Later in July we took a big family trip to Lake Tahoe for the Christmas present from my parents. It was so fun. To be honest though, we were a bit distracted for much of the time because John had just received the job offer from Caldera, and we only had a short time to decide.
It is too far to drive from Phoenix to Lake Tahoe in one day so we stopped for the night near Death Valley. We got subway and ice cream. The girls splashed around in the pool, although they didn't get in really. We let the girls watch a movie in the hotel room while we went to a near by chapel to pray about whether or not to take the job in Provo. We made a pros and cons list. Spoiler: we took the job. It was a hard decision though. The inspiration to move to Phoenix was so strong that getting the answer of 'either option is fine,' was a bit disappointment. We feel like that we made a good choice though even if Provo doesn't quite feel like home yet. John really does like his new job thank goodness!
The drive through Nevada is a little boring, but we did see this weird complex out in the desert. Area 51??
We made it to Lake Tahoe! Unfortunately there were a lot of wildfires in California that summer, but it hadn't hit Lake Tahoe at that point. It was a very smoky drive at times though. We were concerned for the people in the Carson City area and others who were living in such bad air conditions. It was really bad for people living on the Wasatch Front too even though it was so much further removed.
My sister gave each family an ironwood duck reminiscent of the ironwood duck that my grandparents kept on their coffee table. We loved all of the cousin time. Just Luke was missing.
Since we were on such a hiking kick after discovering so many fun new hikes in Phoenix. We definitely wanted to take advantage of the cool mountain weather to go on a few hikes. We didn't talk too many people into coming with us, but Jane did join us on the first one. It was a beautiful hike through the trees to Castle Rock.
So picturesque!
The Castle Rock is peaking up through the trees.
A little tree fort. Unfortunately because of the hot weather in Phoenix we hadn't been hiking in a while, and it was tough for cute Holland. She had a hard time staying happy about it, but I do think she enjoyed the destination.
So fun to have a cousin with us!
She made it! And look at that view! Lake Tahoe is beautiful.
Jane was there to take a family photo for us.
Actually the rental house had this lovely view from the balcony. We loved all the cousin time!
We went on a little walk through the neighborhood and loved this view. It was quite the mix of houses on what surely is expensive land with a view. We saw giant home that spanned two streets. It must have had a pool, fancy balconies, and giant windows to take in the scenery. There were also old, rickety houses that seemed unsafe to say the least.
Later we went down to the water to enjoy the sunset, sand, and waves. My girls were so glad to have their wet suits.
Running in together.
Darcy was uncomfortable with the sand, but loved hanging out with Grandma. I love how much she loves my mom.
Daddy had his wet suit too and was brave in the cold water.
The sand was pretty coarse, but still fun to play in.
Not true boogie board conditions, but still a good time.
Bunny ears!
Lovely sky
We had the basement to ourselves, which felt so luxurious especially with our baby girl. There were three sleeping spot for the others. They rotated who slept with whom and it was pretty darling to catch them cuddling together. Playing hard meant sleeping hard.
I can't believe they were sleeping so close together. So darling.
Oh my sweet girls.
The next day we headed out as early as we could to Sand Harbor State Park. It has those iconic giant boulders and was a ton of fun although crazy busy!
My brother rented a canoe, and my other brother had kayaks. We had our boogie board, which was without paddles, but still had floating abilities.
Holland at the head of the canoe!
Kayla and Cortney had paddleboards which were pretty cool.
I borrowed a kayak for a little train. What a cool place.
The next day we drove around the bottom of the lake but before we did that we did the funnest little hike up to Round Mound. It was near the beach we went to the first night and really close to Zephyr Cove where we were staying. It was just a little winding walk up to the top of this hill that was very close to the water.
After the crowds of the day before it was particularly peaceful to have this walk to ourselves. Of course there were cool boulders all over.
Selfie right into the sun!
I love that little face peaking out!
Snack break at the top!
I love being a mama.
The boulders were a ton of fun to scramble around.
Pretty smiles.
On the way back down we found this giant pinecone. It was longer than any of our heads!
We drove around the lake to Emerald Bay State Park. One highlight of the drive was a section that was on a top of a ridge where there was a drop off on either side. It was a little nerve wracking, but mainly fun.
Our cute little line up. It is a good thing Holland likes to play with her boy cousins. I love how their in height order.
Trying to take a family selfie with Emerald Bay means that we blocked the view of the bay.
Oh, I love these sisters.
It works better to have someone else take the family photo.
Grandma and Grandpa made this whole trip possible. We're so lucky to have them!
The wet suits do a great job and protecting us from the sun, except where they don't. Those poor burned hands.
G and G with the grandkids. Darcy loves my mom, I promise!
Daddy's hat is so funny!
What a gorgeous view!
Of course we had to go on a little walk before heading back. What a cool twisted tree trunk/roots.
Taking just 5 minutes to wade in the mountain stream. It was pretty memorable because of how it flows over the giant mountain rocks.
Another view of the roots. Little did I know how many more big trees we were going to see on our way home to Phoenix. I mean, I did know. I planned the trip, but it still blew my mind how big the Sequoias were, but more on that in a moment.
The waterfall we were hiking to was a little underwhelming, but that is how hikes go sometimes. Sometimes you get blown away, and sometimes it is more like "that's it?" It's an adventure either way.
Still a beautiful hike and area though.
A wave big enough to catch!
That's a big sand castle with a moat.
Just sucking on her strap.
The kayaks were a blast.
I love cuddling my baby.
Action shot of sand castle making.
Happy baby, happy parents.
Getting cold!
Cute cousins!
The next day we drove out by Carson City, through the smoke (there was a road closure because of wildfires) and down to Mammoth. It was a fairly long drive, but we got there about 1:30 or 2. We knew we had to take a shuttle down into the valley, so when we went to get tickets they told us we wouldn't have time to go down there, hike to Rainbow Falls and catch the last shuttle out for the night (at 7). This was mind boggling, it seemed like we had plenty of time, but none the less it sure stressed us out. Should we go for it? Should we change our plans and pick a shorter hike? Should we just see how it goes? We opted for the last one, which worked out, but we were worrying/stressing the whole time.
The shuttle down into the valley was slow and windy.
The kids were troopers though. It was fine.
We stopped at the closest drop off to Devil's Postpile National Monument. We thought, "Let's at least walk that far."
It turns out it wasn't that far, so we kept going. Such a cool, random rock feature.
Sitting on one of the postpiles. It looks like it has been quarried that way, but it is just how it formed.
Looking for other landmarks on our path to see how far we had gone. This bridge was on the map! We eventually intersected with another path that had more people on it. They said there was a shuttle stop just a little way up that path. When we bought the tickets, they said that stop wasn't being used at that time. Turns out they were wrong, and we were just fine. We had literally hours to spare. All that stress for nothing!
We made it to the Rainbow Falls. I think there are multiple waterfalls by that name throughout the world.
Still, pretty dang cool.
A much more relaxed walk back to the close shuttle stop.
Gnarly tree roots.
Feeling less stress = taking time to take photos.
We arrived to the stop right when a shuttle got there. There were many more people on this one, so John stood while Ellie had Holland on her lap. I had Darcy and Miriam on my lap. Just a little squishy. That night we grabbed fast food on our way out of Mammoth and drove about an hour to Lee Vining where we had a hotel for the night.
Lee Vining is right outside of Yosemite National Park on the Nevada side. It was about a 20-30 minute drive to the park entrance up a dramatic mountain road. The last time we visited Yosemite getting to the park was arduous. Such a long, windy road jam packed with cars. This time because of Covid we had to make a reservation to go to the park. First, thank you Google for the side bar article that popped up that alerted me to that crucial detail. Second, it was fantastic!
I swear it sounds like I don't like people. I do! I like people! But who likes massive crowds, long lines, and no parking?? No one likes those. So to say that the lack of people was amazing it really was! Few people. Parking anywhere we liked. No lines anywhere. It was a dream! People = good. Too many people = frustrating vacation.
This view from Olmsted Point is magnificent.
Such a giant mountain of rock. How do those big trees find places to grow roots??
J&K forever. :)
The view in the other direction is magnificent. Green forest, contrasted by the giant stone mountains, blue sky, and blue lake peeking through down in the valley. Beautiful.
Sometimes I still can't get over that we are a family of six.
Oh I love that girl!
After taking in the view from Olmsted Point, we drove down into Yosemite Valley, where the effect of few people being in the park was astounding. Far from circling the valley in hopes of finding a parking spot, we could take our pick. We got in the closest lots to where we wanted to be and even chose a shady spot to nurse Darcy. I have to say, the one downside of this visit to Yosemite was that because of the unfortunate drought that was exacerbating the wild fires, there was hardly any water in the waterfalls. It was more trickling than falling. Still magnificent cliffs though!
We loved these birds with bright blue feathers that were flitting around. It was hard to get a good photo of one, but they were definitely eye catching! I just googled blue birds in Yosemite and this is what I found from the National Park Service website:
The Steller’s jay is one of the more common birds Yosemite visitors see. It has beautiful blue feathers that aren’t blue at all--that is, they have no blue pigment in them. This is also the case with Yosemite’s mountain bluebirds. Birds with yellow or red feathers usually get their color from pigments in the foods they eat, but the digestive process destroys blue pigments. So how do feathers on mountain bluebirds or Steller’s jays get their blue color?
Feathers are made of keratin, the same stuff your fingernails are made of. As a feather that will become blue grows, keratin molecules grow inside each cell, creating a pattern. When the cell dies, a structure of keratin interspersed with air pockets remains. As sunlight strikes one of these feathers, the keratin pattern causes red and yellow wavelengths to cancel each other out. The blue wavelengths reflect back, giving the feather its color. Different shapes and sizes of air pockets and keratin make different shades of blue. This is what scientists call a structural color (as opposed to pigmented color.)
Next time you see a Steller’s jay or a bluebird consider the amazing way nature has colored its feathers.
Half Dome from the other side!
We had to kick off our shoes and wade in the river for a few minutes. It was so beautiful!
The river was obviously low. Check out how long this bridge is.
El Capitan. I cannot fathom actually climbing it.
Family portrait at Inspiration Point. Still looking into the sun. :)
We drove up to Glacier Point and thoroughly enjoyed the amazing view!
Such a wonderful day! The world is an amazing place! We felt lucky to be able to just see this on the way home from Lake Tahoe. After driving through Yosemite, we headed south to an Airbnb right outside of the canyon leading to Sequoia National Park. It was fun to see so much agricultural areas of California. So many orchards and fields! We tried to stop at Chick-fil-A and In 'n Out on our way to the rental, but man, those were packed! It is supposed to be FAST food. We ended up going to Taco Bell, which is never that amazing, but it's fine. I think everyone else in the family liked it more than I did. I think I have too high of standards for my tacos. :)
The next day we were up early to go head in to Sequoia! It was another long, windy road, but we made it! It was so fun as we approached the top of the mountain to start seeing the tree trunks getting bigger and bigger. It was surprisingly exciting!
The first stop was the General Sherman Tree. My goodness, it made our jaws drop. Picture just do not do it justice. Seriously it looks like something out of a fairy tale movie. From the National Park Service website:
The General Sherman Tree is the world's largest tree, measured by volume. It stands 275 feet (83 m) tall, and is over 36 feet (11 m) in diameter at the base. Sequoia trunks remain wide high up. Sixty feet above the base, the Sherman Tree is 17.5 feet (5.3 m) in diameter. It is 52,508 cubic feet and weighs approximately 1500 tons.
Feet/Meters
Height above Base
274.9
83.8
Circumference at Ground
102.6
31.1
Maximum Diameter at Base
36.5
11.1
Diameter 60' (18.3 m) above base
17.5
5.3
Diameter 180' (54.9 m) above base
14.0
4.3
Diameter of Largest Branch
6.8
2.1
Height of First Large Branch above the Base
130.0
39.6
Average Crown Spread
106.5
32.5
We were enchanted to see this deer grazing in the fenced off area at the base of the General Sherman Tree.
This was a cool display of a slice of a giant sequoia trunk. It isn't even remotely as big as a lot of the trees we saw though.
It doesn't really go up unbelievably tall, but it stays so thick as it goes up. Really mind blowing.
This was a fun trail that went right through two trunks.
The bark is super thick and fire resistant (seeds actually require fire to sprout) but it's still crazy to see scorch marks from fires past.
Another way to marvel at these giant sequoias were to appreciate the fallen trees. I can't even imagine the sound of one of these hitting the ground.
Just a random tree by the bathroom.
This is a normal large fallen tree. It's a baby compared to the sequoias.
We saw so many deer.
Sleepy baby on a walk.
Some serious fire damage.
How is that still alive??
We went on the Big Trees trail, which although fairly short took a while because we were gawking at all of the big trees.
One fallen tree became a tunnel. Another was a slide.
This one blew my mind. It is growing around the boulder!
On this side of the tree looks mostly normal, including greenery on the top.
Check out the other side! This blows my mind. Same tree.
Okay, not too much greenery at the top. But there is definitely one branch remaining there. I can't believe this tree is still standing.
We took advantage of being off the path a little to get a family photo with one of the trunks. This isn't even one of the biggest we saw. They are so massive.
I love them.
We took a shuttle up to Moro Rock. Such a unique rock up to the bald rock top. It felt like a zillion stairs. Good thing we had warmed up our hiking muscles at Lake Tahoe.
Just a giant sloping rock with a trail going through it.
Didn't stop walking up the stairs even once. We made it to the top! There were a bunch of warnings staying stay off during lightening storms. Makes sense.
Such a steep drop off the side.
Our turn at the point!
On our way back I took more photos of the unique trail. It was a fun one.
With lots of stairs!
Our last stop of the day was Tunnel Log. Famous for a car being able to drive through it.
We took a turn on top.
I love the giant sequoia in the background too.
The trunk/root area was massive!
From below.
While we were waiting for the shuttle and nursing Darcy, I caught some pretty magical scenes of them just exploring the forest.
This burned out base was big enough for our whole family to seek shelter in.
Despite being so burned out, it looks totally healthy above.
Moro Rock from below.
I loved this trip so much! I had to talk pretty fast to get John to agree to extend it through the weekend and hit the two national parks, but I am so glad we did. It really was an amazing experience. We didn't even add any vacation days because we had to take two days to drive home anyway. We just used the weekend following also. I love traveling with my little family so much!!!
