Days 32-40: Yosemite NP, Kings Canyon/Sequoia Nat'l Parks, Death Valley NP, Las Vegas, NV, Zion NP, North Rim of Grand Canyon NP, and Bryce Canyon NP

Sunday morning, we drove to Yosemite and set up camp for two nights at Crane Flats Campground. The campground was surprisingly not very full because it had rained the previous night and many kids were starting school the next day. This meant a good night’s rest for the BIG activity we had planned for Monday. Once we set up camp, we drove to Yosemite Valley. We were able to see Bridal Veil Falls, which is a beautiful waterfall. Unfortunately, Yosemite Falls, the 5th tallest waterfall in the world, is dry this time of year, so we could not see it. That evening, we attended a campfire talk with a ranger about the “giants” of Yosemite. She covered everything from the big trees to the waterfalls to the granite rocks.

Monday morning came bright and early as we woke up at 4:30 AM. We had a date with Half Dome. For those that don’t know, Half Dome is a granite mountain in Yosemite. It is one of the most photographed things in Yosemite. Its elevation is 8,842 feet. The hike is 14-16 miles round trip, depending on which route you take, and it gains 4,800 feet in elevation.

We started our hike right at dawn. We decided to go up Mist Trail, which was the shortest way up, but also the steepest. There were two very pretty waterfalls along the way, Vernal and Nevada Falls. We reached the base of Half Dome, and we wondered what we got ourselves into. There standing before us was a Sub-dome, which we had to climb before we even reached the bottom of the peak of Half Dome. The climb up the Sub-dome included granite steps with a sheer drop-off beside you. At this point, our legs were starting to get tired, but we were so close to getting to the top. About ¾ of the way up the Sub-dome, the stairs disappeared, and we had to rock scramble up slabs of granite to reach the saddle between the Sub-dome and the beginning of the actual Half Dome.

Once we were on the saddle, we only had about 500 feet left until we reached the peak of Half Dome. Unfortunately, the final ascent is probably one of the most terrifying events we have experienced so far. The only thing separating us and the peak was the 45+ degree incline that was one solid sheet of granite. It is so steep that there is a line of cables for climbers to use as they ascend to the top. This isn’t like rock climbing; you don’t get to clip yourself onto the cable.

Climbing up involved a lot of upper body strength as we had to pull ourselves up the cables. Thanks to our Sunday School class in Wichita, we had gardening gloves that served as our lifesavers to grip the cables. (Yes, going into it, we knew about the cables.) About a 1/3 of the way up, Marissa lost her footing for a split second, and she began to question our sanity. The same cables were used for people to climb up the dome as well as descend it. So, at that point, it was almost easier to keep ascending rather than quit and turn around. However, she was basically hyperventilating the rest of the way up due to the steepness and risk of life involved. Jeremy reassured her, and we kept going up…one foot in front of the other. Finally, after a few heart stopping moments, we reached the top! The view from the peak was breathtaking.

After 30 minutes of resting and soaking in the scenery, it was time to descend. To our amazement, the descent was easier. We basically had to just get a good grip on the cable and hold on tight as we walked down (or slide down as Jeremy did a few times). After 10.5 hours, we were back at the car and ready for a shower and some good eats.

Tuesday we drove across the park on Tioga Road to Tuolumne Meadows, and then back to Yosemite Valley. We checked out the Ansel Adams gallery and the Ahwahnee Hotel. After that we drove to the southern part of the park to Wawona Hotel, where we had reservations for the night. We also drove about 6 miles further south to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. These trees aren’t as tall as the Redwoods, but they definitely have wider trunks.

Wednesday morning we partook of the Wawona Hotel’s “complimentary” breakfast buffet. It was a nice surprise that we didn’t expect. Then we headed south to King’s Canyon National Park. Our first attraction in the park was Grant’s Grove which is where General Grant, one of the world’s widest trees resides. Next, we headed south to the adjoining Sequoia National Park. There we made our way to the Lodgepole Campground to set up our tent. Then we took the shuttle down to the General Sherman tree, the world’s largest tree by volume (interesting to note that it is neither the tallest nor the widest, however).

Thursday morning we saw a black bear waddle across the road on our way to Moro Rock. It was one of our highlights of the trip so far. It didn’t seem at all affected by our car’s presence. We then climbed up some 400+ stairs to the top of the scenic Moro Rock. Afterwards, we departed for Death Valley National Park.

It was a long drive, but it was surprisingly beautiful. The drive was very mountainous, but even the desert area was gorgeous. We saw some orchards that we in the midst of desert. The highest temperature on our car’s thermometer was 117 degrees and that was around 5 pm. We stayed at a hotel which actually had a TV (that’s unheard of at national parks).

Friday morning, we woke up and drove to Badwater Basin, which is the lowest point in the western hemisphere. It was an ancient lake. It’s now a dry salt bed. By 9 AM that morning, the temperature was already 101 degrees.

We headed out of Death Valley and into Las Vegas. Despite the shady dealings going on along the Strip, there was actually beauty to be found with the casino buildings and lights. Our motel had lions in the lobby that you could watch for free. We also went to the Venetian and saw the canals and gondolas. That night, we went to one of six Cirque du Soleil shows going on in Las Vegas. This was an awesome show full of acrobatic stunts, choreography, and special effects. After the show, which was about 8:30 PM, we headed over to Mandalay Bay to eat at their buffet. (We figured we had to try one since Vegas is known for its buffets.) We journeyed up the Strip to the Bellagio, and we watched the FREE water/light show that is often depicted in movies. It was late to bed that night, even though Jeremy’s parents were to arrive the following morning.

After meeting Jeremy’s parents at a McDonald’s near the Strip, we headed for the Hoover Dam. We had a dam tour, which included the dam power plant. The dam guide was very informative. Then, it was on to Zion National Park. We didn’t do much that evening as everyone was very tired. So, we just stayed at a motel at the entrance to Zion. We did have some Bumbleberry pie for dessert, which was pretty tasty.

We woke up early on Sunday, and headed into Zion to catch the free shuttle up the canyon. We all donned our water shoes and walked a ways up the Virgin River into a part of the park called The Narrows. It is only accessible via hiking through the river. This was extremely fun, but the water was only in the 60s. The rocks were very slippery and hard to see through the water. The water only came up to the mid-thigh region before we turned around. (We did see people further up stream with water up to their stomachs.)

After The Narrows, we drove a few hours south to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We went to the afternoon ranger talk about California condors. The condors were practically extinct in 1985 with only 9 birds left in the wild. These birds were eventually all captured, and they were bred in captivity. There are now approximately 385 condors in the wild. (We saw 2-3 condors in Zion National Park.) Around dusk that evening, another ranger brought out a high-power telescope and showed people the moon and Jupiter. Afterwards, there was another ranger talk about various deaths in the canyon. As morbid as this sounds, it was a very interesting talk.

We went on a short hike on Monday morning along the rim of the canyon. Following this, Jeremy’s parents went back to Las Vegas, while we went up to Bryce Canyon. We plan on exploring some of Utah’s canyonlands the next few days. Both of us were commenting that at the beginning of the trip, we weren’t expecting much from Utah due to the desert conditions. However, it has been one of the most beautiful aspects of our trip.

(We'll post pictures at a later date as we are receiving very slow Wi-Fi service at the moment.)

Days 25-31: Oregon Coast, Redwoods Forest, Point Reyes National Seashore, San Francisco, CA, and Sacramento, CA

Sunday morning, we woke up and began our trip down the Oregon Coast on the infamous Highway 101. We stopped at Depoe Bay and saw gray whales. We camped out that night at Beachside State Park, which was within spitting distance of the ocean. We heard the ocean waves all night long, but at the time, we thought it was wind in the trees because it was so intermittent.

We were awakened Monday night to very cold temperatures. We only had our fleece sleeping bags with us in the tent. Luckily, we also had a huge flannel sleeping bag as our mattress pad. So, we both zipped ourselves into the 1-person flannel sleeping bag for warmth. It was close quarters indeed. I don't think either of us moved the entire night, and therefore didn't get much sleep.

On Monday, we continued our journey down the Oregon coast and into California. We set up camp at Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park near Crescent City, CA. We had seen some big trees along our trip, but the redwoods put all of those to shame. After setting up camp, we ventured into Crescent City to explore. There was a lighthouse, which was only accessible during low-tide. Luckily, we were there at the right time. On the walk to the lighthouse, we were able to see many starfish clinging to the exposed rocks due to the low tide. That night, we went to a Ranger talk about bears. This didn't help Marissa fall asleep that night.

We went on a small hike on the Boy Scout Tree Trail. Along the way, we finally saw banana slugs! These things were huge! We had been wanting to see these since we had first heard about them in Olympic National Park in Washington. It was a very exciting moment for us when we were actually able to see many of them slithering across the trail. The picture below shows the tip of a shoe compared to the size of the slug.

After the excitement of seeing the slugs, we ventured to our next stop of the night at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. (We should mention that in California, the Redwoods are managed by both the National government, as well as the state of California.) We just hunkered down for the evening and read some books.

Wednesday was a long day for us. We drove from Prairie Creek to Point Reyes National Seashore. Normally it's about a 4.5 hour drive. Somehow, we made it in 6-7 hours. We did stop a few times for attractions along the side of the road. One such attraction was the One-Log House. That's right...a house made out of the trunk of one Redwood.

Once we finally arrived at Point Reyes, we picked up our back country camping permit from the Ranger station. The ranger warned us as we were heading out to watch out for the raccoons and skunks that were being pests at our particular campground. We hiked to our campsite, which was a few hundred feet from the ocean. We had our gourmet meal of Ramen noodles, then once again, bedded down for the evening as it was really foggy and dreary out. In the middle of the night, Jeremy woke up to a strange sound. He thought it was a critter nibbling at our shoes, which were just outside our tent in the tent's vestibule. Mountain lions were known to be in the area as well, so neither of us wanted to move or turn on a light to find out what was making the noise. Finally, Jeremy got up and realized it was the camping permit flapping on our tent. Marissa was able to fall back asleep, but Jeremy was up half the night hearing seals barking on the beach, elk walking down a path next to our campsite, critters squeaking close to us, etc.

We hiked back to our car the next morning. We went on a very short walk on Earthquake trail, which runs alongside the San Andreas fault. There's a fence along the trail that was in existence during the 1906 earthquake and part of the fence was moved 20 feet away. We set out for San Francisco shortly after that. One of the first things we saw was the Golden Gate Bridge. We got off at the exit right before the bridge and parked our car. (A lady that we sat next to in Jackson at the chuck wagon told us that this was a great spot for taking pictures of the bridge.) We walked part way across the bridge. Along the way were signs and phones for crisis management for people contemplating suicide. Then, we drove around Marin Headwaters National Site and saw some cold war bunkers and missile defense systems. After this, we headed to our hotel via the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge. As we were getting on the Bay Bridge, Jeremy had a revelation that this was the same bridge that collapsed during the 1988 earthquake. We happened to be driving on the lower deck of the bridge for the entire 7-8 miles of the bridge span. Needless to say, Marissa did not appreciate the timing of Jeremy's comment. Oops!

Friday was a busy day for us as we rode the subway into San Francisco. We were pleasantly surprised at the first stop of the day...The Ferry Building. We had only heard about it because we were going to be eating some raw oysters at a little cafe there. The building itself was quite something. They also had many local vendors selling various products such as breads, caviar, cheese, and of course, seafood. We had never had raw oysters before, and we actually really enjoyed them. Oh yeah, and we shouldn't forget to mention that we walked by the coolest toilets. They are on the sidewalk, kind of like port-a-potties. Except, you have to push a button for the door to open. Once you use the restroom and leave it, the door closes and cleans the floor for 55 seconds.

We then walked to Union Square and bought tickets for the trolley. We had to wait in line for 30-45 minutes just to get on the trolley. Even though it was a long wait, the street performers were very entertaining. We hopped off the trolley at Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world. (In actuality, there's an even more crooked street in San Francisco, but it was less scenic.) From there, we walked down to Ghiradelli Square and Fisherman's Wharf. Jeremy thinks that we had the best cupcakes in the world at a cupcake bakery at Ghiradelli Square. We shared a S'More and a double chocolate cupcake. Yum, yum, oh so good! We also went to another National Park-sponsored site that had several historic ferry boats. After a long day in San Francisco, we hopped back on the subway and went back to the 'burbs for the evening.

On Saturday, we stopped at the Jelly Belly factory on our way to Sacramento. It was a free tour, and they gave free samples. You can't beat that price! It was a pretty neat tour, but it would've been better if they would've been in production. (Jelly Belly gives its' employees the weekend off.) We also stopped at In-N-Out for lunch as we had never been to one, and it's supposedly a fast food icon in southern California. It was pretty tasty. We made our way to Sacramento, and Jeremy was excited to be able to see the start (or the end) of US Highway 50. (This is the highway that runs across the nation, including Kansas. It's known as the loneliest road in America.) We drove down to the state capital building and also to the California State Fair. Compared to Kansas' State Fair, California's fair has a lot more food vendors and midway rides. We didn't really see any 4-H projects or a butter sculpture, and they definitely didn't have The Old Mill ride. They did, however, have 3 rides from Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch to ride on.

Days 16-24: Seattle, WA, Orcas Island, WA, Olympic National Park, Mt. Rainier National Park, and Portland, OR

We arrived in Seattle, WA on Friday, where we checked into our downtown hotel. Once checked in, we went exploring. We walked through Pike Place Market, where the sellers throw fish to the buyers. We also scoped out where the very first Starbucks was located because Marissa’s parents were going to be joining us the following day, and needless to say, they are big fans of the company. That night, we ate on a pier at The Crab Pot, which has been featured on “Man vs. Food.” We ate a crab boil where we had to break open the crab with wooden mallets. It was very tasty, but a lot of work just to eat.

Saturday morning, we woke up and walked to Top Pot donuts, which is a Seattle tradition. After donuts, we had a few hours to kill before we went to pick up Marissa’s parents from the airport. Therefore, we went to Point Defiance Zoo. Lucky for us, we already had a membership to our local zoo, and we were able to get into this zoo for free. We like free! It was a pretty neat zoo.

We picked up Marissa’s parents Saturday evening from the airport and went directly to the Space Needle. We ate in the restaurant on top of the needle. It had an awesome 360 degree view of the city and surrounding area, and it had excellent food. The restaurant rotates in a complete circle every 44 minutes. We highly recommend this to anyone who’s going to be in the area.

On Sunday morning, we went back to Pike Place Market and walked around. We then went to the Starbucks where several pictures were taken. After this outing, we loaded up Captain and headed for the ferry to Orcas Island.

Orcas Island is located in the San Juan Island chain in the Puget Sound. It is about an hour by ferry from the main land to the island. The island itself is very laidback. There are about 4500 people who live scattered throughout the island with only 5 cops. We stayed at the Turtleback Farm Inn, which is featured in numerous publications, including “1,000 Places to See Before You Die.” It is a B&B, and their breakfast has been featured in Gourmet magazine. It was a great experience.

Monday was bitter sweet for us because we had planned to go sea kayaking amongst the orcas, aka killer whales. However, the whales were too far from the island to kayak near. Plus, it was rainy and overcast all day. (Unfortunately for us, this would be the theme for the week that Marissa’s parents were with us.) So, we abandoned the kayaking idea, and instead went on a 4-hour whale-watching cruise. We saw numerous whales skimming the surface of the water. Unfortunately, none of them “leaped” out of the water like those seen in pictures. It was a unique and exciting tour.

We got up extremely early on Tuesday in order to ride the first ferry departing the island at 7:20 am. We were told to arrive at the ferry dock by 6 am. Unfortunately, that meant we had to miss the great breakfast at the B&B. Tuesday included two ferry rides and quite a bit of driving. We drove to Olympic National Park and got a chance to see one of the rainforests located there. The rainforest is the only rainforest in the western hemisphere which is protected by a government.

Wednesday morning we went for a short hike through the rainforest before departing to Mt. Rainier. The forest lived up to its name, as it rained on us the whole time we were there. We were disappointed by all of the logging which started immediately after the boundary of the national park and forest. I guess that only reinforces the importance of protecting national parks and forests. Our route to Mt. Rainier went through Olympia, the capitol of Washington. There was dense fog most of the way to Mt. Rainier where we stayed at a park inn near the mountain. Due to the fog, we never got a glimpse of the mountain. In fact, we have not seen the mountain yet (you can see it even from Seattle on clear days).

Thursday we traveled south to Mount St. Helen’s. We drove to the east side of the volcano where we viewed the damage from the 1980 explosion. There has been quite a bit of re-growth, but you can definitely tell the extent of the damage. Marissa’s mom was a very good sport on the ride up the mountain due to the fact that she is not so keen on heights. She was very thankful when we pulled into Portland later that day. We ate at a Lebanese restaurant which surprisingly, everyone seemed to enjoy.

Friday we checked out Voodoo Doughnut’s downtown location which was only a block from our hotel. It has a very eclectic mix of doughnuts, including body part doughnuts and maple and bacon doughnuts to name a few. Then we went to Portland’s Japanese Garden. Supposedly, it is one of the best in the US. We took Marissa’s parents to the airport around noon. Then we set off to see the Columbia River Gorge and Multnomah Falls. It is the second highest year-round waterfall in the US. We hiked up to the top of the falls which was a pretty steep hike. It was worth the effort to see the view at the top. Next up was the Oregon Zoo in Portland. Their exhibit featuring animals of the Northwest was impressive. The bald eagles were only caged in the exhibit by the doors that the patrons entered into. There wasn’t any barbed wire between them and us which was pretty cool. Also, the zoo had a 40th anniversary for Woodstock concert. We think that group/singer was Topaz?? The line for the concert was full of 60-something-year olds and had hundreds-to-thousands of eager ex-hippies waiting to relive Woodstock. Friday night was laundry night.

Saturday morning, we once again headed over to Voodoo Doughnut for breakfast. This time, Marissa got a Voodoo doll donut (person-shaped donut with red raspberry filling) and a chocolate glazed donut with peanut butter and Oreos. Jeremy got a Cap’n Crunch topped donut and an M&M topped donut. Yum-O!

After a delectable breakfast, we headed to Oregon City, OR, the oldest incorporated town west of the Rockies. It is home of the only municipal elevator in the US. It is also the end of the Oregon Trail. We ventured to the Oregon Trail Center, but were rather disappointed as it didn’t match up to the previous trail centers we had been to previously. We then headed to a National Park-sponsored historical house. The house was the home of Dr. McLoughlin, who was the city founder. It was a pretty good tour of the house, especially because it was free!

Once we completed the tour, we met up with one of Jeremy’s old college roommates, Brent, and his girlfriend, Rebecca. We had a tasty supper and chat, then we headed down the road toward the coast. However, as we were driving, we started calling hotels along the way, and they were all sold out. Therefore, we diverted to Salem, OR, the capital city, where we are once again doing laundry because we found out that some of our sleeping bags were damp from being stored in coolers which were on the back of our car.

Tomorrow, we head back to the Oregon coast, and we plan to camp on the beach.

Day 15: Leavenworth, WA

Guten tag! (That's "hello" in German for those of you who need a translation.)

On Thursday, we made our way from Spokane, WA to Leavenworth, WA. Along the way, the scenery changed from hills to farmland to semi-arid volcanic foothills to fruit orchards to mountainous. We stopped in Cashmere, WA at a small candy factory. The name of the place was Aplets and Cotlets. They make Armenian gel-like candies with apples plus walnuts (aplets) or apricots plus walnuts (cotlets). They also make many more flavors of these candies in addition to some chocolate candies. The interesting thing the tour guide mentioned during our tour was that the CEO chooses to have people hand-make all the candies and hand-package all the candies to help keep jobs in the area, instead of transforming these jobs into a robotic process.

After the brief stop in Cashmere, we headed for Leavenworth, WA, which is mentioned in the book "1,000 Places to See Before You Die." The town is Bavarian themed. The downtown area is decked out with Bavarian buildings and murals. They have many German restaurants and shops. It may seem like this is a cheesy concept, but the town pulls it off very well. We highly recommend anyone who wants to go to Germany, but is afraid of the language barrier, to go here instead.

This weekend, we're in The Emerald City...Seattle, WA.

Days 13-14: Coeur d'Alene, ID and Spokane, WA

Tuesday we stopped along the road at Hungry Horse Dam, the largest dam in Montana and the 11th largest in the USA. Our next stop was near Libby, Montana to see a swinging bridge (see picture below) and Kootenai Falls. After a quick roadside meal of Ramen noodles, we continued to Idaho. We arrived at Farragut State Park and set up our campsite. We drove to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho which was about 20 miles away for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. We trying to find some good ole Idaho potato dishes, but no one seemed to be advertising that.

We were awake around 6am Pacific time on Wednesday and tried to remain in our tent until 7am when camp quiet hours were over. Once we broke camp, we headed back East to the MT/ID border to ride bikes along the Hiawatha Rails-to-Trials path. After an hour's drive there, we were told that the trial started 7 miles East of the bike rental shop and that we had to transport our bikes to the trailhead. Well, our car is extremely full of camping gear and such for the trip, so we don't have room for bikes. We were disappointed because there is no way to ride your bike along the interstate for 7 miles to the trailhead. Once again, we were headed back West.

We arrived in Spokane around noon. Tonight we're staying at a hotel to do laundry. We at a local fast food restaurant called Zip's. It was a hamburger and fish sandwich place. We also checked out the downtown area. It was a nice area, but there were quite a few homeless people. Tonight we're just doing laundry and getting ready to head for Leavenworth, WA tomorrow.

Days 10-12: Glacier National Park

On Saturday, we planned to stop by a Grizzly Festival. However, as we drove through the little town of Dupuyer, we realized this was pretty much a locals-only type of event. So, we kept on the road. We arrived at Many Glacier Lodge early in the afternoon. It was a Swedish lodge which was breathtaking. We didn't do too much that day because Jeremy was feeling a little sick. We hung around the Lodge and read. That evening we tried huckleberry icecream. It was delicious! We also attended a ranger talk about the birds of Glacier Natl Park.

Sunday morning we attended a church service hosted by Lodge employees. After the service, we hiked 12 miles roundtrip to one of the few remaining glaciers, Grinell Glacier (see picture below). The hike was beautiful; on the ascent, we saw a moose wading in a pond far below us. We saw bighorn sheep near the glacier itself. The park doesn't expect any of the glaciers to exist after 2030. Next year the park will celebrate its centennial anniversary as a park. After our hike we drove to Glacier Park Lodge in East Glacier. It was also a very nice stay. We tried huckleberry pie that evening. It is sort of a mix between blueberry and cherry. Delicious...

Monday we left the hotel and set out for the Road-to-the Sun; it is a very scenic drive through the Park. On our way to hook up with the scenic road, we saw a few wild horses slowly making there way down the middle of the highway (see picture below). Once we got the scenic road, we stopped and did a short hike near the Continental Divide. On that hike, we saw mountain goats (see picture below) as well as more bighorn sheep. We drove to Lake McDonald Lodge. We rented a rowboat for an hour and set out on Lake McDonald. This was one activity that Marissa was very much looking forward to. We drove over to Apgar Village in search of a particular souvenir shirt that Jeremy had passed by a couple days prior. Thank goodness they had what he was looking for. That evening the Lodge's ranger talk was about artists that have been at GNP as well as their art.

Next up Coeur d'Alene, ID and Spokane, WA.