Month: October 2012

“To be our not to be”. After our six months of travel we have never been shutout of a campground, but we never faced a more formidable foe than the campgrounds of Yosemite Valley. “Full” “Full” “Full” “Full”. – on a Thursday night in October after a thunderstorm. Oh well, better than being stuck in traffic. We drove on down the road after briefly seeing this great majestic valley.

King’s canyon is aptly named. Big rock faces on either side with a river running between and a road leading to nowhere … nowhere but our campground. We spent to nights here in King’s Canyon, because the nights were so royal. We laid out a tarp in a clearing and just stared out into space discovering spaceships and shooting stars, and imagining whatever else the heavens might hold. Then we would wake up and go on a bike ride or a walk to ground our feet and spokes. We must have seen a dozen shooting stars and a dozen spaceships, one even had blinking green lights.

What a day! We started the morning early waking up on Texas Time a

We had plenty of campgrounds to choose from here at lodgepole campground in Sequoia National Park. The weather was a little colder here than in Zion. We slept well in our tent.

We biked the Parus Trail in the afternoon and found this little guy waiting for us at the end near the river. We all dunked into the nearby swimming hole before biking back to the Visitor Center.

What can I say? Go here now! Go here while you still can!
Walk the narrows before the clock turns twelve. We awoke in the darkness so as to stay on step ahead of the throng of people that visit this site daily. We walked the paved shadowy trail along a river enclosed by massive rock walls. We walked until the paved trail ended in a gaggle of seemingly discarded tennis shoes and a storage of walking sticks. Then we kept on walking with our footprint erased in the sandy ground of the canyon under cold flowing river water. We walked until Dwana “I’m done!” And so then I took Viena and Ezra on individual adventures to see what was around the next bend and the next. My feet became numb, but the addictive scenes upriver were worth the pain. We thawed out on the return when sunshine was finally found. Our adventure complete as others were just beginning theirs.

Congratulations Brother Logan and Sister Su on bringing a new Weems into the world on this day. My advice – find as many rope swings as possible, except that rope swing in Cousin Richard’s back yard. We found this rope swing just down from our campsite along the river in Zion National Park. I do not know the name of the river. No one really talked too much about the river, because the size is more like a creek right now. The water is clear and cold and shallow and slow moving and just perfect for Erza and Viena to jump into. I love finding little jewels like this for the children in our travels. Actually, Ezra found this one. He has a “Good/bad” habit of wandering off down coastlines. This time I followed him and we ended up here. When Viena spotted us having such a good time she bouldered on down the rocky sandy riverbank. Today, was our rest day since a new cousin and an older and younger brother celebrated birth.

We had to wake up early, but again the reward was worth the early morning shakeup. The sunrise was beautiful during the Rim Trail walk at Bryce Canyon National Park. We thought we would be alone, but just as we were beginning our hike a big bus of tourists stopped and about 50 or so well dressed – warmly dressed Asian tourist with Nikons and Canons tumbled out of the bus and headed down the trail. And shortly after that bus unloaded, another bus showed up. The good news is that they only walked 200 meters down the trail to a lookout – Bryce Lookout, whereas, we continued the 3 miles down the Rim trail to Sunrise Point.

Our best visit to the Grand Canyon so far. I kept asking Ezra and Viena, “Do you think you will remember the Grand Canyon THIS time?”. Viena said “yes!”, Ezra said, “I don’t know!”. We had a great sunrise walk along the Watch Tower of the Grand Canyon.

We tried to stop many places on the way to the Grand Canyon. A couple of the stops had Navajo Native American markets set up. Dwana and Viena enjoyed looking at all the jewelry and handmaid crafts. Ezra enjoyed playing with his new toy truck transfer big rig.

Ezra has been on a Texas time-schedule ever since we left Texas, which means he is waking up at 5:00AM Phoenix time. Luckily we had to help out at the Scottsdale Airport that morning. Ezra loved watching the planes and Jets take off from an up close perspective. “I want to ride on one of those.” is a typical Ezra comment. Soon, young Jedi-Ezra Knight, soon – once you master time zone changes.