New Year, New Travels
Catherine Ryan Hyde
I always have the same plan for getting off my butt and onto a high mountain trail. I make reservations at the Grand Canyon. Preferably Phantom Ranch, which is such a tough reservation to get. Then I know I have to get back in shape, and there's no way to really postpone it. Well...in this case I had to make my reservations a full year in advance. December '11. So I could postpone it. But, you know what? I never want to. I'm always so inspired by knowing I'm heading back to the Canyon that I fall in love with hiking all over again. This will be my fourth Canyon hike.
Since making those reservations last month, I've added quite a few new galleries of hiking photos. The Coast Ridge Road in Big Sur, looking down at the Morro Bay tidal flats from Black Hill, my "everyday" walk on the Moonstone Beach Boardwalk, the Salmon Creek Trail, and just this morning Pinnacles National Monument. I spent the last two days there, and brought home over 150 photos. But I weeded them down. Just so you know.
I also took some video footage (and I have to tell you, that's one tough video camera--I dropped it from waist height onto the asphalt of the Bear Gulch parking area, and it still takes footage) and will update this blog when I have it posted.
The My Photos link is here. If you've never looked around in those photos, please do. Some were taken halfway around the world, others within a minute's walking distance of my house.
More to come as I hike it.
And here's the video: