A timelapse of driving our truck through the east and west parts of the Saguaro National Park.
national park
National parks that we have visited.
Saguaro National Park
We visited Saguaro National Park near Tucson, Arizona.
In fact, it’d be more accurate to say that this park surrounds Tucson. It is split into two parts, west and east, on either side of the city. Here’s a map from the NPS site:
The Google map better shows Tucson between the two parts of the park:
We visited both parts, starting with the east one. Here’s the entrance road; a not very clear picture of the Saguaro National Park sign:
A fairly small visitor center:
Outside the visitor center was a nice botanical garden; we had a picnic lunch in a shelter near the garden:
An info sign, showing a map of the one-way loop road in the park:
We drove the loop road. A warning to “brake now” before a steep hill:
Curvy road:
Lots of interesting cacti to see:
The road was popular with bicyclists:
A stop at Javelina Rocks:
We passed through Tucson to the west part of the park:
It has a larger visitor center:
Info sign:
We were amused by the “sus picnic ground”:
The visiter center bookstore was limited to 10 people at a time (but no masks required), with numbered tickets for entry:
A cacti forest and hills behind the visitor center:
While we waited for our turn, we walked along a path behind the visitor center:
Tomorrow, a timelapse video of driving through both parts of the park. (Actually, it’s live now; if you’re a subscriber to the YouTube channel, you would have been notified as a sneak peek.)
Channel Islands National Park and wildlife cruise
In our ongoing mission to visit every national park, we did one of the ones we can’t drive into — Channel Islands National Park, off the coast of California.
We could drive to the visitor center in Ventura, California, though:
After that we stopped for lunch at a nearby place in the marina, Boatyard Pub:
Fish and chips:
Burger and fries (most excellent fries):
Good vibes:
Then we headed to Oxnard for an afternoon boat cruise into the park. Here’s an info sign:
The marina:
Our tour boat was the Vanguard:
Boarding the Vanguard:
Time to go:
Departing:
We were fortunate to see several whales; here’s a blowhole sign of one:
Whale tail:
Low-flying pelicans:
One of several oil rigs:
We also encountered a few pods of dolphins:
A couple of animated GIFs of the dolphins:
More dolphin pics:
Our guide:
Another whale encounter:
Whale GIF:
Pelicans:
The coastguard is still requiring masks, even in an outdoor situation like this, for some reason. So here’s a masked selfie:
East Anacapa Island:
Arch:
There were hundreds or thousands of birds in the air and on the island:
Lighthouse:
Arch:
Birds:
Building:
Sea lions:
Video: a timelapse drive through Joshua Tree National Park
We drove in the south entrance of Joshua Tree National Park in California, around a campground, to some possible hike locations, down a dirt road to a nice place for a walk, then out the west entrance. Enjoy this timelapse of the drive; the first half is less interesting, but wait for the interesting rocks and joshua trees.
A hike in Joshua Tree National Park
We visited Joshua Tree National Park when last in the Palm Springs area back in December, but decided to visit it a second time in early February, specifically to go for a short hike.
We went in the south entrance (where we exited last time), and stopped at the visitor center there. There was a singing park ranger:
After exploring a campground (too small for our coach), a picnic lunch, and considering a hike near the visitor center, we continued on towards the joshua tree part of the park. Passing some interesting rocks on the way:
Some joshua trees:
The parking areas were too full to do more popular hikes, so on a whim we turned down a dirt road:
Some interesting rocks by the road:
We stopped at an access point for rock climbers, and explored that area as an informal hike:
If you look closely, you may spot several rock climbers:
A selfie:
I’m valiantly holding up a rock:
A wave-shaped rock:
Young joshua tree:
Rocks:
Me taking a photo:
Of this:
Jenn and me:
Another rock climber:
More rocks:
A small cactus:
Joshua tree:
Rocks and joshua trees:
A bird:
I like the glowing effect of the sun behind the tip of the rock:
More lens flare with the sun touching the tip of the rock:
Joshua trees:
We’re liken the lichen:
Three colors:
Rocks and joshua trees:
Jenn on a rock:
Me joining her:
Jenn posing:
Me:
Shadows:
More interesting rocks:
National Parks in 2022
Along with exploring every state, another of our many objectives of this full-time RV lifestyle is to visit all 63 national parks. It’s long been one of Jenn’s life goals.
We’ve already been to several, and in 2022 we have planned our route to hit about 22 more. See yesterday’s 2022 plans post for the route map.
Jenn has a book to commemorate our visits to each park. She has added flags for each of the parks we plan to visit this year, color-coded by state:
The book includes a map with locations of all of the parks; there are a lot on the west side of the country, where we will be all year:
For each park there are some factoids, a sticker to add, and space to write some notes about our experience (and for Yellowstone, Jenn added a Junior Ranger sticker she got from a nice ranger who stopped by our campsite):
Here’s one of the ones we plan to visit this year:
We also have a road atlas book with more national park info and lots of maps:
We generally use our Macs, iPhones, and GPS units for navigating, but it’s useful to have paper-based tools, too.
Follow along as we visit each of the national parks!
Joshua Tree National Park
Our next national park was the Joshua Tree National Park, conveniently north of our campground in Indio, California: about an hour to the west entrance (where we went in), and half an hour from the south entrance (where we came out).
While exploring the park, we tried something new: we listened to a narrated self-driving tour of the park, using an app called Action Tour Guide that worked offline (good thing, since there was no cell service in much of the park), using the phone’s GPS to track our location on a map, and play narration clips when we reached certain points. That was a nice addition to our tour, pointing out interesting places to stop, and telling stories about the history of the area, so we’ll probably do that for other places too.
Joshua Tree National Park Visitor Center sign:
Joshua Tree info in the visitor center:
Joshua Tree National Park sign, with people posing in front of it, and a long line of cars to get in:
It was nice that when we got near the entrance station, they were waving people with National Park passes into a bypass lane.
But a tip for anyone visiting: there would have been no line at the south entrance; much fewer people over that side of the park, but also less to see for quite a while.
Joshua trees alongside the road:
We stopped at the Quail Springs picnic area for lunch. Here’s our truck by a big rock:
Rock:
Joshua trees:
Rock and the bench where we had a picnic lunch; if you look closely you’ll see someone rappelling down the left side:
More interesting rock formations:
Jenn on a rock:
Rocks:
Desert plants:
A view of Coachella Valley from Keys View; our coach was in Indio, which is near the center of this picture, in the valley:
Selfie (or “usie”):
Info sign:
Coachella Valley:
Road through the desert:
Joshua tree:
Cap Rock:
More interesting rocks near the road:
We took a detour onto a dirt road (Desert Queen Mine Road):
Probably my favorite picture of Joshua trees:
Rocks:
We walked along a trail for a short distance, to see more interesting things:
A couple of pictures of me, taken by Jenn:
Me taking a picture of Jenn taking a selfie (a “youie”?):
Spiky:
More desert plants:
Skull Rock:
Rocks:
Road:
Desert:
Desert plants:
Hills:
Leaving the park via the south road:
Bonus; after leaving the park, we saw some hot air balloons in the sky:
Pinnacles National Park
One of our goals in traveling the country is to visit all of the national parks, and the Thousand Trails San Benito Preserve campground is conveniently half an hour away from one — Pinnacles National Park:
We went to the east entrance, which we were warned was busy, being a free entrance day. But since it was the afternoon, the crowds had died down, so we didn’t have any difficulties.
Here’s the Old Pinnacles info sign:
We’re not into hiking (yet?), but got a view of some rock formations from the parking lot:
There wasn’t a huge amount to see from there, so we decided to drive an hour to the west entrance. On the way, we enjoyed the wide open countryside:
A small delay due to some produce spilled from a poorly loaded truck:
Another field:
The road to the park is mostly only one lane:
Burnt area:
The Pinnacles National Park west entrance:
This side has a much better view of the rocks:
Pinnacles National Park sign:
Fire lookout:
Rocks:
Info sign:
Rocks:
Road and rocks:
Rocks and the moon:
Info sign:
Hey look, more rocks:
Birds, probably condors:
We went along a path for a better view:
A selfie with Jenn and me:
Lassen Volcanic National Park
While staying at Heritage RV Park, we took an hour drive to Lassen Volcanic National Park.
We’ve been to this park before, but wanted to visit again, even though the park is closed at present, other than the visitor centers at a couple of entrances. If nothing else, it was an enjoyable drive.
For example, here’s a viewpoint on the way to Lassen:
Getting closer to the park, we saw some burnt trees:
A little snow on the side of the road as we gained elevation:
A snowy peak in the distance:
More snow by the road:
The southwest entrance to Lassen:
The visitor center:
Relief map of the park:
Snowy peaks:
After going out of the park, we headed northwards, through a tiny town named Manton, which made me think of the creator of the Micro.blog service, Manton Reece:
A couple of narrow bridges:
Small town Halloween; they were holding traffic to enable the kids to safely cross the highway:
Manzanita Lake, near the northwest entrance to Lassen:
Ranger station:
Seismograph:
Museum:
Museum displays:
A bridge led to a trail:
Stream:
Trees:
Burnt trees:
Fallen tree:
Burnt trees:
More trees:
Trees and mountain:
A selfie with Jenn and me:
Olympic National Park
On Sunday we took a day trip to Olympic National Park in the Northeast corner of Washington state.
It’s a large park, nearly a million acres, mostly mountainous. We went in the Staircase entrance in the Southwest corner of the park, then skirted the park up highway 101, and went in again at the Hurricane Ridge entrance.
Here’s the Staircase ranger station:
Staircase info sign:
North Fork Skokomish River at Staircase:
An animated GIF of the river:
A little further downstream, next to the Staircase campground:
The water was so amazingly clear:
Some fallen trees:
An interesting structure:
Further downstream:
Lake Cushman:
The portion of the road to Staircase outside the park was a somewhat rough dirt road; an opportunity to engage 4WD mode on our truck:
At the visitor center in Hoodsport, an interesting relief map:
We had lunch at El Puerto De Angeles in Hoodsport, with a waterfront view from our table of a couple of seals relaxing on a dock:
A GIF of the seals:
I experimented with the iPhone 13 Pro Max macro camera on my margarita:
A tasty margarita and burrito:
After lunch, we headed north up highway 101, and saw a sign for a viewpoint, so headed up a road… that turned out much longer than expected. Apparently the viewpoint was at the top of a mountain. Looking at the map, we still had a long way to go, so decided to turn around, since it was socked in with clouds anyway. The road was quite interesting, with a sea of clouds next to sheer drop-offs:
Our truck wasn’t quite so clean after those dirt roads:
On reaching Port Angeles, we headed into the park again at the Hurricane Ridge entrance… which was using a temporary entrance station in a cargo container while the permanent ones were being renovated:
At a viewpoint on the road to Hurricane Ridge, an info sign:
The view:
The first of three tunnels as we entered the cloud layer:
We drove through the thick fog-like cloud layer for several miles, wondering if the top would be socked in… but no, we saw the sun again as we neared the top:
The Hurricane Ridge visitor center:
Awesome views from above the clouds at Hurricane Ridge:
A selfie:
An info sign on the North side of the ridge:
The view on that side:
Unicorn Peak looked like a whale breaching:
Heading downhill into the clouds:
We went for a stroll on the dock at Port Angeles:
For dinner, Jenn had fish and chips, and I had a burger and fries at Smugglers Landing Restaurant on the wharf:
Followed by “New Zealand-style” Welly’s fruit ice cream from a trailer outside:
The sun had set at that point, so we headed back to Mom’s place in the dark. About 12 hours round-trip, and we only saw a tiny fraction of the park. But it was a great day-trip, a sample of the kind of thing we want to do more of in our new RV lifestyle.