Views from the Coit Tower

At the beginning of May, Manja and Bartek were again visiting San Francisco and together with them I went to the top of the Coit Tower. The views of the city from there were simply spectacular. 

The statue of Christofer Colombus in front of the Coit Tower:

Western part of SF and Golden Gate Bridge:

Lombard St:

Downtown and Transamerica Pyramid:

Bay Bridge:

Grand Canyon - Bright Angel Campground

The campground at the bottom of Grand Canyon is located alongside Bright Angel Creek. The campground has 31 sites, all of which need to be reserved up to 4 months in advance through Grand Canyon's Backcountry Permit Office. All sites are very pretty and for most of a day shaded.

mi padre in SF

On Monday evening my father and his wife arrived in San Francisco. To help them remember what happened where and when I will post here short descriptions of their daily activities. (Anyway, most of their activities involve me as well, so blogging will also help me remember their stay here.)

Day 1 - We went for a road trip to Muir Woods and Point Reyes. I was hoping that we would be able to hike a bit in Point Reyes NP, but it was so cold and windy that we went only for two short trips there (to the Pt Reyes Lighthouse and along Drakes Beach).

View of the Golden Gate Bridge (and my parents) from the Vista Point:


Muir Woods, two girls inside a redwood!


On the Earthquake Trail near Bear Valley visitor center (in Point Reyes NP) you can see a fence that moved 20ft apart during 1906 earthquake:


My father on the Drakes Beach:


Day 2 - While I was at work my parents went to downtown, Little Italy, Chinatown and Fisherman's Wharf. In the evening they got to meet Anil and together we went to Twin Peaks, Lombard St and Treasure Island.

View from Twin Peaks:




Going down Lombard St:


At the bottom of Lombard St:




View to Bay Bridge and downtown SF from Treasure Island:


Day 3 - In the morning my parents went to the California Academy of Sciences and Golden Gate Park. In the afternoon I showed them around my work:





Day 4 - "Relaxation" day during which my parents went shopping. Different things relax different people...

Day 5, 6 & 7 - My parents go to visit Bartek and Manja in San Diego.

Mokelumne Wilderness

My plan for the Memorial Day Weekend was to go backpacking in Mokelumne Wilderness. According to the Lonely Planet's "Hiking in the Sierra Nevada" guide Mokelumne Wilderness has "uncrowded trails, expansive scenery, verdant, rolling, rock-crowded ridges and plenty of lakes". Based on that description I was hoping that even on the Memorial Weekend it should be not too busy with people. I was right on that one. However, we were still not able to do the two-day backpacking hike that I had planned for us, as I had underestimated the amount of snow that would be still present at the end of May at that elevation (~9'000ft).

I do not feel completely guilty about that as I had called the rangers' station twice before our trip to ask about backpacking permits and trail conditions. The first time I called I was advised to bring snowshoes, the second time I was told they would not be necessary. I am so grateful that we decided to bring snowshoes with us! Without them we would not be able to hike for even few hundred meters. And even with snowshoes it was a too big challenge to go on the hike that we had planned. We had already lots of trouble following the snow-covered car road that was leading to the trailhead of our hike. Trying to find a narrower hikers path would inevitably lead to us getting lost in the middle of the forest.

Because of that we had to abandon our original plan and flee to lower elevations. This is how we ended up in Yosemite NP, even though I had expected it to be overcrowded...

This road sign was at the end of the car road, just before the trailhead of our planned hike. As you can see, it was almost neck-high covered in snow:


Pretty Woods Creek that we followed for a while in our snowshoes:


All in all, we do not regret going to Mokelumne Wilderness and for sure we will go back there in future. If you also plan to visit it, I would say do not go there before mid of July. And do not rely on the park rangers for information, they seem to be useless (Both times that I called they also "forgot" to mention that their office is closed on weekends, and therefore, I would not be able to pick up the backpacking permit from them and I should had it sent to me by regular mail...).

Yosemite NP

Even though I tried to avoid it at all cost, we ended up going to Yosemite NP on the Memorial Day weekend. The problem with Yosemite NP is that it is always very crowded, even more so on weekends, not to mention the wild crowds that you need to expect there on a three-day weekend. We thought that we were prepared for that. We were wrong. It was just insane - there were easily more than 30'000 cars in the Yosemite Valley and it was impossible to find a parking spot anywhere. There was not a single accommodation left (neither on the campground nor hotel) within 1.5h drive from the park. The lines (at least to the ladies' restrooms) were 20 minutes long. Wherever you went, you would soon meet another fellow human being. Yosemite Valley might be stunningly beautiful, but with all those hundreds of thousands of people moving around in it, it feels just like downtown San Francisco.

Things got slightly better when we started hiking up to the Upper Yosemite Falls (6.8mi/10.9km-long hike climbing up 2410ft/735m). These falls were the reason that we decided to go to Yosemite Valley despite knowing that it would mean meeting thousands of other people. Yosemite NP is full of waterfalls and majority of them are at their peak in the month of May. I thought it would be cool to see them since we are in this part of Sierras anyway. In particular, I was interested in Yosemite Falls, which is the highest free-leaping waterfall in North America. From the top of the upper falls to the base of the lower falls it drops the total of 2420ft/739m. The Upper Falls alone drop 1430ft/436m.

The trail to the Upper Yosemite Falls starts with four dozen steep switchbacks, which discourage majority of weekend hikers. After climbing 1000ft/305m the trail reaches Columbia Rock viewpoint that offers spectacular views of Yosemite Valley and Half Dome. Around two thirds of the hikers who made it that far, turn around and do not attempt to go farther up on another set of switchbacks. We made it all the way up, but it was not easy. After the lunch break that we had at the feet of the Upper Yosemite Falls, N. started feeling sick and was moving up at the snail speed. I almost started to have doubts that we would make it to the top of the falls, but luckily we did. He started feeling better as soon as we started going down, which would make me think that he might have an altitude sickness if we were not hiking ~4000ft/1300m higher the previous day without any problems.

Anyway, I am glad that we went for this hike. Seeing the Upper Falls from up-close was amazing, especially that we could observe the rainbow forming there for more than an hour. Also the views of Half Dome and the Valley were pretty spectacular, compensating for the lack of intimacy on the trail.


Tioga Lake, still partly frozen:




Tenaya Lake:


Beautiful Hwy 120 leading through Yosemite NP:


The view of Half Dome's back from Olmsted Point:


Glacial erratic boulder at the Olmsted Point:


Yosemite Valley and Merced River:


Yosemite Falls:


View of Half Dome from Columbia Rock viewpoint on the trail to Upper Yosemite Falls:


Rainbow at the feet of Upper Yosemite Falls:


Rainbow!


Waterfall, Half Dome and rainbow:


The view of Yosemite Valley from the top of Upper Yosemite Fall:

Mono Lake

We were lucky to arrive at Mono Lake before the majority of other people did. We have proverb in Polish which says that God rewards the ones who wake up early ("Kto rano wstaje, temu Pan Bog daje"). We clearly got rewarded for waking up at 5:30am :) ... The views were the more amazing, as not obstructed by human presence.

The Mono Lake is famous for its Tufa towers, which are essentially weirdly shaped limestone rocks sticking out from the lake. Tufas are formed when underwater springs rich in calcium mix with lake water rich in carbonates. The results of this mixing is precipitation of calcium carbonate (limestone) around the spring. Over the course of years, the precipitate will accumulate and a tufa tower will grow.

Tufa towers grow exclusively underwater and they can only be seen around Mono Lake because the lake level decreased dramatically during last sixty years when it has served as a fresh water supply for LA.

The greatest concentration of Tufa towers can be seen at the South Tufa grove, where the majority of pictures shown below were taken.

Approaching Mono Lake:


Tufas!







Mono Lake, its Tufas and snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains:

Pinnacles NM

On one Saturday, a few weeks ago, N. and I went hiking in Pinnacles NM. As it takes 2.5-3 hours to get there from San Francisco, we initially planned to go camping there. However, all the campgrounds were already reserved for that particular weekend. So we decided that it is still better to go there for a day trip rather then postpone it till never.

The Pinnacles park can be entered either from the east or from the west (and, interestingly, these roads do not intersect, so you need to exit on the same side you entered). We went for the eastern entrance as more hiking trails start from there. First, we went for a short (<1h) hike to the Bear Gulch Cave and afterward we went for a longer (3-4h) hike to the top of High Peaks.

Exploring Bear Gulch Cave was a lot of fun. It would have been even more enjoyable, had there been less other people wanting to explore it too...

In general, the park was very crowded (especially with school kids), so I was wondering if we were simply unlucky to get there on a busy weekend, or is it always so crowded? For me an important part of experiencing the nature is to be able to immerse in it without the noise created by other people, so you can imagine that I was not that happy there.

It got slightly better when we started hiking to the top of High Peaks. Luckily, most of the casual visitors to parks are not willing to go for longer hikes, especially if that means going up...

The views from High Peaks were great, but still not as spectacular as the ones from Mount Diablo. Taken that into account, plus the fact that on Mt Diablo we hardly met anybody (granted, we were there on a weekday), I would rather go back hiking on Mt Diablo then in Pinnacles. It will take some time before I will be willing to give Pinnacles NM another chance.

Bear Gulch Cave:


The Cavewoman:


The light, at the end of darkness:


N. resting next to Bear Gulch Reservoir:


Views on the way back to the visitors center:




High Peaks Trail Loop:





Balconies:


Almost vertical way up:





Woodpeckers!


Turkey Vulture!


Butterfly!


Dragonfly!

reasons for not blogging

As you have noticed, dear friends and random strangers, I have not been blogging much recently. There are two main reasons for that:

(a) I am extremely busy. (I already hear you saying: as always... tell us something we do not know...) Well, this time I have a very good reason for claiming being busy. My beloved parents are coming to visit me for a month (whole month of July) and I am trying to get as much job done as possible before they come, as I know that when they are here, I will be hardly able to work. First, we plan to travel together for two weeks (this time to Hawaii, yay!). Then, during the rest of their stay here I would still like to spend as much time as possible with them, which means that I will not be able to work full time then. BTW, don't get me wrong. This is not a complaint. I am actually looking forward to my parents' visit. They are fabulous and I know that we will have an amazing time together. If they only spoke English, I would throw a huge party that you could all get to know them and see how much fun they are.

(b) My laptop has kindly decided to die. It probably happened already a month ago and I still did not get a new one. That means that I can not blog from home (which is what I used to do). The only times that I use a computer is when I am at work. And after 12+ hours here I barely feel like staying an extra hour only to post something...

Regardless, before my parents come, I still plan to finish the following posts:

1. Pinnacles NM (from a weekend trip in April 2009)
   
2. Mokelumne Wilderness (from Memorial Weekend)
   
3. Mono Lake (from Memorial Weekend)
   
4. Yosemite NP (from Memorial Weekend)
   
5. Grand Canyon - Bright Angel Trail (from March 2009)
   
6. Grand Canyon - Bright Angel Creek (from March 2009)
   
7. Grand Canyon - Clear Creek Trail (from March 2009)
   
8. Grand Canyon - Plateau Point (from March 2009)
   
9. Road Trip 2008: Bryce NP (from September 2008)
   
10. Road Trip 2008: Canyonlands NP (from September 2008)
    
11. Road Trip 2008: Arches NP (from September 2008)
    
12. Road Trip 2008: Grand Canyon NP - North Rim (from September 2008)
    
13. Road Trip 2008: Mesa Verde NP (from September 2008)
    

Though now that I see that it means one post every other day, I start to doubt that I will manage it. Still, it's good to have ambitious plans as they at least motivate you to start doing something...

Golden Gate Park

Two weeks ago N. and I decided to celebrate the arrival of spring by hiking through the city. We started our walk in a quiet and residential Potrero Hill, then we walked through vivid and messy Mission, followed by elegantly gay Castro, hippie Haight-Ashbury, to end up in a beautiful Golden Gate Park.

Walking through various neighborhoods of SF is one of my favorite activities. It is just fascinating how the city changes every few blocks.

Here are a few photos from the park:

Grand Canyon - South Kaibab Trail

We decided to hike down the South Kaibab Trail because there is no water on this trail (as opposed to the Bright Angel Trail on which we hiked out), and we figured we would need more water on our way up than on our way down.

The trailheads for the South Kaibab and Bright Angel trails are pretty far apart from each other, so we decided to park our car next to the later one and take the "Backpackers Express" shuttle to the South Kaibab trailhead located near Yaki Point. The South Kaibab Trail is 6.3 miles (10.1 km) long. Over this distance it drops 4,860 ft (1480 m), which makes it pretty steep. All of us could feel it in our knees when we were making last switchbacks in the Inner Gorge, just before the trail met with the Kaibab Suspension Bridge on which we crossed the Colorado River to get to Phantom Ranch and Bright Angel Campground.

It took as "only" 4 hours to hike all the way down to the bottom of the canyon, more or less as much as we had predicted it would take. So we had thought that after setting the campsite we would still be able to go for at least a short hike, but we ended up being so exhausted that we skipped that plan and spent the remaining of the afternoon relaxing and chilling in the shade.

On the way down the canyon, view to O'Neill Butte (on the left) from Cedar Ridge Point:




The very first glimpse of the Colorado River, just after passing the Tipoff:


The first views of the Bright Angel Creek Oasis:


The Suspension Bridge:


Crossing the Colorado River:

Grand Canyon Hike

In the middle of March I went hiking in the Grand Canyon with a group of friends that I know from my PhD program in Dresden, Germany. To be able to camp below the rim of the canyon, we had to apply to the Grand Canyon Backcountry Information Center for a permit four months prior to the trip. Apparently there are three times as many applications as permits, so I guess we should consider ourselves lucky to have managed to get one of them.

Our trip started on Tuesday, 17th of March, at the San Francisco airport. From there we flew to Phoenix, AZ, which is located only 4-hours away from the Grand Canyon. That meant that we still had a bit of extra time, so we stopped at Sedona Red Rock, to which I dedicated a separate post. Also on on our way back from the canyon to Phoenix we had some free time, so we visited several other parks: Walnut Canyon NM, Montezuma Castle NM, Montezuma Well, Sunset Crater Volcano NM and Wupatki NM.

As for the itinerary of our Grand Canyon hike we took one day to hike (on the South Kaibab Trail) to the bottom of the canyon, where we spent two nights at the Bright Angel Campground and then we took two days to hike out (on the Bright Angel Trail). The photos and detailed description of our hike can be found in the following posts:

1. Grand Canyon - South Kaibab Trail
   
2. Grand Canyon - Bright Angel Campground
   
3. Grand Canyon - Clear Creek Trail
   
4. Grand Canyon - Plateau Point Trail
   
5. Grand Canyon - Bright Angel Trail
   

Grand Canyon - Watchtower

The most eastern viewpoint in the Grand Canyon park is called Dessert View. It is home to the structure known as the Watchtower that was designed by Mary Colter at the request of the Fred Harvey Company. The Watchtower is a replica of a prehistoric Indian tower. Its interior walls are full of images that depict various aspects of Hopi mythology and religious ceremonies. It is somehow disconcerting that this stylized-to-look-old building is used as a gift shop.

The views from the Watchtower are magnificent. From its top you can see not only the Grand Canyon, but also the Painted Desert, the Vermilion Cliffs and the San Fransico Peaks.

The Watchtower:


The view of the Grand Canyon from the inside of the Watchtower:




The interior of the Watchtower:

Butano SP

On Saturday we went hiking in Butano SP. We decided on a short 4-mile long hike recommended on the park's website. The hike was nice, but not amazing. I am not sure if I will go back there.

Butano Creek:




Supergirls:


Slow moving newt:

Pt Pigeon Lighthouse

Most of the Friday and part of Saturday I spent at Pigeon Point Lighthouse, which is located just 50 miles south of San Francisco and makes for a wonderful weekend getaway spot. We stayed at Pigeon Point Lighthouse Hostel, which is very nice and clean. Bare in mind that to get a private room there you need to reserve 3-6 months in advance.

Here are a few pics.

Pigeon Point Lighthouse, take one:


Take two:


Take three: what happened to the sun?






Spring in full power:

Bring Your Own Big Wheel Race - movies

I also took several movies from the race that can be watched through youtube:





Unfortunately, their quality is not as good as I hoped for. Again I wish I had a Nikon D90... Maybe it is finally time to buy it.

Bring Your Own Big Wheel - BYOBW 2009

As some of you know the street on which I live is the actual crookedest street of San Francisco, even though Lombard St officially holds the title. Last Sunday my street hosted an annual event called "BYOBW" (Bring Your Own Wheel), in which adults race each other down the street on kids' type of bicycles.

Here are a few photos that I took during this event:

Grand Canyon - Lipan Point

Here are three photos taken from Lipan Point, which is the only above-the-rim viewpoint from where you can actually see Colorado River. If during your visit to Grand Canyon you will have time to stop at only one viewpoint, chose Lipan:

Grand Canyon - Mather Point

Here are two first shots that I took of Grand Canyon immediately upon our arrival in the park. They were taken at Mather viewpoint, from where 90% of tourists see the canyon for the first time in their lives:

Montezuma Castle NM

On the way from Flagstaff to the Phoenix airport we stopped at Montezuma Castle NM, which was set up to protect a 5-story cliff dwelling that between XII and XIVth century was inhabited by Sinagua people.

The naming of Montezuma Well comes from the 1860s explores, who must have thought that these were Aztec ruins and hence called them after great Aztec emperor, Montezuma.

Montezuma Castle:




Castle A (on the left) and Montezuma Castle (on the right):

Montezuma Well

Montezuma Well is a unit of Montezuma Castle, located 11 miles away from the main part of the park. As the Montezuma Castle it used to be inhabited by Sinagua people.

If you ask me, those guys here chose much nicer location for their homes - just next to a well that formed few thousand years ago by the collapse of a limestone cavern. The Montezuma Castle might look more impressive (and definitely is better preserved), but there is something charming about living in the cliffs above the turquoise water hole:

Walnut Canyon NM

Ancestral Puebloans who decided to settle in Walnut Canyon took advantage of their surroundings and instead of building houses on the ground, they built them in the rock overhangs. This had several advantages, such as giving their inhabitants better protection from the rain, cold or extensive sun, as well as it saved them "construction costs" as they needed to build only one wall instead of five :)

There are two trails in the park: The Rim Trail, from which you can enjoy the canyon from above and also play a game with yourself and see how many cliff dwellings you can spot on the canyon sides; and The Island Trail, which lets you see several cliff dwelling houses from up close.

Pictures below were taken from the Island trail:

Wupatki NM

On our way from Grand Canyon NP to Flagstaff we stopped at Wupatki NM. The park is home to five prehistoric pueblos (Wupatki, Wukoki, Lomaki, Citadel and Nalakihu) that are accessible to tourists.

The largest one of them, Wupatki Pueblo, used to be a home to around hundred people. Even today its past splendor can be easily appreciated:






Box Canyon and Lomaki Pueblo:






These pueblos were built around 800-years ago, most likely by ancestors of today's Hopi and/or Zuni people. Shortly after being built, they got abandoned and their inhabitants settled at a different location. Interestingly, the same happened to the pueblos located within today's Mesa Verde NP. Moreover, those two events happened around the same historical time. Still, we do not know what motivated Ancestral Puebloans to abandon their perfectly functional houses and start new communities elsewhere.

Sunset Crater Volcano NM

Another park at which we stopped for a short hike was Sunset Crater Volcano NM. This volcano is the youngest one on the Colorado Plateau, being formed "only" 1000 years ago.

We did not have too much time to spare there as it was slowly getting dark and we still needed to get to Flagstaff and find suitable accommodation for the following night. Because of that we only went there for a short hike on the Lava Flow Trail. Pity, I am sure it would be very rewarding to go for a longer hike in this outer-worldly landscape.

The crater, a weird cloud stuck above it, the lava flow and us on the bridge:


Another take on the crater:


More lava:

Sedona

On our way from Phoenix airport to Grand Canyon NP we took a small detour to visit Red Rock SP. I was not impressed. The rocks had interesting shapes and had beautiful red color, but the park did not seem to be very hiker-friendly and was overloaded with tourists. Nearby city of Sedona definitely seemed to be a tourists paradise. If at all possible, stay away.

The Red Rocks of Sedona:

Rainforest of California Academy of Sciences

Two weeks ago Manja and Bartek were visiting me in San Francisco. During their visit I finally got to see the Rainforest exhibit of California Academy of Sciences. We had to wait in line around 40 minutes before we were let inside, but I am not complaining as I was waiting in a very nice company :) The Rainforest exhibit was nice, but I am really not sure if it was worth that long wait.

One of its highlights were Strawberry Poison-dart Frogs:




Leaf-cutters were also fascinating:


There were also many colorful butterflies flying around us:




During Manja's and Bartek's visit in SF we also went to Treasure Island, Muir Woods and Haight Ashbury:

Manja and Bartek on positively Haight street ;)


The most famous legs of Haight-Ashbury district:


Anil and I on the Treasure Island:


Manja and Bartek:


Bay bridge as seen from the Treasure Island: