Wednesday March 11^th

It started off as a slight pitter patter on the tent.  Babe, is that rain???  I think so. Well should we do something yeah? What time is it? It’s still pretty dark…645. Let’s get packed up!!!

 We scurried out of bed pitch dark and the rain started harder.   Phew, everything’s packed up we take cover in the truck.   We decided to wait a little bit, take a nap and wait for the sun to rise.  Looking at my watch the whole time, it is now like almost 8 am according to my watch and still pitch black.  We start up the truck and decide to head down the mountain road.  Holly shit the truck clock says 5:45! Looks like an early start to our Wednesday.   With Yosemite being our planned next stop looks like plans have to change.  We drive into town and stop at a local diner to reassess the plans.  After checking the weather on our phones looks like rain everywhere and snow in the mountains.  Called Yosemite and the roads are on chain restrictions so that decided it for us.  Hotel here we come and looks like Paso Robles is not that far and Natalie wanted to go anyways, so let’s hit the road.  Motel 6 it is, check in, nice and early and spend the morning drying our tarps and tent in the hotel parking.  Finally a shower and shave, then a few errands to take care of; laundry, washing the truck and lunch.  Since it was a rainy night it seemed appropriate that we go see a movie.   We have both read the Hunger Games and decided it was time to go see the movie.  We were the only ones in the theater on a Wednesday.  A perfect day off:) 

Our rainy good bye

drive by on our way down the mountain

We didn't get many pictures this rainy day so I have included some fun Salton Sea ones that I was unable to post before.

A patch of ground without fish bones

It was amazing how many birds there where, all of those mounds you see and the part that look like sand is really fish bones. 

Its the little things in life

fish bone castle

Yummy ;-)

amazing light a

what a crazy, weird place

Dinner?

I have never seen anything like this!

Stay tuned for our rainy fun day in Paso Robles!! :):)  

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Tuesday March 10^th

Today we woke up with two things we knew we must to today, the closest thing we have had to a to- do list so far.  We must hike and somehow get clean! During our morning cup of Joe that we had while walking along the river we decided that our hike would be on a forest fire road just up from our camp site.  It was pretty straight up; we had intentions of taking pictures on this hike but in all the excitement of the move Mike forgot to charge his battery on his camera.  So that hike we only have mental pictures.  But I can tell you it was full of manzanita trees, babbling brooks and forest filled with sequoias.  We stopped at 2 miles up, Tink was slowing down and we knew we still needed her to make it to the bottom.  With our first to do checked off we knew we still had to figure out how to get clean, when there are no showers around, our only option was the river!  We grabbed out bars of soap and headed down.  Thinking we were the only ones left in the campground we thought we could maybe really get clean, so down to the birthday suit it was.  Not a minute after, I looked up to see two kids and their dad up a head of us.  I have never seen Mike move that fast;-)  We found a nice warm rock to spend the rest of the afternoon sunning ourselves on.  We collected some more fire wood for our regular fire and did our normal routine of dinner and putting the bins away in the bear proof storage.  We thought we had settled in for another comfortable night of sleep.  Stay tuned for what we were woken up to!!.......................

Who does he look like here?  Think wolf pack;-)

This is serious camping

planning our next stops 

Our river hike in the evening, I love the light of the evening.

strike a pose

loving mountain life

so fun to figure out how to get from one side to the next and not get wet 

a swimming pool

Love my mountain man!

Chief of the campfire

What a perfect place for a tent

We camp old school style:)

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Monday March 9^th

Leaving Death Valley on our way to the mountains, Sequoia National Monument forest, the drive took us most of the day.  All of our drives we have set our navigation system Naggie (we had to name her) to avoid Highways, it makes for some amazing scenery.  This drive was not a disappointment, the landscape changes little by little.  From desert sand dunes to hills filled with Joshua Trees, then you get rolling green hills with sheep and cows scattered, after our last decent off the mountain we were greeted with the delicious smell of all the citrus trees.  The back road was great we didn’t see another car for miles and saw all the things we would have missed on the highway.  Our drive back into the forest did not dis appoint either, the windy road followed the Kern river up and up, we took our turn off for the campground, the only one open,  and half way up began to question if it was the right turn, the road got smaller and higher.  Lucky we stayed for just a bit more because behind the next turn there was the sign for Wishon campground.  There was only two other camp sites being used so we really had the place to ourselves.  We were chasing the dark and had to hurry un-pack the truck with what little light we had left.  Having been away from the woods for so long I will admit the first night in the woods with no one around was a bit eerie.  But after we gathered some fire wood and had the fire going it was a perfect night.  We were just above the river and had a clearing the in trees above our camp fire, so you could look back to see the stars peeking through all the while listening to the snapping of the fire and the roaring of the river it was a perfect way to end a long day of driving. 

loved this campground it was the furthest one in.

The sand dunes on our way out.

Finally we get to see our desert sand

So low!

The mountains where we are headed in the distance. 

Salt flats on our way out. 

My driver would not stop so this a drive by of the hill side full of Joshua Trees.

What a difference in country side.  

Rolling hillsides of green and trees. 

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Sunday March 8^th Easter

We started our Easter morning enjoying the early spring desert weather; it was perfect out, the warm sun waking you up in the tent with a little breeze.  Just the way I like to wake up.  It is such a great feeling to open up the tent to see how the colors change; every time of the day has its own set of colors in the desert.  The morning brings in red and oranges from the surrounding mountains.

 You will never guess who I saw on my morning walk…… Mr. Easter Bunny!!  He was a cute little guy with really big ears!!

 We spent the early part of the day chasing the shade, reading and planning our next stop.  Mid-day we had decided it had cooled enough to check out a few things up the road.  We drove to see the Ubehebee crater and Scotty’s castle.  The crater was a lot bigger than we had expected, we hiked down into it, and it is 500 ft deep and1/2 mile wide.  Walking down in was a little like skiing down, the rocks were so thick and loose, what fun!  Our next stop was Scotty’s castle; we had just missed the last tour so we had made our own.  It was a pretty cool castle in the middle of the desert.  We ended our last evening in the desert with our Easter dinner of ham, mashed potatoes, and yummy green beans.  Death Valley gave us a wonderful evening with just the right amount of heat and in true desert fashion an amazing star show!  It is like the shows in the IMAX but a 100 times better because you are really there!!  We would just lean back in our chairs and look up to a never ending amount of starts that show so bright because they don’t have to share their air time with the moon till hours later.  Then there is the moon!!  I know I said before that it was amazing but really!!!  I have never seen anything like it, just peaking up over the mountain and layer by layer watching the sky change.  If you have a chance I say Death Valley is worth checking out!  The spring temperatures are perfect and you can start to see the wild flowers peeking out.  From Death Valley we are headed up to Sequoia National Forest.  Follow us on your mapJ

My desert mountain man ready for his day off

Who knew

skiing down

It makes you feel so little. 

The way up was not as fun;)

It was crazy that something this large was built in the middle of the desert!

clock tower

I wish I had a pool like that!

We also found a friend at Scotty's castle

Checking us out

desert hiking

Cheers 

Happy Easter

a little preview of our evening sky

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Saturday March 7^th

We woke up nice and early so we could hit the road by 9:30, we were on our way to Death Valley.  We took mainly back roads and enjoyed the two lane dessert drive.  We were expecting to arrive to flat open land covered with sand but were shocked when we drove through never-ending mountain ranges on each side of us.  We choose the farthest campground not knowing if we would have a spot.  They do not take reservation, it is the Misquite Campground.  Luckily there were a few spots left!! 

After dinner we started out campfire and looked up and were amazed by the amount of starts there were.  A 360 degree view of clear star gazing, one thing that struck both of us was there was NO moon!  The sun had set and the sky was full of stars but no moon?  It wasn’t until 9:17 that Mike noticed something peeking over the mountain top, it was the MOON!!  It was amazing watching it rise and light up the whole sky.  We just sat there is awww.  It was truly breath taking!  We both commented that it was only our second night and already we have seen some pretty amazing things!!  This truly will be the trip of a life time!

Our camping spot in the Salton Sea, we had a great view and close to the lovely smell;-)

Our morning view of the sea.

A perfect morning.

On our drive through Palm Springs, on the way to Death Valley.

We are getting closer:)

We made it, its such a crazy place!

Zabriskie Point, I have seen nothing like this,so cool!!

Mike enjoying the view while I......

work on my yoga.

Our camp all set up, Tinka enjoying the desert heat. 

just us and the wide open desert!

I can not even do justice as to how amazing the moon rising actually was!  You will have to go to see for your self!

My mountain man enjoying the fire. 

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