Spring Break in Wyoming

April 2008: Wyoming

Spring break found me at the airport again, this time headed to Lander, WY to visit Rosie who moved back home in December. Flying into Salt Lake City, i was amazed by the incredible mountains in the area, especially those on the western side of the city which we flew over as we landed. While the tops of these peaks were shrouded in clouds, they reminded me so much of the front range of the Chugach as seen from Anchorage, still covered in snow and standing out in impressive relief against the flat landscape behind them.

Upon arriving in Salt Lake, i hopped on a bus with a cowboy hat-wearing driver and headed northeast, through Idaho and into Wyoming where i arrived in Jackson Hole. Rosie and Kai, her beautiful and energetic new puppy, met me at the bus stop. The following afternoon, we all piled in the car and drove over the pass to the east side of the Wind River Range, turning south toward Lander. The landscape served to remind me how much i miss the contrast of the mountains with stark, sage brush covered hills and red red rocks. While New Mexico is a few hundred miles south, there were times that i felt like the Sandias were just around the next bend in the two lane highway.

Rosie and i spent the remainder of our trip in and around Lander. It was great to be able to see the place that she has told us about for so many years and finally connect names with people and places. Although it snowed as we arrived on Thursday afternoon, spring finally started to make an appearance after what has been a long winter and we could feel the energy of the whole town awaken as people started to shake off the winter hibernation and get excited about springtime activities like climbing in the canyon and planting their gardens. The week was a short one, but was filled with running, biking, hiking, dog walking, fishing, and way too much eating. i made a couple of apple pies for a barbecue that the O'Garas hosted on Saturday night and not having brought my pie crust recipe, made the crust from memory; I am still a little worried that I added way too much butter but when was the last time too much butter ruined a baked good? They still managed to taste good, though, and were a tasty complement to the incredible bison meat that a friend of theirs brought over.

Sitting at a window, back in SF, i miss the Rocky Mountains so much. It still strikes me that each mountain range has its own smell and feel to it and without even opening my eyes around, i loved being able to take a deep breath and get an instant sense of home. I am already dreaming of my next trip back, this time in the summer to explore all of those beautiful peaks.

On Thursday, Rosie and i went on a fantastic run through Grand Teton National Park. Although most of the park was covered in snow and we lacked skis/snowshoes to get ourselves off the road, the areas that we did explore were beautiful. It was overcast as we began our run, but eventually the sun and the mountains came out a bit to give us a view of the peaks.

The Buttes as seen from the highway on the road between Jackson and Lander.

Rosie and Kai at Slick Rock

Hiking at Slick Rock with the Winds in the background

Bighorn Sheep! While it was a bit sad to see it grazing along the road, it was pretty exciting as i have never seen one before. i felt very much like a tourist leaning out of the car window to try to get a picture.

Rosie and Zoe hanging out in front of the O'Gara family home.

Biking up Sinks Canyon

Fishing the Green River on the way to the Salt Lake airport

Weekend in Yosemite

April 3- 6th, 2008: Yosemite National Park, CA
Spring break started a few days early as i drove up to Yosemite National Park on Wednesday evening to interview with the Yosemite Institute for a job next year as a Field Science Educator. After spending the day in the field with YI on Thursday and interviewing on Friday, i was free to enjoy being in Yosemite during a beautiful time of year. As 120 past Crane Flat is still closed due to the ton of snow still up there, i spent my time bumming around the valley, crashing at Camp 4 and trying to find hikes that were both away from the crowds and not totally covered in snow. The weather in the Valley was beautiful and i enjoyed running past El Cap each morning, trying to picture myself living in Yosemite and spending each and every day hiking around the park. Decisions, decisions....

Most of these photos are from my hike up the Snow Creek Trail near Mirror Lake. The trail's rather large vertical gain means that i saw relatively few people, but got a great view of Half Dome and Tanaya Canyon from the top.

The view of Half Dome from a rocky outcrop near the top of the climb

Enjoying a rather chill day of hiking by lounging (Crazy Creek and all) at my lunch spot with North Dome in the background.

Snow Creek above Tanaya Canyon was still surrounded by winter, a sharp contrast to the hot and dry climb up the side of the valley.

The trail sign at the top of Snow Creek. As it turns out, you can hike all the way to Yosemite Falls from here, which would make a great 20ish mile day hike. It was certainly tempting, but i was trying to keep the hike relatively chill and all the snow at the top would have made it slow going. Maybe a trip for later this spring. This trail also leads all the way into Tuolumne Meadows, linking up with the trails to May Lake and Glen Aulin. What i really liked about this sign, though, was its muppet-like mop of green lichen hair sitting on top.

More lichen photos. It was so green!

The view up Tanaya Canyon. Basket Dome is in the foreground and in the background you can just barely see the top of Clouds Rest.

On my way home on Sunday, i took a side trip to Hetch Hetchy Reservoir simply because it was there and i had never been. Hetch Hetchy is lower in elevation than Yosemite Valley, low enough that i had to side step quite a bit of poison oak along the trail. It is also much drier than the Valley; the sides of the reservoir were pretty rocky and brushy with not nearly as many coniforous trees. Throughout my hike, i kept trying to picture what it must have looked like before the dam was built. It was a beautiful, if a bit strange place, but definitely worth a return visit at some point.

Bachelorette Shennanagins in Paria Canyon

Paria Canyon, Utah: March 2008
Sneaking away from work for two days, i hopped onto a plane to join six amazing women in celebrating the upcoming wedding of one Ms. Becca Katz. The Party tunes blared as we piled into a van, left Las Vegas in the rear view, and headed toward an area known as the Arizona Strip. This name describes a region north of the Colorado River and includes parts of southern Utah; it is primarily an arid, sage-brush grasslands and desert and is sparsely populated with few roads. Cutting through the grassy mesas, however, are many incredible canyons that have been carved by the region's rivers as they flow toward the Colorado. It was at one of these canyons, the Paria Canyon, that our party bus arrived late on Wednesday night.

With our group complete, we packed our backpacks on Thursday morning and headed into the Paria for four amazing days of hiking and exploring the narrow canyons that have been cut through the Navajo Sandstone by the Paria River. Hiking through the canyon was a unique experience for me, despite having grown up in the Southwest. The canyon starts out fairly wide, but soon narrows into a long section called, shockingly, The Narrows. Following the "trail" simply means following the river, and we hiked along its banks and, more often, directly in the river as it winds for miles through the canyon. It was refreshing, after years of hiking and trying to keep my feet dry, to feel free to walk straight into the water, shoes, socks and all, knowing that in five minutes, my feet would be back in the water again around the next bend. The spectacular scenery in the canyon also inspired tons of photos as the walls of the canyons, with the many different patterns worn into the rock by wind, water, and other rocks. While most of my photos do little justice to the real place, i have tried to pick some of the best and to give a sense for the incredible scale of the rock walls and landscape.

As incredible as the canyon was, the trip was truly amazing for the wonderful people that shared it with me. Our time was spent catching up with friends and getting to know each other better as we wandered the bends of the river, contemplating jobs, relationships, friendships, health, and all other aspects of our lives. An enormous thank you to Steph and Martha who did much of the organization and who kept producing a never ending stream of exciting, entertaining, and funny bachelorette appropriate items. There are so many other stories to be told but i suppose i will stick to the adage that what happens in the Strip stays in the Strip (or something like that) and will take only memories of the penis straws, backcountry grasshopper pie, discussions of poop bags, trailhead digits, Whitney Houston songs, Business Time and so much more which made up a fantastic weekend.

Packing out- Brenna, Marja, Martha, me, Becca, Steph and Tawni

The layering in the sandstone walls is the result of erosion, but also tells the story of the sand dunes that were compressed to form the Navajo Sandstone formation, roughly 200 million years ago.

A wider section of the canyon near the wilderness boundary

One of my few pictures not of people's butts- Steph, Tawni, Becca & Marja

Hiking through The Narrows: Martha & Tawni

Becca and Marja fixing one of our stoves before breakfast.

Tawni enjoying the morning sun

I am not really sure what just happened here, but am guessing there is some heckling involved

Brenna performs the Paria Canyon Water Ballet

Rounding a bend in the river. The hikers in the center of the photo help give scale.

A side trip through the Buckskin Gulch Canyon. The Buckskin, which happens to be the longest slot canyon in the US, is both incredibly narrow (often less that 1 meter in places) and deep, meaning that sunlight rarely reaches the floor of the canyon but the shadows and reflections of light on the canyon walls are beautiful. While the entire 14+ mile route through the canyon requires rappelling gear, we enjoyed exploring a few miles up, climbing up sketchy fixed ropes, and squeezing through narrow passages.

Martha demonstrates proper hiking attire- never leave home without your hiking frock.