North to Sacramento

After we enjoyed Yosemite Nat'l Park for a couple days, we headed north for Sacramento. It is a big little town. While Sacramento is certainly a large city, it has an old town area that is very quaint and a must see. This is the end of the historic Pony Express. We saw the beginning of the Pony Express in Missouri a year earlier. This was a short stop over for us prior to heading into southern Oregon and then south along the California coast and the Redwood National Park and ultimately to San Francisco. The kids are becoming incredible road warriors enjoying the trip and the time in the car.

Before leaving, we went to the north side of the park - Tuolumne Meadows. This was before Memorial day weekend and we were lucky we got as far as we did with the snow. The stores were closed and by the time we realized it, it was noon, the kids were starving and we had no where to go. The guy at the general store in the meadows area sold us one of last Fall's bags of chips (with an apology). Like I cared - it was food. But, the message is - be prepared!

The Tuolumne Meadows area of the park is a beautiful area for a picnic. There are almost too many areas to just pull off the road on your way to this area from the valley, but Olmstead Point and Tenaya Lake are "Must Do's". Olmstead Point offers a spectacular view of Half Dome (as you face south), and Tenaya Lake offers crystal clear water and reflections of the nearby mountains.

We drove out of the park and north bound for Sacramento.

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK

Yosemite NP (www.nps.gov/yose) is actually quite close to Sequoia and Kings Canyon NPs. We were scheduled to spend the night in the Awahnee Hotel (http://www.yosemitepark.com/Accommodations_TheAhwahnee.aspx). This incredible lodge is one of the original NP lodges that like the Old Faithful lodge in Yellowstone is created to look like it is made of the landscaping - large stone and logs. Our room had an up close view of Half Dome (http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/halfdome.htm).

SEQUOIA NP Here We Come....

It is a bit of an inconvenient "haul" to get around/over/through the Sierras and to Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks (www.nps.gov/seki ), but that was our goal today. We were staying in Sequoia tonight at the Wuksachi Lodge (http://www.nps.gov/seki/planyourvisit/lodging.htm). We wanted to scope out part of the park prior to bedding down so we motored over the mountain "with purpose" as they might say.

In our hike up Moro Rock, I confess I gave up with some of the overlooks and to the dismay of my small children headed down. My biggest regret of the trip.

We also saw these black bears (although they have a redish tone to them) in the woods not far from the road. One proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that bears do $hit in the woods while we watched - just doing my scientific duty.

DEATH VALLEY and ALABAMA HILLS

The following morning, I woke with the sunrise. Gas was right there at the lodge, but was almost twice the price of gas in civilization. We had an INCREDIBLE breakfast on an open deck roadside at the lodge. The keeper introduced my son to rock collecting with some nice specimens found throughout the park.

He also suggested we stop by the Alabama Hills (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama_Hills) northwest of the park. It is the site of many western movie shoots and evidence of some aging in the Sierra Nevada range. On the way out of the park, we stopped at Father Crowley Point which looks east over the valley in the Panamint Springs area. There were also some isolated Joshua trees on the west side of the park. Southeastern California is home to Joshua Tree National Park (http://www.nps.gov/jotr).

We did not spend a lot of time in the Alabama Hills, but did stretch our legs for a while before making our way to Yosemite National Park. Not far from the Alabama Hills is the Manzanar National Historic Site (http://www.nps.gov/manz/). Time did not permit us to go there, but it is a significant historical site as one of the few American "concentration" camps during World War II.

DEATH VALLEY

Death Valley National Park (http://www.nps.gov/deva) is huge and was hardly as expected. While there are certainly desert-like areas including the sand dunes, there are mountains, valleys, salt covered ground (actually over 200 Sq Miles of salt covered ground) where salted ocean waters once flowed freely.

You did not want to run out of gas anywhere in the park. It was over 100 degrees (farenheit) when we were there in mid-May. It was a long haul between sites in the park with little traffic and nothing but wide-open spaces in between. And forget that nonsense you hear about a "dry heat". It doesn't get any drier than this and it was HOT! HOT! HOT! Miserably hot! No hikes too far from the air conditioned car.

There are long stretches of road that are nothing but vast loneliness. We visited Dante's Peak which provides the overview of the valley and the salt covered land mass. En route to Badwater, the lowest, hottest, driest place on the planet, we stopped at Zabriskie Point - just another (interesting) overlook in the park. On the way to lunch, we did the Artists drive detour which provides for some colorful rock, a gravel road, (and did I mention) HEAT. We had lunch in Furnace Creek, before heading back out into the sweltering "furnace" heat. Before the end of the day, we wanted to see Ubehebe Crater and the dunes at Stovepipe Wells - an ambitious plan in this inhospitable place. We took off for the crater - a dormant volcano at the north end of the pavement - a LONG Haul (have RELIABLE transportation). When we got there, I realized we needed gas. I really thought the quarter tank we had would get us back to Stovepipe, but it was now 5pm and I did not want to risk it. We headed to Scotty's Castle where they advertised gas. I got there as they were closing up but they did open back up for me - GREAT People.

We got back to Stovepipe well before sunset, but the sun was low on the sand dunes. I did not hike out to them - thankfully. They are quite a bit further than they look (it is not a short walk).

We spent the night in Panamint Springs. A small cabin not far off the road. It is a fairly long haul from Stovepipe Wells, but an easy drive except the last few miles of crossing the mountains. I stayed up well past sunset and watched over the open land. THIS is the definition of DARK! And 5 or 10 miles off in the distance, you can see cars coming over the mountains, making the switchbacks as they descend the mountain and then enter the long straightaway in the valley. It looks almost like a UFO might because of the remotemess and the darkness.

Origination Point - Las Vegas to Pahrump, NV

We flew in to Las Vegas to start our Tour of California trip. We arrived in Las Vegas early and headed to Hoover Dam for the tour. We did not go to the bottom on this trip because our daughter was afraid of going underground, but some of us had been down there before. We stopped at Lake Meade where some kids were caked in the mud from the low water levels. This mud looked absolutely gross. We headed back to Vegas and met some friends for dinner, then drove the hour or so to Pahrump. We stayed in a big casino in the middle of nowhere, but it offered an easy entrance into Death Valley tomorrow.