Tag: landscape

Travel through MT & ND, including “Pompey’s Pillar”

MONTANA/IDAHO. AUGUST.

Our travels continued through Montana and then I decided to head to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.

Along I-94, I made another spontaneous stop – this time at the Bureau of Land Management’s “Pompeys Pillar National Monument”. Pompeys Pillar, a large sandstone outcrop, boasts an engraved signature by William Clark* of the famous Lewis & Clark explorer duo. His signature is said to be the only visible physical evidence of the expedition on their trail. Also online: “The area has been a landmark for Native American tribes for thousands of years, and the pillar is covered in numerous petroglyphs, carvings, and inscriptions from many peoples. ” The visitor’s center and grounds are very well done.

I then went on to camp 16 miles from the south unit of the Theodore Roosevelt Park at a place called “Camels Hump Lake”. No amenities but a nice quiet place to stay. Also great for night sky viewing.

(See photo captions for more info).

* On July 25, 1806, while descending the Yellowstone River, Clark “arived at a remarkable rock Situated in an extensive bottom on the Stard. Side of the river & 250 paces from it.” He wrote that, “this rock I ascended and from it’s top had a most extensive view in every direction. This rock which I shall Call Pompy’s Tower [named for Jean Baptiste ‘Pomp’ Charbonneau] is 200 feet high and 400 paces in secumphrance and only axcessable on one Side which is from the N. E the other parts of it being a perpendicular Clift of lightish Co­loured gritty rock on the top there is a tolerable Soil of about 5 or 6 feet thick Covered with Short grass. The Indians have made 2 piles of Stone on the top of this Tower. The nativs have ingraved on the face of this rock the figures of animals &c. near which I marked my name and the day of the month & year.”

Although Clark named the feature “Pompys Tower” in his original journal entry, Nicholas Biddle altered the name to “Pompey’s Pillar” for the 1814 published history of the expedition. Clark’s inscription is the only known visible evidence of the entire journey that remains intact. Pompeys Pillar was established as a national monument in 2001. An on-site visitor center interprets the expedition’s travels through the Yellowstone River valley.

North Cascades National Park

After Olympic, we headed up to North Cascades National Park on the Canadian border. The most striking part about this park is the colorful Diablo Lake. An explanation of this surprising color is in one of the photos. Sadie and I took a hike that also overlooked Diablo Lake. I happened on what I thought was a particularly beautiful roadside cascade one day, too. The usual PNW moss, ferns, and wet was everywhere. Beautiful area.

North Cascades Scenes

Smith River NRA/Panther Flat CG

I traveled north from the Redwoods intending to make it out of California sooner rather than later. It ended up that I stopped at Panther Flat Campground in extreme northern California and enjoyed views of turquoise-colored Smith River National Recreation Area along the way. (I just learned something; I thought all NRAs were a part of the National Park System, but this one is National Forest)
The camp host couple at Panther Flat was extremely kind. First, they let me park at the cg entrance for several hours on multiple days so I could get sun for my panels (most sites, including mine, were/are shaded) and then, they stopped on their way out of camp to ask if I needed anything from the store. They later returned with the milk for which I had asked and wouldn’t let me pay them. It had been 10 years since they started hosting and they were retiring right after they trained the new couple (who was camped one site over from me). I’ve met a lot of nice people on the road.
See captions for more info.
Next up: Oregon.

Redwoods SP/NP Area

Certainly, the Redwoods state and national parks and coastal areas are beautiful but unfortunately, my bad California luck continued in a big way here. The memories are still fresh several months later, so I will not choose to record those unfortunate events here since the goal is to ultimately forget what happened. Instead, I’ll only mention the good–and usual beautiful–parts and then we’ll move on. (More info in the photo captions.)

Yosemite Videos

Miscellaneous videos from my time in Yosemite National Park.

South Fork Merced River, Wawona Area

Meadow Loop Trail Water Crossing, Wawona. Sadie did great on this.

Pretty Little Stream on the Meadow Loop Trail, Wawona

Granite Walls from the Valley

Yosemite Valley

Upper Yosemite Fall (poor quality but at least you can hear this tremendous waterfall)

Valley View

Lower Yosemite Fall

Valley Panorama

Strong flowing Merced River as I exited the Park to the West

Yosemite National Park

My next destination was one of my bucket-list parks, Yosemite NP. When I first arrived, it was early in the day, so I went in the south gate, got some information, and looked around at the Pioneer Yosemite History Center. I found out from the visitor center employees that I could drop my trailer at the Wawona hotel overflow parking lot whenever I made the long drive to the valley. This was extremely helpful as I did not feel my trailer would be secure where I was camping outside the south entrance. I really appreciated that.

At first, I dispersed-camped outside the south gate. ‘Had a scary experience with some aggressive locals so I later moved to another spot in the national forest. I kept trying to get a reservation down in the valley and, after a while, finally snagged one for a couple nights. (In this case, some spots had opened up because of receding flood waters!)

The first time I headed to the valley, what was supposed to be a one-hour trip turned into two because they were doing tree-work along the road. That’s a tough job for the workers with all the traffic.

The valley was just stunning. There’s a one-way perimeter road through the valley to accommodate all the humanity. I found parking pretty easily despite all the people. It was amazing to be in a place I had wanted to see my whole life.

Bodega Head and Stump Beach, CA

I had forgotten to pull images from my phone, so I’ve included a few more here from Bodega Head, but the majority are from a really nice hike in the Stump Beach area. I highly recommend a visit here–especially in April of the year. Although I didn’t include many photos of them (long story), the wildflowers here were amazing.

I decided to try something different for this post and make a video instead of creating a regular gallery. I’m interested in feedback on video vs still photos. Thanks!

One NV stop / three CA stops on the way to Bodega Bay & Point Reyes NS

I went to meet a friend in California to travel to Bodega Bay. These are sights and adventures along the way (as always, more info in photo captions). (EDIT: forgot I made a short video of what I think were brittlebush blooms. It is at the bottom of this post, below the gallery).

A broader, but brief, view of the superbloom
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