Monday was a day that had a little bit of rough edges. It was nothing life-shattering, but sometimes when a person like me who likes to ‘have a plan’ can find it hard to be positive in all situations, sometimes days are just off. This one started well with hanging out with our friends, playing games, holding babies and making the most of our last hours together. However, then we had to say goodbye. This was something that had to be done so that we could start on our road trip extravaganza, but it’s still hard to say goodbye.
We left around 11am, and it took us until about 4pm to get to Yosemite by the time we stopped for gas, food and random stops. As we had gotten closer, the road got really windy so I had to switch to driving, but I had already gotten car sick, so I felt gross. The below picture wasn’t a joke. It was crazy.
When we finally arrived at Yosemite, we found that the guidebook had spoken truth that this is one of the busiest and most visited parks {especially by foreigners} in the US National Park service. It was packed and people were everywhere doing their own thing and most of them didn’t speak English. I felt like I was more at a theme park than a National Park. There were even trams packed with people to get from one “attraction” to the next.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful park and I am glad that people are able to enjoy God’s creation. However, it already made me miss the National Parks of the Northwest. They are just as beautiful AND, while still having visitors, feel more “respected” and secluded from the craziness of humanity!
We squeezed a few of the sites in before the sun started to set behind the rocks. In tribute to Ansel Adams, here are some of my Yosemite pictures in black and white.
The campgrounds were full in the park and we had decided that we’re going to add King’s Canyon/Sequoia to our National Parks tour, so we decided to start heading that way at 7pm and we’d find a place to camp somewhere that direction. Three hours later and right outside of King’s Canyon, we started to get a little worried. Brian kept reminding me we are on an adventure, but the control freak in me was stressing out! A helpful motel owner told us that the campgrounds inside the park are not usually full during the week, so we should go and just camp there. Onward we went, with it getting close to 11pm and after driving around the campgrounds for awhile, we found a site and were in our tent by midnight.
We did go to sleep this sign ringing in my head. Brian thought I was being silly {again} as I pulled the cooler, all possible smelly things and food to put into the bear safe box. I figured that while I’d like to see a bear, I would rather it be from the safety of my car, not from the inside of my tent.
While there were some rough edges on our day, I was still blessed with a busy and mostly beautiful start to our actual driving portion of our road trip. In the gift shop there was also this great bookmark that I’ll leave you with for now.....
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