East to west California Highway 120 travels up the steepest gradient of road in the first ten miles gaining 3,000 feet in elevation from U.S. 395 at Mono Lake at around 7,000 feet to the Tioga Pass gate for Yosemite National Park at 9,945 feet. Tioga Pass Road is the highest road of the highway passes across the Sierra Nevada.

Mount Dana (13,061 feet) on the eastern edge of Yosemite National Park is the second highest mountain in the park. There are trails from Tioga Pass Road to the summit of Mount Dana.

Some of the best pullout view spots are along the road in the 11 miles before reaching the Yosemite National Park Tioga Pass entrance gate. The vehicle entrance fee is $20. 

Read More…

Spending the night at 9,000 feet in elevation at the Mammoth Mountain ski resort reminded me of the time I stayed in Quito, Ecuador (9,350 feet). I walked around Quito feeling naturally high with dreamy thoughts floating around my head and big picture ideas jotted down in my journals. I bought a painting in Quito of a locomotive train floating in the sky above the mountains and city. That painting symbolizes the bizarre state of mind I felt living high up in thin air.

I woke up yesterday in Mammoth with stream of consciousness thoughts, wrote an ADD structured blog post and then apprehensively went to see if a bear or woolly mammoth had ransacked my car where I had left three day old chicken from Colorado sitting in the dry ice chest. Even the bears did not desire that buffalo sauce chicken from Beaver Creek.

The car was untouched and I immediately tossed the forgotten old food from the ice chest before starting the 33-mile drive to Tioga Pass, Yosemite National Park.

Still skiing on Friday, May 17 at Mammoth Mountain. Some years skiing conditions last to July.

Four miles down the mountain to Mammoth Lakes Village and I was feeling sickly from lack of food and high altitude.

The night before I had seen a sign in the village advertising $4 breakfast.

Old New York Deli & Bakery, Mammoth Lakes, CA.

$4 breakfast consisted of two eggs, potatoes and toast. Food along with a $2 extra large coffee, brought my floating head sufficiently down to earth for driving 33 miles north through Long Valley to Mono Lake and then up Tioga Pass for the 59-mile drive through the high Sierra of Yosemite National Park.

Mammoth Lakes is a high altitude winter ski and summer adventure resort town at 7,880 feet in elevation. This is the place where athletes come for  endurance training.  The village is great for breakfast deals.

Mammoth Mountain (11,059 ft.) is located on the southwestern edge in the Long Valley caldera. This is one of the largest calderas on earth, about 20 miles east-west and 11 miles north-south, formed from a volcanic eruption some 760,000 years ago. The Mammoth Lakes area of the Eastern Sierra is still seismically active with major earthquake potential.

Mammoth Lakes, California.

The Eastern Sierra is a rugged and visually stunning landscape. Much of this mountain area is protected in three National Parks: Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia.

The Eastern Sierra is difficult to access from coastal California most of the year when the few mountain passes are snow covered and even when plowed, often require snow chains. I have traveled this region only in summer before this current trip. I think the Eastern Sierra mountains are more visually stunning after most of the snow has gone and the barren rock faces are the dominant feature of the landscape.

View of Eastern Sierra from Highway 395 north of Mammoth Lakes, California.

Near Mono Lake are the Mono Craters, the youngest volcanic region in North America, created some 40,000 years ago.

Mono Craters south of Mono Lake.

The inside cover of Pink Floyd’s album Wish You Were Here featured ‘The Diver’ photograph taken at Mono Lake by photographer Storm Thorgerson who passed away one month ago on April 18, 2013. Storm designed many rock album covers for Pink Floyd and others like Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy,

Mono Lake, California

The Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here album art features the calcium carbonate tufa spires of Mono Lake. I was just five miles from the South Tufa area where the limestone spires can be seen, but Yosemite was foremost on my mind and getting through the high mountains was my priority before storm clouds forecast for later in the day.

Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve will be a journey for another day.

Tioga Pass is the highest paved road mountain pass across the Sierra Nevada in California at 9,945 feet. The pass generally opens in mid-May and opened May 11 for the 2013 season.

California State Route 120 is the road I drove from Benton to Mono Lake with the five miles of dips.

The entire 59-mile section of Highway 120 through Yosemite National Park is called Tioga Pass.

Much of the Tioga Pass road through Yosemite National Park is at 8,000 feet or higher in elevation with scenic views of sheer cliffs, large boulders, meadows and lakes. 

California Highway 120 west looking up to the high Sierra of Yosemite National Park.

Next up Tioga Pass, Yosemite National Park.

Can you see the real me on Loyalty Traveler?

Over the past few years a common occurrence happens when points and miles bloggers meet me. People generally tell me that I am nothing like they expected from reading my blog.

There were about 45 bloggers at the Boarding Area conference in Colorado Springs last weekend. I spent time talking with about 15 of the bloggers.

I am horrible at small talk, mingling and working a room.

Tell stories and I’ll be hanging with you for hours. Hang with me and I’ll tell you stories for hours.

Rude Awakening

I had met only a few of the BoardingArea bloggers at two events in the past. I was a presenter at FrugalTravelGuy’s 2010 conference in Chicago. I cancelled out on the October 2011 conference in February 2011 while suffering a fever in Washington, D.C. and I have never been asked to speak at any other Points & Miles events.

I do not go to MegaDo, FTU, the Freddies and all the conference gatherings. My experience with these conferences has been most of the conversation is about someone’s latest credit card acquisition and shopping miles score rather than stories of the personal travel adventures coming out of those deals. People tend to talk about places they have been without telling much about the places and the people they meet there.

My blog is where most people meet me and apparently that is not a sufficiently revealing source of information to provide a picture of who I am and where I came from.

These comments or something very similar were said to me over the three BAcon days:

• You know how you imagine someone will be and when you meet them you realize they are completely different. (I’m not sure if that was a positive or negative reaction. I think it was positive at BAcon, although at other conferences I think it was meant negatively.)
• From your blog I thought you were much older; like 75 or something. (I am 53).
• You have a much more interesting personality than comes through on your blog. You should share more of your stories.
• You  should share more of your personal stories on your blog. (I know I just said this in the previous bullet, however, this was told to me by several people.)
• You are an odd duck among the BoardingArea bloggers.
• You really are a hippie. (Not really. I tried to be, and I lived around many hippies, but I have always been more of a solitary soul than a communal participant. That is why I am so happy living life as Loyalty Traveler blogger these days.)
• What’s up with that creepy hot tub photo on your blog?  (This sentiment was expressed by several bloggers.  That is why I addressed the hot tub photo issue in its own post this week.)

Oral Fixations

I like to hear travel stories. I like to tell travel stories.

The question I ask myself frequently as I write Loyalty Traveler blog posts is “How much of my personal history should I share in my posts?”

It is hard to know when a story from my past 53 years is relevant and interesting to readers or if it comes off as a narcissistic distraction.

So I am thinking of trying something like “Story Friday” on Loyalty Traveler where I share a travel story from my past. Since I am not good at following routines, the story will likely appear any day of the week.

To start I think I should give readers three broad spectrum posts to share my parent-guided travel years (1-15), my self-guided travel years (16-34) and my domestic and international travel years (34-48) up to the time I started writing Loyalty Traveler.

The Story Inside

My family are storytellers. We grew up in an oral tradition and much of that was due to frequent moving during the years when my father was in the army.

Can you see the real me?

I have lived in Monterey for the past ten years and I was born about seven miles from where I currently live. I met my wife Kelley at the Monterey Peninsula Junior College in a room about ten minutes walk from where we live. Until 2001, I never lived in the same place for more than four years.

Growing up I changed schools 12 times in 11 years from kindergarten to my last year of high school. I stayed at Seaside High for less than one year before leaving home during my junior year on a cross-country Greyhound bus to see the U.S. My parents were not the problem I was fleeing. I had wanderlust and school was too depressing a place to be hanging out for another year.

For the next few years I blew like a tumbleweed or dandelion from place to place living on the beaches of Oahu and Kauai, deserts of Nevada and the woods of Vermont. Some days I ‘d simply walk out to the road and put my thumb out to see where I would end up at the end of the day. I love the outdoors and I quickly tire of cities and crowds of people.

Rock and roll music gave me life. I am not a musician, just a listener. Before starting Loyalty Traveler my favorite job was nine months I worked in a record store when I was 19. I am a bit of a musicologist and most of the live concerts I have seen in my life were the result of winning rock trivia contests. If you want to talk Classic Rock, I am a good resource. Readers might notice I often use rock lyrics in my blog posts.

This post is not a travel story. This is just an opener.

Until another Story Friday.

Update May 18, 2013: Yesterday was a day spent in Yosemite where I had to tell myself for 90 minutes to put the camera down and get laser focused on driving home before dark. While making the 4-hour drive from Yosemite Valley to Monterey, I realized I forgot to add that the BAcon conference was the best travel-blogging-as-a-business conference I have attended yet. This post made that major omission and likely left some readers with the wrong impression of BAcon.

There were 45 bloggers at BAcon and many memorable travel stories to hear from bloggers who travel for business and leisure. I know I’ll be reading more travel bloggers regularly after last weekend.

Randy Petersen and the team excelled at the conference organization.

Today has been a day of extremes. In six hours I traveled from 190 feet below sea level at Furnace Creek in Death Valley National Park to 9,000 feet in a room at the highest lodge in California at Mammoth Mountain in the Eastern Sierra range.

Mammoth Mountain Inn.

The extreme temperature range in six hours peaked at 104 in Death Valley with hot air blowing through the long valley between noon and 2pm to 37 degrees and blowing snow on the mountain at Mammoth Lakes at 8pm.

12 noon temperature at Furnace Creek Visitor Center, Death Valley National Park. Three days ago, on Monday, May 13, 2013 the temperature reached 118 degrees F. Furnace Creek holds the record for the highest verifiable temperature on earth at 135 F. recorded July 10, 1913.

Mammoth Mountain, Mammoth Lakes, California at 37 degrees F at 9,000 feet elevation when I arrived at 8 pm.

What a long, strange day it’s been.

My day started in Las Vegas, Nevada. Then I drove to Death Valley, California, then back to Nevada and over Lida Summit, then back to California for a drive through Fish Lake Valley which crosses back into Nevada again, then finally back to California where I will remain for the rest of my drive home to Monterey.

Taking the Back Roads

The routing for my back roads trip is even beyond the ability of Google Maps. Read More…

The Narrows is a slot canyon hike at Zion National Park, mostly walking through the Virgin River. National Geographic ranks hiking the Narrows as one of the top ten adventures in the National Parks. The Narrows is one of the best known slot canyon hikes in the world and ranks as the top attraction for Zion National Park on TripAdvisor.

Yesterday I sampled the Narrows hike for about an hour. The full hike can be a 6 to 12 hour adventure.

What a difference one week makes. The Riverside Walk is a one mile paved trail at the Temple of Sinawava shuttle stop, the last shuttle stop for the park that takes visitors the farthest up in Zion Canyon. This is the spot where I was caught in a spring hail storm last week. Within five minutes the temperature dropped from 75 to 55 and dozens of park visitors around me were covered in ice. Most people did not have appropriate weather gear for the conditions and many had to take the next couple of shuttles for the 40 minute ride back to the parking lot and their cars for dry clothing.

Yesterday the temperature was in the upper 80s at about 3pm when I arrived at the visitor center of Zion National Park. I packed 3 liters of water, my camera, binoculars and water shoes and caught the shuttle into Zion Canyon Scenic Drive. Over 20 years ago I bought a pair of shoes specifically for river hiking and they live in the deep recesses of my car trunk. It was about time they saw the light of day again.

The final shuttle stop, deepest upriver in Zion Canyon, is the Temple of Sinawava stop.

Temple of Sinawava shuttle bus stop in Zion National Park.

Riverside Walk is a paved trail extending one mile into the canyon past the end of the paved road. There is work currently in progress to repair part of the paved trail and a couple hundred yards in the middle section are through sand making the section far more difficult for disabled access.

Riverside Walk detour off paved path.

Last week the squirrels were smart enough to be hidden from the elements when it dumped rain and hail. This time the little buggers were kind of scary following tourists around begging for food. These were the most aggressively panhandling squirrels I’ve encountered since Washington D.C. There are posters all around Zion National Park showing a human hand with a stitched wound from a squirrel bite.

Signs also state a $100 fine for feeding wildlife.

What you looking at?

Thanks to the commenters yesterday for pointing out that my photo of a pronghorn was misidentified as a mule deer.

On the Riverside Walk there was a mule deer feeding.

Mule deer beside Riverside Walk path, Zion National Park.

The paved section of path had plenty of visitors on the clear sky, dry day. I am amazed at the number of French speaking people I encountered on my hikes through Utah’s National Parks.

Riverside Walk, Zion National Park.

There were some totally wet hikers coming down the Riverside Trail. I had not planned on full water immersion. I  carry a waterproof bag in the trunk of my car. Once again I was not totally prepared for Zion’s elements since the sensible thing would have been to pack my camera and wallet in the waterproof bag and place that inside my backpack. Practice makes perfect and I have been too long away from the outdoors life I used to frequent. Hotel life has spoiled me.

Virgin River seen from Riverside Walk.

At the end of the Riverside Walk there were around 50 people and dozens more hiking out of the river. There were still a handful of people hiking in so I changed my shoes, packed my camera in my backpack and fortunately found a walking stick some other hiker had left behind.

Walking sticks

I noticed about one-third of the hikers did not have a walking stick. This is an essential tool for the Narrows in my opinion. I used the stick to gauge water depth and feel for rocks and sand. The water was not deep in most sections I hiked, however, at one point I was in water up to my knees and a woman ten feet away was wading in water four feet deep. Without the stick I would have fallen at least once. Most injuries in Zion National Park occur in the Narrows. It is very easy to twist an ankle or slip in the water and hit your knee on a rock.

Crossing the Virgin River heading up the Narrows.

The end of the Riverside Walk is a gathering place for hikers and spectators.

On the sandy shore, as soon as I crossed over from the launching point for the Narrows, was a wild turkey common to Zion National Park.

Wild turkey.

There are many places where the Virgin River flows wall to wall in the slot canyon. Most hikers I saw were going on their own. There are adventure guides to lead groups into the Narrows and I saw several guided groups departing as I was hiking upstream. At the time I was hiking in the afternoon, I estimate over 95% of the hikers were coming out of the Narrows.

The Narrows river walk.

Reports I read stated the water was cold just two weeks ago. Adventure outfitters offer wetsuits for the hike. The water temperature was not uncomfortable at all to me. Nothing like when I put my feet into Eagle River while staying in Beaver Creek in the Rocky Mountains the other day.

On the shuttle bus I heard the audio tour state that water levels in the Virgin River can change from 50 cfs to 3,000 cfs in a matter of minutes during summer storms when a flash flood hits the slot canyon. The Narrows is closed when the water volume exceeds 120 to 150 cfs. Yesterday the volume was 67 cfs which is slightly below average for this time of year. Visitors can check this USGS website for water flow data.

Photography is difficult in the Narrows with high canyon walls creating dark light and the higher cliff faces creating vibrant contrasting lighted areas.

Looking up from the Narrows.

Several curious tourists asked me about the experience when I came out again at the end of the Riverside Walk path.

I simply said the walk is a rite of passage. And I am telling you now that if you are in Zion National Park, the weather is favorable and you are physically capable of walking through a shallow river, then you need to hike the Narrows. There is no need to do the full hike, although I met several people who had hiked six hours or more deep into the canyon. I saw hikers in their late 60s and children as young as five years old hiking the Narrows.

The Narrows, Zion National Park.

This was the perfect end to my road trip through the five National Parks of Utah.

Yesterday I completed my objective of visiting all five Utah National Parks on this road trip. Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyonlands. Last week I hiked in snow showers at Bryce Canyon on a day when it was 35 degrees at 9,200 ft. Yesterday I hiked for miles in Arches National Park on a day when it was in the low 90s.

Read More…

Yesterday was the eighth day of my western states road trip. I had finally hit the wall after not getting more than six hours sleep any night and only about four hours sleep the previous two nights. I drove around the mountains  of the Beaver Creek/Vail area spending time in the 8,000 to 10,000+ elevation range. The sun is intense at that altitude.

Photo from I-70. I will have to see if I can figure out these locations and actual mountains next week. This is a view from Georgetown before the Eisenhower Tunnel (11,158 ft.) some 50 miles outside of Denver.

Kelley, my wife, asked me yesterday if I had passed out yet in the mountains. That is reference to when we drove her mother’s household goods from Eureka, California to Denver, Colorado in July 1999. I was driving a 24-ft Ryder moving truck through the Eisenhower tunnel and suddenly started getting all fuzzy headed and feeling like I was about to pass out. Kelley’s sister was in the cab with me and giving me water to drink and poising herself to take over the wheel.

Altitude causes strange things to different people. I have found on my last few trips that avoiding alcohol is a major factor.

In 2010 Kelley and I drank a six-pack of beer each at Park Hyatt Beaver Creek 8,100 ft. and the next day was ruined. In 2011 I was hiking at 12,000 feet feeling fine. In Keystone Ski Resort last June, after a pub crawl from the Denver Zoo to Loveland Pass (11,990 ft.), the opening night reception for the TBEX Travel Blog Exchange conference at the ski lodge 11,600 ft. had me feeling poorly and calling it an early night.

Avoid the alcohol or at least remain moderate in the high elevation or that expensive resort vacation might find you spending all your time in bed rather than on the mountain slopes.

Silverthorne, Colorado (9.035 ft.). This is ten miles west of the Continental Divide.

Dillon Reservoir still mostly covered in ice seen from I-70.

Sunset over Dillon Reservoir, Colorado.

I learned yesterday that the Rocky Mountain ski area resort properties are so inexpensive due to off-season renovations and repairs. Be sure to call the hotel and check the status of facilities. Many hotels I visited the past two days had restaurants closed, pools closed or even a hotel like Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch is fully closed until the first week of June.

Beaver Creek ski resort seen from high up on the mountain slopes. Eagle River flows west through the valley. Beaver Creek  town is about 8,000 ft. in the valley and the higher ski slopes are up around 11,000 ft.

Beaver Creek, Colorado. In town there is the Sheraton Mountain Vista Villas and a Comfort Inn across the street from that hotel.

There are hundreds of condo rentals in the valley.

Westin Riverfront is truly on the riverfront in the valley.

Eagle River, Beaver Creek, Colorado.

I stepped in the river. And promptly got my feet out again. That water is cold.

View of the mountains south of Beaver Creek.

I learned yesterday that Beaver Creek was developed as a downhill ski resort for the 1976 Winter Olympic Games. The citizens of Colorado in 1972 voted to turn away the Olympic Games and the games moved to Innsbruck, Austria instead.

That is the only time in the history of the Olympic Games that a host city backed out of sponsoring the games.

View from Beaver Creek golf course to the north side of the valley where I snapped the high elevation photos of Beaver Creek.

Beaver Creek will host the 2015 Alpine World Championship. This will be the third time (1989 and 1999).

One of the BAcon bits that was made clear to me over this past weekend is most readers find the slideshow image on Loyalty Traveler of the hot tub with rose petals ‘creepy’. I heard that word a lot over three days.

This photo is from the Holiday Inn Express in Yreka, California November 2008. The newly opened hotel had an open house for the community.

I arrived on a road trip from Portland, Oregon heading south back to Monterey in November 2008. The hotel stay was a Priority Club 5,000 points PointBreaks award night. Besides a cheap room using points, the hotel was serving complimentary Sierra Nevada beer for the two hours of Open House.

There were several hotel rooms open for visitors to see. The hot tub with rose petals was in one of the open house rooms at the Holiday Inn Express, Yreka.

There was no hot tub in the room where I stayed the night.

The slideshow will soon be gone from Loyalty Traveler

My website was reviewed by Andy Hayes in a seminar session for BAcon, the Boarding Area conference in Colorado Springs May 10-12, 2013.

Andy recommended the entire slideshow be removed since the reader has no control to stop and gaze at any photo and there are no captions to the photos.

Andy also said the rose petals around the hot tub were creepy.

My mental association with the hot tub photo is remembering a cheap hotel night drinking free beer with the great people of Yreka, California. I wonder if the community members from Yreka thought the hot tub room was creepy at the time?

What association do you make with the hot tub and rose petals that makes it so creepy?

The hot tub image has been removed from the front page, although still visible if reading an older post from 2012 or earlier. The entire slideshow will be removed from Loyalty Traveler soon. The changes have to be made by BoardingArea technical staff. I do not have control over that plug-in which is why it has not been changed to date.

Another hot tub photo

Today I photographed another hot tub on my BAcon to KPIG road trip from Colorado Springs back to Monterey.

No rose petals.

Is this hot tub creepy?

Sheraton Mountain Vista Villas, Avon, Colorado hot tub on 7th floor with view of Beaver Creek ski area.

Last night I was blessed with a sighting of three Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep near Georgetown, Colorado as I was driving Interstate 70.

Finally a dream come true after many trips through the Rocky Mountains without ever sighting bighorn sheep.

The sighting came as I was driving I-70 going 60 mph at about 10,000 feet in elevation. No cars immediately behind me meant I could slow down as I moved to the left lane and passed by the bighorn sheep going about 25 mph.

The three sheep were standing next to the freeway at dusk. There was no barrier to keep the bighorn sheep from stepping five feet into the I-70 road traffic.

My first impression is these bighorn sheep were huge. A little Wikipedia reading informs me that Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep are the largest of the three North American sub-species. Males can weigh up to 500 pounds. The three bighorn sheep I saw looked to be full sized males. The bighorn sheep’s curved horns can weigh more than 30 pounds.

Unfortunately my camera was in the trunk of my car.

This photo is from Wikipedia. Imagine three of these images side-by-side and that was my sighting.

I pray they headed back into the wilderness to survive the night.

Wikimedia Commons: Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis) in front of Mount Wilbur in Glacier National Park, Montana, USA

Washing the gravel out of my travel

The second best thing I saw last night was this hotel room amenity at the Westin Riverfront Villas in Avon, Colorado.

After seven days and nights on the road, I needed to wash out the dirt and gravel from my travel.

Patio view of Beaver Creek Mountain ski area from Westin Riverfront, Avon.

This property has average rates of $322. My rate last night was $116.

Full review of Westin Riverfront Resort to come soon. I have to visit some Beaver Creek area resorts today and touch Moab, Utah for stargazing tonight.

Today is checkout day for the Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs for the final day of the Boarding Area blogger conference hosted by Randy Petersen and the House of Miles.

I was looking for a hotel tonight in Colorado and checking Denver rates.

Sheraton Denver Tech Center:

• BAR = $179
• AAA = $69

This is the largest AAA discount I ever recall seeing.

While that hotel rate looks tempting, the Sheraton DTC hotel is one I have stayed at before and I did not have great things to say in my previous reviews. As I recall, the walls were paper thin and carried sound from room to room.

Going Upscale

While a bit more expensive, the rates for Starwood Hotels in Beaver Creek (near Vail) are truly deals right now.

Westin Riverfront Mountain Villas, Beaver Creek, Colorado

• AAA = $116
• 12,000 Starpoints (SPG category 5)

This looks like the right time to be heading for the mountains and a nice resort.