WESTERN ROAD TRIP 2013 | Day 3 - US 395 to Tioga Pass Yosemite
**Click the links below to visit all of my galleries from my Western Trip or to purchase a Seth Berry Photography print:
Yosemite National Park | Death Valley National Park | Sequoia National Park | Kings Canyon National Park
Mono Lake, CA | Bodie, CA | Nevada Deserts | California | San Francisco
Monday, August 12 (Day 3)
Some of my favorite parts of my trip were spent on the road. I'm the type of guy who enjoys a nice long drive through the country or in the mountains with my windows down and music playing. I knew going into our trip we were planning to do A LOT of driving (we did about 1,500 miles to be exact)...but it didn't bother me. That's what a road trip is for, right?
I could spend days driving through parts of the country I've never seen before and would be perfectly content and comfortable...which is what we did! Driving through Death Valley surely gave us a road trip experience that was rather unique. But Monday really gave us a true taste of a good ole fashion road trip through the West! Starting out in Lone Pine, CA where we slept the night before, we got a crack of dawn start to our 150 mile trip up the High Sierra Nevadas to Mono Lake, 30 mile trip to an authentic western Ghost Town, 40 mile trip to Tioga Pass in the high parts of Yosemite National Park, and 70 mile trip to Yosemite Valley where we would sleep for 3 nights!
Needless to say, we had a jammed packed schedule on our 3rd day of our Western Adventure with a vast variety of things to see!
Before our trip, we had prayed that we would not only have a safe and incredible adventure, but also have a spiritual experience as we stood in awe of all of God's Wonders! Monday, I believe, we had the first taste of that spiritual connection as we drove through some of the most beautiful places I had ever seen. You'll see further down in this blog post when we began our drive 9,000 ft in elevation on Tioga Pass to Yosemite, the right song and the right time came on in our car. It was as if God was telling us right then and there, "Look, look at all of this that I created. I AM your God and love you." Each of us didn't say a word but just enjoyed the ride, overwhelmed with God's beauty around us. We can only imagine what Heaven will be like that day...
Press play on the song below and listen as you look at these blog pictures - and know that He is God and be blessed.
Mount Whitney sunrise, Lone Pine, CA
Monday morning we woke up to the most beautiful view of the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States - Mt. Whitney - with an elevation of 14,505 feet, right outside our motel room. I spent some quiet time out in the field beside our motel, taking sunrise pictures of the huge mountain range. The pail blue morning sky against the bright white mountain cliffs was simply astonishing. Then as the sun came up, the white cliffs turned red.
We enjoyed a hearty continental breakfast in our Western movie themed motel with a nice view of Mt. Whitney. I would love to go back to visit Lone Pine again, because its the location of many old western movies and even Kevin Bacon's Tremors! The little town had a western movie museum and in each place we went into they had old western movie posters and pictures with autographs everywhere. It was a very interesting town, but unfortunately we had to pack up and hit the road to Mono Lake, CA! After the beautiful sunrise pictures of Mt. Whitney, check out the gorgeous drive we took north on US Route 395 up the High Sierras.
Below: Gorgeous views along the scenic US Route 395:
Mono Lake, California
Its a surreal scene when you're driving up US Route 395 with some of the most beautiful huge mountain cliffs on one side and desert lands on your other side, then all of a sudden you approach a massive lake in the distance. The still calm lake is like an oasis. Robbie and I were looking forward to seeing this incredible lake because of it's unique features. This ancient lake, North America's oldest, is nestled in the basin without any outlets. Since it has no outlets and salts and minerals have washed into it from the High Sierra Mountains, it is about 2 1/2 times as salty as the ocean and very alkaline (referenced from Mono Lake Tufa SNR). The high levels of salt in the water over the years have created towering formations in the water called "tufas", which are calcium-carbonate spires and knobs formed by interaction of freshwater springs and alkaline lake water. The lake doesn't have any fish in it, but is home to brine shrimp and a huge migratory of birds. So this is a VERY interesting lake. And like so many people have said, it gives you a feeling as if you're in another world when you observe the lake and listen to the still quietness surrounding you as birds flock in the distance.
Check out the slideshow below and see for yourself!
Bodie, California (A Real Ghost Town)
After spending an amazing time hiking around Mono Lake, we hit the road to get to our next destination of the busy day. However, this would be the roughest road we would encounter the whole trip! I was very excited about going to this location, as we got to drive off the paved road and on 13 miles of dirt mountain roads to get to the secluded and abandoned gold mining town of Bodie - a Ghost Town in the Bodie Hills of California. This sure was an adventure! Thankfully our rented car was a 2013, so we weren't too worried about popping a tire...but I think we came close a couple of times! Bodie was an awesome experience seeing an old western town that was founded after the discovery of gold in 1859. But like the end of all ghost towns, when the gold rush ended and everyone out greed or killed one another, the town was left abandoned. Such a neat place to walk around and imagine how it was back in time.
The only thing I took from this ghost town were my pictures you'll see below, cause after reading about the "Bodie Curse" we made sure not to take anything else! Supposedly records and witnesses have said that if you steal anything from Bodie, later down the dirt road your car would either breakdown, have a flat tire, or you'd run off the road! Do you believe it? Well we surely weren't willing to test it out...
Check out the slideshow of pictures from Bodie below (don't miss the awesome sand tornado we saw out there!)
Below: Driving out of Bodie on rough mountain dirt roads. See patches of ice/snow on top of the mountains ahead of us:
Below: Driving out of Bodie...watch out for cow/bull crossing!
Below: Driving away from Bodie and back towards Mono Lake on US 395.
Below: Mono Lake in the distance from US 395:
Tioga Pass - Entering Yosemite National Park at 10,000 feet
Now for the destination we were all waiting for...Yosemite. For sometime now, Yosemite National Park was at the top of my bucket list of things to see in the United States. I couldn't wait to see some of the classic views that were so popularized by the great photographer Ansel Adams. A lot of its visitors always explain how amazing and breathtaking it is seeing some of the largest granite rock cliffs in the world sky scrapping over you making you feel so small. Yosemite National Park, though, is a huge park with 3 main sections that we spent time in...the Tuolumne/Tioga Pass section in the north, Yosemite Valley, and the Mariposa Grove section in the south with the forest of Sequoia trees. Our roadtrip had us entering in the northern section of the national park at some of it's highest elevation via the only road - Tioga Pass. This amazing drive gives you some of the most incredible vistas of the High Sierra Nevada mountains as you're traveling at 10,000 feet elevation with mountains above you at 13,000+. But what also makes this road so amazing is the meadows and lakes it has to offer at such an high altitude.
As I mentioned at the beginning of my post, when we first entered the Yosemite gates on Tioga Pass, we were overwhelmed with God's beauty surrounding us. It truly was a magnificent place and a spiritual experience. Take a look at my pictures as I show you one-by-one our journey on Tioga Pass before we made it down into Yosemite Valley.
Below: The view behind us as we're entering Yosemite National Park
Below: Amazing views as we drove on Tioga Pass in Yosemite National Park
Below: Getting the full effect with the sunroof up. The views were incredible on this road!
Below: The start of our hike in Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park
Below: Soda Springs in Tuolumne Meadows. This red spring was filled with carbonated water that would bubble up from the ground. You could taste the water, which I did and did not like! That's the same reaction the pioneers had when they first discovered the place.
Below: The next series of pictures are of the gorgeous Tenaya Lake in Yosemite. The lake at 9,000 feet elevation painted a beautiful reflection of the towering domes above it and the stillness of the water was peaceful like none other.
Below: The next series of photos gave us our first glimpse of the iconic Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. This view was from Olmstead Point. Such an amazing place!
The Half Dome...formed by glaciers
Below: On our way down Tioga Pass as we got closer to Yosemite Valley, we began to see more wildlife, including some deer fawn. I didn't get a good photo of them though, but did get the larger deer!
Yosemite Valley
Finally after driving through Las Vegas, Death Valley, Lone Pine, US 395, Mono Lake, Bodie, and Tioga Pass, we made it to our main destination - Yosemite Valley. This is where we stayed the next 3 nights during our amazing Western Road Trip Adventure. Up until this point, the trip couldn't get anymore better than it had been! But it did! When you enter into Yosemite, you witness the iconic and famous view called "Tunnel View". This amazing scene literally takes your breath away as you see the gigantic granite cliffs towering over the valley. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the amazing waterfall in the iconic scene since all of the snow had melted during this time of year. But it was still an amazing sight! After stopping at Tunnel View and taking in the amazing view, we drove down through the valley passing a lot of the landmarks we would see the following days. We finally made it to our camp at about 8:00 PM - Camp Curry in Curry Village. It was time to go camping!!
Except, this camping was in a white tent canopy that was already supplied. A ton of the white tents were lined up in the valley under the trees and huge rock cliffs. It was an amazing setting for a camp. Inside our tent we had 4 camp style beds with mattresses, one light, and nothing much more. But it was plenty enough for us! To frighten you a little, you were forced to take all of your food out of your vehicles and bags and secure them in the bear locker in front of our tent. Tons of signs were everywhere you looked about being careful with your food and the bears. Unfortunately we never saw a bear during our whole trip, and we were hoping we would!
Enjoy these last scenes and photographs I took during our first evening in Yosemite Valley. Check out the last ones...at night we went and laid on a boardwalk in the middle of a meadow with many other campers and watched the stars and meteor shower that was going on, while surrounded by God's gigantic rock cliffs. Enjoy!
Below: Tunnel View / Yosemite National Park
Below: Stargaizing in Yosemite Valley with the Milky Way in full force above us
Below: Curry Village in Yosemite. These are the tents that we stayed in for 3 nights in Yosemite Valley
Below: Inside our Curry Village tent. Home sweet home :)
Like I said, Day 3 was an adventurous packed day. We sure were exhausted after all that we did, but it was very worth it. After grabbing some pizza in Curry Village, it didn't take us long to fall asleep (of course, after we watched the stars). The next two days in Yosemite National Park were going to be amazing. I look forward to telling you about them in my next blog posts! Stay tuned until then!
*Side note, be in prayer for the horrible wildfire that is out of control in this section of California right now. If you haven't heard the news, it is impacting this section of Yosemite that we were fortunate to travel through. I hope they can stop it before it destroys anything in this amazing park!
WESTERN ROAD TRIP 2013 | Day 2 - DEATH VALLEY
**Click the links below to visit all of my galleries from my Western Trip or to purchase a Seth Berry Photography print:
Yosemite National Park | Death Valley National Park | Sequoia National Park | Kings Canyon National Park
Mono Lake, CA | Bodie, CA | Nevada Deserts | California | San Francisco
Sunday, August 11 (Day 2)
Determined to go back to the origin of Clemson's Howard's Rock to obtain a rock to replace the broken off and vandalized piece of the iconic stone that was damaged this summer, we set out west on HWY 160 from Las Vegas to drive to Death Valley, California...
...just kidding...that's not why we decided to go to the hottest place on earth during the middle of the summer. BUT, I did wear my Clemson Death Valley shirt!
Death Valley National Park is a perfect example that beauty comes in different fashions.
A lot of people don't think of going to Death Valley as a fun and exciting vacation trip and are turned off because of, well the name for one, the dangers, extreme heat, dry desert land, and of course the forever fear that your "car will break down in the middle of nowhere". Well, a lot of people miss out.
However, Death Valley National Park was one of the most interestingly beautiful places I've ever seen. With so many different colors and formations of rocks and mountains, endless landscapes, the bright and barren salt flats, and the pattern filled sand dunes - Death Valley is very interesting, beautiful...and HOT!
Also seeing Death Valley in a beauty kind of way serves as a good reflection of God's love for us. Even as sinful, messed up, and imperfect as we are, God still views us as beautiful in His eyes when we turn to Him! I hope these pictures of Death Valley give you examples of how to find beauty in things that otherwise wouldn't seem so beautiful. After all, God created ALL of these beautiful places...I was just able to take the photograph!
But back to the trip, Death Valley is often called the "land of extremes" as it is the hottest, driest, and lowest place on Earth. Needless to say, we didn't do any 9 mile hikes in this National Park, but a little 120 degrees didn't stop us from getting out of the car and exploring Death Valley a little! Death Valley provided some excellent photography subjects, so I think you'll like these pictures! The drive through Death Valley took us all day, with all of our stopping and getting out of the car and the long trip itself. But we eventually made it to Lone Pine, CA where we would sleep for the night - which was a little tiny western movie town...one I really loved and will tell you about in the next blog post!
The Road to Death Valley
Below: Made sure we had our car packed full of water for the long desert road! Just in case!
Dante's View
When entering into Death Valley from the East, the first major stop to go see is the iconic Dante's View. You arrive into Death Valley National Park and have to go over the mountain range before you reach the hot Valley. Here are some pictures from Dante's View...such an incredible view of the Valley and Salt Flats down below! (also you can see the road we drove down below in some of the pictures!)
Click through the slideshow below:
Below: Zoomed in shots of the Salt Flats and Valley floor from on top of Dante's View
Below: The thin black line above my Seth Berry Photography logo in the bottom right corner is the road we drove on...to give you perspective!
Below: Check out the cars driving up to Dante's View, they look like micro machines:
Zabriskie Point
I was about to say this was one of my favorite places/viewpoints in Death Valley...but actually all of the places were my favorite! Check out the awesome mountain formations from Zabriskie Point. (We still haven't made it to the Valley floor, this is still driving lower and lower in elevation before we reach the Valley)
To really get an understanding of how big these mountain formations were, check out this first picture of the person in the scene.
Below: Slideshow of Zabriskie Point
Valley Floor
So after descending down the mountain range, we reached the Death Valley Furnace Creek visitor center. Of course the most famous thing to get your picture beside in this park is the thermometer! It was no joke that it said it was HOT! A very dry hot though...not like the sticky, humid hot of Columbia. Check out some of the road on the way to the Salt Flats.
BUT, the hottest it got while we were there was registered on our car...120 degrees!! (see below)
The Salt Flats
The Salt Flats was one of the places I was really looking forward to seeing. When doing research on Death Valley before our trip, I didn't think we would really be able to see much of the flats and walk out on them since the heat was going to be extreme. But after seeing how many people were out there, Chris and I put a bottle of water in our pockets and went out as far as we could go! You could just feel your legs baking against the bright white ground. But staying out there for too long would really do some damage to your body, so we didn't stay too long.
This is the lowest part in Death Valley and one of the lowest in the world at 282 feet below sea level!
Below: Salt Flats slideshow
Below: Check out the Sea Level sign in the mountain rocks 280 feet above us!
Below: The road to Artist's Palette
Artist's Palette
This was a VERY interesting place of interest. Check out all of the different colors in the rocks...its just like its name, like paint swatches from an Artist's Palette! Slideshow below....
More Death Valley Scenes along the road before the Sand Dunes!
The Sand Dunes
The western section of Death Valley has the intriguing sand dunes! We hit this section just at the right time because the sun started to make the dramatic shadows on the dunes! This was such an awesome place - another unique part of Death Valley National Park! I also had a fun playing around with Black & White photography in this section since it presented such interesting subjects to shoot in B&W!
First look through the slideshow of color images of the sand dunes below, then check out my Black & Whites!
Below: The fine shadow line in the sand was simply amazing to stand over and see with your own eyes! God is so clever!
Optical Illusion: Check out this photo. Is the shadow casting on a large sand dune in the distance with a bunch of trees? Or is the shadow casting on a small spot of sand beside me with a small shrub? I'll let you decide! Maybe the video will help you out below, or just confuse you....
After all of the walking in the sand, we had to dump out our shoes full of sand!
The Road Out of Death Valley
After our day in Death Valley, we drove up into the mountain range to exit the Valley and travel to the next town - Lone Pine, California. We saw an awesome sunset as we were driving out of Death Valley.
The significant thing about Lone Pine, California is that the little tiny western movie town lies right below the tallest mountain in the US - Mount Whitney! We weren't able to see Mount Whitney when we arrived except for its silhouette. But you'll LOVE the photos I got of it the next morning!
But first check out the last photos from our drive out of Death Valley to end Day 2.
Below: This is the moon over the Mount Whitney mountain range (The High Sierras!) Simply awesome!
BONUS!
Before we went to bed in our hotel in Lone Pine, Robbie and I noticed how awesome the stars looked since we were practically in the middle of nowhere. After going to the hotel pool (which was very cold, ironically, after one of the hottest days in my life), I took my tripod and went out into a field beside our hotel and got this awesome picture of the Milky Way....this is just a sneak peak of what's to come in Yosemite and Sequoia! :)
Isn't God amazing!
Stay tuned for my next blog post on Day 3 as we make our way toward YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK!
WESTERN ROAD TRIP 2013 | Day 1 - Viva Las Vegas!
**Click the links below to visit all of my galleries from my Western Trip or to purchase a Seth Berry Photography print:
Yosemite National Park | Death Valley National Park | Sequoia National Park | Kings Canyon National Park
Mono Lake, CA | Bodie, CA | Nevada Deserts | California | San Francisco
Last week I experienced the vacation and photography adventure of a lifetime with my two roommates as we road tripped out west to hit 4 major National Parks in the US! Especially since I've gotten into photography, I've always wanted to take a road trip to stand in awe of God's awesome wonders and amazing grandeur out west - and this was my first experience to do so! If your idea of "vacationing" is sitting at home not working or on a beach with nothing to worry about except if I'm getting burnt or what's for dinner after a whole day at the beach, then I wouldn't recommend the spontaneousness (my iPhone said that's a word) and in-and-out nature of a road trip. But for those who love to see the world (like me), then a road trip is the perfect way to see ALLLLLLL that you can in just a week, with little sleep...which is what we very much did these next 8 days!
In my next series of blog posts, I'm planning to give you a story day-by-day of what we saw, hiked to, drove through, and stayed in while we were out in the wild west! And since I took over 3,000+ photos...the only justifiable way for me to break them up for you to see, and for me personally to upload, is for me to make a blog post for each day! SO, here we go! Hold on to your seat...oh, and you might want to turn up the A/C.
*Always remember, any of my Landscape and Nature photography work is available for purchase in small or large prints on my website: www.sethberryphotography.com/places
Day 1 - VIVA LAS VEGAS!
Saturday, August 10 - We split out on work Friday and drove to Charlotte to fly to Chicago then to Las Vegas. After the long flight, we finally landed in Vegas at 10:30 PM Vegas time (1:30 AM our natural body, eastern time). Knowing our trip consisted of a lot of driving, hiking, and not sure where to eat each place...we made our first stop in Vegas at WALMART!! WOOO HOO! We do Vegas right! We filled up our rented 2013 Ford Escape with a full sunroof (The Silver Bullet) with as much H2O and snacks as possible and drove down the Vegas strip to go to bed in our hotel.
Slideshow Views from our hotel early the next morning:
Early Saturday morning we hit the desert road east on Interstate 15 for our first awesome destination to do some hiking in 100 degree heat - The Valley of Fire State Park. I'm glad that I did some research before our trip, because it ended up being one of my favorite places right off the bat! (each day seemed to top the day before, and this one was hard to top on day 1). Here are some pictures as we traveled down the desert Valley of Fire HWY and as we entered into the park...my first time I've ever seen Redrocks!
Below: The Beehives - Valley of Fire State Park
Above & Below: Chris and I did a lot of rock climbing in the Valley of Fire! Such an awesome place!
Hangin' with da Chipmunks!
Chipmunks out west are the equivalent to squirrels over here...THERE'S A LOT OF THEM! But in the Valley of Fire, the chipmunks have a pretty good life, seeing they must get fed a lot by the visitors. We were very excited to see our first munk, but after that it wasn't hard to spot them at all. In fact, you could kneel down and they would start coming out of the bushes and right up to your hand thinking you're feeding them. Always have loved these little guys!
Slideshow of chipmunks below:
Below: Awesome 3,000 year-old Indian petroglyphs
Fire Wave Trail
Our next stop in the Valley of Fire gave us an idea of how bad it would be if you got stranded in the desert! We did a mile hike during the heat of the day to the location that I was mostly looking forward to in the State Park - The Fire Wave. This was my first chance to really get some photos I was hoping for! But hiking in the desert sun along the loose dirt and fiery hot rocks sure does drain you! But the hike was well worth it - and seeing the car with water was too at the end of the hike! Check out these amazing formations known as the Fire Wave!! (after the hiking and lizard pictures of course)
Slideshow of the The Fire Way below:
White Domes Trail
After the Fire Wave, we drove deeper into the State Park (see the road pictures) to visit the White Domes - which were giant sandstone formations. Parts of this location was said to be the location where some of Return of the Jedi was filmed! I could tell...even though I haven't seen Star Wars. It looked like another world as you were hiking down into the giant canyon with yellow rock cliffs all around you! Just Amazing! Also on this trail we got to go through an awesome Slot Canyon! Made for some great pictures and climbing opportunities!
Bonus Picture Below: We saw two of these guys in the park!
White Domes Slideshow
Slot Canyon
Elephant Rock
Our last drive in the Valley of Fire State Park was to Elephant Rock towards the outer exit of the park before we made our way to Hoover Dam. I think you'll see why it's called Elephant Rock. Our God is so creative!
The Hoover Dam
The Hoover Dam sure was impressive! And no...we didn't do any Dam tours. It was too hot! ;)
Las Vegas Night Life
After an awesome and already exhausting day out in the desert, we made it back to Vegas before sundown. After getting cleaned up, we ate at an incredible buffet inside our Casino/Hotel. Then we walked the strip at night checking out all of the Casinos, including the Venetian, Bellagio, Palazzo, and more. But the coolest thing we did was we rode to the top of the Eiffel Tower where I got some amazing night time shots of the Vegas lights and the Bellagio fountains down below. Check out the last slide show from our night in Vegas!
P.S. - We did come away from Vegas with alittle more gas money! ;)
Slideshow of the Las Vegas Strip night lights below:
So we survived the Las Vegas desert and nightlife on Day 1! But we tried to get as much rest in our comfy hotel beds because we knew our greatest adventures and hottest day was coming up next! You think we packed a lot into Day 1, just you wait! Stay tuned for my next blog post - Day 2 - DEATH VALLEY!
Thanks for reading! Remember you can check out all of my landscape pictures from the Valley of Fire, Nevada in my Galleries/Places tab on my website.
GONE CAMPIN' IN JONES GAP | An Adventure Post
One of the best ways to make memories that last a lifetime is to go camping - because no matter how much you plan, you never know for sure what might happen! What better way to do that than with a great group of Christian guys (my roommates) as we took a quick camping trip to Jones Gap State Park this weekend - one of my favorite places in South Carolina.
For about half a year now, my roommates and I have been planning to take a trip out west to Yosemite and several other amazing National Parks this summer (which is something I've always longed to do!). However, we wanted to have at least one camping trip here at home to break one of my roommates in with the idea of "roughin' it" in the woods before we embark on the grandeur of the wild west! I think it's pretty safe to say we (or the weather) broke him in well for at least one night!
When I'm planning a camping trip, its like I also become a weatherman - checking the weather everyday before the trip. We had this weekend planned for about 2 weeks, and would you know it, our first tropical storm decides to hit the weekend. I don't mind camping in the rain every once awhile, but I also wanted to be able to enjoy some fun things for our first time camper (like building a fire and making Jiffy Pop). After checking constantly throughout the week, we finally looked like we were going to dodge the bullet with the tail end of Andrea leaving the Upstate by the time we got up there Friday evening.
We were excited to hopefully have a dry night, so we packed the car and prayed for safe travels and good weather before we hit the road!
As we were getting near Greenville, we noticed the sky started getting real overcast and dark towards the mountains. Robbie checked on his iPad and saw that the small rain cell that I had seen in Georgia and not worried about had become a large blob and it was heading our way. Alittle worried, we still pressed forward and tried to make it to the park before sunset. We finally got to Jones Gap around 7 PM and when we checked in with the ranger he asked us "y'all know we're about to get wet?" He went on to tell us we would probably have enough time to hike up to our campsite and set up camp and possibly start a fire before the rain came. So we took his advice to hustle and strapped on all of our equipment and hit the trail to hike about half a mile to our camp! Here's our BEFORE picture (we were dry):
At our campsite, I hurried and set up my 2-person tent. But, as Chris was setting up his tent one of the poles snapped and broke! So he and I tried to quickly think of anything to get the pole back tight so it would hold up the tent. But before we knew it, the bottom fell out and it began to rain for about 2 hours. Chris and I still tried to put together the tent while it was rain, but came to the conclusion that it was no use anymore since his tent would have been like sleeping in a waterbed after how soaked it got. Oh yea, during all of this - we explained to Robbie (since he looked wet and worried) that this was "extreme camping" now and not real camping! Haha! But to my surprise, Robbie responded "funny thing is, I'm actually having fun!" After playing around with the option of letting Chris sleep in my hammock with a tarp over him, we decided that he could sleep in my Jeep.
Now it was about 10 PM, we were soaked, without one tent, and with no fire and hungry stomachs. So we decided to hike back down the trail with our headlamps to the bath house to at least get out of the rain and regroup some. We made it to the bath house successfully, can't you tell we're happy (and soaked)?
After drying off and standing awkwardly in the restroom for a little while, I had the idea of using my backpacking stove to heat up our can of chili and cut up our hotdogs in it. I was getting everything set up then Chris asked "Do you have a can opener?" Me: "Uh....nope". We were going to try to use my knife but we noticed that the rain had died down outside. Still determined to have a fire and make a decent attempt of a meal, we decided to take a chance and go back up to our campsite and hope our firewood stayed dry enough under a tarp. Fortunately after cutting up the firewood some and using my fire starter sticks, we were able to get a fire going around 10:30 PM! After a whirl wind of a trip so far, we each gave each other a high five and we told Robbie "now this is real camping now!".
Here's us enjoying some hotdogs and Italian sausage on the fire! It was good to finally sit and relax and have a good time around the campfire!
And we even got to make my Jiffy Pop popcorn!!! A camping favorite!
It's not a UFO...its Jiffy Pop!
Finally after midnight, we decided it was time to walk Chris back down the trail (this was now our 4th time going down the trail at night) to my truck to set up a way for him to sleep in it. After doing so, Robbie and I hiked back up the trail to finally catch some sleep in the tent.
Morning in Jones Gap
One of my favorite reasons why I love camping at Jones Gap (which my brother and I have done many of times), is because of the beautiful Middle Saluda River that runs right through it - providing a peaceful river sound while you sleep and one of the prettiest rivers in South Carolina to play in and admire. I can't sleep long in a tent, so once I saw the sun coming up, I got out of the tent around 6:45 AM and sat by the river. I was able to get some good alone time in with God as I enjoyed the peacefulness of the nature around me. I also was able to get some awesome river pictures with excellent morning light. Check them out:
By then, Robbie had woke up and came down by the river. He relaxed for a while and also got some cool pictures of me taking some pictures.
After spending some good time by the river, we hiked down the trail to go see if Chris was up yet and out of my Jeep. Here is what we found when we got there...he had just woke up after a good nights sleep in a Jeep!
Hiking to Rainbow Falls
One of the most beautiful waterfalls in South Carolina is in Jones Gap State Park. It is also one of my favorites I like to photograph. We were blessed with beautiful weather (but 100% humidity) to hike a 2 mile streneous trail to the waterfall. Here are some pictures from our hike and when we reached the beautiful waterfall. It was the most full I had ever seen it with all of the rain we got during the week.
Approaching the falls, I loved seeing Chris's and Robbie's face as they saw it for the first time!
Chris is at the base of the waterfall - gives you perspective of how large it is!
The waterfall was so powerful it made a ton of mist, it was hard to keep my camera dry. (Chris took this picture and I give him credit! Even with the water on the lens it looks awesome! Check me out at the base of the waterfall!)
Robbie is laying on a rock by the base of the waterfall!
Pretty Place Chapel and Caesars Head
After and exhausting hike to and from the waterfall in 100% humidity and not good sleep from the night prior, we rewarded ourselves with driving up the mountain to one of the most beautiful places around! Pretty Place Chapel's name says it all. The outdoor chapel on top of the mountain that overlooks Jones Gap, is PRETTY. Many more words can describe the beautiful of the holy place, but my favorites are the words that are inscribed on the pilars of the chapel as you look out toward the mountain view and the Cross: "I will lift up my eyes to the hills..." from one of my favorite Bible verses:
Psalm 121:1-2
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
Caesars Head
After seeing these beautiful sights and stopping by Golden Coral to tear into some food like hungry bears, it was a perfect ending to a great camping trip. We thanked God for keeping us safe even in the rain, which in the end provided some great memories that we'll carry on for long time. I encourage you to get out and explore our Lord's beautiful creation - and hey, even give camping a shot! Robbie has already told us he'd do it again! We can't wait to go out west now...
Remember, any of my nature shots are available for purchasing in prints or canvas. Check them out on my website. Thank you for reading my blog!
HISTORIC POINSETT BRIDGE | An Adventure Post
This past Saturday, I took a nice summer drive to the Upstate to find the second of the two historic bridges that I've heard about in "The Dark Corner". Nestled in the foothills above Greenville, South Carolina is the oldest surviving bridge in the state - Poinsett Bridge. Check out my blog post about Campbell's Covered Bridge to see my story behind my interest in these bridges: CLICK HERE.
The Poinsett Bridge was built in 1820 and was part of the original state road that ran from Charleston to Columbia to Asheville. This beautifully structured bridge has a 14-foot gothic arch in the middle of it allowing the Little Gap Creek to flow gently under it as it connects further down to the North Saluda River. Believed to be designed by Robert Mills, the architect of the Washington Monument, the bridge was handsomely made of large stone and is registered on the National Register of Historic Places.
I knew this bridge looked fascinating in the pictures that I had seen, but I was really surprised when I visited it. The road leading up to the Poinsett Bridge Heritage Preserve was a pretty little mountain drive. The park was very well kept and the stillness and quietness at the bridge while listening to the water flow was peaceful. There are some trails that go throughout the preserve but I mainly just enjoyed the historic bridge this time. The lighting during my visit was just perfect as the afternoon sunlight was coming through the tree canopy directly on the bridge to brighten up the old mossy stones. The forest green trees surrounding it made a perfect crop for my images! I was a pleasure to make the trip up to this location on such a beautiful Saturday!
You can see my pictures of the Poinsett Bridge down below, but with it being such a wonderful afternoon in the mountains, I decided to take 276 up to the Blue Ridge Parkway before I headed back home. Along the way I stopped at Casaers Head, like I normally do when I'm making this drive, to take a peak off of South Carolina's most awesome view. The colors are just beautiful this time of year as all of the trees down below have their freshly green leaves back on them with the crisp blue sky above.
I was slightly disappointed when I made it up to the Blue Ridge Parkway, however. I was planning to watch an awesome sunset at a favorite location but a rain storm quickly came over the mountain causing me to get back in my car and call it a day. As I was driving down the parkway my friend and I were trying to decide where we wanted to eat on our way home. Fortunately, I had a the spur-of-the-moment great idea to stay up on the Blue Ridge Parkway and eat at the Pisgah Inn Restaurant! I have to say it's sort of a hidden secret which is guaranteed to not disappoint! Typically the Inn is used for romantic getaways or anniversaries, but the restaurant on the Blue Ridge Parkway overlook is top notch and welcomes any tired and hungry hikers! (I know by experience) While eating a belly filling country meal, you get to enjoy a panoramic view of the Blue Ridge mountains right out the window.
This pit stop definitely completed the successful day because as we were eating we heard people gasp with awe as everyone looked out the window and noticed the rain clouds had opened up to allow two bold rainbows to form over the mountain! Alittle disappointed that I decided to leave my favorite location early because of the rain, I was fortunate to be able to still see this awesome work of God! Many people, including the waiters, stopped what they were doing and either went outside or to the windows to take pictures of the colorful rainbows. My pictures below doesn't really do justice of how beautiful they were, partly because I had to run back to my car to get my camera and by the time I got back the rainbows weren't as vivid as they were before.
Thank you for reading this far! I hope that you enjoyed this adventure post and remember any of these images are available as prints on my website!
Poinsett Bridge, Greenville SC
Caesars Head, South Carolina
Looking Glass Falls, North Carolina
Mount Pisgah Double Rainbow and along the Blue Ridge Parkway
BONUS (If you've made it this far)!
About a month ago I had to get rid of my original "trekking" vehicle, my Nissan Xterra. It was a good truck that I loved to use all throughout Clemson, while living in Asheville, and through all of my trips! But, with a broken down vehicle comes a new ride! So here are some of my first pictures of my new car on it's first trip to the mountains! I think it'll do just fine. ;)