National-Park

The last 4 days of our trip were very different from the first 6 - we went mobile. The mobile camp felt much different from the lodges, although not due to lack of amenities - we were not roughing it. Our guide at this camp prided himself on being so far out there that we would not see another car - and he held to it. We were on our own when it came to what we wanted to do, where we wanted to go, and what we wanted to see. It also meant that we had to find our own wildlife, instead of relying on the radio network from the other trucks in the area.

We continued our African adventure at Camp Moremi. The camp is located within the Moremi game reserve - which is a separate reserve from Savute in the Chobe National park, but still within the larger Okavango Delta. We spent 3 days here, exploring a very different ecosystem which was much more wet and lush than Savute. 8/6/2024 Our drive from the airport to Camp Moremi was relatively uneventful, we got stopped twice by elephants in the road and then by Bush Buck - which is a new type of antelope that spends most of it’s time in the water. They are also very fluffy and cute…

Africa - here we come! After about a year of planning, Angela and I along with Derek and Diane are off to Africa for 2 weeks on an epic Safari. We will be traveling to 3 locations across Botswana - including Savute, Moreimi Game reserve, and a walking Safari and a float trip in the Okavango Delta. This post will include the trip to Africa and the first camp - Savute Safari Lodge. We are very excited for this adventure!

The second half of our Glacier Bay excursion was heading back south towards the entrance of the park - at a slower pace than our way up to allow for more time to explore. 8/10/2023 We woke on the morning of the 10th still not totally sure what our itinerary would be for the day. Johns Hopkins Inlet was on the consideration list but we were worried about adding 20 nm to our day (10 nm to get there and 10 to get back). We all awoke around 8a and hung out for a while - drinking coffee. At the last minute, Angela decided we should do it. I threw on my clothes immediately and headed up to get going…

It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. But every great journey needs a destination and Glacier Bay is our destination. Unfortunately for us, the forecast calls for rain during most of our stay at Glacier Bay. Fortunately, this place is beautiful even in the rain/fog and we are all in great spirits and ready to enjoy! 8/7/2023 While waiting for Dawn to arrive, we toured the longhouse - a traditionally constructed tribal house off the Hoonah Tlingit people. It was beautiful to see, but the best part was the artist that was showing the place off - Sara had so many questions for him about how to make drums, pendants, totem poles, etc. She asked so many good questions - many were things I didn’t think to ask but resulted in very interesting answers. For example, the green color in Tlingit artifacts is made from oxidized copper mixed with Salmon eggs…

Today was to be our most metropolitan day of the trip - spending the day in one of the few towns in the Galapagos - Puerto Ayora. We were to spend the day at the Charles Darwin research center learning how they are protecting/preserving the giant tortoises (primarily). Then we were to head to a coffee plantation and finally a protected tortoise feeding area to take pictures of tortoises. Lots of tortoises today!

We woke early this morning and headed out pre-breakfast for a photo expedition. It was a lovely morning except for the mosquitoes (which were an unfortunate trend all day). We saw lots of tracks from turtles coming ashore overnight to lay eggs. Amazingly, some of the tracks came ashore and did a loop without laying eggs, presumably to come back in later to find a better place. The tracks carpeted the beach, all from the night before - there must have been thousands of eggs under the sand…

This was our first full day on the boat. A couple of remarkable things about the Galapagos: 1. It’s hot. The heat dictated our schedule and we tended to have early morning excursions and late afternoon excursions to avoid the heat of the day. It also impacted the animals - each with their own different adaptation for how to keep cool - or keep their eggs cool in some cases. 2. The wildlife really doesn’t care that you are there. The Ecuadorian government has done an amazing job with the Galapagos - in dictating how people should interact with animals (6 foot rule for example) and in enforcing those rules with a naturalist required to accompany you any time you leave the beach/trailhead.

Our day started at the hotel ~6a with breakfast and packing. We were to meet up with Nat Geo for a bus ride to the airport, flight to Galapagos, bus ride to the docks, and Zodiac rides to our ship. This was my first real taste of the level of organization that this company has - it was truely impressive. The morning went off without a hitch and when we landed in Galapagos it was early afternoon. My first impression was how dry it really was - this place is truely a desert (complete with huge cactus) surrounded by water.

It’s been a while since my last post, but we haven’t been idle. Lost of skiing and boat work (in addition to real work) before our big trip to the Galapagos… Just scheduling the trip has been an adventure (credit to my mother), but 4 years later after countless reschedules, flight issues, and vaccine issues - we were on our way. Our trip began on Tuesday (4/4) with a 6a flight to Denver where we were to meet up with the grandparents for the continuation of the trip. We got to the airport extra early (which turned out to be unnecessary as the flight was delayed by over an hour), but we were all in good spirits - not realizing that the delay was an omen of things to come…

Bryce canyon was our second national park of the Utah national parks trip. The park was much smaller than I was used to, but there were still plenty of things to see/do. Bryce is a hikers national park (vs canyoneering at Zion) and most of the things you want to visit are day hikes (although some of them can be quite long for a day hike). There was only one trail that we didn’t do (or at least not all of it) out of the the list of the top hikes in the park. Next time we come, a multi-day backpacking trip on the Under the Rim trail will be on top of the list.

Welcome to Zion! When we had our Galapagos plans fall through, we decided to meet up with the family in Utah for a National park trip - starting with Zion National park. We only spent 3 days here, but we did get a good taste of the park through some canyoneering and biking. Zion is known for Canyoneering - which is where you climb up/down steep walled canyons often by walking through/in the water. We rented gear (big waders & felt soled boots) and took the bus up to the start of the narrows. There were a lot of people for the first 1-2 miles (note the first picture below) but it thinned out as we kept going.

Welcome to the second post in our yellowstone travels. This post covers all of the touring around we did during the trip - lots of wildlife, thermal features, and exploring. There were a couple of day hikes, but mostly we were just driving around… Our first stop was Mammoth Hot Springs - where we hiked around on the Travertine terrace and Sara got her first introduction to thermal features. I think it took a couple of days to sink in, so her reaction was a bit mutted.

Our latest trip was up to the North Cascades National Park - which was an amazing place, far more than I expected this time of year. It’s a national park, but they allow dogs to hike on trails and they don’t really have an entrance/exit. The place we went hiking was about 3 miles from the end of the road (where the close the north cascades highway for the winter) and right after the big dam/lakes in that area.

Back in 2016, we were invited up to a friend of a friend’s house on Lake Crescent. The house was technically inside the national park - one of those grandfathered in things before the Olympic National park included Crescent lake. 2016-08-07 We took the ferry over to Bainbridge island and the captain called out an unfortunate soul who grounded his sailboat on the wing point shoal. Id didn’t understand why or the implications of this at the time, but this is really bad - especially if he was going at speed. Hopefully he was going slow and didn’t damage his keel but either way he was going to be stuck there for the next at least 12 hours but probably 24. Bad day…

In 2015, I made my fifth climb on Mt Rainier but my first time going up the Emmons-Winthrop route - which is one the opposite side of the mountain from the more popular disappointment cleaver route. There were 6 of us in total on the climb, two groups of three. This was the 3rd trip I had taken with a few of them, but this was the first time climbing with the rest of them.

This one is taking us way back. In Aug 2014, Angela and I had only been dating for ~9 months and this was the second backpacking trip we had been on together. The plan was kinda simple - park at the drop Sol Duc hotsprings, pay a van to take us to the Hoh Rainforest trailhead, and then hike from Hoh to Sol Duc over the next 3 days. Our van driver mentioned something about why are you doing it this way, most people do it the other way - not sure what he meant.

This is my second trip down memory lane, and this one goes way back. In the summer of 2012, my brother and I attemped to climb Denali (formerly Mt Mckinnley) in Alaska. While we ultimately didn’t make it, it was an epic trip that changed the way I thought about the world. To be dwarfed by a mountain that big is truely awe inspiring. We started our trip in Talkeetna - a fun little mountain town where most of the climbing/hiking expeditions that go into Denali NP start from. We spent most of our time at the Alaska Mountaineering School (AMS) HQ (the mountain guide group we used for the trip) - but our climbing hotel/hostel was also worth note. It’s called the “House of Seven Trees Hostel” and it was run by this lady who lives on the premises. She had bunk room for probably 24 people - with a combination of bunks in a separate building out back and rooms in the building proper. There were communial breakfasts most mornings (cooked by whichever climber got up first) and lots of stories flying around about climbing challenges by this group or that. A few seemed like they were almost permenant residents - using it as their base for adventure for the summer. We met one guy who founded a “low pressure tent” that artificiality simulated high altitude while you slept. Kinda a weird guy and I don’t know how much of his story was true…

In 2011, I was given the opportunity to intern at Amazon - a opportunity that ended up shaping the next 12 years of my life. For now though, it was just a fun opporutnity to try something new and spend a summer in Seattle - a placed I have enjoyed since first visiting Derek back in undergrad. This story is about a slightly different topic though, my successful attempt to summit Mt Rainier for the first time - and experience that also shaped the next years of my life.