Nature trip in Arizona Part 2 : Upper Antelope Canyon

The previous post on this series is here..

After reaching Page, Arizona and having a good nights rest, we were ready to see the main attraction.

We reached the tour company office and checked in. There were going to be half a dozen full open vehicles that were going to leave at the same time. 

They started promptly. My promise to make this trip a safe one for San's already bad back was broken within the first 10 minutes of this open vehicle ride to the canyon entrance. It was so bumpy that folks with normal backs would get back problems! She just tightened her belt. There wasn't much we could do.

We see a small crack in the mountain side and it is hard to believe that this crack winds around for a good 1/2 a mile through some breathtaking formations! 

The tour guide was wonderful. We told her that we were to be on time finishing as there was another tour we had to be on and she understood. She told us it would be touch and go. Usually people book the Lower and upper canyon tours on two separate days as there is no chance for. a lunch break between.

Given this post is going up after 4th of July when it happened during Memorial day, a lot of things slip my mind. A few things I remember are that the rocks looked orange to yellow to red depending on the reflecting sun from the top. I didn't want to adjust the white balance. So what you see is mostly what it looked like.. including the red glow on our faces inside the canyon!

The walk is leisurely but watch for your head. All of us bumped our head in some point or another during the walk and it was painful. 

First the video highlights..

Here are some people pictures.. 

The entrance to the canyon..

As soon as we entered.. 

The rest of the canyon photos need a large gallery.. there were 2000 photos from the iPhone and SLR that needed some curating..

The photos below were courtesy of our tourguide... 

 

Saw a little cave and thought it would be a good idea to take a photo in a meditative pose.. bad idea. those things next to me .. tumbleweed full of thorns.. sat on some that were burried in the sand and got my fingers bloodied trying to move them away. End up being a real meditative photo where I tried to forget the sharp pain for the photo! Shit we do for a good picture.. sometimes these moments teach us great lessons!

another gallery with pictures in portrait format..

There may be a few photos from lower antelope that are mixed in (very few).. My sincere apologies.. if you go visit Antelope canyon, you should visit both the upper and lower antelope canyonsa and budget enough time.

You can skip the lunch, start with upper canyon, rush to tour company place and drive immediately to the lower canyon tour starting point. Give yourself 20 minutes. You can also call the lower canyon tour folks while driving to just wait a minute or two.. That helps! Then you can do the two tours back to back and have a late lunch at 2 PM or later!

Please note that the two tours are operated by two different companies and they don't care about the other schedule. If you want to do this peacefully, budget two different days for these two tours!

Will write a separate post for the lower canyon.. 

3 Shoes 1 Chappal - A happy ordeal

A month ago, there was a planned hike in Yosemite. Three days before the hike, San tore a back muscle and was in ER. So there was a "veri" to get back and do that hike. The replacement day was yesterday (without knowing there was a Cricket world cup final that India would play in!). Then again, permits are permits and plans are plans.

 So four of us started at 4:45AM and made it to Yosemite non stop. Given I was driving this time, wanted to be "comfy" and went in my chappals. Once we parked at the trailhead and everyone went to change to their hiking shoes, there was a horrible realization. My shoes were left at home! They did not make it to the car. 

There was a palpable disappointment on the faces of my fellow hikers and San turned into a navarasa nayagi that would have made Padmini give her a pat on the back. Me... I was just sad to let them down like this.

A decision was made that I would hike to all the waterfalls as planned in my chappal and if at any point it gave way or my feet became a problem, I would make it back to the van and sit out the rest of the hikes.

The first hike was to Wapoma falls on the side of the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. It was a six mile round trip. The Bata chappals made it. Even led the way on the return without stopping so as to not let the group down. 

When Chappals become shoes, rocks can become benches!

 

Started this hike at 8:45 and came back at Noon. Then we drove towards Vernal falls. Took us an hour to get there and another 20 minutes to find parking. Started hiking at 1:30 PM and the plan was to see how Mr. Bata does at the top of Vernal and make a call to go to Nevada or turn back and go to Bridalveil on the way out. 

Some pictures from this hike..

Nature picture galleries..

portrait format photos.. 

THis was the first photo from the reservoir.. the still water and the reflections were motivation enough for me to keep walking!

San's smiling face was added motivation. She had calmed down and decided to temporarily forgive me till the return journey. . . it was like being granted bail. Gladly accepted that.

No shoes does have its advantages when trying Yoga poses on rocks, but that is about it for advantages

Wapoma falls is awesome! Glad we made it this time..

It was not easy to hike up Vernal as it was wet and slippery with the mist. At one point just went barefoot which was better! We got treated to amazing views and thoroughly enjoyed the waterfalls.

We had seen a dead snake on the Wapoma trail which started a discussion about my open feet. It was decided that hiking shoes might not make a difference and I could always use the slippers in my hand as a defense mehchanism.. 

we saw a live snake on the Vernal trail and there were no jokes this time. Just glad to have not stepped on this one! Bata might protect your feet from the ground, but not this. 

this would be a good place for a bench.. that was my thought.. might be iced out most of the year.. still..

The rainbows created by the mist were just amazing!

The next picture is nothing special.. but has an inside joke for our family.. it is left in this post as a memory jogger..

Saw a group of desi kids from Mountain View posing with an Indian flag. They told us India had won the game. Thanked them for that update as we had no cell signal since 9AM! The flag was borrowed and a photo was taken! 

By the time we made it back down it was already close to 5PM. So we decided to drive and do the very short walk to Bridalveil falls and then drive out. Bridalveil did not disappoint. Just enough water to be amazing and not get us drenched. 

Folks came up to me and said "that was cool what you did on that rock".. for once San didn't scream when I tried balancing on one leg on a rock.. 

The BYSJ 60 day challenge got a lot of talk time on trails is my guess.. which reminds me that it starts again tomorrow!!! 

Had some well deserved tea and started driving back. Managed to drive the last 2 hours of the return once the feet calmed down. 

Here is a video highlights reel..

Friends make everything special!!!

The feet are pretty roughed up from the walking in sandals and being barefoot but did not let the group down!

Call me waterfall crazy all you want. Happy to be just that!

Channel Islands National Park

It has been only 22 years since we started planning a trip to Channel Islands National park. San and me made a trip to Catalina island (before kids) and wanted to visit this national park and see the foxes. 

Finally we made it over the weekend. It also served another purpose.. to get some stuff from the little one's dorm room so we can vacate her a little easier in two weeks from her dorm.

We started driving at 4:40 on Friday evening and were stuck in horrible non moving traffic for almost an hour. Made it to our hotel at 11:15! This is a ride that is supposed to take under 5 hours. Woke up and pretty much made it to the Ferry. 

The Ferry ride was smooth, there was no sun to be seen, which turned out to be a blessing once we were on the island.

We saw a lot of dophins swim along the ferry on the way. We also saw a lot of Pelicans and sea lions. 

We walked close to a mile with all the camping gear to the campsite on Santa Cruz island. Then started a hike to Smugglers cove. It was 8 miles round trip and reasonable elevation.

The kids in the group decided to go Kayaking for 3 hours and did not join us on the hike! Apparently a must do activity, especially if you are camping overnight. 

The island is full of dandelions and what looks like a large dandelion (we have that here also on the hikes near Santa Cruz.. the purple flower that bursts out into this).. it was a nightmare for me given recent allergies. Handkerchiefs were not enough. Walked with a small towel around my neck to breathe through.

one softball sized weed thingy.. okay.. if you see the photo below you will get the idea.. the entire island is full of what we call weeds. That is about it. It is a weedscape.. and it is not great for folks with allergies. Claritin was being laughed at by these plants.. you could tell ! You can see regular dandelion in the foreground for a size comparison.

The views though are spectacular!

Given San's condition, was not sure how she will fare, but she walked slowly and steadily and made it all the way. Having driven the entire trip with only a 10 minute break the previous night and doing the carrying business, I was equally tired. So we crashed at 7:30PM. The rest of the group went on to chat, play cards etc. It was lights out for me. Woke up at 6 AM thanks to the birds and the water dripping on me from the inside of the tent (this tent did not have a lot of ventilation.. so while it kept us super warm, our own breath condensed on the inside of the tent walls!). 

the animals are tagged on the island ! Every raven had a number on it. #11 and 13 visited our camp!

Two galleries of photos from the trip..

 

Packed up everything after breakfast and we took the stuff to the loading dock. They have lock boxes where we can leave stuff and hike near the dock. So off we went on another 5 mile hike to the top of the bluff to see more views. San and some friends decided to skip this one and stayed on the beach instead. This was a steep climb at the onset of the hike.

Apparently the previous weeks folks spotted whales from the top. We were not that lucky. Had a great time with the group, doing yoga poses and walked back down to a cave. Sat there for a few minutes listening to the waves and it was time to say bye to the place and get back on the ferry. 

Did try to do a toe stand on that small piece.. given there is no room to put my fingers on the ground to bend down, it was a risky proposition. Removed my shoes and used all the balancing skills to get this there.. given recent family experiences, San would have left me on the island if I had done anything stupider (that a word?)

lifted off but only slightly, given the winds and the rough floor.. my photographer was really patient and waited for what was an eternity clicking away to get this one pic!

surprisingly the rocks inside the cave were not wet! Not easy to sit on, but dry!

With a stop at UCSB to grab stuff, we drove back again with a 10 minute break. We had lunch plans with the kid but she was too busy studying and we wanted to get back in time to celebrate a friends 50th and we made it in time. Thankfully no major traffic jams on the return!

It was a memorable trip. We had a lot planned for this summer but San's muscle tear put a ? on everything. Glad that we made it. 

and yes, the foxes in Channel islands are so cute! 

A video highlight of the entire trip.. (we celebrated two brithdays during this trip as well!). 

If you don't want to spend the night camping here, you can still hike to Smugglers cove and back if you get the first ferry in the morning and take the last ferry out!

A different hike to Mission peak

Last week's hiking did not go well.. 

My back is still recovering. That does not stop my wife from committing me to another hike this weekend. 

Our planning relies more on weather.com app than looking outside our window. 

When I woke up at 5AM to get ready for the hike, I nudged her and said "it is pouring outside! are we still going?" and she says "yes we are" and goes back to doze off.

Comes out after 30 minutes and says "it is not supposed to rain today. so we should go".. I have never seen anyone who thinks the sky should obey the weather app. That kind of faith in anything is hard to see these days.

So off we went. The trail was not hikeable for the first mile. It was pure slush.. and a few people who tried to go ahead of us just came back as they were not in right shoes and were skidding down. We being us... just went ahead and crossed this area. Even though it was still drizzling, foggy and windy, we made it to the top and back. On the way back we probably saw 10 people total making their way up, when we were almost back down. By then the sun also came out, but the trail was still very slippery and muddy.

The "lone cow"

a hilarious video snippet of our morning..

Chai never tasted this good...

Just happy to have made it back without any accident like last week. Usually we do this in 2 1/2 hours. Took us close to 4 1/2 hours today because of the weather and the muddy and slippery path!

Now for some much needed rest!

A fall at a waterfall : Mt. Diablo

Last weekend saw us resume hiking on a serious note.. not the jujube local hikes but a solid long hike in Mt. Diablo to see the waterfalls.  We had already hiked to the top as part of covering the bay area hiking grandslam three years ago and this time we wanted to cover the waterfalls. 

It was all great till I decided to go to the center of the creek to get pictures of the falls.. and fell into the creek. My head missed hitting the rocks, thanks to the backpack. I am very lucky to be writing this post now. Did bruise my elbows and palms badly and there were a few blood clots that showed up within a few minutes. 

San and my friends cheered me up, told me all is well and thanks to adrenalin and waterproof shoes, made it through the rest of the hike. We did slow down a lot because of my fall but made it back in one piece.

Always, always go easy when trying to go over slippery rocks!  There was a discussion on how I am not the same young guy anymore who can deftly go over rocks like a mountain goat, and how I should be more careful etc.. Will be more careful, but hopefully will stay carefree. 

We did get great pictures.. and as San says, even some cheesy ones. 

There is a visitor center where the trail head starts. There is a 6$ parking fee. If you have the app, you can pay from your phone.

We started on the Mitchell canyon road trail head and decided to go counter clockwise to do the hard part of the hike first. 

This was the place where I fell into the creek.. 

After recovering, had to take a picture on the creek side.. 

There are a lot of small and large waterfalls on this trail. They were all beautiful

we covereted Bruce Lee road, Back creek Trail, Meridian point, Donner Trail and Muricho Road as part of the hike.

The sun made the falls light up!

We got to sit and have tea on a rock with a view of the falls.. 

The ladies did some dancing here (which I thought was as risky as me clambering on top of rocks to get a photo).. sadly there is no permission for that masterpiece to be shared in this blog!

the long expsoure mode in iPhone comes in handy, given I did not take the SLR with me on this trip. Usually I do when waterfalls are involved.. given I was taking 2 1/2 liters of water and change of clothes, decided to keep SLR at home. The change of clothes was there in case I sweat too much.. luckily it helped after falling into the creek! In case you are wondering "I don't see different clothes?"... I switched one Bikram Yoga shirt for another.. when your wardrobe is full of the same T-shirt.. changes will not be obvious!

we were talking about seeing god in nature and we saw this "black dog" on the mountain side

Zooming in, saw it was a shadow of a rock outcrop that looks just like a god.. sorry.. dog!

Guess it takes ~ 25 years of marriage before the wife decides some PDA is okay. This seems to be a trend among desi women I see in bay area.. either they turn 50 or have a 25th anniversary party and suddenly they decide enough is enough and start wearing tank tops for their jogs and bikinis to the beach and even start holding hands with their husbands in public! If the stats are any indication of what is to come.. I need to mentally prepare myself. You cannot suddenly ask a domesticated dog to go run wild in the forest.. 

This photo was Photoshopped with two versions of the same photo.. one with Long exposure for the falls and one regular to capture us..

all said and done I am a happy camper..

talking of seeing god everywhere.. there was a "govindaa goooovindaa" moment..

Pay before you start hiking.. or you get a ticket!

A video of all of us crossing the creek 20 times over the hike..

It would have been even better if I had not fallen... but it is what it is. Next time we will go when there is more water and I will be safer walking on rocks!