Monday, September 5th
Grand Canyon National Park is about 270 miles or a 4-hour drive from Las Vegas.
We woke up early on Monday and headed to the South Rim, the most used entrance of the park and the easiest to get to. An estimated 5 million people visit this park each year and Jeff and I wanted to stay away from all of them! The best way to do that? Hike.
Sunday, September 4th
After spending some time at Tenaya Lake in Yosemite, we hopped in the car and headed south to Death Valley National Park, the hottest, dryest and lowest of all 59 parks. At this point, we were 5 days into our trip and we were both pretty exhausted, but since Jeff had gotten us out of Yosemite, it was my turn to drive.
Saturday, September 3rd
We drove 200 miles from Fisherman’s Warf in San Francisco to Yosemite National Park. About 1/2 mile from the Highway 120 west entrance we were stuck in traffic. Without knowing how long we’d be waiting, we decided to pull into Rush Creek Lodge and poke around. We used the restroom and then found ourselves in the general store/gift shop where we bought some snacks and of course, local craft beer.
Thursday, September 1st.
After a 3 hour drive from Crater Lake, we arrived at Redwood National Park. This park is over 131,000 acres and includes 3 state parks, so there was no way we could have seen everything in our short time there. Instead, we decided to pick out a few hikes that would allow us to see those giant redwoods in all their glory, and be on our way.
Wednesday, August 31st.
We landed in Portland, Oregon around 1:30 pm. By the time we got our bags, picked up our rental car, and bought groceries at a super sketchy Walmart (I know, I know.. but it was the first thing we saw), it was almost dark. We still had 270 miles to drive before we arrived at Crater Lake National Park, which meant we had to set up camp at a cold, wet and completely dark campground. We love a good adventure story, though, so we thought, “bring it on!”.
