Stick Huts & Sea Lions

Finishing up in California, we were on the beaches near Hearst Castle and Big Sur. The campsites at Big Sur were beautiful. It was extremely fun. After these few days, my mom caught her flight home in San Jose, but not before the clutch in the car completely failed on us! Awesome. 

Who would have thought this well-maintained vehicle (which had been tuned up prior to the trip) would be a failboat? Ah well. It was fixed within 24 hours, so nbd.

a thing

more things

fuzzier things

stick huts!

Lizard of the dayyyyy!

YEY

Mom flew into LA to meet us as planned, which was really great. We are both really glad she came to join us for a few days. Together we made our way up to Sequoia National Park. We walked part of The Trail Of 100 Giants, which was named accurately. These trees were enormous. Our plan was to camp in the park, but the road was full of hairpin switchbacks that would have taken three hours to drive, so we opted for a campground out of the mountains by Success Lake.

Roots of an overturned tree

mossss

City of Angels and 9 Million People

We just came from Los Angeles, California. There are a ton of people there. Traffic is so bad that it's not uncommon for a drive to take three times as long as expected. However, LA is overpopulated for a reason. The beaches were beautiful, and the weather was lovely. We went to Venice Beach and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Skateboarders at Venice Beach

Richard Serra sculpture- made of two inch thick steel

Miniature elevators

forever a painting

Oh My Beach Cats

So I've been sitting in a hotel room with wifi for a good part of the last 3 days and have yet to update le blog. Shame on me. But in that time I have compiled a list of my favorite things about California:

1. Whole Foods.

2. The ocean.

3. EVERYTHING grows here. 

Hope that was enlightening. 

Anyway, two days ago we made it down to the tide pools at White Point in Palos Verde, California. It was really neat. The ocean truly is teeming with life; everywhere you looked there were all kinds of critters. 

Beach Cats 

Speaking of critters, there were also scads of beach cats everywhere. It was kind of creepy. They were mangy and likely full of rabies. And there were a bunch of cat ladies feeding these feral cats. Which is literally feeding a  problem. Oh well.

Quab!

Just for you, Kayleigh Cox. (The post, not the starfish.)

Caaaaaaalifornia

Yesterday we were at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, and today we're in California. Again, the landscape has changed drastically. We stayed at Malibu Creek State Park, which is not far from Los Angeles. It was gorgeous. As a result, the area has been used for many movies and TV shows, including M*A*S*H, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Mr. Blandings Builds his Dreamhouse. It is also about two miles from the Reagan Ranch. 

Deers. They were all over the place. 

There were also really fat ground squirrels.

And rabbits with long ears. 

A helpful graph.

A silent sentinel over the land. 

Unfortunately, this specific resource was not utilized as often as it should have been.

While the park was beautiful, it was not litter-free.

Rock Pool. In the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, this was the location of the scene where Paul Newman and Robert Redford jump into the gorge.

Sorry kids, no LOTD. 

Utahll Cliff

Zion: Chapter II. Today we hiked to Observation Point. It was a strenuous four mile ascent; eight miles round trip. It was well worth it. Today's goal: Don't died.

Wee!

  

If you look very closely, you'll see a tiny white speck on the road near the river. That's a two cab shuttle bus that brought us to the trailhead where we began our hike. (Click to enlarge).

We think there should be a slide back down from this point.

A lizard a day keeps the doctor away.

Zionward and Upward

Our first trek into Zion National Park was to Emerald Pools. What's cool about Zion is that it allows you to venture all throughout the heart of the park. The sheer size of the cliffs was intimidating, to say the least. Talk about existential angst, this park does an incredible job of making you feel small. Emerald Pools was very nice, although 'Emerald Pools' is a bit of a misnomer. It would be more accurate to call it 'Coffee Ground Pond.' We had a great time anyways. 

Lizard of the Day. 

Too Good to be True: Literally.

We're currently in Utah, the landscape is very different here. We've been camping a lot in different national parks and such. Our Kelty tent is awesome. Something that has been really intriguing about the places we've been are the foreign tourists we have met. People from places like the Netherlands, Germany, France, and China, to name a few. I talked to a girl from Slovania yesterday. Her luggage had been lost in transit, and she will have to go three weeks in the United States without it. 

Yesterday we visited another canyon, this time in Utah. 

I wouldn't really call this one 'grand', it's more... 'bryce'. 

We were really impressed with Bryce Canyon.

That is, until we found out it was manmade.

EXHIBIT A:   

 EXHIBIT B:

Apparently it's mostly styrofoam. They tried to mask it, but we were too cunning. 

It was still fun, but not quite as amazing once you know the dirty truth.

Today's lizard.