Weekend Off the Grid

home sweet, no-electricity-or-plumbing home.

I'll admit, camping per se has not been on my bucket list. Mainly it's because I wouldn't be good at it. If the apocalypse came and we'd have to use basic survival skills, I probably wouldn't be around for much longer. I still appreciate majestic views and the chance to unplug as much as the next person, though. Back in January when a group of our friends decided to reserve a cabin in a national park in northern California we said "sure!" (and then I had to order a sleeping bag). Well it was finally time to go. I took Friday afternoon off from work, told my team I wouldn't have internet access until Sunday evening, and peace'd out.


We drove to Lassen Volcanic National Park which, I have no shame in admitting, I never heard of before moving to California. I'd first heard of it a couple years ago when a coworker went camping up there, then when I read Wild last year. It's far enough from the nearest city ("city") that camping is basically your only option to make the trek worth it, and it's not as crowded as other big name parks. I think our group definitely looked like a bunch of 'city folk' but we're fairly outdoorsy and we were pretty gung ho about camping, or rather, glamping. We cooked all our meals over the campfire and used only one gas stove, mostly to boil water... and everything was delicious. My husband chopped firewood, taught our friends all about campfire-making. We had a hammock, the ultimate slow-your-roll piece of "furniture". Our phones were on airplane mode... we weren't getting service anyway... but we still used them as cameras, of course! I brought my kindle and did a little bit of reading among the redwoods, but mostly just hung out admiring nature and chatting with the friends (You know you're in good company when you don't need outside entertainment).

Oh Beautiful

My husband and I had never been to Yosemite before so I was very excited to take a weekend getaway to the park. I love driving around California - the scenery almost makes this city girl enjoy driving. Although it was getting chilly and we only hiked around a little, the autumn colors and the park's geography had me in awe.

The photo above is from Tunnel View, the vista off the Southside Road (right outside one of the tunnels) on the way south to Wawona. The ones below are at Mirror Lake (standing on the dry lake bed) and from behind The Ahwahnee Hotel (which I want to stay in, next time).

 

A fun follow: https://twitter.com/Interior