My mom had a big birthday coming up and had a special request. She wanted me, my sister and her to go on a hot air balloon ride. My sister and I had never done this, didn’t know anything about this and had some work to do but we pulled it off! Where: Rancho Murieta Distance: About 10 miles Difficulty: ...

We headed north to Hetch Hetchy to see what those waterfalls were looking like. We kept a lookout for rattlesnakes and bears along the trail and had a surprising encounter with one of these. Where: Yosemite National Park Distance: 11.25 Miles Difficulty: Moderate Elevation Range: 3,695′ to 4,459′ Date: April 5, 2016 Maps: Ackerson Mountain and Hetch Hetchy Reservoir Topographic Quads We ...

I had gotten word that the San Joaquin River Trail was loaded with many different types and colors of wildflowers putting on a great show. We had to check it out. Where: Bureau of Land Management, San Joaquin River Gorge Special Management Area, Millerton Lake State Recreation Area Distance: 9.41 Miles Difficulty: Easy to Moderate Elevation Range: 564′ – 1,279′ Date: March ...

With all of our recent rain and warm spring-like weather, I had been hearing reports about what a great show our local waterfalls were putting on but I hadn’t heard any reports on Chilnualna Falls. We needed to go check it out for ourselves. It was a good sign when we could hear Chilnualna Falls roaring from the parking lot and ...

Hite Cove is famous for the spring poppy display but this year is a little different. I hadn’t heard any good reports on the wildflowers in Hite Cove area and was very curious how our winter’s crazy weather was affecting them. We had a couple of surprises. One was the trail condition and the other was the diversity of types ...

We had headed over for the “Superbloom” but how can you not go to Death Valley and see more? Rugged, wildly colored canyons and mountains where miners seeked their fortunes and lonely sand dunes called to us to explore them. Many wonderful books have been written about Death Valley and I am not about to attempt to do that in this blog, ...

El Nino has helped create a “superbloom” of wildflowers in Death Valley. About every 10 years or so this rare event takes place and doesn’t last too long. I couldn’t wait to get over there and experience those yellow, pink and purple wildflowers for myself. Death Valley’s average annual rainfall is 2 inches a year, and sometimes, it gets no rain ...

Not all hiking trips go as planned and this is one of our doozies and it was all my fault. We chose this hike to check out the wildflowers at Eastman Lake and had heard that the eagles were flying there. That would be so cool to see an eagle! Distance: 8 Miles Difficulty: Easy to Moderate, depending on how ...

Mom and I headed up out of Briceburg to see if those poppies were blooming along the Merced River. They were, along with many other wildflowers. Distance: 6.34 Miles, but you can go shorter or longer Difficulty: Easy Elevation Range: 1,086′ to 1,207′ Date: February 21, 2016 Maps: Bear Valley and Buckingham Mountain Topographic Maps I headed up Hwy 140 to ...

Poppies and other colorful wildflowers were starting to come alive with our recent warm spell and we couldn’t wait to see if we could spot some. I just love poppies! Where: BLM, San Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area Distance: 7.72 Miles Difficulty: Easy to Moderate, depending on how far you go Elevation Range: 636′ to 1,861′ Date: February 15, ...