheeks. Very fun.
Today was a good example of how things work out, one way or another. We have been armed with lots of resources for finding possible overnight campgrounds, but have been playing it one day at a time, hoping for open sites, or first come, first served locations. This works out pretty well actually, unless it is a Friday or a Saturday. So on this particular Saturday, we were heading toward a very popular destination for summer campers – the Palisades Reservoir on the border between Idaho and Wyoming. Our plan was to head toward the general vicinity and stop at places as we went.
We had some time left in the day, so we drove across to the other side of the river to look for hiking trails. We didn’t find any. But we did find a constant scattering of RVs and campers over there, who seemed to have just found nice spots and set up by the river. We weren’t sure how that all worked, like do you need a permit to do that? Can you do that anywhere? Or how would you know where it was ok? So many questions.
For dinner, I grilled up some bratwurst and asparagus and we watched Ospreys taking off from their nests, high up on Osprey poles. That was new information. Apparently it’s a thing to put up tall poles for Ospreys so they don’t nest close to power lines. After learning about that, of course we started noticing all of the Osprey nests on top of power lines.
