West Coast National Parks: Part 1 (May 2024)
This was our longest and most national parks visited trip so far. We planned to visit 12 national parks, 2 national monuments, a river, a bridge, and a road. All of this in about 2 weeks.
Montezuma Castle National Monument
After flying into the Phoenix Airport, we drove our rental car to Montezuma Castle National Monument. This is a five-story dwelling that we believe was built by the Sinagua people. It is built into the side of a limestone cliff. The ruins were incorrectly named after the Aztec Chief Montezuma who had nothing to do with the site. After a quick hike we set off for our hotel but stopped for dinner at a diner on Route 66 near Winslow, AZ.
Petrified Forest National Park
Our next stop was Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. We drove the Petrified Forest Road and stopped at Tiponi Point, Painted Desert Inn, Nizhoni Point, Whipple Point, and historic Route 66. At the historic Route 66 overlook you get to see the old telephone polls where the road use to run. For some reason, there is an abandoned Studebaker there. It is a great place for pictures. There were some great overviews and picture opportunities driving this road. We also hiked Blue Mesa Trail, Crystal Forest Trail, Giant Logs Trail. There were some fantastic petrified trees along the way. Looking over the Painted Desert was amazing.
That night at our hotel we played a game of pool to relax from our driving. Of course, my wife won the game.
Saguaro National Park in Arizona was our 25th National Park that we have visited together. It has lots of cacti including saguaro, prickly pear, and barrel cacti. Saguaro cacti don't develop arms until they are at least 75 years old. They can get up to 40 feet tall and can live up to 200 years. We hiked the Valley View Overlook Trail which had the most variety of cacti. At the Signal Hill Picnic Area, we took a short hike to see some petroglyphs. We also visited the Arizona Desert Museum which is a combination museum, zoo, and botanical garden just outside the park. If you like cacti this is your place.
Joshua Tree was our 26th National Park. You might guess this park is all about Joshua Trees. You would be wrong. There are a lot of Joshua Trees here but the real stars of this park are the rocks. Well actually boulders. They are everywhere and they are great for climbing. They go by names like Cap Rock, Skull Rock, Arch Rock, Split Rock, Jumbo Rock, and Heart Rock. I had a well-planned itinerary for what we would visit and which hikes to take. We pretty much threw that out the window and just looked for boulders that we wanted to climb. We had a great time climbing and exploring.
Our 27th national park was Channel Islands about 25 miles off the coast of Ventura, CA. We took a ferry to Santa Cruz Island and saw harbor seals and dolphins on the way. An hour and a half later we changed into wetsuits, helmets, and life vests to join 3 other couples and a guide for a kayak tour. We launched our kayaks into the Pacific Ocean and then paddled into several sea caves. The biggest cave took us 300 feet into the cave and the guide told us there were 250 feet of rock over our heads. Some of the caves were only a few feet wider than our kayak and at times we had to bend down to keep from hitting our heads. While paddling in the ocean we were joined by a sea lion only 4 feet away.
This was our first time kayaking in the open ocean and once we paddled out of the protected area things did get a bit choppy, but it was definitely an exciting adventure. It helped that we were in a two-person kayak.
After completing the 2 hour kayak adventure we hiked up a mountain that over looked the ocean. And on the ferry ride back to the mainland, the captain spotted and circled a blue whale, but I had to take his word for it because I never saw it. It was an exciting and tiring day.
