travel – Page 14 – Lemon Drop Pie

Every day before we set out, I would look at our Visitor Guide. By looking at the map and hiking information, I could plan our day to get the most out of our time spent in the park. On our last full day in Yosemite, we drove to Glacier Point. All the glaciers are long gone, but Yosemite Valley was carved out by slow moving glaciers. Glacier Point is up high, and gave us a gorgeous view of the Valley.

Despite the altitude, it was very warm. We wandered around and ate our picnic on a big slab of black-and-white speckled granite. We were in one of those places where there isn’t much to do except gaze around in wonder. Oh, yes, and there was much climbing and walking on rocks, which is always fun. It was hard to pull ourselves away from Glacier Point.

Our second stop was Mariposa Grove, which is known for its giant Sequoia trees. Since it was later in the day, parking was a problem. We parked in a far away lot, and then took the shuttle bus up to the grove, which worked well.

Roots from the Fallen Monarch Sequoia, which has been preserved for centuries by the natural tannic acid Sequoias have in their wood.

Mariposa Grove, Yosemite — California Tunnel Tree

While we were busy looking up at these magnificent trees, it’s hard to remember to look down. When I did, I saw this cute squirrel grabbing a pine cone lunch. That little pine cone is a Sequoia pine cone, which is about the size of a chicken egg. Isn’t it amazing to think that such huge trees come from such little seeds?

On our fourth day in Yosemite, we were only passing through. We drove over the Sierra Nevada mountains on one of the only passes, Tioga Road. Of course, we couldn’t just drive through, although we didn’t have time to explore as much as we wanted to. Tioga Road’s elevation goes up to 10,000 feet.

We stopped for lunch at Tuolumne Meadows, where we saw some backpackers who were hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. It goes right through Yosemite, and is the same trail Cheryl Strayed hiked and then wrote about in her book Wild. I loved that book, and so I wanted to put my feet on the PCT just to say that I did. But the trail I actually followed for a few minutes with Lily and Emmy was just a trail from the restaurant/post office to the campground. As we were pulling out to continue our drive across the mountains, I saw the sign for the PCT, but we needed to get on our way. Next stop: a ghost town at Bodie State Historical Park!

Are you tagging along on our California trip? Here’s more posts:

Meeting Gretchen from Second Blooming in Los Angeles
Hiking the Lemon Grove Loop Trail in San Luis Obispo
Yosemite, Day One
Yosemite, Day Two
Suddenly in Death Valley

Our stay at Furnace Creek Ranch in Death Valley did not start off well. Our hotel room was in a separate building from the office, quite a long walk away. The key was not opening the door, even though the light was flashing green. It was 124 degrees Fahrenheit, and there was no cell phone service. I flagged down a golf cart that an employee was driving and asked for help. The girl opened the door by pulling the door handle UP instead of down. That door gave us trouble for the rest of our stay!

Death Valley Natl Park — Do you really need proof that it was stinkin’ hot in Death Valley?

Our room was nice and cool, but the phone didn’t work. There was no way to contact the front desk when we needed more towels. (Hotels always put only three towels in the room. We are a family of four. Why do they do that?)

Another strange thing about that room was that the water coming out of the faucet was always warm. We brushed our teeth with warm water and filled up water bottles with warm water. At a place called Furnace Creek, I guess that was to be expected. Fortunately, the little refrigerator in the room worked very well, and the ice machine in the next building did made ice.

We ate a decent dinner, although it was overpriced, at the Forty-Niner Cafe. There weren’t many dining choices, and I imagine food is expensive to transport into the valley. The server was extremely nice and accommodating; I asked him if soft drinks were included in the kids’ meals. He didn’t know, so he threw them in for free.

Dinner had been early, so we decided to drive down to Badwater Basin. Badwater is the lowest elevation in North America, at 282 feet below sea level. It was hot.

By now, you are probably wondering why we went to Death Valley. Everyone knows it’s hot; why in world were we in Death Valley on a summer vacation to California, when we could visit the beach or the mountains or wine country?

Simply put, Death Valley is amazing. Death Valley’s heat is incredible. We carried a water bottle every time we left the car. We didn’t go on hikes. We couldn’t. But the places we explored were beautiful, amazing, awesome places…awesome in the true sense of the word.

I wanted to take the Artist’s Drive on the way back to the hotel. It is a 9 mile twisting road that goes back among the foothills, and it is most beautiful at sunset.

We thought that the range ahead of us shone brilliantly. The rocks were gleaming in the last rays of the sun shining into the valley. We thought we were already seeing the beauty of Death Valley.

Suddenly, we drove around the curve and an explosion of color was before us. It. was. awesome.

These colorful hills were already in the shadows by the time we arrived, so my pictures just don’t do it justice. This turn in the road is called Artist’s Palette, and it was easy to see why.

The temperature, the hot wind pummeling us, and the gorgeous view all combined to make us literally breathless.

We arrived at our hotel room in a much better mood. The best part of the day was yet to come, according to Lily and Emmy. While the night air cooled down to 110 degrees, we swam in the huge, warm spring-fed pool, surrounded by palm trees. It was the place to be, and even with all the other tourists swimming with us, there was plenty of room to swim.

I took this picture of the pool the next morning from our hotel room porch.

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Category: travel

Yosemite, Day Three and Four

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Suddenly in Death Valley… {Spin Cycle}

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