California National Parks ~2026 Superbloom

 We had never heard of this park before this trip. It became a park in 1999 but was a National Monument since 1933. We arrived Thursday afternoon ahead of the weather and did a great 3 mile hike finding many wildflowers...knowing it might snow and be cold the next day. Really hard to get a picture showing the depth of this canyon. Day 1 not great light. We hiked down in the valley to explore before the snow in case the road closed the next day. It is so hard to capture how deep this canyon is! The park was overtaken by a wildfire last year. Some areas are still closed...but the wildflowers are persevering!! It was a beautiful hike. Coming back up the trail you can really see the devastation from last years fire. Had to have one of our last Mexican meals as we will be leaving Colorado soon.... And yes the snow did come!!! Woke to snow so had a slow start! Cornmeal pecan pancakes, bacon, and some of our California oranges! we decided to start the day low again and wait for the snow t...

Our 3rd time to this park and each time it is different. This was our first time in spring. We arrived in the afternoon and saw this cool rainbow happening. the gossips are a famous ( and my favorite) rock outgrop.  OMG the colors!!! We hiked through some meadows to this arch. found some nice hidden flowers. Found my most amazing Kingcup or claretcup hedgehog!!! We hiked up through this arch. Trail starte4d easy and then got quite a bit more challenging. My guy is AMAZING!!! # months to the day after breaking his femur and having a large titanium rod put in his leg he is hiking this !!!!!!! Just how does this ancient tree live in sand with such little water???? Stumbled upon this beautiful smallflower fishhook cacti!!! Didn't expect it here! Little guy visited us at lunch. So very cute. Couldn't resist this one!! Back at our campsite cows started ranging through our fields. So unexpected but fun. sweet little globe mallow by our site. Made some yummy cedar planked coho salmon s...