Traveling with a couple people who are set on filling their National Park passport is that you end up stopping at even the smallest attraction. Passing within fourteen miles of Pipe Spring, we had to stop and see it. Although small, people do seem to enjoy it for an hour or two. We found some instant joy upon arrival simply because the cactus was in bloom.
A few of the cactus blooms.
Enter and flash and "American the Beautiful" card (or pay the fee) and take a look around. The center is the usual with a few souvenirs one could buy and a movie that is not quite ready to play right now, so we head out the back door into the yard, which is far more interesting. It is full of items from the era when the area was settled by Mormons. Poke around them a little and you notice something odd, they seem to actually be in good working order.
A couple carts in the yard. Sometimes a bit of cute is needed, even if it is just a saw horse. First dibs on the water was secured buy building a fort on it. The water flow has drastically reduced over time as well have been sunk nearby. Stable and cowboy residence. The fort, called Winsor Castle.
The tour of the fort, which was called Winsor Castle, is included with entry so it really should be taken. It allows poking around the rooms and catching some details that might not be noticed otherwise.
In the kitchen with quite a nice stove with oven and warming boxes. In the courtyard where apparently quite a bit of partying went on. In the corner beside the sign is Arizona's first telegraph. Heavy doors keep the courtyard secure.
The spring room is getting renovated, so we cannot poke around it and feel its natural "air conditioning", so the tour is a little shorter than usual. Still, we get to hear quite a few stories and see quite a few rooms. Oh, and we did enjoy ourselves for quite a while before continuing down the road.
Kings Canyon National Park Sequoia National Forest Giant Sequoia National Monument Click for map. DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 It was another mild night, but the mosquitoes very nearly vanished early on into it. The sun comes quickly here and the morning golden hour is really quite something. I enjoy it with breakfast and happily the mosquitoes seem to be slow to wake up. Our northerly view from near camp: the morning sun as it hits Ball Dome. Morning over Ranger Lake. We head out to the trail again and wander gently downward, still high above the valley bottom. The air seems a lot clearer today and the snow on the far mountains is much more defined. The snowy distances.
King Range National Conservation Area, Arcata BLM (purple line, map link ) DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7 I looked around at how soaked everything was from the dew and decided I had enough water to cook breakfast right there (well, on a rock under the Douglas fir) while waiting for everything to dry out a little. My windbreak trees became morning shade trees, but they were still blocking some strong gusts most excellently, so I wouldn't want to trade them. Good soggy morning! So I headed out on the faint old road to join a much better road until getting pointed off to the left at a gate. Trail gets really faint there, but it's all much easier to follow on the second pass than it was on the first. A bit sunnier, but most spots aren't much drier than they were. After the short road section, follow near the fence on the faint track. If truly desperate for water and it has rained well recently, there might be a tiny
Six Rivers National Forest ( map link ) Mount Lassic actually has a trail up it, I just didn't know where. It was built (possibly by California Department of Fish and Wildlife, but still official and maintained) but not drawn on a map nor described except that its purpose is to move feet away from the rare lupine that grows over less than 4 acres in the whole world. All but a garden sized plot is on this mountain. I wanted to visit it, but not to stomp across its whole territory. (Also, I made really certain that my shoes were completely purged of any seed before arriving in the area. After Clover Gulch, that was a challenge, but worthy.) I decided to start off on a small trail I found by my parking. It was minimally flagged and marked and probably not the one meant for the public. There's a faint trail just to the left of the smaller tree here where the road drains its water. Weather seemed to be forming over the Lassics, as it had the last few days, but then roam
OpenTopoMap (an OpenStreetMap service) showing my GPS track from backpacking in the Flat Tops Wilderness in 2016 . It is zoomed into the busiest entry point where one very excellent and well used trail is missing. The map in question is, of course, OpenStreetMap . While not explicitly setting out to do this, they've created the Wikipedia of maps and you probably use it even if you don't know it. It's on AllTrails and Strava and behind Gaia Topo and MapBuilder on Caltopo. If any of those have an error, you can fix it. There in the lower right hand corner on AllTrails is the attribution and an invitation to change and add to the map. It's not just on the internet. This is also the one electronic map I carry with me, offline , that I know it will cover the place I am. When I need a library, post office, grocery store, gas station, I can search and find it even if I haven't got any usable cell signal. The roads are (generally) there. The buildin
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