The Allen Family Travels: May 2010

May 21st - May 23rd Driving Along The Northern California Coast

From San Francisco we headed north along Hwy 1 on the west coast, destination unknown. We really just wanted to get out of the wind. We stopped at a visitor’s center in the small town of Mendocino and we were directed to MacKerricher State Park near Fort Bragg. This campground is situated along the ocean.

It has a boardwalk out to an overlook where we were able to watch seals and their pups rolling in the waves and hear them barking away. There is also a long paved trail (old road) that stretches for miles along the shoreline. Trevor had the pleasure of biking it and I had the joy of running it while also venturing down many side trails to the edge of the ocean cliffs.

The following day we drove Hwy 101, detouring along the Avenue of the Giants. The giants are old growth Redwood trees that can grow more than 350 feet high. But wait…. didn’t we say that the Sequoia trees were the biggest…true, but the Redwoods are the tallest!!! We stayed at Patrick’s Point State Park. Another park located right on the ocean and also inhabited by seals who playfully frolicked in the waves. This park is thick with vegetation and wandering along it’s trails makes you feel like you are in a dense jungle. The weather was a mix of rain and sun and cooler than we expected, around 5-10 degrees C. Makes us miss the hot and sunny Mexican weather, however we heard snow was expected in Canmore this weekend, so who can complain!!!

May 18th - May 20th Visiting The Birth Place of Trevor’s Bike

We made our way toward the ocean and found a campsite at the very shady Henry Cowell State Park north-east of Santa Cruz. It just so happened that a stage of the Tour of California was to finish at the Santa Cruz boardwalk. It was Trae’s 5th birthday & Trevor’s lucky day! Santa Cruz was so excited about the tour that they even let out the schools early to watch the race. The stage finish was downtown along the boardwalk and it seemed like everyone was out on their bike. We got lots of free stuff at the event and managed to catch a blurred view of the cyclists as they sped in a cluster toward the finish. It was a tight finish as 3 of the riders finished within milliseconds of each other. They’re so fast you literally see a blur of moving color as they ride past.

For Trae’s 5th Birthday we walked the Santa Cruz boardwalk and road one of the rides as it was getting to closing time. For dinner, we had Trae’s favourite…cheeseburgers and birthday cupcakes! We celebrated in the trailer as we decorated it with signs & balloons. We actually tricked him into thinking that his birthday was tomorrow as we had to take the time to get the trailer set up. When he entered the trailer, we all yelled surprise. He was in a little shock as he believed that his birthday was to be tomorrow. Once he found out that today was the 18th, he replied that he knew all along and that he was the one who tricked us!!! Oh, 5yrs old and knows it all.

The following day Trevor and Trae toured the Santa Cruz bike factory while Kiah and I were treated to a view of dolphins playing in the ocean on our stroll along the seaside! The factory is humble in appearance with no flash or even a sign to indicate. Trevor & Trae got a personal tour and Trevor managed to hold his dream bike.

The following day, we travelled the coast to San Francisco, over the Golden Gate Bridge and found an RV park just north of the city from where we could catch a ferry to downtown. We caught the ferry in the afternoon and managed to ride a cable car, see the world’s most crooked street, look in a few shops, watch a couple street performers, eat dinner in China town and catch the second last ferry of the day back to our beds. Needless to say, we were all spent as we hit our beds about 10pm. The following day Trev did a long bike ride over the Golden Gate Bridge and was able to get 4hrs in on the bike. The weather in San Fran started to get windy, wet and cold, so we took it as an opportunity to get back on the hwy and travel north.

May 15th- Sierra Nevada

We drove up the long and climbing road to the north-west Big Stump Entrance of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. We were greeted at the top to snow patches but the weather was warm and sunny. We were right on time to join a park ranger in a tour of General Grant Grove, home of one of 75 groves of the earth’s largest living trees. Some of these trees are over 2,000 years old and I think they can live for over 3000 years! The older ones have a ground circumference of over 100ft! One tree, named the Fallen Monarch, was once used as a home and then a horse stable and we were able to walk right through it. We enjoyed breathing in the smell of earth and trees as we listened to the park ranger and wandered among these majestic giants.

Later we drove the 36-mile descent into Kings Canyon, descending from 2008m(6589ft) to 1412m (4635ft). It is the deepest canyon in the US. The road down is very steep, narrow and winding, and the scenery is spectacular. However the drive took about an hour to descend the 36 miles. Breath-taking waterfalls await at almost every turn and at the bottom the fierce Kings River flows back-dropped by moss-tinged granite walls that stand thousands of feet tall. Kings Canyon is surrounded by rugged wilderness and unlike Zion and the Grand Canyon, surprisingly, there were very few tourists here. There is a trail called the Pacific Crest Trail that runs through Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and stretches from Canada to Mexico. Maybe next time we visit Mexico, we’ll take this route!!!

We got a campsite at the bottom and end of the canyon and enjoyed a Canadian camping feel by the fire that evening.

We hoped to do some hiking the following day but we only managed to see a few viewpoints along the roadside before the rain started coming down hard. We decided to drive to the top and stay at a campsite up there. After a very scary drive up the edge of the deepest canyon in the US in the heavy fog and rain we decide it was best to continue down to the foothills so that we didn’t awake to snow the next morning. We had planned to visit Yosemite, but with the cold weather in Sequoia, we decide instead to head west toward the coast. Because we had such a late start we ended up driving into the evening and finally found an RV park close to Santa Cruz.

May 14th Leaving Las Vegas….Again

We decided to stop at a place just south-east of Las Vegas called Lake Mead Recreation Area where we were able to camp for $10/night. It’s strange to see this lake in the middle of the desert. It draws many boaters but it’s not our idea of paradise, however it is definitely hot and sunny, even at 6am!!! We made a stop at the Las Vegas Outlet Mall, (not too many bargains found here, although groceries at Walmart were the cheapest we’ve seen so far). Then we continued on westward, destination…. Sequoia National Park. Sorry, no pictures as Vegas is just not our type of town.

May 10th – May 13th: Zion National Park – Utah

We approached Zion from the East entrance and as such we had the pleasure of driving the Zion – Mount Carmel Highway. This is a gorgeous road from the top of Zion Canyon, through two long tunnels and down several switch backs to the canyon floor. Unfortunately, when we arrived, all the camp sites in the park were taken and it was only 2pm. We did find a spot at an RV park just outside the south entrance. The hefty price of $42/night made us get up early the following day to find a site for $16/night in the park, where we spent another 3 nights.

We loved Zion! We did a family bike ride along the river path and Trevor and I each had an opportunity to enjoy a hike with the kids. They joined me on a hike to Emerald Pools and with Trevor to The Watchman, two beautiful trails within the park. Kiah and Trae are really starting to become excellent hikers! They enjoyed Zion as much as we did. They were amazed by the wild turkey we had the pleasure to see wandering through the campground. Trae wondered if we could eat it. It was pretty fat!

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Trevor got in a few bike rides at places just outside the park on trails called Gooseberry Mesa and Guacamole. He managed to do one of the rides with a few Calgarians who were on a bike trip. I did some running on the Zion hiking trails, including an epic day when I ran two popular hiking trails: East Rim Trail to Observation Point and Angels Landing. I ran more than 22km, to the rim of the canyon and back twice, in about 3hours. Needless to say my quads were a sore for a couple of days. Trevor also had the joy of running the canyon trails. The running itself was so easy, because the scenery in Zion is so inspiring, you don’t notice time go by. It's a place where pine trees and cacti co-exist and geckos and squirrels live in harmony. It was so quiet on one of the trails that I could hear the flapping of a bird’s wings as it flew over my head. It was hard to leave this magical place but we must continue our journey north!!!

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April 27th – May 9th Red Rocks and Canyons

Trevor and the kids picked me up at the Phoenix airport, April 27th, and we headed toward Sedona that afternoon. We stayed at Dead Horse Ranch State Park near a town called Cottonwood. Don’t let the name fool you as it was a great RV site. As well, we met a family from Rhode Island doing the same thing we are (with nearly the same time line), and we had a great time hanging out, sharing meals and stories.

From Dead Horse we visited the charming artsy town of Jerome, where homes and stores are perched on the edge of a steep mountain. At night we could see the town’s lights from our campground. It was an unique town with quaint shops. However, many shops were closed when we were there (Wednesday) as they close for 2 days in the week and stay open on weekends.

Another unique and first time experience was the annual Cottonwood Rodeo, (never been to the Calgary Stamped but I guess that’s what happens when your a tourist). It was priceless to see the expression on Trae’s face when the first rider came out on the bucking horse. His eyes were popping out of his head and he had the biggest grin on his face. Good thing we don’t live near a ranch! From the grandstand, we witnessed a beautiful sunset.

We spent several days in Sedona as we were enjoying

the company of our new friends and Sedona. We visited a couple of native ruins, saw pictographs and petro glyphs and did some hiking, while trying to locate vortexes. Sedona is said to be the home of many spiritual vortexes. We hiked a trail to find one, and found was a dead bobcat on the trail!! Must have been a negative energy vortex. Trevor enjoyed Sedona as he was able to get a few bike rides in and thoroughly enjoyed the many trails. He found a trail that took him from Dead Horse Ranch to Sedona for a total of 32 miles. Trae even had the chance to explore the trails on his new bike. As expected, he loves mountain biking.

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We chose to drift north of Sedona for one night to Cave Springs Campground so that we could check out Slide Rock Park. It is a super awesome natural slide made by the slick creek rocks in the canyon creek. Unfortunately the water was ice cold and we all chickened out, but it was still cool to imagine what it would feel like to ride down the creek and it was a beautiful spot to have a picnic.

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Our next stop was Flagstaff, where we left our RV to get some maintenance. We thought we would save a few bucks and pitch our tent off a forestry road, just north of the city, for the night. But at 2:30am, after Trevor and I hadn’t slept a wink due to discomfort from the cold and the hard ground, we packed it up and headed back into town and got a hotel room. I guess we’ve gotten weak!!! Trae was the only one who was tough enough to not let the discomfort disturb his sleep as he slept right through the night!

The next morning we picked up our RV and made our way to the Grand Canyon. We stayed in Desert View Campground at the eastern entrance to the south rim for 2 nights. When Kiah got her first sight of the canyon from the village at the south rim she exclaimed “Is that real?”. It truly looked like a massive painting. Like most places of such extraordinary beauty, photos cannot capture what one sees with their own eyes, never the less, we took hundreds of pictures as per usual.

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We all went on a hike down the Bright Angel Trail into the canyon and had our lunch at the first rest station about 1.5miles down. We bribed the kids with the reward of a large ice cream cone if they hiked back up without complaint. Trevor hiked alongside Kiah and they even managed to run a portion while Trae and I followed close behind. Trae talked my ear off the entire time without a single complaint while we passed many “out of breath” hikers. Trevor and I were so happy because, although we’ve done many hikes with the kids, this hike was definitely one of the most enjoyable. It’s amazing what ice cream can do!

We managed to convince the kids to go back down the canyon the following day on a trail called South Kaibab. We went a similar distance and were rewarded with a spectacular viewpoint called “Ohh Awe Point”. It was incredibly stunning, however, nerve racking with the kids as we sat near the edge of a barrier-less cliff to take in the views.

We left the Grand Canyon and drove North toward Page, an area known for it’s slot canyons. On route we stopped at a couple of road side stands where Navajo people sold beautiful jewellery, blankets and pottery. We also stopped at a place called “Horseshoe Bend”. Here we took a short 1km hike to a cliff overlooking the beginning of the Colorado river where it flows from Glen Canyon into the Grand Canyon. Here the cliff makes a sheer drop off and there are no barriers. I allowed the kids to lie on their bellies on the rock while I held on tightly to their legs so they couldn’t get too close. It was another beautiful spot where you need to hold onto your adventurous children. A sense of wonder pulls you close to the edge to peer at the river running below, while there is a feeling that a strong wind or a miss step might send you plunging into it.

We stayed 3 nights in Page at Wahweap RV Park, where we met up again with our Rhode Island friends. We took a Navajo guided tour of Lower Antelope Canyon. It’s a slot canyon that we were able to climb down into and walk a portion of, for about an hour.

We watched the sunlight shine on the sandstone walls causing the red and orange coloured rock to glow. The wavy and twisting patterns in the rock seemed to create images of faces at every corner. We also took a cruise tour on Lake Powell into Antelope Canyon, where the rock walls shot up from the water into the sky in a narrow canal not much wider than the boat we were on. The day was very windy and the Captain of the boat later mentioned that it was difficult to avoid hitting the walls of the canyon!!