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.

I’ve been working hard on reducing my pack weight over the last year and this trip was my best effort to date. Overnight gear, clothes, food, 2 liters of water, and 10lbs of camera gear for a total of 32lbs. Usually I’m pushing the 40′s with all the junk I haul around so my pack felt super light and I blasted up the trail and soon found myself alone in the upper basin. With lightning in the forecast I really wanted a good campsite away from trees and wide open spaces. I couldn’t find any sites like this in the upper basin so I decided to summit with my pack then descend to emerald lake to set up camp later.

I saw one hiker and a few mountain goats between the saddle and summit. I spent about 10min on top getting my shots and watching the goats then started my hike back down. Once I reached the saddle the lightning started to strike off in the west desert. I set up my gear and took a series of photos and captured nearly 50 strikes in just 12min. I made a few phone calls and checked the latest weather animations on my phone and the storm was headed right for me. At that point I had the choice of hiking down to emerald lake to set up camp before to the storm hit or bail. As I pondering this lighting started to fire off over the Heber Valley to the east, then the cottonwoods to the north. At this pointed I caved and decided to give up and get off the mountain. By the time I reached the edge of the upper basin lighting was 360° around me but still a ways off. I picked up the pace and started running down the trail.

About half way down the large switch back and talus slope I came across a group of hikers also descending off the mountain and one of them had a knee injury. They had already contacted Search and Rescue and were slowing making their way down the trail waiting for SAR to come up to them.

The next 2 hours were amazing with pouring rain, lighting, and echoing thunder. At times I felt like I was running in a strobe light. I reached the Timpooneke trail head soaked to the bone and completely exhausted. I spoke with search and rescue and let them know exactly where I had last seen the people they were looking for. They were not headed up the trail until the lighting calmed down.
As I got changed out of my wet clothes lightning was streaking across the sky in every direction and hitting the summit ridges all over the canyon. I got in the car and took one last shot out my window. I used my 11mm lens that has a 110 degree angle and captured an eye level that reached both edges of the frame… time to go home.