national parks – Sues Wanderings

In between house sitting I recently went on a 7 day camping and hiking trip in the Eastern sierras. I have visited this area many times and one of my favorite campgrounds is Aspen . It is located on highway 120 a few miles up from Lee Vining as you go towards Yosemite. Aspen is quiet and peaceful although it has a creek running through with some cascading waterfalls at the top of the campground. The waterfalls can be quite loud!! I actually dreamed of cars crashing one night from the sound of the falls. Here are a couple photos of the campground and the falls.

Fairly nice campground although it does only have pit toilets. It is $12 per night and $6 with the Senior pass.

Normally , in the past I have had my dog Jasper with me but he passed a couple years ago so this time I went into Yosemite a couple of times to hike . No dogs allowed on trails there. I entered from Tuolumne Meadows entrance and nothing was open yet as far as the lodge or campground so it was a nice tine to do some hiking there with no crowds.

My first day was a doozer of a hike as in 10 to 12 miles round trip. Not a lot of elevation gain but a lot of distance. The trail was from Tuolumne meadows to Glen Aulin and beyond .

Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp is an established campground—one of six High Sierra Camps—located in Glen Aulin next to the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park in California, in the Sierra Nevada.

I went just short of the actual camp but far enough to see the series of cascading waterfalls that are just above the camp. Amazing hike. Very beautiful the whole way, Relatively flat and easy. Some uphill but elevation gains of only about 800 ft. for this hike. You have to hike in about 4.5 miles or so to get to where the waterfalls start.

Here are photos along the trail and then leading up to the falls. Right after the bridge , keep going to reach the falls . Just Beautiful !!! And the views are amazing as well. This first group of photos is along the first couple miles of trail as you meander along the Tuolumne river. So peaceful and pretty.

You come to a bridge about 4 miles or more in. Don’t stop here because it is downhill another 1/2 mile or more to the series of waterfalls that are not to be missed !!

The Waterfalls !!! I would rate this hike a 10 for the beauty of the whole trail and the magnificent waterfalls.

The next day I did another hike in Yosemite to Elizabeth lake. This was a 5 mile round trip hike with a 1000 ft. elevation gain . The trail head is located in the Tuolumne meadows campground at the back of B loop. Elizabeth lake is a small lake located below Unicorn peak and the scenery around it was very beautiful.

My next post will be about Lundy Canyon and More waterfalls !!

This last summer I was able to visit a few of our National parks in between my house sitting jobs. I had the pleasure of seeing Olympic national park, Glacier national park, and Mt. Rainier national park. One thing about national parks is they are quite crowded!! Campgrounds hard to get into , trails crowded. The most crowded of these 3 was Glacier National park. I had to get in line at 4:30 a.m to get a campsite and I was 3rd in line at that time. Trails were bustling with people. I thought that would really bother me in the beginning , however these places are so beautiful that it just got to be something I got used to

Really what this post is about is the interesting people you see and meet on the trails.

For some reason, in Olympic national park we saw lots of people from India and the lady’s would be dressed in their beautiful sari’s and out hiking the trails ! I wish I had gotten a photo of some of them . I just love the colorful clothing .

In Glacier and Mt. Ranier I saw more Japanese and Chinese. These folks have endurance and the children don’t seem to complain at all while hiking a 10 mile hike . I mean tiny tots of 5 years old just plugging along with Mom and Dad , Grandpa and Grandma. No whining , no fussing. Climbing up big inclines , on 8-10 mile hikes. Some of them hiking all the while in those little slip on tennis shoes that barely have a sole. Some people I saw in flip flop doing long trails. Some with just a tiny bottle of water in their hands. Then come the American hikers in the decked out hiking gear. All the latest in hiking clothing, the best of boots, the full packs , the camelbacks, etc.

Of course you also get the totally overweight and out of shape but yet determined folks and the elderly doing what are quite strenuous hikes. One couple I talked to in their mid 80’s going up the Wonderland trail at Mt. Rainier. That one had me huffing and puffing.

I saw lady’s in heals (altho only on the lower parts of the trails), a woman a couple miles up the trail carrying a cup of coffee and no water.

I am not trying to say that one group or the other is doing it the right way. Just an observation I made of all the different types at the national parks . Many of them most likely checking one more place off their bucket list , just like myself.

Then you also get the guys swimming in the glaciers at Glacier national park. This was not an easy thing to get this photo op. This guy had to get out there aways in the ice water and then climb up onto a chunk of ice to get this photo ! And then scramble out quickly before having coronary arrest !

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Tag: national parks

Camping and hiking trip for 7 days to Eastern Sierras. Part 1

The people you meet on the trails!