A nature trip in Arizona- part 1: Red Rock state park

Over the Memorial day long weekend, San myself and my SIL who visited from Melbourne, made a three day trip to Arizona. 

This trip had been planned months in advance to visit Antelope canyon. This was yet another "bucket list" trip. Our previous plans had all been cancelled or we could not get reservations to visit the canyon on usual long weekends. The tour is owned by an Indian reservation and they limit the number of people who can walk through it every day.

San tore her back muscle the previous week and was pretty much in bed rest when my SIL showed up. We were in two minds initially. Told her that it will be okay. It was a 3 hour flight and a 5+ hour drive from Phoenix to the hotel in Page, Arizona. If we took enough breaks and she sat with a waist belt and a pillow for the plane, car ride and rationed her painkillers.. it was doable. So the trip was on! 

Took the Friday off and flew into Phoenix. Got our rental car and started driving out of the airport at 10AM. Our plan was to stop by Red Rock state park for two hours and make it to Page by 6 PM for dinner.  Did not expect Friday morning traffic near Phoenix airport to be that intense. Everyone drives vehicles raised from the floor. Even cars seemed to be on some raised suspension! Folks follow some unwritten rule that larger the vehicle, less the obligation to follow driving rules. Felt like a rat running along the dinosaurs in a stampede of sorts.

Things got better once we were out of that area. We made a pit stop at Denny's. San and me both used to love Denny's. It was a go to place for us years ago. Could eat a pancake or waffle or engilish muffin anytime of the day! Their cheese sticks used to be amazing as well. Guess, Denny's is a shell of what it was before. The service and food quality was bad. Both me and my SIL had a queasy stomach after eating there. The worse thing was me telling my SIL about how good Denny's was and we ended up with that experience. Moral of the story : Don't live in the past. As a rule of thumb, food place quality goes only one way over time!

We made it to Red Rock state park a little after 1PM. They have a nice visitor center. It was a hot day and we decided to do the shortest trail to get a sample of the place. Walked a mile around a "cute" trail along the creem and took pictures from the vista point! 

The trail itself was nice and cool. We would have loved to walk around some more but San had to go through the paces slowly. The unanimous vote was to make a non stop dash to Page from there. 

We slowed down around Sedona and admired the cute shops and restaurants on the way. Had to make three stops. Readers please note that there are 40 mile stretches on the way from Sedona to Page where there are no restrooms! If you see one, stop. Don't think another one will come in 5 mins! You are welcome!

We made it to our hotel in Page by 7PM but our phones kept saying 8PM. I had panicked going "wait.. we drove an extra hour to get here?! How many stops did we do? I did drive reasonably fast". Apparently iPhones have a time issue in Page. They switch to Utah time. However Page follows Phoenix time which is same as CST.  Again, if you are a poor driver who is asked why it took an extra hour to get to Page, check the local clocks. You are welcome!

Decided to torture the two ladies by singing "Adi aathaadi" in a high pitch for a good hour in the hotel room and was eventually confined to the restroom. Think everyone in the hotel must have complained about some deranged lunatic screaming in the restroom. Eventually there was a knock on the door to tell me that "enough was enough" and "things are actually getting worse on every new try". They prefered driving with the sun in their faces for hours compared to being a forced audience for this singing etc... so called it a night. 

We were to spend the entire next day around Antelope canyon. We got plenty of rest to recover from the day of flying and driving. 

A few pictures from Day 1... 

just when we were asking ourselves "how do people live in this heat?" saw this.. 

apparently this is going to be a museum soon..

A gallery of photos of the park and other structures on our drive to Page.

A very different structure we saw right before we hit the town of Page.

A short video of the hike.. I provided humming bgm for the hike.. let us just say it was not a good idea.

If San was normal, and it was a cloudy day, we would have hiked the entire 5 mile trail to all the vista points. It was extremely hot and we were happy with the small hike.

This trip was being taken one step at a time.

The first step was to make it to Page without making San's back worse than where it was. That was done successfully!

Yosemite day trip- Vernal falls

The day trip was to see the Firefalls... but before we got to that, we spent the day hiking Vernal falls (as far as we could go safely)..

As long as this girl is next to me.. I seem to be going places.. at least one place a week! 

We saw some amazing landscapes on the way! Here is the day in pictures.. mostly selfies! We started early and were at the park by 9AM.. we took our time taking photos at every vista point...

walking on snow is easier than walking on ice.. especially when it is patchy and you cannot see it! we were all slipping and sliding during many a stretch..

so far it was mostly selfies.. then it got tricky enough that we gave our phones to others to keep the line going and the pictures coming..

There are plenty of nature shots..will post them separately..

Sometimes we end up back home! Maisie's Peak

This weekend hiking plan was to go to Rhus ridge. Rest of group has already gone there.. so it was supposed to be a new trip for me. It was 34 degrees out and there was ice on our windshield.. so by the time we defrosted and drove there, the parking lot( which has only 10 spots) was full! This was at 7:15 in the morning in freezing weather. Enough folks beat us to that parking lot.

Then we tried to go to PG&E and that had no parking. So the plan changed again and we decided to go to Maisie's peak. It is in our local preserve. We drove back home, parked and hiked up!

We spent a good 2 1/2 hours hiking, drinking tea at the top and chatting on the way. Next time the plan is to take some samosas to the top and have it with the tea.. and leave earlier.. freezing or not!

Some pictures..

To make it interesting and slightly longer, we went up and down three little lookout points. Maisie's, Hunters and Srisie's point. Word in the local circles is that people used to mistake Srisie's point as Maisie's point for many years. Imagine going to keezh Thirupathi and thinking you have gone to Thirupathi?!  It is a beautiful lookout.. but not the main deal! Thought this blog should capture such special moments..

Enjoyed the weekend morning hike! Need to start earlier and defrost for the next hike!

Until next week...

Pinnacles National Park

Last time we visited the Pinnacles National monument turned National park, was in 2013 and it was in May. We promised that if we ever return, it will be in cooler time of the year! 

Our hiking group has been planning this for a long time and given my new penchant for singing, the trip was interesting for me. I was in a live singing class (more on that later) from 4:30-6 AM and we left Cupertino at 6:30AM and came back at 4PM. The place is almost an hour and 45 minutes away. We climbed 2200 feet and walked for 3 hours with almost an hour for photo breaks and lunch! 

It was beautiful.. clear skies, cool weather and just before it got really hot we were on the way down. 

As a bonus, we got to see three California condors, one at close range.. wish I had lugged my camera bag to capture close ups of the Condor.. these days I am just going with the iPhone.. the conversation and the laughs on the hike are the star attractions as are the views from the top..

Got some artistic shots, thanks to a crappy work phone which has some lens defect!! Still, the laughs were the highlight!

We did get to see the sun rise through the fog as we drove to Pinnacles.. it was amazing.. it was like we were driving into a fire!

the rock formations here are amazing! 

beautiful views from the top..

and we kept going..

we saw three of the condors.. one came within 200 feet and sat on this tree.. Thinking of going to a personal iPhone 13 and have separation of work and home numbers.. if you use your phone for more than work, it makes sense to have one with a better camera!

The condors are amazing to watch in close range! Majestic birds! The way they take off effortlessly and cover distances is a treat to watch!

we were debating the logic of using pinnacles in plural.. maybe it is pinnacles because the top has four or five little humps?! that is still being debated within the group!

giving the finger to everyone in the park... this rock sticks out!

One thing that is not obvious on the zoomed out nature shots is that when you walk on the trail, every rock is very colorful.. it is like walking through fall colors on rocks.. 

The "we were here!" photo..

My cap was wet.. had to make a bandana out of my handkerchief to avoid sweat from going to my eyes! It was reasonably strenous at places because we were stop and go.. to make up for photo break times, we had to walk faster.

Once we get to the scout lookout, it is all downhill from there..

walked past more scenic points..

and to the reservoir trail.. we saw what was possibly the largest natural ganesha in rock on the way down.. pullaiyaar rock rocks!!

the place is popular for mountain climbing.. we watched folks climb.. you can see one in the right on the top in this photo..

after a brief break at the reservoir, we continued down through the bat caves.. 

it was nice and cool in the caves! no bats, but saw nicely camouflaged lizards.

We came out, had a nice lunch at a picnic table and drove back. It was a day well spent! 

A few panoramic views..

and a video of the trip..

Strongly recommend this park for a day trip in fall. If you start early enough, you can have a fun time and be back down by lunch time! Kids can make it too if you go at a steady pace!

Loved it!

Castle Rock state park

The most recent hike with my wife was to Castle Rock State park. It was a good half day spent in great weather! 

First off... we had fun on the trip, per these photos..

This park and trail was amazing. At one point we got a view to what must have been 10 layers of mountains all the way to the ocean. 

The rest of the time we were treated to visuals of green hills as far as the eye could see

The trails were beautiful as well.. 

This big tree was just amazing and picturesque..

The entire park was beautiful. It was good we went early in the morning. There was a beautiful burnt tree root that was converted to a sculpture. My plan was to take a photo of it on the way back.. but given COVID, a lot of the paths have been made one way.. so we ended up returning to an overflow parking lot and walked on the road back to the main parking. Another trip, another day! 

There was a lot of climbing up and down large rocks on the trail path. I did bruise my big toe by hitting it against the side of a rock. Turns out the shoes I recently bought were not the right ones.. working on getting better shoes this week! 

Definitely recommend this trail for a half day hike if you are in south bay! I for one am happy to be going on all these hikes to explore the local parks in rapid succession.