Black Mountain, Calif.

Yesterday I took off for an overnight trip to Black Mountain, just west of San Jacinto Mtn, about two hours from Long Beach. I found the spot just by looking around at camping locations online, and I couldn't have been more pleased. This place was incredible. I was at the Boulder Basin campground - you go about 8 miles past the tiny mountain town of Idyllwild and then you turn off and take another 5 miles up a dirt fire road to the camp. First time my trucks ever been in 4 wheel drive. It was great. 

The camp site was beautiful, full of giant boulders, a ton of woodpeckers knocking all over the place, giant pine trees and crisp air. I took a short hike up to the Black Mountain fire lookout, that's been in use since the early '60s. The view was incredible. I spent a few hours at the camp site reading the Dharma Bums, and couldn't help but picture Jack Kerouac working and living in the fire lookout, like he did one summer long ago on Desolation Peak. 

 I had no idea there were mountains and vistas like this within a 2 hr drive of the beach. It was raining off and on though all morning (after a pretty rough night's sleep), so instead of staying another afternoon and night in the tent hiding from the rain, i packed up early and drove back to long beach this afternoon. Great time. 

Pine Valley, Utah

On the trip to Utah this June, our family friend (and mom's boss) let us use their cabin up on Pine Valley, Utah. We'd been to this same cabin the year before and really liked it, so we wanted to have another crack at it. The air is always cooler than it is down in the desert. It's a great, peaceful place full of green pine trees, big blue skies and lazy afternoons. We spent most the time playing cornhole or horseshoes, or just whittling on the porch. We did go fishing one day at Baker Reservoir - I caught nothing, and Dusty caught like 5 or 6 little fish, and threw them back. The best part was probably the dutch oven cooking. Well, that and the stars. We got some great long exposure shots of the night sky. 

Sand Mountain, Utah

A few weeks ago I took a trip to Southern Utah to meet up with most of my family - Mom and Dad, Dustin, Brandon and Misty and their kids Kyla and Casey. We rented these side-by-side 4x4s and a friend of our parents took us out on these huge dunes and rock trails all over this mountain (called Sand Mountain) just south of Hurricane and east of St. George. It was a great, new way to experience an area we've been coming to most of our lives, and see it in a different way. Awesome time. 

Bro'd Trip / CA, AZ, CO, UT, NV

These are some photos from last years Bro'd Trip (June 2011). My older brother Dustin and I drove from Los Angeles east up into Arizona, looped over through a corner of Colorado, then west into Utah and looped around through to our parents house in Hurricane, Utah, then down through Las Vegas and back to Los Angeles. 

Our route took us to the Grand Canyon, Arches Nat'l Park, Canyonlands Nat'l Park, Capitol Reef Nat'l Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante Nat'l Monument, Sunset Crater, Monument Valley, Four Corners, and countless other small points of interest and Native American ruins. 

It was so liberating to get out with no real concrete schedule or plan, and just drive around the west, seeing all these incredibly beautiful places. We promised to do more Bro'd Trips in the coming years - We'd like to road trip/camp up through Montana - see Glacier Nat'l Park (haven't been there since High School), or maybe even a trip around Colorado. We took hundreds of photos, so I'm sure I'll get around to posting some more on here. 

The map is loosely the route we took - not exact, but pretty close. 

Yosemite Nat'l Park, Calif.

Last September (2011), Kristen and I took a short trip up to Yosemite. It's about a 6 hour drive from here in Long Beach, but was well worth it. We stayed a little outside the park in a hotel, but next time I'd like to do some camping up there, or at least get into one of the lodges. 

The beauty of this place was indescribable and the photos just don't do it justice. The view from Glacier Point was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen in my life. Rivaled the Grand Canyon and Zion in my opinion. I can't wait to get back up there! I want to go this fall/winter when all the crowds are gone, and there's a chill to the air - In a couple months I'll see what my budget is and hopefully get planning!

Prelude

I'm intending this blog to be a sort of personal record of days spent hiking, camping and traveling. I don't keep journals as religiously as I once did, and I don't want to flood facebook with endless photos and words that document my times spent in the great outdoors - it's mostly just for me anyway. 

I plan to update this with newer trips, as well as revisit hikes and camping trips from the past, that aren't recorded very well anywhere else, and that I would hate to see fall victim to my fading memory. And if I know there is now a place for all these memories to go, I'll be more motivated to get outside. 

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike." - John Muir, The Yosemite, 1912.

(Photo is me at Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, July 1, 2012)