Joshua Tree National Park!

Gerry and I went on a mini-vacation during the December holiday season. It was a visit to Joshua Tree National Park!  Joshua Tree NP is about 130 miles east of Los Angeles - less than a three hour drive.

We stayed in the town of Twenty Nine Palms, just north of the Park for three nights, we arrived on Saturday, December 16th and checked out on Tuesday morning, December 19th. It was a splendid get-away with plenty of day hikes and solitude.

We arrived at the west entrance to the park around 11:30 am. We stopped at the Visitors Center and picked up the park brochure and map, ate our prepacked picnic lunch and then embarked on a six mile scenic hike.  It was called the Maze-Window loop.

 

I am ready to go!

 Temperatures were ideal - in the 60s with bright sunny skies and a light breeze. The juniper berries caught our attention.

an abundant bush

 Here is a photo of me taking a picture of Gerry taking a picture of the juniper berries!

We're both obviously fascinated....

Joshua Tree National Park has lovely Joshua Trees (no surprise). We saw hundreds of them on our welcoming hike this afternoon.

And, it's also extra-special to see and hear the birds.

a ladder-back wood pecker at the top of the tree

We were impressed with this colorful red cactus. We saw a handful of these on the trail.

I'm calling it a Christmas cactus

Like I stated earlier, this was the Maze Window hike. Here is the "window".

Beautiful rock formation and the window!

We enjoyed our first day in  Joshua Tree National Park, and checked into our hotel in Twenty Nine Palms around 4:00 pm.  We ate dinner at the Ground Squirrel, "a beer and food oasis in the dez". The restaurant opened in 2021.  Decent IPA beer, and the food was OK. Gerry ordered a hamburger and fries and I ordered a falafel burger.  A fine day one!

I'll call Day Two, Sunday, our "Rock Hike" day. We did three short two-mile hikes. First hike was the Arch Rock trail hike. We hit the trail at 10:00 am and saw many interesting rock formations, in addition to the Arch Rock.

the infamous "Arch Rock", photo courtesy Gerry Hans

We're once again fortunate weather-wise. Temps in the 60s and sunny skies. This is such an interesting place. So glad it is protected as a National Park. 

Our second hike was the "Split Rock" trail hike which was another short, two-mile hike which included many amazing views, including the Split Rock.

Split-Rock  - fascinating!

We ate our picnic lunch after the hike and then embarked on our third and final hike of the day, the Skull Rock hike trial, which also included the short Discovery Trail,2.4 miles of hiking and seeing amazing rock formations.

looks like a supportive rock holding up the huge boulder

My favorite rock, though, was the Gerry rock.

time to relax after three short hikes

Here's a final photo of the day.

Love the golden colored bush in the foreground and the iconic Joshua Tree in the background.

Day three included a fascinating Keys Ranch tour. (Our good friend Brenda had suggested we book this tour. She's been to Joshua Tree N.P. and did this tour, which is very special and limited.)  You need to book reservations in advance, and the tour is limited to only 25 people per day....Only 1 percent of the millions of visitors to Joshua Tree N.P. participate in this tour!

a morning photo as we enter the park on Monday, day three

Keys Ranch was built in 1910 and lived in by William and Frances Keys along with their children for over 60 years. Having first moved to the desert in search of gold, William Keys started this ranch as he built up a life for himself with mining and ranching. In 1917, Frances married and joined William at the ranch where they started a family and continued to build up the ranch. By not letting anything go to waste and figuring out how to reuse old parts they were able to build a prosperous ranch and mining operation in a seemingly hostile environment.

a photo of the Keys Ranch homestead

The "fence" around the perimeter

The Keys family truck - definitely an artifact

And the appliances from the 1920s are on full display and in good condition

This 90 minute tour led by Ranger Dave was definitely a highlight of our Joshua Tree N.P. trip! After this excellent tour we embarked on a 7 mile hike in the nearby vicinity.  It was a bit chilly on the Keys Ranch tour, which started at 9:30 am.  It's the only time I had to don a jacket in the Park.

We hiked along the Barker Dam Nature Trail, a mostly flat trail with beautiful rock formations once again.

Along the Barker Dam Nature Trail

 Quite fun - saw more artifacts. If it's more than 50 years old, it's considered an artifact and is protected by the National Park. There are several old rusted cars in the area.

Me and the automobile - two artifacts

My favorite artifact - Gerry, of course - with the antique car

We added on an extra stretch to visit the Wall Street Mill. This mill was used to process gold from local mining operations.

Here is the Wall Street Mill, which has seen better days.

The Mill is out in the middle of nowhere

We viewed some ancient Petroglyphs in the cliffs as we walked the return loop back to the car.

Petroglyphs in the background

We also passed by an "eagle" rock.

It looks like an eagle to us, keeping an eye on things

We didn't see too many people on this hike. Nice having the place to ourselves. The weather was ideal - temperatures in the low 60s with a light breeze.

Gerry at the end of the hike

 We splurged for dinner on our final night and ate at The Rib Co, a small family-owned restaurant since 1997, located a half-mile from our hotel. We split a full slab of their famous baby back ribs with the house rub, and also shared a Ceasar salad and baked beans. We drank the local beer, an Inline IPA.

very tasty!  Yum yum!

 We checked out of the hotel around 9:30 am Tuesday morning and drove to the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve, which is 31.5 miles from 29 Palms on the route back to L.A.

The Preserve is an internationally-recognized birding site. Several rare or unusual species are known to nest here, and many other species are abundant during the spring and fall migration seasons. The Preserve has been designated as one of the United States’ Important Bird Areas.

At 31,000 acres with elevations ranging from 600 feet on the canyon floor to 3000 feet at the top of the ridge, this diverse landscape is an important part of the Morongo Basin’s natural and cultural history, and in 2016 was incorporated into the Sand to Snow National Monument.

It was definitely worth the visit! We spent three hours at the Preserve and enjoyed the scenery, the birds, and the hiking trails, and our picnic lunch. 

the very scenic Morongo Canyon preserve

There were several interesting, colorful plants on the trail. This one in particular caught my eye:

love the vibrant colors

Here is another close-up view of the stalks

We hiked about 4.5 miles at the preserve.  There are about 11 miles of trails, but several trails were severely damaged during Hurricane Hillary in August, 2023. The damaged areas have been closed for visitor safety.  

another gorgeous view

 All in all, it was a fabulous short get-away!  

We'll be back for sure!

MAINE 2023 - Our Main Vacation!

OUR FABULOUS MAINE VACATION!!!

As some of you know, I had a total knee replacement last year on November 10, 2022. I didn't feel comfortable doing our usual annual vacation of a multi-day hiking trek in Europe, so we went to Maine instead.  Maine is so far away from Los Angeles, so it is "close" to Europe from my perspective, and a state Gerry and I have never visited. 

We enjoyed our two weeks in coastal Maine!  We hiked nearly every day. The scenery was spectacular and we enjoyed delicious meals, mostly in local brew pubs. The weather also cooperated. Lucky us!

We flew into Portland on September 5th and spent the first three nights in Kennenbunk, staying at the historic Kennebunk Inn a charming 1799 Inn located in the heart of Kennebunk, on Main Street.

We had a quiet room in the back

It was an activity-packed first full day in Maine on Wednesday, September 6! We drove 20 minutes to the Smith Preserve, a property with several miles of hiking trails, known as the "13.1", which are protected by the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust.

Our original plan was to do the 7.1 miles out-and-back Steele Trail, but we revised and extended our hike, turning it into a loop hike of 9 miles. Temps were in the 80s, but this was a heavily forested area so we didn't get too overheated.

Gerry on the Steele Trail

One of many colorful mushrooms on the trail

After our hike we drove 15 minutes to the town of Biddeford where we stopped for lunch at "The Garden Bar", located in an old brick building which also hosts the Biddeford Mills Museum, which was both free and interesting.

Next stop of the day was Fortune's Rocks Beach where we took a plunge into the Atlantic Ocean and swam a few strokes in the chilly water.

A nice beach to also stroll

We ate dinner at Sebago Brewing Company, about a mile from the Kennebunk Inn.

Brussels & Bleu: mini sprouts w bleu cheese and bacon

A flatbread w pesto and loaded w veggies

Thursday, Sept 7, was also unseasonably warm, temps in the upper 80s. We booked a lobster boat tour in the morning with Rugosa Lobster Tours of Kennebunkport. It was a fun, hands-on lobster experience!  

 

A real Maine lobster which we took turns holding

In the afternoon we visited Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, less than 5 miles from our Inn. The Reserve features well-marked trails through fields, forest and salt marsh, with many scenic overviews. We hiked 2 or 3 miles and then stopped by the visitor center and museum.

I love this photo of the salt marsh

Wells Beach is a notorious four-mile long beach which was very close by. We drove to the southern end, near Ogunquit, where we parked the car and spent a few hours at the beach. We took a polar plunge and "swam" in the Atlantic Ocean in Maine for the second day in a row.

Proof of Mary's polar plunge

 Friday morning, Sept 8, we checked out of the Kennebunk Inn and drove northward toward Boothbay. It was another day filled with hikes and wandering about.

So many fun detours. Stop one was Cape Elizabeth, where we pulled off the road at an overlook with a view of Cape Elizabeth Light and the crashing surf.

Cape Elizabeth Light

The rocky shoreline in the foreground

We drove a few miles to Kettle Cove Beach and Crescent Beach State Park, where we took a 3-mile flat and easy hike, the first mile walking on the sandy beach of Seal Cove in the Gulf of Maine, with views of Richmond Island in the distance.

At Kettle Cove Beach

One of many scenic views on the 3-mile hike

Here is another close-up view:

Onward to Fort Williams Park to view the iconic Portland Head Light, commissioned by President George Washington and first lit in 1791. It is one of the most photographed lighthouses in the world.

Definitely worth the stop!

We drove onward to Freeport. We spent perhaps 30 minutes in downtown Freeport, home of the LL Bean complex and dozens of other stores, mostly focused on the great outdoors. We weren't in the mood for shopping, and would much prefer hiking. So, we drove 15 minutes from downtown Freeport to Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park for another three mile hike, which was quite scenic and uncrowded.

Enjoying Wolfe's Neck Woods

A view from the Casco Bay Bay trail in Wolfe's Neck Woods

One final view toward the end of the hike

Then onward to Edgecomb, where we stayed the next three nights, (Sept 8, Sept 9 and Sept 10). Edgecomb is close to Boothbay, but more quiet. We stayed at the Cod Cove Inn, known for its delicious breakfast, including scrumptious blueberry muffins!

Dinner on Friday night (and Saturday night) was in Wicasset, at Water Street Kitchen and Bar. Great atmosphere and food an beer!  A win, win, win.

In front of the Water Street Kitchen on my birthday, 9/9

It was a very happy birthday for me on Saturday, 9/9. We visited the Boothbay Botanical Gardens, the most spectacular botanical gardens I have ever visited.  Plenty of different gardens to see, interpretive signs, and trails throughout. Definitely a highlight of our Maine vacation. We spent four hours there and were fascinated as we explored the 295 acres.

Here are several photos from these fabulous gardens!

At the Native Butterfly House

another butterfly

Some flowers

and some more flowers

And a few trolls...

Thomas Dambo is considered the world’s leading recycled-materials artist, famous for his troll sculptures. Dambo’s pieces are staggering, and each sculpture simultaneously invites seekers into the depths of our woodlands while telling a story of conservation.

After the botanical garden visit, we drove to Boothbay Harbor, a coastal town, a bit touristy but nice. We had gourmet sandwiches for lunch and then strolled the streets near the bay.

Gerry, on the plank at Boothbay Harbor

another photo of Boothbay Harbor

We might as well get in another hike before we call it a day. We did a final short hike on the way back to the Cod Cove Inn. It was one of the many preserves of the Boothbay Region Land Trust. (BRLT), called the Lobster Cove Meadow Preserve. A short 1.3 mile hike and a nice final hike on my birthday.

the Lobster Cove Meadow preserve is lovely

Sunday, Sept 10 was another winner. We hiked the Owens Mouth Preserve, both the west loop and the east loop for a total of 4.25 miles. Most of the trail was along a wooded shoreline. Weather was cloudy and 68 degrees. Ideal!

A view at Owens Mouth Preserve

 

Why are there so many cavities in this tree? Who knows!

We stopped at Blanchard's Creamery for "lunch" after our hike...lunch being three-scoops of ice cream: ginger, pistachio and maple-walnut. Blanchard's is a family owned ice cream shop in Edgecomb. It's in a converted 1800s barn. The renovated barn has a rich history, having once housed dairy cows and horses, but has been transformed into a bright and clean space with exposed wood beams and hardwood floors. We ate our delicious ice cream lunch at a table on the second floor lunch.

 After ice cream for lunch, why not pizza and beer for dinner?  We dined at Boothbay Craft Brewery that evening. It was a no-brainer for us to order their "Thirsty Botanist IPA"... the perfect name for a beer for my thirsty botanist husband, Gerry! The pizza was delicious and also the salad. 

Onward to the Camden Rockport area where we stayed only two nights, Sept 11 and Sept 12, at the Country Inn which was perfect. Close to Camden Hills State Park, which was on my pre-planned agenda for hiking, with its numerous hiking trails.

We did three hikes on Monday, Sept 11. The first hike was in Rockland. We walked the Breakwater Trail to the Rockland Harbor Lights lighthouse, approximately two miles. 

Construction of this Breakwater was 1881 to 1889

The lighthouse at the end of the Breakwater

 Our second short hike was in Rockland at the Harkness Preserve. It was a short 1.3 mile loop through the woods to a ledge overlooking the water.  

Gerry in the "chair" at the overlook

 After these short hikes we ate lunch at American Flatbread in Rockport so we were well-fueled for our third and challenging hike in Camden Hills State Park. It was rated a "moderate" hike, though parts of it were difficult for me. We hiked 4.5 miles on a trail that was very rocky at times with some steep ups and down. Plenty of scenic views and mushrooms galore.  

The views make the climb worth the effort

In my "happy place" on this hike in Camden Hills State Park!

Quite the awesome tree mushroom!

We ate dinner in downtown Camden at Mosaic, which was less than 1.5 miles from our hotel. We tried a new IPA, "Funky Bow, So Folkin' Happy". I kid you not. Gotta love the name, and we also enjoyed the beer. Gerry ordered the Korean Beef BBQ tacos and I ordered the Fish Taco Salad with Haddock. Both of our entrees were gourmet!

Fine dining at the Mosaic in downtown Camden

Tuesday, September 12, we once again hiked in Camden Hills State Park. Yesterday we entered the park via the East entrance which is the main entrance with a large parking lot. This morning we entered the park via the much more remote entrance, off of Youngtown Road. There was only one car in the small parking lot when we arrived at 10:00 am. It was drizzling when we arrived, so we sat in the car waiting for conditions to improve. It didn't happen, so we donned our rain ponchos and started our 8.7 mile hike at 10:30 am with temperature of 65 degrees with drizzle. Actually, not too bad hiking weather, though we had to be cautious of slippery, wet rocks.

It was really a lovely secluded hike! We didn't see anyone on the trails, but we saw lots of mushrooms, ferns, trees, a frog, and a toad and heard several different species of birds. Another winner! An ascent of 1,469 feet and descent of 1,433 feet and my knee wasn't sore! Not many pictures because of the rain.

A wet day in Camden Hills State Park

A colorful mushroom on the tree in the forest

 We left Camden / Rockport and headed toward Northeast Harbor, the gateway to Acadia National Park where would spend three nights, Wednesday Sept 13 through Friday Sept 15. We did a fairly easy hike today in Belfast, about a 30 minute drive from Rockport. The hike was on the Belfast Little River Trail. We started at 10:30 am and hiked six miles of this out-and-back trail. (The entire trail was 7.9 miles, but we wanted to have time to have a nice lunch at Darby's Restaurant and explore downtown Belfast.

Along the Belfast Little River Trail

Gerry leading the way

The weather turned to dense, foggy conditions after lunch with very limited visibility. Not good weather to stop at some of the coastal towns along the way. However, we did stop off at Fort Pointe State Park to see the Fort Pointe lighthouse and the bell tower, which was guilt in 1890 as a fog signal to warn ships entering the Penobscot River. It is one of only a few bell towers remaining today.

listed on the National Register of Historic Places

The historic bell tower

...and the bell!

We arrived at the Kimball Terrace around 6:00 pm, family owned since 1969. It's not too fancy a place, but it's alright. We have a nice sheltered balcony outside our room, with two comfortable chairs and a small table, and there is decent coffee 24 / 7 in the lobby. 

We ate dinner at "The Nor'Easter Pound & Market" which is next door to the hotel. We ordered fried pickles as an apetizer (why not try it?) and then a lobster roll (finally) with a salad. Actually, we weren't that impressed with the lobster roll.  Fish and chips in Maine with fresh haddock is much more flavorful, in our humble opinion. 

Entree of lobster roll with salad. (Big salad, small lobster roll, unfortunately)

 Thursday, September 14 was very rainy in the morning so we didn't venture into Acadia National Park until the rain let up at 10:30am. We were fine hanging out on our balcony until conditions improved and we ventured out. 

First stop was the Hulls Cove Visitor Center where I proudly showed my "golden" National Park's Pass, which we'll proudly use the next two days. I purchased a waterproof trail map which I desperately needed to help get me oriented and see the "big picture" of Acadia National Park, the crown jewel of the North Atlantic Coast.

We hiked 7.5 miles in the afternoon around Eagle Lake on various trails. Beautiful, with some ups and downs. Acadia is truly spectacular.

Making my way on one of the trails around Eagle Lake in Acadia NP

Truly a spectacular hike, with no shortage of scenic views

At one of our rest stops on the hike

Happy, as always, to have the best hiking partner in the world by my side

Thrilled that we finally visited Maine.  Hiking nearly every day is right up my alley (or, to be more correct, right up my trail.) 

We walked to Colonel's Restaurant and Bakery for dinner. Maybe a 10 minute walk. We ordered the Colonel's Onion Rings for an appetizer and then a 16 inch "loaded" pizza. Not the healthiest options, but, hey, we're on vacation and it's fun to step out of the mold.   And, we have leftover pizza for lunch tomorrow in Acadia.  Another Win, Win!

Friday September 15th was the proverbial "calm before the storm". We knew that Hurricane Lee was approaching and was predicted to touch down on Saturday morning. Many tourists panicked and wanted to "Get Out of Dodge". Not us. We stayed put and enjoyed a splendid day in Acadia National Park on Friday.

We had 9:00 am reservations for the 3-mile Cadillac Summit Road, a winding drive with scenic pullouts to the 1,530 summit of the highest peak in Acadia. I took several photos at the numerous pullouts:

 

 

The above five photos are just a small sampling of the photos we took at the various pull-outs on this scenic Cadillac Summit Road drive.

Hiking in Acadia National Park is awesome! We found plenty of hiking opportunities on Friday after doing the Cadillac Summit Road drive.

Our first hike of the day was a fairly steep out-and-back hike along the Cadillac South Ridge Trail to the "featherbed", a small lake where we ate some left-over "loaded" pizza from last night. This hike was 3.3 miles. 

Gerry, on the Cadillac South Ridge Trail

The "featherbed" lunch spot

One of many scenic viewpoints on the hike

Our second hike was much easier. It was on the far est side of the Park.  We walked the short Murphy Lane Trial, which then connected to the Schooner Head Road trail, and then to the Schooner Head Overlook. A total of 2.7 miles on this out-and-back hike.

At the Schooner Head Overlook

 Our third and final hike of the day was a loop hike of 2.2 miles. Also our final hike in Acadia. It was beautiful! We hiked the Ocean Path Trail (easy) to Sand Beach. We took off our hiking boots and walked along the beach, getting our feet and and lower legs wet, which felt refreshing.

Walking along Sand Beach

Then we proceeded on the Great Head Trail, which was a bit of a climb, but with amazing views of the rocky coast below us.

The lovely and turbulent ocean

The intrepid hiker!

One final view in Acadia

We walked over to the "Colonel's Bakery and Restaurant" again for dinner - fish and chips, but sweet potato fries instead of the french fries, along with lobster quesadillas, (more cheese than lobster in the quesadillas, unfortunately.)  Still, a nice final dinner on the calm before the storm.

We awoke the next morning in the midst of Tropical Storm Lee. It was 60 degrees, raining, with wind gusts at 30 mph. We waited it out for a few hours, but decided to leave NorthEast Harbor and drive to Bangor sooner rather than later, as the winds and rains were predicted to pick up in the afternoon. It's only about a 90 minute drive to Bangor, perhaps a bit longer due to the tropical storm weather conditions...

We arrived in Brewer, next door to Bangor, at lunchtime and dined at Mason's Brewing Company on the edge of the Penobscot River. We might as well eat a delicious lunch indoors overlooking the water, since there wasn't much else enticing to do on this rainy Saturday...

We stayed at the Country Inn at the Mall for our final two nights in Maine, Saturday and Sunday.  What?  An Inn near a mall?  No intentions to visit the nearby mall, but the Inn is strategically located only a few miles away from Bangor City Forest in one direction, and downtown Bangor in the other. It was actually a very nice, comfortable Inn.  

We had the calm before the storm on Friday, and then the calm after the storm on Sunday, which was sunny with bright blue skies. We hiked several miles on various trails in Roland F. Perry Forest, aka Bangor City Forest. It was flat and easy hiking, about 3 miles and 9 miles. We encountered half a dozen fallen trees on the trail from yesterday's tropical storm, but we were able to successfully navigate around them and enjoy the hike.

In Bangor City Forest - really a wonderful network of trails

 

We always have an eye out for mushrooms. Look at these?

After this delightful long and easy hike, we drove into downtown Bangor. After lunch at Bagel Central, we took a short walk and went to visit the Paul Bunyon statue, near the Bangor Civic Center.

Yep, he's a Bangor iconic figure

Bangor's Paul Bunyan, "Reputed to be the largest statue of Paul Bunyan in the world," according to its sign, stands on a stone pedestal in front of the Bangor Civic Center in Bass Park. The statue is 31 feet high and weighs 3,700 pounds, not including its double-sided ax and lumberjack's peavey. Paul Bunyan's fiberglass-over-metal frame is hurricane-proofed to withstand 110 mph winds. 

A true highlight of this vacation was in the afternoon. We met our fellow environmentalist Travis Longcore's parents, Jerry and Joyce, at the Orono Bog Boardwalk at 3:00 pm. They gave us our own expert, private tour of this Bog Boardwalk.  The icing on the cake to this last final day in Maine.  The Orono Boardwalk is a National Natural Landmark.

Following the senior Longcores on the Orono boardwalk

A view from the Orono boardwalk - quite the place!

We enjoyed our final farewell dinner to Maine at a very elegant restaurant, the Timber Kitchen and Bar, which our friend Chip (who is from Maine) highly recommended. It was perfect - a nice, relaxing atmosphere with excellent service.

Monday, Sept 18 was a cloudy day, with drizzle. We took one final hike at Central Penjajawoc Preserve, a walk through woods and a boggy marsh. Then we checked out of our hotel, visited downtown Bangor once again for lunch, then headed to the Bangor Airport for the flights back to L.A.  

A fabulous vacation!!!  Really glad we spent two weeks exploring coastal Maine.  We'll be back.... hopefully!!!