Photograph 10 Hikes in 2007

Not gonna go for three more hikes before midnight tomorrow.

A noble goal. Maybe next year….

Hiked over the hill to meet my husband at the freeway ramp.

Sarah? Does this count?

Getting back to regular exercise. It was a nice evening. The birds were getting ready to rest for the night.

I love this place. Cool rocks to climb on and around, and a great view of the Eastern Sierras.

What a perfect day for it. It was Hydra’s birthday hike. We camped here Wednesday night on our way to Owens Valley. It rained in the night, but was dry in the morning. Cool air, bright sunlight…lots of nooks and crannies to explore, and we kept being able to look back at our campsite or various rocks that we worked our way to, around, past, and back past when we realized we couldn’t get down the ridge from another spot.

I’m counting this because it was longer than our usual 35 minute circuit hikes, and because it was grueling, and very steep, and I photographed it!

Okay, finally entered more photos on Flickr.

Me and my shadow at Vasquez Rocks County Park. Hydra and I hiked there for almost an hour. Took a long loop throught the back part of the park. Most people come to climb around on the big famous rocks that have shown up in so many TV commercials, shows and movies.

We would have hiked longer, but we didn’t get there till a bit before 4pm and the park closes at 5pm in the winter. It’s a great place to just follow your nose.

It’s about 15 minutes from our house. We met some friends for lunch on past this place and did the hike on the way back.

Ha… This really is a different part from the first one. I just tend toward big rocks, I guess!

It was a beautiful day for a hike. We took our friends from Indiana to the Punchbowl to do the loop. It’s only 1.4 miles, but you are almost constantly descending or ascending, so it ends up taking more than an hour.

We stopped at the creek at the bottom for photos. Bonnie was a geology minor, so she got a kick out of it. It’s formed by fault lines.

Afterward, our friendly ranger Dave pointed out that you can see both Mount Whitney (tallest mt. in the contiguous states) and Telescope Peak (which overlooks the lowest point, Badwater in Death Valley) from the parking lot. Wow. Never realized that! Those are both more than 100 miles as the crow flies.

This isn’t the greatest shot…it’s where the creek leaves the punchbowl. I was distracted and didn’t take as many photos as I did when Hydra and I came here by ourselves on the 30th of December. It’s become sort of a tradition for us to come up here around the New Year. One year there was snow on the trail!

Saramarie came up with this idea to combine two things we both enjoy.