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Published: July 27th 2010
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We woke up early for our big day. Our things were quickly packed, and since the parking lot was a little less scary in the day, we decided to eat the continental breakfast. The waffle iron worked, but there wasn’t much else. A nice French Canadian family ate next to us—asking “Where is the milk?” and “Have you seen the tea?”. We wished them well and headed to Yosemite.
The easy drive got us to the southern entrance before 10 AM. We pulled up to the Ranger Station and were informed that the Muir Grove was packed too full and that the park roads were under serious construction. Zack drove us through the winding, torn-up roads and we sat in traffic for a long time before reaching the Valley floor. As we got close, we went through a tunnel and came out the other side to a view of the valley. It was just like the famous Ansel Adam’s print! We stood looking out at the waterfalls, dome rocks, an enormous granite monolith (El Capitan, 3,000 foot sheer cliff, largest monolith in the world!), and mountain meadows. We didn’t stay long, because we were excited to see everything.
Our
first stop was a hike out to Bridalveil Falls. We parked the van on the side of the road and played in the creek next to us for a bit before we realized that Bridalveil was within an easy hiking distance. It was beautiful and the water was cold and clear. We walked out onto the rocks and began the climb up towards the falling water, despite the numerous warning signs posted by park officials saying “DON’T DO EXACTLY WHAT YOU’RE ABOUT TO DO!!”. The spray from the falls cooled us quickly, but we stayed and sat watching the water and the crazy people attempting to jump from rock to rock.
We hiked back to the van for a sandwich and to look at the map. We knew our time was running out, so we decided where we wanted to go next-the huge meadow and another hike to a waterfall. The meadow was lush and green and looked almost unreal. A short walk through there lead us to the Yosemite Falls trail. Yosemite falls is the 5th tallest waterfall in the world and the largest in North America (2,425 vertical feet)! All the water that tumbles down into the
valley comes from snowmelt. We walked out to the water and again went climbing. It was an adventure up the rocks, but we made it all the way to the pool of water at the base of the falls. The spray was freezing and we were soaked! We were dripping wet and cold, but it was worth it.
We went back to the van, knowing that we had to get moving on. We drove out of Yosemite (which is a long drive) through high elevations that revealed beautiful lakes and meadows that pressured us to come back to explore them again soon. We wound down a mountain, dropping thousands of feet within a few short miles. This was one of our favorite drives of the trip.
We left the park and found ourselves in the Mono basin. Which is a lake that is at least a MILLION years old! The lake is extremely salty and no fish can live there, but little brine shrimp have adapted to the extreme conditions. The lake is home to many migratory birds, and the current flocks were of seagulls—which at above 9,000 feet elevation seems pretty out of place! Its islands are volcanic, containing large amounts of mineral deposits. We were wowed by the scene and again decided we have to come back again.
We started plowing through the miles out of California and into Nevada, it was getting too late and dark to set up a tent so we agreed to get a hotel further down the road. Destination- RENO! A quick stop to KFC (which was regrettable, as our favorite burger “In-n-Out” was like 3 miles down the road) and we were in the biggest little city in the world. We checked into Harrah’s (they have AAA discount) and went to check out the city. It is funny, the casinos are smaller, less busy, and they play good music. We walked out to “The Nugget”, a tiny hole in the wall place, that was home of the “Asskicker”, a 32 oz. Margarita. It came in a souvenir cup so we had to get it. Between the two of us, we drank less than half of the thing, but now we have a new cup. We played some video roulette, with 25 cent minimum bets (our game of choice) and had quite the time. We sat down, and Zack immediately put a quarter on 11 and spun—winner! We won $13.50 on that first bet! Well, now we were hot, so we kept going, despite a pretty mean losing streak. Once we were about down our 5 bucks, Zack made us sit for a minute. He looked up the escalator and saw a man coming down. He looked to be 230 lbs., so Zack put a quarter on 23. BOOM! Winner! We took our winnings and hit the hay.
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