Kings Canyon and Beyond
We left Yosemite Valley eager to get to our next destination, Kings Canyon. Kings Canyon is just a 3 hour drive south of Yosemite and sits right next to Sequoia National Park. We planned on visiting both over the next couple of days, stay in an Airbnb in Fresno and end with a suite in Bakersfield (living the high life, I know).
Once we got back into the cell reception, we received a text from Alex's Mom letting us know that his new Nevada license wasn't processed correctly. Once we started our trip, we technically had to "move" since we were no longer residents of Colorado, and went through the excruciating process of getting new licenses and registering our car. The DMV insisted Alex comes back with all of our documents within the next 30 days. This put a real hamper on our plans, everywhere from that point on would be super inconvenient to drive all the way back to Reno from.
We stopped for breakfast just outside of Kings Canyon to discuss what we wanted to do. After calling the DMV multiple times to see if its something we could handle in Vegas or over the phone and no one picking up, we decided to drive all the way back to Reno. We we're never going to be any closer than we we're right then, but we had already gotten this far to Kings Canyon. We continued to do our hike and would drive out after we've seen the National Park.
First we stopped in Grant Grove, a section of the park that has some of the larger Sequoias, including the General Grant Tree, aka the Nation's Christmas Tree and also about 10 other things. This is not that tree:
I got sick of waiting for people to move so we snapped a pic in front of the one above. Still pretty big.
We moved on to our hike located farther in the park, Fall Mist trail. Its a little over 8 miles ending at a waterfall and includes John Muir rock. If you don't know who John Muir is, once you do you'll notice he's done everything, all of nature is named after him, and his quotes are everywhere. The new river area built near the flagstaff REI in Denver has a big long John Muir quote on the steps leading down to the water. Literally everything in California is called "John Muir ____". Can't wait to see John Muir's commemorative outhouse.
We had a pretty late start on the trail (2pm) and had it mostly to ourselves. It was pretty and the waterfall was nice, but just a little lackluster after Yosemite. Still perfect to stretch our legs before being stuck in the car for the next 7 hours.
You can't tell in the picture on the right but our legs are hanging off a cliff, at least a couple hundred feet. We chose to believe that this was Muir Rock, but there were a lot of rocks to chose from.
We finished the trail quickly and moved on to our drive home. What's nice about doing this trail in Kings Canyon is that it takes you on the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway. It's incredibly terrifying, windy and gorgeous, with sheer drop offs and hairpin turns for 30 miles out to the entrance of the park.
And thus began our pilgrimage back home to Reno. We arrived exhausted after a 20 hour day, where we woke up throughout the night to rotate laundry so we could leave packed and ready to go after our 8am trip to the DMV.
When we arrived in the morning they fast tracked us and we found out what all the fuss was about.
They forgot to check a box that said "Real ID".
They didn't check a box.
But don't worry everyone. Now the box is checked. The world won't end. The kicker is they had already sent his license in the mail, it just wasn't a Real ID. Which we found out was in the mail that day so we just waited patiently for the postman to arrive with both of our licenses and contemplated the 7 hour drive back.
One cancelled Airbnb, 150 dollars in gas, and 7 hours later we had licenses and no energy. We arrived at our hotel in Bakersfield and tried to get back on track with our plans. We we're out one day, not bad, but exhausted from all the driving back and forth. The original plan was to go to Sequoia National Park the next day, camp there and move on to Death Valley and Las Vegas.
Alex, with a really serious look in his eye, announced he will not leave Bakersfield (never thought I'd hear that) and we booked the room for another night.
We spent a leisurely day in beautiful (cough) Bakersfield, CA, drove up to Bravo Farms about an hour north and did some wine tasting. Bravo Farms is a super cool stop on the highway if you're ever in the area. They had awesome food and a BBQ restaurant, they produce their own cheese (which is DELICIOUS) and they have a 7 story tree house that, YES, adults can climb (Alex asked of course).
We took our wine and cheese back to the hotel, saw a movie and chilled out the rest of the day. It was great to reset.
We left the next day rested and drove straight through to Vegas. We'll have to catch Death Valley and Sequoia National Park another time. The only thing I like about this drive is you get to stop at the Alien Jerky place. Its been about 5 years since I've been and they totally remodeled it and its even cooler than before:
In Vegas, we had a great time visiting family and enjoying a slower pace. We we're soon off to the Grand Canyon and experiencing everything that Arizona has to offer, which is where I'm writing this now. Today we're back on the road heading to Lake Powell and another long stint of camping ahead of us in much hotter climates.
Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone! Get outside!
Once we got back into the cell reception, we received a text from Alex's Mom letting us know that his new Nevada license wasn't processed correctly. Once we started our trip, we technically had to "move" since we were no longer residents of Colorado, and went through the excruciating process of getting new licenses and registering our car. The DMV insisted Alex comes back with all of our documents within the next 30 days. This put a real hamper on our plans, everywhere from that point on would be super inconvenient to drive all the way back to Reno from.
We stopped for breakfast just outside of Kings Canyon to discuss what we wanted to do. After calling the DMV multiple times to see if its something we could handle in Vegas or over the phone and no one picking up, we decided to drive all the way back to Reno. We we're never going to be any closer than we we're right then, but we had already gotten this far to Kings Canyon. We continued to do our hike and would drive out after we've seen the National Park.
First we stopped in Grant Grove, a section of the park that has some of the larger Sequoias, including the General Grant Tree, aka the Nation's Christmas Tree and also about 10 other things. This is not that tree:
I got sick of waiting for people to move so we snapped a pic in front of the one above. Still pretty big.
We moved on to our hike located farther in the park, Fall Mist trail. Its a little over 8 miles ending at a waterfall and includes John Muir rock. If you don't know who John Muir is, once you do you'll notice he's done everything, all of nature is named after him, and his quotes are everywhere. The new river area built near the flagstaff REI in Denver has a big long John Muir quote on the steps leading down to the water. Literally everything in California is called "John Muir ____". Can't wait to see John Muir's commemorative outhouse.
We had a pretty late start on the trail (2pm) and had it mostly to ourselves. It was pretty and the waterfall was nice, but just a little lackluster after Yosemite. Still perfect to stretch our legs before being stuck in the car for the next 7 hours.
You can't tell in the picture on the right but our legs are hanging off a cliff, at least a couple hundred feet. We chose to believe that this was Muir Rock, but there were a lot of rocks to chose from.
We finished the trail quickly and moved on to our drive home. What's nice about doing this trail in Kings Canyon is that it takes you on the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway. It's incredibly terrifying, windy and gorgeous, with sheer drop offs and hairpin turns for 30 miles out to the entrance of the park.
And thus began our pilgrimage back home to Reno. We arrived exhausted after a 20 hour day, where we woke up throughout the night to rotate laundry so we could leave packed and ready to go after our 8am trip to the DMV.
When we arrived in the morning they fast tracked us and we found out what all the fuss was about.
They forgot to check a box that said "Real ID".
They didn't check a box.
But don't worry everyone. Now the box is checked. The world won't end. The kicker is they had already sent his license in the mail, it just wasn't a Real ID. Which we found out was in the mail that day so we just waited patiently for the postman to arrive with both of our licenses and contemplated the 7 hour drive back.
One cancelled Airbnb, 150 dollars in gas, and 7 hours later we had licenses and no energy. We arrived at our hotel in Bakersfield and tried to get back on track with our plans. We we're out one day, not bad, but exhausted from all the driving back and forth. The original plan was to go to Sequoia National Park the next day, camp there and move on to Death Valley and Las Vegas.
Alex, with a really serious look in his eye, announced he will not leave Bakersfield (never thought I'd hear that) and we booked the room for another night.
We spent a leisurely day in beautiful (cough) Bakersfield, CA, drove up to Bravo Farms about an hour north and did some wine tasting. Bravo Farms is a super cool stop on the highway if you're ever in the area. They had awesome food and a BBQ restaurant, they produce their own cheese (which is DELICIOUS) and they have a 7 story tree house that, YES, adults can climb (Alex asked of course).
We took our wine and cheese back to the hotel, saw a movie and chilled out the rest of the day. It was great to reset.
We left the next day rested and drove straight through to Vegas. We'll have to catch Death Valley and Sequoia National Park another time. The only thing I like about this drive is you get to stop at the Alien Jerky place. Its been about 5 years since I've been and they totally remodeled it and its even cooler than before:
In Vegas, we had a great time visiting family and enjoying a slower pace. We we're soon off to the Grand Canyon and experiencing everything that Arizona has to offer, which is where I'm writing this now. Today we're back on the road heading to Lake Powell and another long stint of camping ahead of us in much hotter climates.
Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone! Get outside!
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