A walk around Sweetwater Wetlands Park

 

Location: Gainesville, Fl

Date: 5/25/2015

 

It was the last day of the long holiday weekend and we wanted to do something outdoors, but nothing too strenuous. The city of Gainesville just recently opened a new park called Sweetwater Wetlands park just north of Paynes Prairie State park. This new park was created as a way to create a buffer for the water flowing down Sweetwater creek and cleanse it before it enter the prairie.  An article describing the restoration project can be found at this link. We decided to visit this new park and see what it had to offer.

Some of the boardwalks built along the wetlands

 

Some of the flowering plants

 

The water lilies in full bloom

 

 

 

 

A day of hiking at Zion National Park

 

Date: 4/20/2015

Location: Zion National Park

 

Monday was our second full day at Zion National Park and we wanted to do one of their longer and more challenging hikes. The three  of us were intrigued to view the famous Angels Landing section of the West Rim Trail hike, but we all knew that with its’ exposed sections of trail, with thousand foot drop offs, it just wasn’t for us. But we’d go as far as we could and without taking any risks. Also, we really wanted to hike Walter’s Wiggles which winds it’s way up to the west rim high above the Zion valley floor. 

 

Starting our on the West Rim Trail. Lots of elevation gain ahead.

 

We started the hike somewhat early in the morning when it was still cool. We had several layers of clothes on, but soon warmed up as we climbed the very steep trail. Luckily the trail was not too busy with other hikers. We did leap frog a few groups as we’d hike ahead and then have to rest to catch our breath. Then others would pass us, but then rest, so we’d pass them again. This is how it went most of the way up to the section before Angels Landing.

A view from the lower section of the West Rim Trail looking back down Zion Valley towards the lodge

 

A little hard to see, but there is a series of switchbacks leading up the wall just ahead of us.

 

After a little over a mile and a half in we finally got to Walters Wiggles. This is a series of 21 steep switchbacks built by the first park superintendent, Walter Ruesh, back in the 1920’s.  Before Walter designed and  built these switchbacks, the west rim and Angel’s Landing was not accessible.

Allison making her way up Walter’s Wiggles

 

At the 2 mile mark we hit the saddle right before the accent up Angels Landing. The is where some people, who didn’t want to continue the hike, waited for others who were continuing on to the top. It was also a great place to rest, have a snack and take in the view.

Mother and Daughter high above the valley below.

 

To climb Angel’s Landing, you must hold onto chains secured to the side of the trail.

 

Some crazy hikers climbing their way up the beginning section of Angels Landing

 

This is as far as Julie got on Angels Landing. About 30 feet!!

 

Allison thinking about heading up, but didn’t get far.

There have been several death of hikers falling from the Angels Landing Trail over the past several years. But that doesn’t stop hordes of people from attempting this climb. At times it gets very busy on this hike and traffic jams develop during peak times. This isn’t the type of hiking we are into, so we’re glad we passed.

After resting for about 30 minutes we decided we still had enough energy to continue on the West Rim trail. It continues to climb away from Angels Landing and onto some more open areas with amazing views.

 

 

 

 

We are now high above Angels Landing and even higher above the floor of Zion Canyon

 

There was some amazing scenery high up on the West Rim Trail

 

 

Snack time on the West Rim Trail of Zion NP

 

Allison hugging the “safe” side of the trail as there were long drop off on the outside.

 

Yet another mother / daughter shot.

 

We hiked for a half mile past the Angels Landing turn off and found this part of the West Rim trail to be the best. Except for a few other hikers, we had this section of the trail almost to ourselves. It was also the most picturesque part of the trail with many different rock formations and one amazing view after another.

It was at this section of the trail that we decided we had gone far enough. We still had a long hike back down, so we decided to take a few pictures then turn around and head back to the lodge.

 

A trail marker high on the West Rim Trail. Just don’t go too far to the right as there’s as 1200 foot sheer cliff.

 

Heading back the way we came.

 

Flowers clinging to the red rock walls.

 

Back down Walters Wiggles

 

Still a ways to go as the trail weaves it way down towards the Virgin River.

 

Not Walters Wiggles, but still wiggly!

 

We finally made it back down to the bottom and the starting point of the West Rim Trail. We had tired tootsies, so took our hiking boots off and rested out feet in the cold water.

 

Up to this point our favorite hike was Grinnell Glacier Hike at Glacier National Park. But Julie and I both agree this hike is now our new favorite. It was challenging and the views and scenery were outstanding. We’d gladly do this hike again and maybe continue on a little further on the West Rim Trail. Just another reason to make a return visit to Zion.

Zion National Park - West Rim Hike at EveryTrail

Paynes Prairie State Preserve - La Chua Trail

 

 

Date: 1/25/15

Location: Gainesville, Fl

It’s the weekend, the weather was nice, sunny and cool. So, we had to get outside and do something. We decided to do an old stand-by hike that we’ve done many times before. The La Chua Trail is in Southeast Gainesville and is part of the Paynes Prairie State Preserve. A few years ago the prairie and Alachua Sink was almost dry as the area had gone through a long dry spell. Many of the gators, which this hike is famous for, were gone. Their numbers greatly reduced because of the lack of water. Well, that’s no longer the case. We’ve had a wet fall and winter and the water is up. At a level that we’ve never seen before. And with the return of the water, is the return of the gators.

Being sunny, all the gators were out onto the banks trying to soak up some of the sun. But it was still fairly cool, so if they were moving, they were moving very slow.

These three were sleeping on the bank of the pond fairly near the hiking trail.

 

Every gator we saw was large and we didn’t see any younger ones. I guess they’ve all been eating well. This picture shows some gators on the near and far back on the stream.

 

Most of the prairie is usually dry with pockets of water here and there. But not today, now there are vast bodies of water teaming with al sorts of birds.

 

A large number of sandhill cranes, which migrate down south for the winter, spend their time on the prairie. We could hear their calls off in the distance, but didn’t get a good look at the large group. There were a few flying here and there and causing a racket with their loud calls. 

 

 

The hike to the observation deck is about a mile and a half out onto the prairie, With the water being high, the trails is narrower than usual. This guy (or gal) was laying on the trail, without much space for us to pass.

 

A few photoshere pictures from today’s hike can be found at this link and another at this link.

 

This is the GPS track our today’s hike.

 

Hiking around Watermelon Pond – Goethe State Forest

 

Date: 1/11/2015

Location: Newberry, Fl

 

Did a Sunday morning hike at Watermelon Pond which is part of the Goethe State Forest west of Gainesville.

 

 

 

 

I just started playing around with Google PhotoSphere. Here are a few from today’s hike:

 

Views: Hiking Watermelon Pond by Julie Whitney

 

 

Watermelon Pond Hike #2

 

Views: Watermelon Pond, Florida by Julie Whitney

 

Camping at Cloudland Canyon State Park

 

Date: 11/8/14 – 11/11/14

Location: Rising Fawn, Georgia

 

On our list of places to camp was somewhere north of us and during the fall where maybe we could catch some fall color. Many years ago we had visited areas around the north Georgia mountains, such as Unicoi and Vogel state parks. Both well known camping locations in the mountains of north Georgia. Just recently I’ve started reading about a campground and park in the very northwest corner of Georgia called Cloudland Canyon. This location is about a 7 – 8 hour drive from our home and about the max we would do for a long weekend. And unfortunately, the only direct way to get there is to drive right through the center of Atlanta which is not always a fun adventure while pulling an RV. But we decided that the long day of travel was worth visiting a park that we’ve never seen before and one that gets great reviews.

With Tuesday being Veterans Day, we decided to take a vacation day on Monday to make it a nice 4 day long weekend. This would allow us a couple days of long driving, but also a few days to relax and explore the park. It turns out we couldn’t have picked a better time weather wise to visit. The nighttime lows were about 40 degrees, with the daytime highs in the upper 60’s to low 70’s. With clear skies and perfect temps, we definitely hit it just right!

We were a little concerned since the online reservation system showed the park was completely full over the weekend and we were scheduled to arrive Saturday afternoon. We were expecting to get one of the leftover, non-prime spots. But we figured if the site was too bad, we would just move on Sunday afternoon when the majority of the campers were leaving.

We arrived at Cloudland Canyon at around 2:00pm on Saturday, checked in and them drove directly to the West Side campground. We heard this camping loop was a little nicer and more spread out than the one on the east side of the park. Within minutes we drove by an open site, only the second open site we saw and it was a beautiful location. No other campsite on the right and plenty of room between this site and the next on the left. We discussed continuing to drive around looking at spots, but decided to not take our chances, so we snagged it!

As you can see from the pictures below, this camping site is very nice and with the bonus of some trees with fall color. Also, on Sunday about half the campground checked out and almost all of the rest left on Monday. So, by that time we had this section of the west loop campground all to ourselves. Very nice!!

 

 

After we got checked in on Saturday, we rested for a short bit and then decided to check out the day use area and some of the many hiking trails. We heard that this park was unique and offered some amazing views, but we really didn’t realize how awesome it would turn out to be.

Here’s a few pictures looking out over one of the canyons the park is named after. A beautiful view showing some of the fall colors down in the valley.

 

 

 

One of the benefits of camping here, that we appreciated more as the weekend progressed, was the amount of hiking trails they had built all over this park. And also the fact that all were easily accessible from the campgrounds and cabins. They also put in a ton of effort making some of the scenic overlooks accessible and also safe. Like this overlook below with the fence to prevent anyone from falling. Theses type of overlooks were common on many of the trails.

 

Of course there were also many spots where you could get close to the edge with nothing preventing you from falling. Here’s Julie doing her best to increase the excitement level some.

 

Probably one of the best hikes in the park is the West Rim Loop Trail. This trail winds around the section of the park where we were camped and is an amazing hike. Both Julie and I would rate this as one of the best and most exciting hikes we have ever done. I’d give it the number two spot on my list, right below Grinnell Glacier in Glacier National Park. Julie thinks it rates ahead of that hike, so you can tell we really enjoyed it!

This overlook, looking north out of the park towards Chattanooga, was an example of how much effort they put into giving you places to view the surrounding mountains and canyons. But this one was very slanted and wanted to move you close to the edge where the drop was hundreds of feet. Here’s Julie holding on to the railing while staying away from the drop off.

 

Over the years I’ve always snickered at campers who carry their little dog around in a sling or push it in a stroller. Every year we go to the Tampa RV Super Show and I just have to laugh at all the people (mainly men!!!) carrying their little fluffy. Well, this is what I get for laughing at them…..it’s now us!! We have a little grand-doggy who usually stays home with a dog sitter when we go camping, but we decided to try and save a little money and started bringing her along. Julie ordered an over the shoulder sling/pouch so we can take her hiking with us. From the picture below, it doesn’t look like she is too stressed. I actually think she enjoyed it and she sure did get a lot of attention from the fellow hikers we passed along the way.

 

Almost all of the hiking trails in the park have a lot of elevation changes, with many of them descending all the way to the bottom of the ravines. We surely didn’t have to worry about getting our exercise during this weekend. On many of the hikes to the bottom there were interesting rock formations and some caves.

 

And along the way we passed several high waterfalls. However, Zelda (the dog) didn’t like the waterfalls. Guess all the water noise reminded her of bath time!

 

 

I probably took a hundred pictures of the view looking out over the canyon. It was just too good to pass up. It did make it a little challenging whittling down the pics to the ones I’d use in this blog entry.

 

 

At one point Julie took the camera away from me. I think it was after I’d taken the hundredth picture of her and the surrounding fall colors. This is one she snapped of me. I figured I’d add it as it’s one of the few you will see of me here. 

 

Over the long weekend, we just about hiked ourselves to death. We are flatlanders from Florida. So, all these hikes and the elevation changes were a great workout. If we had stayed another day, it would have had to be a day of rest. We both had tired legs at the end. I figured we did between 20 – 25 miles of hiking over those few days. That’s a lot for two old farts!

Here’s a link to a short YouTube video from this camping trip

And some GPS tracks from some of the hikes we took

Cloudland Canyon’s Overlook Trail Hike on Wikiloc and EveryTrail

Cloudland Canyon’s West Rim Loop Trail on Wikiloc and Everytrail

Cloudland Canyon’s Waterfall Trail on Wikiloc and Everytrail

Cloudland Canyon’s Sitton Gulch Trail on Wikiloc and EveryTrail