our first four days of derek’s time off in yosemite had been packed pretty full. we learned a lesson that maybe we should scatter his time off, because we were all pretty exhausted from the long drive in and out every day, not to mention whatever adventures we partook in. for the last of his […]
derek
yosemite. part one.
ok. so. yosemite. “the crown jewel of the national park service”. we were both excited to see it and a little bit dreading the crowds. our campground was about an hour out of the valley and had no cell signal, so derek took the first week off entirely to explore and adventure and we would […]
sequoia national park.tunnel log and moro rock.
we didn’t know it at the time, but the tuesday after labor day would be our last big adventure in sequoia and kings canyon. we did a lot and decided that instead of fighting the cell signal logistics problem, we would just head to fresno and regroup before our yosemite time. anyhow. for our last […]
sequoia and kings canyon.big baldy hike.
our third day in sequoia and kings canyon was memorial day. so, bonus, derek was off. not bonus, so was everyone else. :). we decided to find a less populated spot and had no trouble at all securing parking at the big baldy trailhead, just a few miles from our campsite. the hike was about […]
kings canyon. scenic drive and meadow hike.
on our second day in sequoia and kings canyon, the weather cleared up, making a perfect day to make the long, scenic drive into kings canyon and do a little bit of hiking when we got there. we decided to save the scenic overlooks and picture taking for the trip back up, so we could […]
sequoia national park.foggy general sherman.
with derek’s big test in the rear view mirror, we were pretty excited for the next leg of our trip, a few weeks in sequoia, kings canyon and yosemite. first up, a week in sequoia national forest, sort of in between sequoia and kings canyon, which are two separate parks, but the park service runs […]
bakersfield layover.
[obligatory acknowledgement that i’m super duper behind in blogging. we have been really busy and in some really internetless places.] when i left off, we were traveling from the eastern side of the sierras to bakersfield, california. we chose bakersfield because it was halfway between lone pine and our campsite in sequioa national forest, which […]
manzanar and cesar chavez field trips.
when we moved from death valley to lone pine, and started researching things to do in the area, both derek and i were pretty excited about checking out manzanar national historical site. but then we were planning to leave early, so we had to cram it in on the afternoon before we left, after derek […]
death valley days.
we had high hopes for death valley. the drive in was pretty intense. you have to go over two mountain ranges, which is tough on derek driving this billion ton rv. the road and scenery was exactly how you would imagine they would be in a place called death valley. once we met back up […]
little denmark, usa. (aka: solvang, ca).
while perusing pinterest and other pockets of the internet for interesting things to do with kids in california, a little town called solvang kept popping up. basically, from what i understand, it was settled/invented/created by some danish folks from the midwest, who wanted a winter retreat in warm and sunny california. its now pretty much […]