August 10, 2014 - Buena Vista Full Moon Hike

Title: August 10, 2014 - Buena Vista Full Moon Hike

Trail head: Buena Vista trail head

Hike Info:

Type:  Hiking

Trail: Buena Vista Trail

Destination:Buena Vista Peak

Distance: 1.96 miles

Start Time:  6:41pm

End Time:  11:43

Travel Time: 5:01 (0.39  mph)

Moving Time: 1:12 (1.63 mph)

Elevation Rise: 641'

Maximum Elevation: 7,642'

Description:
Tonight is the night of the full moon. Not only a full moon, but a Supermoon-that is a moon which comes close to the earth. This happened at 11:09am. Shawn invited Rose and her husband Jeff, along with Sherri and I to go up to Buena Vista Peak near Grant Grove. Steven was interested in going as well.  So there will be six of us enjoying the full moon.

In awe of the Rock Monster

We left Fresno's round 4:45 with sandwiches for dinner. We get up to Big Stump. Shawn and her car had also pulled in  to use the facilities and have dinner. So we dined together and then headed out to south to the Buena Vista Parking lot . We pulled in around 6:30.

Buena Vista Peak

We have hiked this trail several times. Each time enjoyable. The last time was to enjoy a sunset. It is only about a mile to the top and a 300' climb. The hardest part of the trail is the start, where it chugs up pretty steeply before leveling off to a more humane slope. Several years ago while coming up here, we thought the trail went up on one side of a rock outcropping. That was a mistake as we scrambled straight up to the peak instead of the more gentle way around the peak. We made the same mistake this year, but corrected it before going too far up.

Sherri, Steven, Rose and Jeff

Gary and Sherri

We reach the top right as the sun goes down. Such colors! The clouds just accentuate the beauty we see. The forest fires up north are putting more reflective particles in the air. Bad for breathing; great for sunsets. And, as it turns out, for full moon watching. Pictures tell stories and are more effective than my words, so scroll down and enjoy what we saw.

Steven at Sunset

After watching the moon and sunset for awhile, we had a pleasant time just talking among the six of us. Rose and Shawn saw some shooting stars from the Pleiades shower-my score was zero. About 11, I said it was time for us to go back as we needed to get up for a hike. So all six of us went down the mountain, five with lights on; the sixth just enjoying the moon light. All got down safe.we made it back home by 1:00pm with Steven driving us.

Alta Peak

 Pictures

 Buck Rock

 Sunset

 Moon