Vegas to Yosemite

Yosemite National Park, CA

Day #14, Miles 3450, States 9


Hello, George here.  We have been in areas of limited or no internet availablity for awhile, and Andi has not been able to post during our drives.  We are now in an RV campsite just outside Yosemite Park.  We have no cell or internet connection, but there is WiFi in the park lodge that I am using while Natalie does some laundry.  We wound up staying an extra night in Vegas.  The KOA Campground at Circus Circus was fine and gave us easy access to "the strip", so we went to another show on our final night.  During our three days in Vegas, the kids made use of the giant "Adventure Dome" in the Circus Circus hotel and we checked out some of the larger attractions on the the strip, including Caesar's Palace; the Hard Rock Cafe; the Bellagio (where we saw the fantastic Circ de Soleil show, "O"); Planet Hollywood (where we saw another excellent show, "Vegas, the Show"); and the Vegas Eifel Tower.


From Vegas, we drove to Death Valley National Park.  We had originally planned to spend the night there, but because of our extra night in Vegas, we had to settle for a driving tour. Even from the RV, the scenery was spectacular.  We did drive out to "Scotty's Castle" and take a guided tour before heading north toward Yosemite.  We had also planned to make it to Yosemite the same day, but the Tioga pass was closed due to snow (this was hard to believe after just driving out of the 120 degree heat in Death Valley).  This meant that we would have to go around the park to the north and enter from the west.  That was too much driving for one day, so we camped overnight  in a pretty little RV park in Lee Vining California that overlooked Mono Lake.  The next morning, we headed north and took the Sonora Pass around Yosemite.  We climbed this winding switchback up the Sierras very slowly in our heavy RV--often only managing 20 miles-per-hour.  When we reached the summit of the Pass (nearly 10,000 ft), the snow was piled 6-8 feet on either side of the highway.  The dogs and kids were delighted with this, but they quickly found out that running around in packed mountain snow in your bear feet is not very comfortable.  It was hard for us to believe that only the day before we had been driving through the 120 degree heat of Death Valley at 190 feet below sea level!







Natalie Looks Down over Death Valley

 

After finally crossing the mountains, we stopped in Sonora for lunch and then climbed another steep mountain switchback to reach the RV camp.  After checking in, we drove the RV into Yosemite and did some hiking and bike riding in the incredibly beautiful park.  We made it back to the RV park just before dark, and Natalie made us dinner.  Then we all watched "Groundhog Day" and turned in. 

Kids Play in Snow in Sonora Pass

Driving Through Sonora Pass

We got an early start this morning to beat the traffic into Yosemite.  Once we secured a good parking spot, Natale got our second day in the park started right by baking some hot biscuits and frying some eggs.  Then we hiked and biked some more of the trails before having lunch at Yosemite Village.  We weren't able to get any horseback rides for the afternoon (we'll save that for Montana), and it was getting too hot for more hiking and biking, so we called it an early day and headed back to camp to "rest and refit".  Tomorrow, we head out to San Francisco, where we will spend three days and two nights before driving up the coast.

Unloading Bikes at Yosemite