YOSEMITE FLORA AND FAUNA MAY 2013

First of all: May the 4th Be With You. Then take a gander at the slideshow of flowers and critters that emerge in the spring at Yosemite National Park. Various locations include the Merced River canyon, the Mist Trail, El Portal, Yosemite Valley Stables and my yard near the stables. The photo above features North Dome and the Merced River from the Happy Isles bridge on a lovely spring day.

The flowers: lupine, moss, Western Dog Violet, California Poppy, Miner's Lettuce, Some Unidentified Yellow Flower and MacCloskey's Violet. The critters: California Kingsnake, Common Raven, Belding's Ground Squirrel, millipede and Sierra Alligator Lizard (thanks to Todd King for sharing the photo).

DEATH VALLEY AGAIN MARCH 2013

 

It's become a thing - our thing - to visit Death Valley National Park in the springtime. After the excesses of Las Vegas, a long weekend in Death Valley sounded just right. So we introduced our Florida friends, Tamra and Warren to the backcountry roads of the Mojave Desert. We camped at our favorite park campground, Mesquite Springs, where Ted met us with all the camping gear (and his motorcycle, which he hauled on the back of the Landcruiser) and then spent a couple of days driving out to the Racetrack and through Titus Canyon.

We were a month too early for wildflowers, but nevertheless, spring in Death Valley is a wondrous thing. Technically we were visiting a week before the vernal equinox, but the warm sun and cool evenings make the desert a good place to be at winter's end. This perfect spring morning we loaded up in the Landcruiser and headed for the Racetrack, down 26 miles of dirt road, past Teakettle Junction, where the rocks on a dry lakebed leave mysterious trails behind them.

Warren was really enthused about the Racetrack!We stopped at the volcanic Ubehebe Crater on the way back which is some kind of remarkable wind vortex in Death Valley. I didn't get too close to the edge as I believed someone from our party would have to retrieve me from the bottom once I was blown over the edge. I was sporting a bandana on my head (my jet fighter bandana from Panamint Springs Resort, naturally), and the wind would pick up the back, forming a triangle of sorts over my head. Warren asked if it was my "pope hat" look.

Our second daytrip took us to parts unknown as we headed back towards Beatty, Nevada, to catch the beginning of the road through Titus Canyon. But first we stopped at the Death Valley Nut & Candy Company for gas and snacks (in that order). I make it a habit to stop here while in the area, first because I like Beatty, and second because I get large bags of sunflower seeds, shredded coconut and pipitas for a fair price - an economic oasis in the desert. There's also a Subway counter inside if you need sandwiches for lunch. I usually skip the candy, but they do have old school favorites like pop rocks and clove gum. Anyone remember Zotz?

from facebook.comfrom akidinacandystore.com

From Beatty it's a short distance to the start of the Titus Canyon road, but before you get there, you can explore the ghost town of Rhyolite. Another abandoned mining town of the region, Rhyolite was established in 1905 during a gold rush to mine the Montgomery Shoshone Mine. It was mostly abandoned by 1920 as the mine petered out, but later became a movie location and is now home to an outdoor art installation at the Goldwell Open Air Museum which includes a ghostly version of the Last Supper by Belgian artist Albert Szukalski.

Back at the turnoff for Titus Canyon, we entered this 27 mile one-way drive to eventually end up back at the junction with Hwy 190. In the meantime, we ascended to 5000 feet at Red Pass and then descended to another ghost town: Leadfield. Western Lead Mines operated here for just one year in 1926 and now the landscape is dotted with a few abandoned buildings. Past Leadfield you come uopn Klare Spring and the petroglyphs that natives pecked into the adjacent rocks. Apparently this is the best place to see bighorn sheep in the park, but my wildlife magnet capabilities were somehow blocked this trip. Just a mile or so beyond the spring, you can view fossil ripple marks in the limestone, made 500 million years ago in the Cambrian period of the Paleozoic Era when this land was covered by shallow seas. Titus Canyon proper, in the final miles of the road, narrows down to some 20 feet across, making for fun backcountry driving. Top to bottom, the Titus Canyon drive is backcountry fun without all the backcountry hassle. Suddenly, you pop out of the canyon onto the graded dirt road that takes you back to the 190. Our guidebook, Death Valley SUV Trails, said, "...the magic of the canyon suddenly ends." Fortunately, the magic of Death Valley doesn't end with Titus Canyon.

After two days of backcountry driving, Tamra and Warren were off to Vegas to make their return flight to Florida while Ted and I spent one more night in Death Valley. In the morning we took a motorcycle ride down the Death Valley Road (dirt) heading north, parallel to the Last Chance range, just to soak up some more desert panorama before our departure. And then we made the now-familiar trek from Death Valley back to Yosemite Valley and home.

Junket Ratings:

Death Valley Nut & Candy Company: Junk-O-Rama

LAS VEGAS, BUFFET STYLE MARCH 2013

If it seems that I spend a great deal of vacation time in Las Vegas, maybe that's because I do. Three visits in the last six months isn't too excessive, is it? Speaking of excessive, this post is all about dining in Vegas - one of my very favorite vacation activities. Florida friends Tamra and Warren were spending the week in LV for a business conference and I said, "I'll be right there!" and so I was. We stayed at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in the Martin Lawrence room (?) and dined at Mandalay Bay, Rio, Bellagio as well as PH. Whew. Tamra's first visit to Vegas necessitated a buffet tour (first stop: Bacchanal at Caesars Palace, two thumbs up) but when I joined them mid-week we first took ourselves down to the casino level of PH and ordered burgers at Gordon Ramsay's BurGR restaurant. You know, the TV chef that curses roundly at people with bad restaurants on his show, "Kitchen Nightmares"? Yeah, maybe GR should be somewhat more introspective about his own restaurant scene.

So that's Warren and Tamra above, enjoying the cozy booth and ordering off an iPad at BurGR. That burger in the second photo was great: the Char Siu burger which involves pork and an Asian flair for toppings was quite delicious. The sweet potato fries in the second photo were not delicious. First, they were dusted with powdered sugar (ugh) and second, the dipping sauce was also sweet (double ugh). Seriously? We didn't eat them. The third photo is the cherry stem from my whiskey cocktail that I tied in a knot with my tongue. Yep.

In between dining adventures, Tamra and I took the most touristy of bus tours: Hoover Dam. We had a great time and here's the rundown: using a Groupon coupon, we scored a dam tour with deluxe round-trip bus transportation for $29. The actual cost of the Hoover Dam tour is $30 and you will pay $5 for parking with a personal vehicle. For that reason alone it was a deal, but wait, there's more. The bus was super comfy and the driver was the coolest - a looooong time Vegas resident with a smooth jazz voice, jokes about celebrity residents and commentary about how the economy has affected LV. On the way back, the tour stops at the Ethel M Chocolate Factory (the M stands for Mars, as in M&M/Mars candy) where we loaded up on coconut, peanut and pretzel M&Ms and perused the extensive cactus garden. But viewing the dam is worthwhile, especially on a sunny spring day in the Mojave Desert.

Our next dining destination was Slice of Vegas at Mandalay Bay. I had read good things about this pizza joint, and MB is always fun to visit. S of V is located in The Shoppes at Mandalay Place in a fun venue with an impressive beer selection. We ordered Mamma's Garlic Bread with mozzarella, a Romelia's salad, Il Mangino pizza for me and a simple pepperoni pizza for Tamra and Warren. My pizza involved prosciutto and arugula and I was pleased with my choice. However, our server was a bit off and Warren was not pleased with his pizza - a little too much blistering on the bottom that Warren referred to as "burnt". Our salad was missing croutons and the dipping sauce for the garlic bread arrived after we had finished (?). The manager was very accomodating and took a few things off our bill. Though the service was friendly, it was pretty weak. The highlight of the meal was the magnetized cutlery set I found rolled in my napkin - can someone explain how this happened? The staff at Slice of Vegas was completely puzzled.

After that experience, the only thing left to do was gamble, so we headed downtown to Fremont Street. Dazzled by the Fremont Street Experience light and sound show and the low brow gambling dens (where Tamra won a HUGE jackpot of nickels), we eventually made our way to Fremont East and the old school El Cortez - a place I'm quite fond of and even more so after this visit. Warren is a whiz at the roulette table, so Tamra and I ordered some cocktails at the Parlour Bar next to The Flame steakhouse. The perfect antidote to the Fremont Street Extravaganza with gentlemen bartenders, leather banquettes and dim, dim lighting, two cocktails (Disaronno for T, dirty martini for me) cost $9.00. For both. This may be the greatest bar in Las Vegas.

Third dinner was a bust - Village Seafood Buffet at the Rio. It was just okay, so don't bother. Back in the 90s when I lived in Vegas, the Rio's Carnival World Buffet was all the rage, so maybe they should stick with what they know. Next day we made time for another excursion that didn't involve food: my most favorite of museums, the National Atomic Testing Museum. I yap about this Smithsonian affiliated museum to anyone who will listen, but where else can you see a collection of atomic themed memorabilia and Geiger counters?

The Bellagio buffet is Warren's favorite, and I was all about the Friday/Saturday version that includes all-you-can-eat CAVIAR. You can't take it by the ladleful, but you can belly up as many times as you like for three different types: salmon roe, American sturgeon caviar and tobiko. And the rest of the food is exceptional too. With attentive servers and ultra-cleanliness, you may even believe you're not eating at the trough. Three thumbs up for buffet Bellagio.

After dinner and a little water fountain magic, we ambled down the Strip and into the Cosmopolitan. The newest casino hotel to open on the Strip (2010), the Cosmopolitan was very, very cool. I'm saving my pennies right now. I didn't take any photos, but it looks like this:

from www.anotherlasvegasdailyphoto.netThe week of excess had come to a close and we were off to do some camping in Death Valley where Ted was meeting us with the camping gear and a coolerful of beer. We had a fine time at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, but the lodging does have its issues. Tamra and Warren had to be moved to another room upon check-in due to lack of hot water and we had minor plumbing issues in the second room. Nothing gross, just slow drains. The window shade seemed like it had been unearthed in ancient Egypt and since the room window faced due east, that unruly shade was very important in the morning. However, the room was spacious and clean with good bedding and the bell staff was very friendly. Access to the Miracle Mile Shops was good for the ABC store (liquor, bottled water) and peculiarly Vegas souvenirs (see below), but if you self-park at PH, you must pass through the entire shopping mall to enter the hotel. And you cannot gain entrance to PH from the Strip. The vehicle entrance is located on Harmon Avenue and this is good to know. Personally, I'm planning for the Cosmopolitan next time.

Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino: Junkety-Junk-Junk

Gordon Ramsay's BurGR: Junkety-Junk-Junk

Grand Canyon Tour Company Hoover Dam Tour: Junk-O-Rama

Slice of Vegas at Mandalay Bay: Junkety-Junk-Junk

Parlour Bar at El Cortez: Junk in the Trunk!

Village Seafood Buffet at Rio: Jar Jar Junks

National Atomic Testing Museum: Junk in the Trunk!

The Buffet at Bellagio: Junk in the Trunk!

YOSEMITE'S SMALLEST GIANT SEQUOIA GROVE APRIL 2013

Yosemite National Park is home to three of the sixty-five giant sequoia groves located in the Sierra Nevada range of California. I have visited two during my residence here - the Mariposa Grove at the south end of the park and the Tuolumne Grove at Crane Flat. The smallest of the three, the Merced Grove, is near the Tuolumne Grove, but I had never ventured down that trail. With our nephew, Grant, visiting from SoCal, I decided it was time to trek out to the big trees in the small grove. We drove the twenty-one miles from Yosemite Valley to park at the grove and hiked three miles round trip. Too early for wildflowers, but there are many western azalea bushes that must put on quite a show in late spring.

from www.redwoodhikes.comThe trail is wide and downhill all the way to the grove, which means uphill all the way back. Despite an elevation gain of 600 feet, it's an easy hike - even for a flatlander like Grant (he's going to kill me for that). Giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) are marvels and the groves are always cool and shady, great for contemplating your small place in the universe next to the most giant of trees. Funny thing about being the king of flora, giant sequoia cones are much smaller than your average pine cone. Great things come in small packages. Want to know more about giant sequoia trees? Check out "A Guide to the Sequoia Groves of California" by Dwight Willard. That link will take you to the Yosemite Conservancy webstore (my employer), where if you buy a copy, proceeds will go directly to Yosemite National Park.

We spent a couple of hours hiking to the grove and back, a nice introduction for Grant's trip to Yosemite. The next day, Ted took Grant and two mountain bikes to ride the Merced River Trail at Briceburg, just outside the park. And the day after that they hiked the Mist Trail. Welcome to spring in Yosemite.

MEANWHILE, IN WESTEROS MARCH 2013