California
July
2022
Becky, the girls, and I decided to go
down to California for a couple of weeks and tour around some of the national
parks and hang out with family (the boys stayed home to get jobs).
We first went to San Francisco where
we met up with our exchange student from Germany, Franca, and her family. They were just finishing up a road trip
around California and a few other western states. We met them by the Golden Gate Bridge and
went for a walk together on the bridge.
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| Us with Franca and her parents on the Golden Gate Bridge |
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| Golden Gate Bridge |
After that we drove up to Twin Peaks, which has an amazing view of the
whole city of San Francisco. It was very
windy up there. We split up for a bit,
with Franca and her family going to pick up her sister and we went over to
Golden Gate Park for a bit. Toward the
end of the day we met back up down by the Golden Gate Bridge again and spent
some time hanging out by the water and talking.
We then said our goodbyes and promised we would come visit them in
Germany in a few months.
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| Top of Twin Peaks with San Francisco in the background |
A few days later we loaded up our
camping gear and headed south toward Yosemite National Park. Our plan was to visit Yosemite, Kings Canyon,
and Sequoia National Parks, then drive up the back side of the Sierras and meet
Becky’s parents at their cabin. Well,
that didn’t go as planned. It was extremely
hot as we drove to Yosemite, averaging 105 degrees. As we were climbing the Big Oak Flat road,
our van seemed to be struggling. Around
4:30pm, just as we entered Yosemite, all of the dashboard lights started
flashing. I turned the car off and let it
cool down for a bit. We then started
back on the road and only made it another five minutes before all of the lights
came on again and the car died right in the middle of the road, on a slight
hill. Fortunately, there wasn’t a lot of
traffic. Finally, a national park
service work crew stopped and helped up push the van off to the side of the
road and called a tow truck for us.
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| Getting towed down to Yosemite Valley |
The tow truck driver was very nice
and actually stopped at a few view points for the girls as we made our way down
to Yosemite Village. That was as far as
he could drive us, since he would only tow in the park. Once we were there, we called Becky’s dad and
asked if he would be willing to drive down with his truck and flatbed trailer
and tow us home. He said he would, but
it would take about four hours to get there.
In the meantime, we decided to walk around to the Lower Yosemite Falls
vista point. Right by the bridge we saw
a bear foraging around for food. We then
walked over the Ahwahnee Hotel to sit down and relax a little. Around 10pm we
walked back to the service station where we met Terry and loaded the van onto
the trailer. After a long and sleepy
four hour drive, we arrived back in Rocklin a little before 3am.
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| El Capitan, Yosemite National Park |
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| Lower Yosemite Falls |
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| Back side of a bear |
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| Yosemite Falls |
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| Half Dome |
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| Killing time at the Ahwahnee Hotel |
After we got the car fixed, we
decided to play it safe and spend some time with Becky’s parents. We drove up to their cabin off of Donner Pass
to spend a few days up there and beat the heat down in Sacramento. The next day we drove up and hiked a few
miles into Loch Leven Lakes. We saw very
few people and for the most part, had the place to ourselves. On the hike out Max got tired and had to be
carried in my backpack.
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| Towed the van back to Rocklin |
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| Relaxing at the cabin |
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| Hiking to Loch Leven Lakes |
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| Max sunbathing |
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| Poor Max was too tired to hike any further |
The next day we decided to go up to
the old train tunnels and snow sheds that cut through the summit of Donner
Pass. It was amazing to think how hard
it was for the early railroad builders to blast their way through all of the
granite. Most of the tunnels are now
covered in graffiti art work. Elise and
I decided to walk on the roof of the snow sheds on the way back. That plan worked fine until we got to the point
where the sheds end and the tunnel starts.
We had to lower ourselves down and find a way around the cliff until we
could make our way back up to the track.
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| Hiking the old train tunnels on Donner Summit |
Once we were back in Rocklin, we decided
to take Becky’s sister’s couch and chair with us. Her sister didn’t think we could fit both of
them in the van, but we did. It didn’t leave
much seating space in the back though! After
a very hot and tight drive, we made it back home.
