Devil's Postpile and Manzanar

Now...yesterday was a famous national park but maybe you did not know...just on the other side of the mountain are two more parks that were quite interesting.  We had them practically to ourselves.

Now...to be fair...the Devil's Postpile is probably busier during the winter months for skiing.  However, it still should be viewed and I cannot imagine that it can be seen under a mountain of snow.

Actually, we had thought we would make a "quick trip" to this park the day before.  I am so glad our plans were changed (We just spent so much time enjoying our cache search.) and we were able to be at the park early in the morning.  Had we not done this we might have missed two special places along the way.

The first was an amazing statue of a mammoth.  It is just a replica but it was still fun to stop and take a photo of the family.  This was the base of the mountain and where most of the skiers use to access the slopes.  There were ski lifts in all directions.  Michael and the children are determined to make it back here in the winter.  I think they are crazy but will be glad to hold out hot chocolate from the warmth of the resort, if they want to do this.

my artsy view of the mammoth

We were on the hunt for caches again, so we left the hotel early (The hotel only had powdered donuts and cookies for breakfast anyway.) and went on the way to look for a fault line.  We would actually learn on location that it is a unique magma fissure as a fault line would have caused displacement...this site only had a widening gap in the ground that was about 4-20 feet wide depending on the area.  Very cool!

Michael's little friend posed for him

Then we were on our way to the park.  Now...normally we would have had to take a shuttle.  This adds an additional $50 to our day and also time waiting for shuttles.  Time and money we did not want to spend.  Then I noticed a little blurb on the website about disabled veteran parking at the ranger station.  One of the times we were glad to have this distinction.  We were able to drive right to the ranger station and walk the trails to the post pile of rocks.   We were able to see the rocks from the top and bottom.

This 'pile of rocks' as one hiker called it...is quite interesting if nothing else for its interesting views.  However, it is also amazing how it was formed.  A basalt volcanic eruption released air and then cooled forming these columns.  Then to add to intrigue a glacier smoothed over the tops to create a nice polished look.  These uniform columns come in 3-7 sides but look as if they are piled together.  When I saw it I was reminded of Aggie Bonfire.

On our way back to the van we stopped along a trail that took us to Soda Springs.  The cooling magma is still releasing carbon dioxide that bubbles to the surface in this springs.  Wow!  We saw the bubbling action for ourselves before heading on to the next destination.  Not without earning the children another junior ranger badge!

One other stop we had hoped to make was in the Ancient Bristlecone Forest.  However, this trip would not work out because we were determined to arrive at Manzanar Historic Site.  This was a disappointment but the history at Manzanar was more important to me for all of us to never forget this time in our history.  We would be rewarded for this decision...we just would not know that until the end of the day.

Before we made it there we stopped for a "quick" cache find that led us to Law's Railroad Museum.  They had a train from locomotive to caboose as well as the town rebuilt from vintage homes of the area.  We walked around the grounds for almost an hour before I finally grabbed everyone back into the van.


We arrived at the Manzanar National Historic Site visitor center by mid-afternoon.  I can only tell that this is a special place and you can feel it as soon as you are there.

We walked into the center and immediately saw 1000 cranes displayed in honor of the Japanese that were interned here during World War II.  We went straight to the ranger to ask about the junior ranger program.  I knew this would be important at this site to keep our focus on the history.  Well, this is true at most of the national parks but especially for places like this.

This is where we met Ranger Mark.  We have been to over 70 parks across the nation and he is by far one of the best we have met.  I think he was meant to be there for us.  He told us that a movie about Manzanar was about to begin and he encouraged us to watch it.  As I stepped away, I thought to ask him if he would be available to talk to the children after we completed the tour of the park.  He told me that he would be there and then pulled out a map to tell me exactly where to take the children and the order to take the tour.



The movie brought me to tears.  To know that our government took an entire group of people under the false pretense of saving them from danger is unthinkable.  In actuality, we did this out of fear which can be understood to a certain degree...it was a scary time.  The part that bothers me is that the government put them in such harsh conditions with little assistance.  Add to this the treatment of Americans by other Americans.  There was such cruelty and unfair treatment.

However, in spite of this...the Japanese Americans and the Japanese who were here trying to make a better life for themselves....they were taken to this harsh desert and adjusted because they believed in a dream.  They adapted the environment and their lives in spite of the cruelty.

And...there were people in the community surrounding the area who helped.  Others came to them when they heard what was happening.  There was good in the world...good would prevail.  Schools were set up for the children...a lending toy library allowed toys to be borrowed since not a lot of toys were brought to the camp.  Many other amazing things happened to show kindness by the outer community.

After the short film, we walked around the museum.  The children were asked to choose a person to follow through the park learning about their lives.  We chose Ralph Lazo, who was an especially interesting person who lived in the camp.  He was NOT Japanese.  His heritage background was Hispanic and Irish.  However, when he found out all the people from his neighborhood were being relocated to Manzanar, he chose to go with them.  He was only 16 years old at the time.  He was very successful in school and later went to college.  He also joined the military and was highly decorated.

We left the museum exhibits to explore the grounds.  We started in one of the barracks where families lived.  There were two examples of these buildings on the site.  The first was in the original state when the people arrived.  However, it was actually not realistic because it would have been worse.  There is no way to show the actual conditions in a museum since the original buildings had holes in the walls and roof where the wind blew in sand constantly.  I thought it would have been more helpful to have openings in the building covered with glass to show this affect.  One thing that was constant was the wind...it blew with gusts up to 35 miles per hour throughout the time we were there.  You could hardly think with the sand surrounding you and blowing over you.

Just a short walk through the wind from one barracks to the other was almost unbearable.  I cannot imagine doing this all the time!  However, we did make it to the second barracks.  This example was showing how the people improved their homes to make it easier to live.  There was quite a difference in just a short period of time.



The next stop of the tour would show these improvements took place even in the landscape.  This sandy wasteland was given a face lift.  Many of those who came to this camp were gardeners and landscapers...their clients were the rich of California.  They knew how to work the land, even in these harsh conditions.  They created beautiful gardens with water features and bridges.  There were even markers set up to remind them to have hope and peace in their lives.  The conditions in this area were so severe that within just a couple of years after they left the gardens were covered again with sand.  The national parks services had to dig out the area to find the remnants of these gardens.


We were also able to visit the cemetery for the people of this time period.  We found a burial spot for an infant and others.  We also saw the large memorial monument for the location.  We then had just a few minutes to return to the visitor center to meet with Ranger Mark again.

He seemed to be waiting for us when we came back to the center.  He gathered the children together and talked about their books..adding to each activity a little more historical detail.  He also encouraged them to share their opinion on the information.  He was so enthusiastic that he drew a crowd to hear him talk to the children.  He realized it right away and brought them in to his talk.

One thing our family has tried to do for the last couple of years is collect the National Parks trading cards related to the Civil War anniversary.  They are really about the civil rights history in the United States.  We knew that Manzanar was one of the locations that might have the cards so we were going to ask after the children were presented their badges.  However, Ranger Mark even brought this aspect into his talk.  He took each card our individually (there were five) and talk about each person before giving out the card.  The first one just happened to be Ralph Lazo!  Ranger Mark that it was pretty cool that we had picked this person to follow in the museum as much as we were...his enthusiasm was contagious...when he was done...the crowd that had gathered clapped for Ranger Mark and the children!

As Michael got the children gathered into the van, I waited to talk to Ranger Mark and thank him.  There were several people trying to buy the typical souvenirs as the center was about to close.  I really thought he would rush us out the door but he did not.  I told him thank you and asked if there was any way to see a small portion of the Ancient Bristlecone before we continued on to Death Valley the next day.

He stopped everything to talk to us about NOT going to see the bristlecones...that night.  He had a better plan for us!  He strongly encouraged us to go to the Alabama Foothills which is the "Old West" in all the old westerns.  Then he gave us a route through the Ancient Bristlecone Forest that would lead us into Death Valley from the north for the next day.  This route would also lead us into Death Valley to see Scotty's Castle...a nice bonus!

A BIG thank you to Ranger Mark for making our time at Manzanar meaningful and then going above and beyond to make our next day special also!  We could not ask for a better park ranger!

We did make it to the Alabama Foothills where we found a huge beast, amazing rock formations, and an rock arch.  We drove around eating pizza for about an hour remembering the movies at the location where they were filmed.  We arrived at our hotel in time to set up on the porch to watch for the meteor shower, but we were so exhausted we fell asleep trying to see the beautiful sky.  We enjoyed the stars but then crashed in our beds!

What an awesome day!