Dear Diary,

The final installment of my long loved sequence of California adventures has come. Third time’s a charm ladies, so I promise, we’ll finish it up here. Make sure to refresh your memory from my first and second posts about our trip out west first, and then let’s go ahead and get started.

Day 13: Yo Yosemite, we’re here!

We woke up, dazed and confused. I’m kidding we were neither dazed not confused, but we were in a tent. We had checked into our campground at Yosemite National Park the night before pretty late, so we went straight to bed. We were staying in a tent that was sitting on a platform and held up with wooden beams and pillars, so less of a tent and more of a fabric cabin. It was complete with cots, a safe and a shelving unit.

We woke up early and headed to breakfast. The breakfast was weak, I shoveled down the watery scrambled eggs and the soggy bacon before heading out. We hopped on the bus and headed to the visitors center. At the visitors center we got on a tram tour of the park. Our guide reminded me of my grade school music teacher, so it was a bore listening to her drone on and on. Instead, I soaked in all the beauty. I’ve been to a good amount of National Parks in my day, and let me tell you, Yosemite might be my favorite. It is so secluded from everything, almost like a perfectly forested paradise. After our tour we had lunch back at the visitor center and decided to go on a hike.

In Jones family tradition, we needed to find some rocks to climb, and a creek to explore, and oh did we exceed our expectations. We walked from the visitors center to the Yosemite Falls trail. This trail is less of a hike, and more of a short path that just leads up to the base of Yosemite Falls aka the tallest waterfall in North America.

We stopped along the path and climbed some rocks, typical. Once we got to the actual falls, we went in, big time. My sisters and I spent the next 3-5 hours traversing slippery rocks and treacherous drops as we climbed and climbed to the top of the base of the falls. I might add in that we were barefoot and the water was about negative 500 degrees Fahrenheit. After we made it to the top, the real base on the falls, it was breathtaking.

The treacherous journey up there was so worth it. I will never be able to describe in words what I witnessed up there. It was a perfect pool of water overlooking panoramic views of Yosemite Valley at the bottom of a 2000+ foot waterfall. I slid right in and swam my worries away. I could have stayed there forever, swimming in my leggings and tank top, clutching my GoPro; it was heavenly.

After probably an hour of swimming, the shade started to move over our little pool of paradise and we got seriously worried about getting frostbite. We decided we should head back down and find our parents. Many falls were fallen and GoPros dropped (jk, one sister fell and one GoPro was dropped twice) but we eventually made it back to the paved path and found our parents.

We hopped back on the bus, cold and wet and headed back to the campground to dry off and change. Then we had dinner and got on a bus for our stargazing tour. We took an hour long bus ride to the top of Glacier Point. We had some free time before meeting at an amphitheater to listen to a guide tell us about the stars. I remember laying on the cold, rocky ground, staring up at the sky in pure amazement. I have never seen so many stars in my whole life. Billions of stars, billions of miles away staring right back at me, swallowing me up in their milkiness.

After we had our breath taken away by the sky, we got back on the bus and headed back to our campsite to fall asleep under the stars that had just changed our lives.

Day 14: Hiking time!

We woke up early, had breakfast and headed out for a hike. We had a small mishap involving a lost mother and a fretting family due to the lack of cell phone service in Yosemite, but eventually after riding the bus around the park for a while, the mother was found and the family was no longer fretting. We took a bus to the Vernal Falls hike and started on up. This hike was pretty long and steep, so my mom and I went to the halfway point, which was about halfway up the waterfall then headed back down to wade in a creek. My dad and two sisters went all the way to the top. The creek was cold again, but I walked around about up to my knees for a good hour waiting for the rest of my family.

After our hike we had lunch, packed up and jumped back into our minivan. We drove an hour to Fresno for the night.

There’s not much to do in Fresno, so we hung out in the hotel room, ordered pizza and watched The Office. We cleaned out/repacked the minivan due to the fact that our vacation was coming to an end soon. After rearranging, we fell asleep with memories in our heads.

Day 15: Two National Parks, one day

We woke up and enjoyed our continental breakfast before quickly getting out of Fresno. We drove about an hour and a half to Sequoia National Park where we pulled over to see the infamous Sequoia trees and have a short guided walking tour through Grant Grove. We headed to the visitors center to learn about the history of the trees and have a delicious lunch. With National Parks and food, it’s usually a hit or miss, sometimes it’s great a.k.a. Sequoia and the Grand Canyon, sometimes it’s not so good a.k.a. Yosemite.

After lunch we headed over to the neighboring park, Kings Canyon National Park. We drove down to the bottom of the canyon via scenic highway. Once at the bottom we turned right around and went back up the same way. The views were great, but we were all pretty much done with each other by this point of the trip. There were fewer and fewer stops for photos and embracing nature the closer we got to the end of the drive. After our drive we saw the world’s largest tree: the General Sherman Tree. It was very impressive, we snapped dozens of photos with our fellow tourists.

Once we all had a sufficient amount of cricks in our necks from looking up at the trees, we drove to Bakersfield, about two hours away and spent the night.

Day 16: And then it was all over.

The time has come, our last day. We woke up, enjoyed another continental breakfast, packed up our blue minivan for the last time and hit the road. We drove four and a half hours through the Californian desert, back to Las Vegas. We bid goodbye to our beloved minivan, rolled our suitcases back through the airport to our terminal and had dinner at Starbucks. We planned to hop on our plane back to KC, but little did we know that rain would change that. Lots of rain. Back here in KC and pretty much all over the Midwest flights were being delayed due to the fact that thunderstorms were taking a turn for the worse. Our flight was one of those delayed, for probably four hours. We were supposed to be home at 8, but we landed in KC around midnight. There is nothing like driving the 45 minute drive from MCI, dropping your now disheveled suitcase on your bedroom floor, collapsing bed and drifting off into dreamland of memories.

Well folks, that’s it. Our journey to the West Coast has come to an end and life is now filled with memories and hopes for the next trip. I’ll be back in two weeks with my next post. See you then, until next time travelers.

Sincerely,

Bridget