It had been awhile since Alexis and I had gone on a good extended adventure. She had a bunch of time off to use or lose before the end of the year, and I didn’t have a critical position at my current place of employment. So we set off on a 2 week road trip to live in a van and travel parts the southwest USA. (approximately 2800 miles of driving)
Days 1-2: SF and Berkeley
We landed in SFO and picked up our van in the worst possible location. For some reason, escape camper vans likes to have their base of operations in the antithesis of easy access. This was compound with it being the weekend of “Fleet week” in San Francisco. Soon enough though, we were able to hook up with cousin Nathan to get a tour of the Berkeley area. We drank local beer, saw niche shops, visited the campus, climbed some boulders, and tried to solve the existential questions all Berkeley-ites must answer “What to have for dinner?” We were introduced to some of Nathan’s new friends and even re-acquainted myself with good ole’ buddy Jeb.
The next day we got all of our stuff sorted out in the Van. We would call this home for the next 13 days. We went to catch some surf with Nathan at Half-moon bay. The surf was viscous, I got worked over pretty well while seals laughed at me. After nourishing ourselves at a quaint grilled cheese shops, we hit the road for Yosemite.
Days 3-4: Yosemite
With van-living there is really only 1 major problem one has to solved to fully utilized the frugality of being mobile, where does one park and sleep? Luckily, we received some tips from friends and the van rental company. National Forest lands are your best friend when van camping. Right before the park entrance to Big Oak flats, we found some a nice chunk forest land to park in at night. It was quiet and offered nice views of the rolling pines forest that guard sides of the sierras.
Our first adventure in the park was hiking the Panorama Trail from Glacier Point to the valley floor. We purchase a ½ pass from the lodge and got a bus tour to the top of Glacier point. We had great view of the valley floor on the bus ride up. The Panorama trail hikes south ward and wraps around the rim to the Nevada Falls and Liberty cap. All along the way you are treated to epic views of half dome as you wrap around. The water level was pretty low due to the drought, so Nevada falls looked pitiful. Eventually, we made our way back to the van just after the Sun had fully set. Our 1st hike was a “great” warm up of a solid 8.5 miles. With legs and back muscles strained, we parked briefly in El Cap Meadow to watch the big wall climbers work through the night.
2nd day in Yosemite, we hiked into the Sequoia grove and toured around the different sites on in valley floor. Hitting all the structures and vistas, we quickly tick off our suggested tourist list. The hotel was impressive, equally impressive was the cost to the stay in one of the rooms. We took a nice break at Camp 4 and Alexis read while I bouldered some problems (rocks) in the camp. Our plan was to get to Taft point right at sunset for some pictures. This turned out to be a great idea. A relatively easy hike of 2 miles leads to an epic vista with 2000 ft drops. The sun was just dipping behind some clouds, which cast a great light over the valley. Feeling spry as we walked back the start of the trailhead, we continued to hike to the top of the Sentinel Dome (2 miles) in the dark. We relaxed and enjoyed the darkness and the stars, while playing with some long exposures on the cameras. So much for a rest day as we ended up walking just a far as yesterday.
Day 5: Tuolumne and Mono County
We had enough of the valley and it people, so we decided to move on to Tuolumne country and what laid over Tioga Pass. We stopped to do some yoga at Olmsted point, which presented another great view of Half Dome. This time is was the backside with a view of the cables route. We played around the Tuolumne Meadows, and set off on a hike up Lembert Dome. The dome sat nicely above the meadow floor and provided some easy scrambling and walking on granite. Afterwards, we decided to cross the divide and get some lunch in Lee Vining.
We filled up are water bottles with tasty Sierra water, and feasted on Tacos and brisket while viewing the weirdness that is mono lake. The lake has lots of strange tufas that were formed by ancient underwater springs, they are now visible because of LA’s water syphoning and the compounding drought. We continued down route 395 to Mammoth Lakes. Here we made impromptu decision to go check out Devil’s Postpile National Monument. A very winding road deposited us in a unique and isolate valley. Devil Postpile is the remnants of volcanic activity, with some vertical and twisting basalt columns. They were very alien looking, but had soothing symmetry with their hexagonal shapes. The place had recently experienced a massive wind storm and many of the old growth trees with knocked over adding to the oddness.
We exited the postpile just in time to see a great sunset behind the minaret mountain range. It was now completely dark, but we did a quick headlight tour of Earthquake – Fault zone near the mammoth resort anyways. This is where an earthquake had ripped the land part a couple hundred years ago. We had a quick drink at Mammoth Brewery. Their root beer was the best drink of all the offerings. The before rounding out the night to sleep, we stopped at Wild Wiley’s Hotsprings. We had the pool to ourselves in the crispy cold Fall night and enjoyed the stars
Day 6: Death Valley
The plan was to play in the Bishop area, but the weather had other ideas. We slept along the Owens River Gorge and I was quickly awaken to the sound of taps on the roof. I looked outside and a wall of rain was coming pouring down off the Sierras. I quick threw things in the van and peel out the dirt road. I wasn’t ready to get stuck in wet sand with a heavy rear wheel drive van. We stopped at Eric Schat’s bakery and figured out a new plan for the day. Bishop, which normally gets 300 days of sunshine a year, was slated to have a non-stop down pour for the next 2 days. This event of having it rain in unlikely places would become the theme for the rest of the trip.
We planned the next stop as Las Vegas, but not without crossing through Death Valley. We rolled through the valley in a spooky mists of clouds and wetness. We ended up experiencing Death Valley in one of its wettest moments. A dry lake bed had become an actual lake and mud slides covered the road. The driving loop we wanted to take happened to be closed due to landsides, so we re-planned again and made a drive up to Dante’s Point to view the valley from upon high. Here we could view the lowest and highest points in the continental USA at 1 time. Side Note on the Drive up, there were Tarantulas everywhere. It was their love making season. Later that night, we pulled into a RV park in Boulder City, NV at night and enjoyed the 1st shower of the trip.
Day 7: Las Vegas and Mohave Desert
We started the day with a Starbucks run and to analyze plans again. Rain was already pouring around Vegas, so I let Ben know that we should meet at Joshua Tree instead of Red Rocks. Now that our day a wash, we used the morning to visit to the Hoover Dam. We did the Dam tour (ha ha) and got to walk through the structure and learn about its construction. I already knew pretty much everything about the dam from constantly watching modern marvels on the history channel. We had a nice lunch at an olive garden and did a driving tour of Red Rock canyon. Then we began the long drive to Joshua Tree through the Mohave Desert.
The drive was supposed to be uneventful, as we would take a straight line through the heart of the desert. There was one variable though, we had unknowingly been christened as rain gods. While in the middle of the drive, we saw a black cloud form on the horizon. At first we thought it was some smoke from a fire due to its weird shape. Then it grew larger and small spits of rain started to hit the van as we approached closer. Soon we were fully inside the storm with pounding rain. The roads low points began to fill. We pulled over as reached the tail end of the storm to have photographic proof that we made it rain in the Mohave. We ended up witnessing on of the most awesome double rainbows. It was quite surreal to see such a site compounded with the close lightning strikes and thunder rumbles.
Eventually, we made it to Joshua Tree at night and were luckily enough to make friends with a German couple with a sweet camping vehicle. They let us park beside them sleep because every other camping spot was taken up. I stayed up that night to take some pictures a storm approaching Joshua Tree as well.
Days 8-9: Joshua Tree
We woke quickly in the morning and drove to the Hidden Valley trailhead to meet Ben and Amanda. We greeted each other in the usefully fashion of grunts and hugs. I told Ben just to pick an adventure and we would go on it. We ended up hiking over to a faraway dome to climbing a classic crack called Mental Physics. We followed a relatively dry wash bed up through some drainages between the golden granite blobs. We passed the remains of an old mercantile store, scrambled up and over boulders, and dropped to the other side of the ridge. Along the way we saw fantastic cactus and strange rock formations. Eventually, we found the crack in the middle of a huge chunk of rock. We took turns going up the route while having some good fun. Then we made our way back and ended up sneaking into a big jack rabbit.
After refueling at the van, we did another hike around the Barker Damn and following a kid’s stick scrapping in the dirt all along the way. Eventually while hiking around we found a classic bouldering area called gunsmoke. I got to do 1 quick lap on the 80ft traversing problem. Then just before dark Ben took us on a cave scrambling adventure through one of the massive rock piles. It combined wiggling, climbing, and jumping to get to both the underneath side and on top side of the blob of rocks.
We were unable to get a spot in the park again, so we had to drive out the area and find BLM land next to the city of 29 Palms. The field was a free-for-all of oddness. 1st was that there were thousands of spiders watching you in the field. When you would scan the area with a headlamp, all of their eyes would reflect back at you. 2nd was the random taco truck that showed up and parked across the field. 3rd was 2 trucks that drove back and forth to make a run way for their model airplanes. 4th was the random mud truckers tearing through the area early on a Sunday morning.
The next day, we headed back to the hidden valley and climbed the Cyclops. It was classic climb up the heart of a blog of granite, finishing with a belay in an open arch of rock. We did 2 team approach with all of us eventually reaching the summit and hugging. I then tried bouldering some more around the area and climbed the Manx Boulders. I also found the crack call “pigpen”, which was pretty physical crack bouldering. We finished off the day with a trip up to the dairy queen wall. Tired and Skin shredded, we said our so-longs to Ben and Amanda and we started the haul to Zion.
While driving we kept seeing lightning and storms out in front of us. We seemed to be chasing the storm. We decided to take a slightly different path back as we didn’t want to get caught in a flood in the middle of nowhere Mohave. Well that still happened. We tried to take route 66 but, after driving about 30 min’s on the road, we hit a flooded impass on the road. I should have guess it would get worse, as I had to blast through several “small” streams on the road. Then there was dip to provide drainage in the road. It was flowing fast and but it was too deep for me to want to cross it in a Van. So we back tracked to the interstate and did the additional 1 hr loop around. Then we got on the main road between Needles CA, and Nevada. We drove along this main highway for about 40 mins, only to fly up on the 1 and only drainage for the entire 100 mile basin. The storm had just pass through and the running water gave me a good pause. There were several other drivers coming the other direction that had just stopped as well. I found a flooded sign knocked over on the side road, so I put it back up. Just then 2 semi-truck came barreling through and blasted through the water. The water was now about 200ft across, and from the look of the water on the tires it was about 3-4 feet deep. The last semi-drifted slightly in the current, but still managed to haul itself through.
We decided” nope”, and drove to the highest point on the hill and setup the van to sleep. Off and on through the night more trucks show up, but none drive through. A couple emergency vehicle appears and performed a rescue of a person who got washed away in their car. Also a helicopter was called out to sweep the area for any additional missing people. Around 2am, the rescues had been completed, and the water had dip low enough to allow trucks and cars to pass. I quickly started the van and snuck into the crossing line. Driving through the wash, I saw the Toyota Matrix off to the right that was covered in gravel. The sign I had put up earlier now had debris stacked up around it as well, that the water had risen even higher through the hours. We eventually made it up and threw Las Vegas. Alexis took over while I got some sleep on the drive to Zion.
Days 10-11: Zion
I awoke in a Walmart parking lot. A quick shopping trip restocked our rations and then we hauled down the road to Zion National Park. Along the way, we found an awesome little coffee shop in La Verkin. The shop sat above the Virgin River and they roasted all there beans in house. The smells were magical. It was great improvement from my standard ration of Folgers instant. We eventually made into Zion and immediately snagged an open camping spot within the park. We set off on the classic hike of Zion, trip up to Angel’s landing. The shuttle to the trailhead was packed and the hike was mostly paved. However the pavement stopped when we got to scout’s landing lookout. From here, some scrambling along bottle chain trail led to the top of the central point of Zion Canyon.
Afterwards, we took the shuttle up to the Narrows, which were closed due to flooding. We walk along the paved entry path to the end of the line and saw a shoe grave yard. By then our rain god powers had kicked in again. We headed back into town to sample their tasty brewery.
Then next day, we headed out of the main canyon to explored the less traveled northern part of the park. This area was called Kolob Canyon. The walls were just as tall as Zion, but it’s visited by 1/10th of the users. This is because it is far less developed and you have to work for the views. We stopped for a little exploratory hike up one of the canyon drainages that I read about. This area supposedly held some good sport climbs. We reached a turn off, parked the van, and started our walk up an unmarked drainage. From moment we step off the pavement, we were in a magical isolated arena. It was obvious that we were the only people to visit there in a long while. We chased/followed some fresh coyote tracks up into the head of the canyon. The fall colors of the trees were very distinct against the back of the red walls. Eventually the walls, closed in on us and we were sounded by 1500ft sheer cliffs of sandstone.
We performed a little photoshoot in the solitude of the canyon, then we stumbled in to the Climbing Wall area. I took a crack at the Half-Route which was solid 5.10 on a 20 degree wall. Then I took a turn at the Namaste Route. This was the 5 star rated climb of the area. 40 (130ft) meters of overhanging 5.12 climbing, with great kneebar rests and funky heucos. The area was great change of environment from the standard crowded national park hikes.
We drove through the evening, passed the Virgin Gorge, thru Vegas again, and finally through Death Valley again. Only stopping in the middle of the night to take some photos of the desolation. Eventually was made to the Alabama Hills to sleep.
Days 12-13: Mount Whitney
We awoke in the Alabama Hills to a crispy and sunny morning. We drove back to town to pick up the permits and also get a shower at the Whitney Hostel. We drove to the trailhead, packed up our stuff, and set up the trail around 11am. Many switch backs and shuffling occurred over the 7 mile hike up to the trail camp area. On the way, we stopped briefly to eat and refill water. At camp we quickly set up the tent in the snowfield and rolled out the sleeping pads. As soon as the sun dipped over the ridge the temperature dropped quickly. We made some hot tea and instant beef stroganoff. Then we crawled into our sleeping bag early (7-8pm). We stayed relatively warm during the 15*F temperatures through the night. At 12,000ft one never really gets good sleep, but we were happy with the multiple naps through the night. We packed up the tent, ate some cold pizza and set off back down the trail. We didn’t want to go for the summit as it was very snowy and it would have add an extra 8 hrs of hiking to already long day. We got back to the van happy and hungry.
We stopped briefly in Bishop for more bread and did a quick tour of the Buttermilk Boulders. Then we were off north on 395 for a dip in a hot spring. We decided to drive to Bridgeport to sample the travertine hot spring. As we approach the pool in the night, we met an interesting sample of people. The 1st person was passed out in the hottest pool listening to blasting death metal. Then the next group was filled with very friendly and stoned-train-hopping-hobo-drifter-hippies. They offered to make room for us in the shallow pools. We hopped in and the realized everyone naked.
After that experience we drove up to Sonora Pass and camped out alongside the road. The animals were all out night making noises as I photographed the stars.
Days 14-15: Back to SF and Rest Day
We took the long way back to San Francisco going up and through South Lake Tahoe. I got an awesome coffee drink in the town of Minden, NV. South Lake Tahoe was the normal garbage resort town that I remember it to be from my snowboard trip out there long ago. We got to experience the hell that is traffic in CA around Sacramento. Finally, we pulled into Berkeley again to celebrate Rachel’s thesis defense with some drinking around the town.
On Saturday, we did a nice final rest day tour of some surf spots north of the city. We got free beer and hot dogs at a Filson Waxing demo. I got an ice cream coffee float. I almost bought some awesome jackets, but resisted due to my packing limitations. Then we went and hung out up in Bolinas on the beach. We rounded out the trip with a stop at the Laguntias Brewery. The beers were hoppy and alcoholic just what we needed. Then the trip was over. We made it to the airport and hopped the midnight flight back to Charlotte.
Thanks it is much appreciated, I am in progress of updating and patching this now.