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!

The mother of all waterfalls

The previous post on this series is here..

The main highlight of the Argentina- Brazil year end trip was a visit to Iguazu falls. This was the bucket list long awaited visit.

After spending two days in Buenos Aires, we flew to Porto Iguazu airport (which is inside the national park) and had a taxi pick us up and drop us at an Airbnb. Porto Iguazu is a small place with a bunch of hotels, restaurants and shops mainly catering to the falls tourists. It was raining as expected and we were in the middle of the jungle in a small town. We had a good nights rest and were to be picked up at 7AM. 

Our plan was ambitious. See both the Brazilian side and Argentinian side of the falls in one day. Iguazu means "big water" in the local language. 

We waited to get a same day visa to Brazil at Faz Iguazu (Brazil means Portugese becomes the language!) at the gates and after a 30 minute wait we were waved through. We were dropped off at the ticket center for the falls with precise instructions from Martin (our driver for the day). He communicated with us using Google translate on his whatsapp the entire time while trying to improve his English. There were three stops. First stop was a jungle walk (optional) which I did with a sub group from the bus. Second stop was a boat ride to the falls and back which the entire family went on. Third stop was a vista point with a walkway to the edge of the falls (again I went alone). 

The boat ride took us to the Brazilian side of the falls. We were all completely wet anyways after that boat ride. The walkway to the edge of the falls was unbelievable. There is no way to describe this in words or capture my emotions as I wandered through this place. So here are the pictures in slideshows..

 

and some pictures with us ...

After the walk to the vista point we got back on the bus to the ticket center, waited for Martin to pick us up. This place reminds you of the Antarctic penguins documentary where everyone is trying to find their chosen one in a crowd.. unfortunately Martin and us did not have any specific Yaadon ki baaraat type songs to call each other.. in a mad crowd of drivers trying to find their respective tourists, we decided to wait as opposed to get lost. Finally our driver found us and off we went back to the border. 

It was interesting as the Brazilian side had no record of us entering that morning as their computers had an issue updating. So we waited as they made manual passport entries and finally let us go back into Argentina. That cost us another precious 30 mintues. Martin raced us to the Argentinian side of the falls where we were to take yet another bus ride, followed by open jeep looking vehicle ride, a walk down 500 steps, and a boat ride. Given the wet clothes, San and the little one decided to walk and see the falls. It was a 2 plus mile hike and they preferred that to getting wet again. 

Jr. felt bad for daddy and agreed to join me. She later told me it was a great decision as she thoroughly enjoyed the boat ride and falls. This trip to the falls was 10X better than the mornings trip. The highlight of the falls is a place called the "devils throat" where water just gushes out. The Argentina side of the falls is a must see just for this. It is risky as we don't get anything but a life vest and the waters are turbulent. However, all is well that ends well.. definitely recommend going on that boat.

we got gopro videos from both rides. I also took videos using my iPhone and the SLR and have combined them into multiple clips.. 

The videos ..

Bus ride and walk to boat ride on Brazil side

Brazil side boat ride

Vista point walk on Brazil side

Argentina side boat ride including a visit to "devil's throat"

Videos we paid for and got.. again the Brazilian side was a lot less exciting and a lot more expensive..

Was not even able to find the video from the Brazil side. One reason why I should try to blog as soon as trip is done!  

Jr. and me had to walk back a good mile and a half in rain to get back to the entrance and then we made it back to the Airbnb. We got some to go food at one of the local restaurants, rested for the night and were off the next morning. 

We said bye to Martin.. good people come in many shapes and forms.. Martin, is "good people"!

We got to see the falls from the plane and it was magnificent.  

also got to see some beautiful sights from the plane as we flew along the river..

There was still an evening to spend back in Buenos Aires near another airport and we were to fly to Rio from there the following morning..

More on that tomorrow.. 

Upper Yosemite falls- a tough hike

Last year saw us do both Clouds rest and Half dome hikes in Yosemite. This year we had no plans. Two of our yoga teacher friends wanted to hike with us and also test out the RV they are building. So we made a quick plan to go with them to Upper Yosemite falls. After seeing posts and reports on the hike, they decided to bail out and do a shorter hike instead. In retrospect, they made a wise decision!

We were this close to canceling the hike but decided to make a day trip, thanks to other friends who decided to join us. 

Woke up at 3:30 AM to make tea for the trip. There is no hiking without Chai! Started the drive before 5AM and we reached at 8:30 AM. After eating breakfast and drinking chai, we started hiking up at 9. The plan was to make it to the top by at least Noon or 12:30. It ended up being a hot day the sun was over us the entire time. We reached the top only at 1:15. 

Most of the folks had a face washing session while I decided to take a dip in the very cold water. It was really refreshing. Also the change of clothes was much needed!

We ate the food that was packed. It was windy and scary but we did go down to the falls head view point using the railing.. (you can see it in the video). 

Tried my hand at doing yoga poses before and after lunch. As usual San and friends were scared of me trying to balance on one leg on top of rocks. 

San was so happy when we made it to the top. Even she found it hard. 

Then we made our way back. Our downhill speeds were different. It is hard to pause on the return. The entire thing is rocky and you have to watch every step. The rocks are all slippery and dangerous. The good thing was it was windy and shaded on the way down. Given we all split up, some guy helped take this photo. Folks came down anywhere from 4:35 to 5:45 depending on their ability to go downhill or take breaks on the way.

There was a beautiful rainbow in the middle of the falls.

After practically hopping and running down without much of a break, all our legs were shaking uncontrollably for a good two hours!

Some more photos..

It was a very challenging hike even compared to Half dome because of the sun! The park service does classify this as a hard hike. 

A mile into the hike we get to Columbia rock, a view point where we get to see half dome. it is a great spot to take a break and get some photos of the valley! 

We started driving back at 6:30 PM after eating food we had packed and came home at 10:30 PM. 

A short video of the hike..

Definitely recommend this as a day hike, ONLY if you have been hiking regularly and can handle a steady climb that keeps going for 3 hours straight. Not recommened for beginners or people who have difficulty coming down rocky terrain. 

While we struggled through the hike, we enjoyed the company and had a sense of accomplishment after coming back to the parking lot. The hike is 7 miles from trailhead to top and back , but we walked 10+ miles in total. The elevation gain on this one is 3200 feet in 3 miles. So a steep challenging hike.

One more hike in the Yosemite National park checked out. Next year, we will find another interesting hike to do in YNP!