Well, limited and no wi-fi has kept me from updating, but here's how our trip has been going:
We had a total blast in San Francisco. It was great seeing our friends there and Drew's show was a lot of fun. I think I got to see almost everyone there who is dear to me. Overall, it was just great to be back and I think we are still considering moving back there someday.
By the time we got to our campsite (after an additional hour of driving on mostly gravel roads due to construction....) we were exhausted and decided to just set up camp and spend the rest of the evening at the Wawona Campground, instead of heading to the Valley or other locales. We had a nice walk by the Merced River and listened to the evening campfire ranger talk. The next day, we headed to the Valley early and saw as much as we could.
Dear boyfriend learned he really likes waterfalls while sitting at Lower Yosemite Falls, which means we must take the Niagara Falls trip at some point soon!
From Yosemite and the Tioga Pass, we headed to Eureka, Nevada, having some vague idea that it was one of the larger towns on the Loneliest Road and had at least one decent hotel. It also seemed to be within a reasonable distance for driving that day. We probably could have made it further, except I wanted to see Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park, primarily because it is a ghost town and the one I remembered (and perhaps the only) from the Road Trip USA book which I have been using somewhat to plan. Unfortunately this stop brought us a bit out of the way and made the drive longer.....but I'm getting ahead of myself. The route took us on CA-167/NV-359 which was an awesome drive! Very Loneliest Road-esque and just beautiful scenery. We went around a good portion of Mono Lake which is also lovely and a place I'd like to visit another time. As I drove, I saw a sign for a ghost town that none of my books had mentioned: Bodie, California. The sign came up quickly and I hardly had time to slow down before we passed the turn indicating that the town was about 10 miles north. We briefly considered turning around, but figured that the planned stop in Nevada should be sufficient.
The drive to the Berlin ghost town was a lot farther than we thought and also up yet another gravel road. Maybe I would have felt the same about Bodie, but it was rather disappointing. Unlike Bodie, however, this site appears to be quite well-maintained, or at least to the point that nothing is really falling down. The highlight of the visit was our first jackrabbit sighting! Upon leaving, the GPS was giving us some strange directions. Instead of wanting us to just go back to the main highway, the way we came, it appeared that it wanted us to take a couple of unpaved roads to Route 50/Loneliest Road. We figured it was confused and backtracked to the highway. A couple hours later on Route 50 before Austin, Nevada we saw a sign directing us to the Berlin-Ichthyosaur Park, 56 miles away. So the GPS was totally right and we could've saved an hour's time, though over some tedious and dusty driving.
Austin was a town Dad and I had driven through on the road trip last year. I had recalled - and reviewed in my road trip and AAA book - Stokes Castle, a stone tower built in Austin by Anson Phelps Stokes, a wealthy East Coast man who had developed a mining company in the area. Aside from it being rather incongruous in humble (and charming) small-town Austin, the name had struck me as being really familiar. The same thought had occurred to me last year, but I never pursued it. Anson Phelps, as in perhaps connected to the same Anson Phelps for whom the town of Ansonia, Connecticut is named? Turns out that Anson Greene Phelps, his grandfather, is that same Anson Phelps. Hurray for the Valley connection!
It being late and toward the end of a long drive, we only stopped for dinner in Austin (though now I would be much more interested in heading back there to see Stokes Castle up close!). We stopped at a little restaurant, the Toiyabe Cafe, and enjoyed some tasty food and the friendly service. Continuing on a while, we made it to Eureka and checked in for the night, enjoying the luxury of hot water and a shower after the somewhat primitive campground situation at Yosemite.
We got up very early, stopped at the park cafe for breakfast, and headed to Tropic, Utah and Bryce Canyon National Park. We were a bit early for our hotel, so we drove Scene Byway Route 12, which was on the way anyway and provided a lot for us to do. We made a few stops for photos, and hiked the Mossy Cave Trail, which included another waterfall!By the time we got back from the hike, we were able to check in, and then head to Bryce Canyon to spend the rest of the day. We were both tired from driving, so we parked at the Visitor Center and took the shuttle which actually made the visit more enjoyable. I wish we had done the same at Yosemite, and will certainly look to do the same at other parks. We did not have a lot of time, but enough to see most of the scenic lookouts and hike the canyon rim a bit. Of everything we have done on this trip, Bryce Canyon is our absolute favorite and we're already planning on coming back, probably later in the year. We saw antelope (pronghorns, really) grazing in the park as well as in the surrounding meadows along Route 12. We also saw the prairie dogs and their town in the park, and the one and only elk of the trip, off in the distance in a meadow.
Annnnnd, a sign I really liked, totally unrelated to serious national park and nature stuff:Anyway.....through a combination of things, mostly involving being tired of driving all the time, camping being a huge obstacle rather than mostly enjoyable, and our budget unable to support staying in hotels every night....we looked at the itinerary and decided to shorten the trip. We're tired, and just want to be in one place for a while. So we decided to drive to Grand Canyon and then back to Missoula to settle in there. We're loosely planning on driving together as far as Chicago, and DB will then fly back from there and I'll continue on, but I think right now we are too tired of traveling to plan this.
Today we got up early and drove to Grand Canyon, only about 3 hours or so from Bryce Canyon. It was a really pretty drive, but got tedious toward the end, especially with all the tailgaters. I'll admit that I usually drive faster than the speed limit, but there's something about speeding more than maybe 5 or 10 mph over the limit in a national park or forest that feels really wrong....but I guess others disagree.
The closest park entrance for us was the North Rim, which I had read is less crowded than the South. Well, even the North was pretty crowded and makes me less inclined to want to see the South if it's that busy! We took the short hike to Bright Angel Point and spent some time taking in the views. It is breathtaking, and hard to really take it all in at once. Partly, it was very crowded, and partly the heights were a bit dizzying. It seemed a clear enough day to me, but in looking at the photos, it must have been a little hazy and also as we left the park, storm clouds were gathering. The colors are nowhere as brilliant in my pictures as they were in real life, and it's hard to see the scale of the canyon of course. Overall, we enjoyed the visit, and also saw bison in the meadows! It reminded me very much of Yellowstone, though fortunately these bison stayed off the roads.And here we are (again) in Salt Lake City...same hotel too, actually. Tomorrow evening will find us back in Missoula, settling into apartment number two for us....after I get some rest, I'll certainly post more about our adventures in camping and nature.
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