We spent the first few days of our trip driving across Nevada and hanging out in Sacramento.  On Sunday we stocked up on goodies at Trader Joes then drove to Samuel P. Taylor State Park to camp for the night.   With no public land remotely close to the bay area a $35 a night car camping spot is about as good as it gets.  Those of us living in Utah where there’s so much public land available for free camping don’t realize how lucky we are really are.   While $35 is pretty steep I would still consider camping there again on a future trip. This my fist time camping under redwoods and it was definitely a cool experience.   We spent the night and then wandered around the campground before heading off to Point Reyes.

Jumping on the Salt Flats

Samuel P. Taylor Campground

Massive Trees in our campsite

First stop of the day was the required photos of the The Point Reyes in downtown Inverness. I absolutely love this boat and the kids get a kick out of it as well.

We called the Roots who were just leaving Davis and still planned on meeting us at the Point Reyes light house for a short day hike before we started backpacking so we stopped at Drakes beach for a few hours to let the kids run around while we waited.

After Drakes Beach we drove to the lighthouse trail head and met up with Tyler and family. We made the hike down the 300+ stairs to check out the lighthouse and then drove to the visitor center to pick up our reserved backpacking permits before driving out to the Coast Camp trail head.

Once at the trail head it took us about a half hour to get our packs ready and start out on the 2 mile hike to coast camp. This was the first backpacking trip with all 3 boys  and it was a perfect test run for some future trips we have planned for later this year.   We made it to our site, set up camp,  and then headed down to the beach for sunset.  It was pretty windy and a bit cold but still fun. There were too many clouds for star trails but I did take a few long exposures from the ridge above our campsite.

April and boys on the trail

San Francisco light pollution over Point Reyes

Around midnight it started to rain and it kept going all night and into the morning.  We stayed in the tent and packed up everything, put on our rain gear, and April started packing out with the boys while I packed up the remaining gear. I figured I would soon catch up but our boys are such great hikers and had a  blast stomping in the mud and splashing in every puddle during their hike out that I didn’t catch up a until few hundred yards before the trail head.   It took us at least 30min to unpack our bags and repack the car then we headed up the road to find a spot where we could get internet access and check the weather.   Forecast was nothing but rain for the next 24hours so we called it quits and headed south along the 1 making quick stops at Agate beach,  Sausalito,  then over the Golden gate to San Francisco.

Bowen came REALLY close to grabbing this pelican in Sausalito

Lucky for us my brother was working in San Francisco all week so we got to crash in his hotel room in downtown San Francisco 1 block from union square.  The boys were utterly thrilled about the VIP lounge that was always filled with snacks and had amazing views of the city.  One of the first things I did was figure out the safety latches on the windows so I could shoot photos of the city.

We spent the next three days doing cheap touristy things around San Francisco. Baker Beach, long walks downtown, cable car museum, Ocean beach,  golden gate park, and a few trips for sunrise and sunset at Crissy Field. It was actually a nice pleasant change of pace from our usual trips.

The Golden Gate from Crissy Field.

Sunset from Crissy Field

On our last night in SF I was able to catch some lighting (from what I understand a pretty rare occurance in the bay area) from the window of our 15th floor hotel room).

We left SF and made a long stop in Sacramento before driving across Nevada and back to Utah.  Even with only two nights of camping it still was pretty fun to get out and see the city.

Day1:

The trip started out with my friend Jake and I leaving Springville on Friday in his Land Cruiser headed south towards Escalante.  We made great time and a few hours later we were at the trail head for Bull Valley Gorge ready for our first hike of the weekend.   We followed the rim up canyon for a half mile then dropped down into the slot. We navigated a few drops and encountered a bit of snow and mud before we were stopped by a 13′ overhanging drop. The canyon was too wide to chimney down at this point and climbing up would have been a real problem so we stopped there and turned around. They say this canyon changes drastically with every flood so hopefully this obstacle is soon removed.

Our turn around point.

Moments after I took the above photo I tipped over my tripod and my beloved tokina 11-16 took a face plant in the gravel floor of the canyon.   I cracked the plastic, filled the lens full of sand,  and destroyed the front element.  Awesome way to start off the trip! After slowly walking back to the car (complaining the entire way about my stupidity) we drove to the Willis Creek trail head and started our hike down canyon.   There was quite a bit of ice in Willis Creek and not much water.  Once we passed the first narrow section the stream had dried up and the only water was the occasional puddle.

Jake in Willis Creek

After a few hours in Willis Creek we drove east past Kodachrome Basin state park to a nice overlook and waited for the sunset, there wasn’t much  color but it was still a great view.   We made it to Kodachrome and checked in to the campsite I reserved a few weeks prior.  I took advantage of the campground showers and Jake cooked an amazing pork roast on the fire. That night I shot a few star trails and we made a short night hike along the palace loop trail before calling it quits.

Day2:

I was up bright and early for sunrise but didn’t take a single shot due to the lack of clouds. We packed up camp then drove out to Round Valley Draw to get our slot canyon fix for the day.

There are some great narrows in Round Valley Draw and  aside from the 12′ down climb at the entrance of the slot first  the 1/4 mile is pretty amazing and easy hiking.  As we made our way down canyon there was a lot of scrambling, down climbing, and squeezing between large rock falls within the slot. We hiked down for an hour and a half then headed back out the way we came.

Selfie in the best slot of Round Valley Draw.

We drove to Kanab where we stopped for lunch, gas, and some ice.  We made a few phone calls to see if anyone was going to step up and meet us at the Wave the next day…. everyone was out.  We met some people who struck out on the lottery and offered them the extra slots on our permits, they accepted and we arranged to meet at the trail head that next day at 10am.

We left Kanab and made the drive east to the house rock valley rock and worked our way towards white pocket.  For some unknown reason a few critical turns were missing from my GPS! I was stressing big time after a few dead ends but Jake kept his cool and we worked with what cords we had.  We ended up making it to white pocket by taking the less traveled route where we didn’t encounter much sand at all.  We parked in our campsite ventured out on to white pocket under clear and windy conditions.

With  endless composition possibilities it was easy to wander around White Pocket for nearly 4 hours before sunset but unfortunately there were no clouds.    As night set in the wind died down and we headed back to camp to cook some dinner before we headed back out to white pocket to shoot some long exposures and star trails.

Camp

Day3:

I was up bright and early and walking around White Pocket well before sunrise but yet again no clouds.  We packed up camp and made the drive back towards the Wire Pass Trail head.  The drive took a bit longer than expected and the wind was really blowing hard at the trail head. We took our time getting ready and waiting for the people we met in Kanab but they were nowhere to be found.  So the two of us hiked out to The Wave with two extra permits.

On our hike out to the the wave we passed 10 people  also on their way in.  So with only 20 permits per day and I held 6 permits and we saw10 people on the trail there should of been 4 others at the wave right? Wrong! There was many more than that, in fact there were some real idiots scrambling on the delicate fins taking “hey look at us photos”.  There were quite a few people at the wave who also followed the rules and were pretty upset about all the non-permit holders.  When confronted they said “we failed to draw in the lottery but the ranger told us the fine really wasn’t that bad if you even get caught so just go for it” …. hummm.. ok.

So the wave was a madhouse. I tired to get a few shots then gave up and moved on to the second wave and beyond.  The wind really picked up and the light was flat so we waited it out and made it back to the wave a few hours later and only 4 or so (new people) were there.

please move

Thanks for moving

Jake at The Wave

On our hike out from the wave we saw even more people on their way in (so were at like 33+ now). Too many for such a small area and now I know why the permit system exists and I have more respect for that system.  Now if they would only enforce it because in my 3 trips to the wave I’ve never seen a single ranger out there.

Next up was a really long drive home!