Wagner Road Trip 2014 - Yosemite and Kings Canyon

Our last morning in Yosemite, we packed up and headed to Glacier Point Trail to see the panoramic view of Yosemite Valley, Half Dome, Hanging Rock, Yosemite Falls and Yosemite's High Country.

As you can see in the picture below, it was a bit chilly that morning, but as we begun our mini-hike, we quickly shed our extra layer of clothing.

View of Half Dome to the left.

A short 30 minute hike down 4 Mile Trail.

A view of Hanging Rock.

A tourist photo of Hanging Rock back when people were crazy!

Another picture of Half Dome.  

"The impression from the valley floor that this is a round dome which has lost its northwest half ."

Interesting Fact: 

The North Face's quarter-circle logo, produced by California designer David Alcorn in 1971, 

evokes Half Dome, a massive granitic monolith in Yosemite National Park.^[6]

We headed out of Yosemite and headed North through Fresno on our way to Kings Canyon.  Traveling through Fresno was interesting because of the fruit farms we saw along the way.  We must've pass 50 or more orange groves.  Sadly, aside from the green fields from the orange groves, California is suffering from a drought which has left everything dead and brown.

The landscape quickly changed as we headed into Kings Canyon.  Another twisty and turning drive along a mountain road finally ended in the Kings Canyon valley floor.  

Kings Canyon was peaceful and not inhabited by the masses of people.  It was quiet and relaxing.  

Roaring River Falls was an easy walk to reach.

Here is my artsy, slow shutter speed version of the waterfall.

I set my camera to Aperture Priority, the adjusted the aperture to 22 f-stop and set my ISO to 200.  The shutter speed automatically calculated based on the Aperture Priority.  Since I didn't have a tripod, I placed my camera on a nearby rock and set the timer to 10 seconds so ensure a perfectly still camera.

And yes... the name of this particular road was in fact "Road's End",

which could only mean... the end of the road.  

Road's End actually begins an enormous and popular backcountry hiking trail. This mama doesn't do "backcountry" hiking...ever.  

We headed out of Kings Canyon early the next morning to make our way to the companion park of Kings Canyon, the Sequoia National Park.

Wagner Road Trip 2014 - Yosemite

I had no idea that when we left Death Valley after lunch that day, that we would have another 7 hours of drive time to reach Yosemite National Park.  And the last hour of driving was inside Yosemite driving on twisty and turning switchbacks along a mountain road (read: cliff).  To summarize... by the time we made it to our hotel inside the park I was suffering from a bad case of car sickness (which I never get!)

We arrived at our hotel, the Wawona Hotel around 8 p.m. when Randy mentioned, "Hey, by they way... our hotel room doesn't have a toilet or shower."

WHAT?!  (I guess since it was built in 1876 and maintained it's historical past, they didn't feel the need to add bathrooms to all of the rooms.)  There was however, a very nice common area bathroom and showers, which in retrospect, wasn't so bad after all.

To add insult to injury, because of the bears that live in Yosemite, we had to haul our entire truck-load of stuff into our 2nd floor teeny-tiny room of our "historic" hotel (including 4 large suitcases, 2 large storage bins and two ice chests.)  Needless to say, we barely had room to walk around our room.  But,  I digress...

Historic Wawona Hotel

The next morning,  after a wonderfully quiet and peaceful night of rest and a delicious continental breakfast at our hotel, we headed out to our first trek of the day.  We stopped by the Yosemite Falls and caught a view of the Upper and Lower Falls. 

The Lower Falls of Yosemite Falls.

This is called the "tunnel view" of Yosemite Valley.  This view can be seen as you emerge from a tunnel in the park.

We ventured out on a hike called the Mist Trail.  It was a relatively strenuous hike along granite steps.  The closer you get to the falls, the wetter and slippery the steps become, i.e., the "Mist Trail" (see below).

See the mist of the falls and lush green grass?

At Vernal Falls.

The Park Ranger told us about an easier trail that would get us back down.  So, rather than head back down once we reached Vernal Falls, we kept heading up to the top of the falls so we could connect with another trail.  (Um... easier?)

My family at the top of Vernal Falls.

The top of Vernal Falls.

The Silver Apron is basically a water slide of water streaming across a sheer granite face before it turns into Emerald Pool which leads to Vernal Falls. (Unfortunately, several people have died by sliding on the 'slide' and being swept up in the current in Emerald Pools only to plummet to their death over the falls.  Warning signs people... read them, adhere to them.)

We finally connected to our alternate route trail, which was the John Muir Trail and headed down another 2 miles to the bottom.  Many, many dirt trail switchbacks.  No fun, but definitely better than climbing down slick granite rock steps with the masses.

After 3 hours and 8 minutes of hiking, we finally made it to the end.  A cold sandwich from the deli cooler and a soda was the best food I have ever eaten.  It was a rough day of hiking, but honestly, I feel fortunate to be in the physical shape it requires to hike these types of trails.  There weren't many people making the 4.5 mile round trek we took and I can see why.

 After lunch, we stopped by the visitor center.

We arrived back to our hotel, showered and had a lazy afternoon.  Next up, day two at Yosemite.

Wagner Road Trip 2014 - Death Valley

Our drive to Death Valley in California was a long one.  Randy took the scenic route...

Once we arrived at the Death Valley National Park entrance, little did we know that we still had another 1.5 hours of traveling inside the park until we reached the first notable stop, which was Badwater Basin.

Along our journey inside the park, we happened upon this fellow (coyote), who was walking on the road.  Randy stopped the vehicle so as not to hit him and he walked around the vehicle checking us out.  Here he is in mid-yawn, clearly not impressed with us.  (That pink on the picture is the reflection of my t-shirt on the glass.  Randy wouldn't let me roll the window down for a clearer shot.)

Badwater Basin is the lowest place on North America (and one of the lowest places in the world).  282 ft below sea level.

Standing on the salt flats of Badwater Basin.

Furnace Creek Visitor Center.  It was 97 degrees while we were there.  And truthfully, while it was hot, it was not unbearable.

We ate lunch at the only local restaurant.  We had pizza and watched World Cup Soccer on the restaurant television.

I'll have to admit... Death Valley does not rank high in my list of favorite parks we've ever visited.  In fact... it's probably close to last.  That's not to say I wouldn't recommend visiting, it's just that I don't need to go back. 

After lunch, we left Death Valley and headed out to Yosemite National Park.

Wagner Road Trip 2014 - Las Vegas

On the way to Las Vegas, Randy and I surprised the girls with a stop at the Hoover Dam.  The Hoover Dam Bridge (or the Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge) was opened in 2010.  It's a massive bridge that spans the Colorado river, connecting Arizona to Nevada.  

What's interesting is that when you cross over the bridge, you can't see the Hoover Dam, so much to our dismay, we couldn't even show them what we were going to see until we walked on the pedestrian path on the bridge.

This picture gives you an idea of how massive this bridge is! Photo source.

At the entrance to the pedestrian walkway.  You could either take the stairs (not shown) or the switchback wheelchair accessible ramps.  

Passing by the Nevada State Line sign on the walkway.

The Hoover Dam view from the bridge.

The girls and Randy on the bridge.  Notice the railings... there's not much keeping people from taking a plunge (to their deaths, no less.)

The Hoover Dam was about 30 minutes from Fabulous Las Vegas.  As we drove onto the strip, we saw the famous sign.  Of course, there was NO WAY I could convince Randy to stop and take a picture here.  Look at the mobs of people!

We had hotel reservations at the Mandalay Bay, but a week before our trip, Randy got an email offer to upgrade to THE HOTEL of Mandalay Bay!  Our room at THE HOTEL was fabulous.  Our room was a suite, with sitting room w/large plasma t.v., huge bathroom with a jacuzzi tub, additional 1/2 bath and sunrise views of Las Vegas.  Too bad we had the kids with us!  

(photo source)

Photo source

Once we arrived, we raced down to the "beach" area and the girls played in the wave pool and lazy river.  We could've spend all day there, but we had to get ready to see the Blue Man Group that evening.

Before the show we did a bit of sight seeing, but the truth of the matter is, Las Vegas isn't for families anymore, or was it ever?  We did walk to the Bellagio, but sadly it was too windy for the water fountain show.  

The Blue Man Group show was at the Monte Carlo Hotel & Casino.  (Incidently, that's where Randy and I spent our honeymoon back in 1998.)  The show was awesome and the girls really enjoyed it.  It was Kyla's favorite part of the entire vacation.  My take on it... it was sensory overload - lights & sound!  I left with a headache, but nothing a couple of ibuprofen couldn't handle.

After the show, we grabbed a New York deli sandwich in the New York, New York Hotel & Casino.  It was stacked so high with deli meats I had to remove 1/2 of the meat so I could eat it.  Crazy!  But, it was yummy.  We took in a few more sights and lights of the Vegas strip and called it a day.

Photo source

The next morning, we left Vegas and headed out to Death Valley!

Wagner Road Trip 2014 - Petrified Forest National Park

Let me say for the record... the Wagner's know how to CRAM-IT-ALL-IN-ROAD-TRIP-STYLE!

In 11 days we traveled through 5 states, visited 7 National Parks, stayed in 10 hotels, took 1550 pictures, hiked 12 trails and drove 3800 total miles ... the 2014 Wagner Road Trip is down in the books!

Our first day, we drove 12 hours to Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Since we were driving to California, we had to pack on the distance early on.  The next day, we drove to the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.  This park is also home to the Painted Desert.

No road trip is complete without THIS picture.

The girls and the Painted Desert.

Painted Desert Inn National Historic Landmark, 

located at Kachina Point, once served as a respite for travelers along historic Route 66.

The family is checking out the petroglyphs of the ancient civilizations.

A view of the petroglyphs.

Blue Mesa

Crystal Forest that shows the sparkle of quartz and amethyst of the petrified logs.

More petrified logs showing the crystalized wood.

Checking out the Giant Logs Trail. 

Yep, that's a giant petrified log!

After we left the Petrified Forest, we headed to Flagstaff, Arizona.  We ate at Salsa Brava, which was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives with Guy Fieri.  One word... AMAZING.  They had a salsa bar that featured 7 salsas!  From mild to fiery pineapple habenero.  We had the fajitas and they were delicious.  We also stayed in the historic Route 66 section and the hotel we stayed in was no doubt a part of the Route 66 history.  Meaning... it could have been updated/remodeled, etc.  (Yikes!)

The next morning, we headed to Las Vegas!