Death Valley National Park, California

It amazes me how people will go hundreds of miles out of their way, across some of the most desolate landscape imaginable, just to get the picture taken in front of a sign. We would never do such a thing.

Yeah, right...

Actually, I think that I need to brush-up on my geography. My impression of Death Valley was a vast, flat desert that dips below sea level in the middle.

Think again.
In order to traverse Death Valley, you will cross two mountain ranges. I mentioned that the descent down from Tioga Pass at Yosemite was the longest descent that I had gone down. Not any more.
And when yo get to the bottom, you go right back up again.
But the landscape is beautiful, in a scorched-earth, nothing-could-live-here kind of way.

We even saw a mirage.Oh, that's a photo from Glacier. It must have gotten mixed up into this folder. Sorry...

Anyways, on the way out of Death Valley we went by Yucca Mountain; famous for being the nation's nuclear waste dump.

It's also near the top-secret Area 51.
So much for secrecy!

We drove up to Area 51 and took this picture.
Do you see the Alien spacecraft?

Yosemite National Park, California

First of all, I should mention that the Yosemite portion of our trip almost didn't happen. The combination of the Telegraph fire and some uncertainty about whether we could even get into Yosemite with a rig of our size (more on this later) made the proposition a long shot right up until we drove up to the park.

We are really glad that we didn't give up on coming to Yosemite.
"Tunnel view" of Yosemite valley.

Although we were only there for a little over two days, I think we got a pretty good sampling of the park. Our first destination after we arrived was Glacier Point.
I told Eva after we took these pictures that people are going to accuse us of standing in front of a fake background at some photo studio somewhere. How can I convince you that this is real? It is unreal!

Later in the day, the kids were itching to get wet, so we let them have some fun in the Merced River.


Mom on the Sentinal Bridge.
El Capitan.Even though the Yosemite Valley has the most amazing views, I found it to be very hot and crowded there (I don't like crowds).

So, on the second day we ventured up the the high country along the Tioga Road. We really enjoyed this. It was much cooler (higher altitude), less crowded, and the views were just as spectacular (although maybe not as famous).

Kendall on top of the world...At one point, we spotted this tree from a long way away. It was very distinctive. Fortunately it was in a place that we could climb up to.

We had a nice picnic lunch by Tenaya Lake.
The high country at Yosemite is a popular destination for mountain climbers.

Can you spot the climbers on this mountain?
Look harder!

Here is a panaramic shot of the Toulumne Meadows.This is the route out of the park, just east of the Tioga Pass. This is the longest and steepest descent that I have ever gone down (with or without a camper).

Yosemite is the terminus of our trip, in that every stop up to this point took us further away from home, and every stop after this point will take us closer to home. Once we hit the summit at Tioga Pass, it is all downhill (both literally and figuratively).

A most amazing thing happened at Yosemite. I saw Hannah and Kendall being nice to each other. Not just once, but several times!
Yosemite is nestled in the Sierra-Nevada Mountains, and all the roads leading into and through the park are mountain roads.This last paragraph is for the benefit of anyone who may stumble across this blog while trying to determine whether or not they can drive their RV into or across Yosemite. I tried Googling various phrases before our visit to try to find out about this, and found much conflicting information.

Our rig is a 33' fifth wheel camper (total length of 49' including the truck). We came eastbound into the RV Park (in El Portal) from Merced on Hwy 140. Even though the signs cautioned against vehicles longer than 45', we had no trouble at all.

On departure, we continued into the park on Hwy 140, then turned north on Hwy 41, then east on 120 over the Tioga Pass and then down to Hwy 395 near Lee-Vinings. This was also no problem. The 10 mile section of Hwy 41 between the Yosemite Valley and Hwy 120 was narrow and curvy, but not really nerve wracking at all.

The trickiest part of the trip was the descent down from the eastern entrance of the park at Tiago Pass to Hwy 395. I would not want to drive this section pulling a trailer without a vehicle with a deisel engine (engine brakes are a lifesaver!). I hope this helps.

Our Route So Far

This has been our route so far if you're interested.

Sequoia National Park, California

What is generally referred to as “Sequoia” is actually two parks (Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park) and a couple of other managed areas. Sequoia is home to the largest trees in the world, by width, weight, and volume (the record for the tallest trees belongs to the big redwoods on the California coast).



We went of a couple of hikes while at Sequoia. The Sierra-Nevada mountains are every bit as beautiful as the Rockies.

One of the highlights of this stop is the close encounter with this bear cub. He walked up on us while we were hiking. We looked around for the mother, but we didn't see her. Meanwhile, the cub was content to dig around into dead logs looking for insects. He came within a few feet of us, but never acknowledged us at all (he knew we were there, but he basically didn't care).

We realized at this stop how true it is that “we hold precious that which is scarce”. When we were kids, there weren't many swimming pools around. If we went swimming, it was usually in a swimming hole in a nearby creek. It was a special treat to swim in an actual swimming pool.

The RV Park where we stayed did not have a swimming pool, but they did have a nice swimming hole in the river behind the park. Hannah and Kendall thought that this was the coolest thing they'd ever seen.

I'm expecting them to start begging me to take down the pool when we get home and dam up the creek behind the house.

We also met a very nice couple (Steve and Jacki) from LA who were camped in the site next to us. If you're reading this... hello guys!

It looks like the fires near Yosemite are under control, so we're headed there next.

Las Vegas, NV

We hadn't planned on coming through Vegas this soon in the trip, but we needed a place with a good internet connection so we could figure out what was happening at Yosemite and make alternate plans. We met a retired school teacher from Chattanooga while we were in Moab who gave rave reviews of the Oasis RV Resort in Las Vegas so we made reservations to stop there for one day and two nights. The park was fantastic, but it was hot, hot hot there! The kids stayed in the pool, and Eva and I stayed in the camper in the daytime.

I had mixed feelings about taking my family to Las Vegas at all. On one hand, you want to be able to say that you've been, and given the extreme makeover that Vegas has undertaken over the last twenty years, there are some interesting things to see (the volcano at the Mirage, the dancing pools at Bellagio, New York, New York, Paris, etc,).

The highlight of the visit for me was a trip to a BassPro Shop, and also a large Fry's Electronics store. (we had Fry's stores when I lived in Silicon Valley... it's a nerds paradise).

We love Cirque du Soleil and they have several shows that you can only see in Vegas. So we bought tickets to see “O” at the Bellagio. It was fantastic. If you've never been to a Cirque Do Soliel show you should do this at least once in your lifetime.

Getting to and from the show unfortunately means walking the Las Vegas strip. At this point I'd like to say how proud I am of Hannah and Kendall. It didn't take them any time at all to figure out what Las Vegas is really all about (gambling and sex). Both of them were really appalled by what they saw just walking down the street.

The reality of Vegas is quite different from the image that they like to portray to the world. They've put a fresh coat of paint on the town, but the underpinnings are still the same. This is not a place that you would want to go for a family vacation (although I understand that the city has been marketing itself as exactly that to the people in LA).

The city's new slogan is “What goes on in Vegas stays in Vegas”. I would say it differently; “If you knew what goes on in Vegas, you'd stay out of Vegas”.

In any case, we went to the show, enjoyed it, and got out of town the next morning. We reshuffled our itinerary to take us to Sequoia National Park first, to give firefighters a few more days to get the fire at Yosemite under control (and for the smoke to clear).

There's a good chance that we'll have to come back through Vegas on our way back from California but we'll only stay for one night, and we'll avoid the strip.