4 Wheels 4 Girls

After Ranger Karen’s great talk about bears, we decided to take a hike to see Vernal Falls, a great waterfall that roars the most in the spring, hence the name. It was a 4.2 mile hike, and we were prepared for it… at least I was. We started up the trail, which was unfortunately a steep uphill all the way, but hey, we had a long downhill to look forward to on the way back. After hiking about 0.8 miles, we could see the falls, but at about 1.2 was when it started to get really wet. I had brought an extra shirt and a sweatshirt, but Dad was the unlucky one; he told us all to bring an extra shirt and of course he forgot his own. Silly old bear/Dad, whichever one you like. So anyway the trail got super duper steep and slippery and cold and wet. Water from the falls was spraying on us at full force and it was all sloshy, so my feet got all wet despite my good hiking shoes. When we finally reached the top of the waterfall, we ate a big handfull of trail mix and enjoyed the fabulous view of the falls. Here’s a great picture of Vernal Falls:

It's absolutely gorgeous, am I right? The tiny dots next to the top of the falls are people.

We changed out of our wet shirts and then started on our way back. This time we would be taking a different route, the John Muir Trail, which went up over a ridge and back down to the valley floor. It added on almost another mile to the trip but no one cared since it was so beautiful. We got a great view of another waterfall, Nevada Falls, on the way:

Which one do you think is more amazing, Vernal or Nevada Falls? I can't decide!

You can see in the photo how much water comes down from the snowcaps in the spring; even our trail is a stream. The John Muir trail gave a great view of Yosemite Valley. The only quirk was that the path was still covered in snow! At some parts we had to climb down the wall and skip part of the trail ’cause it was too snowy.

Despite the snow, the trail was SO pretty. To think that only four days earlier we were sweating in Death Valley!

The rest of the hike back down was a breeze because of the downhill. We finished off the trail mix when we were almost done with the hike.

It was quite a long hike, but it was well worth it! We were sure hungry for dinner… 😉

On May 7th, we went to a ranger program at Yosemite National Park. It was the Bear Walk. It was a walk with a ranger about bears. We learned about the bear traps, where a bag of fish guts is hung inside and the trap door closes when a bear tries to get them. One bear learned how to stick his leg out when he gets the fish so the door can’t shut and lock.

The ranger told us about a bear called Orange-5. She would go into campgrounds to find human food, and the rangers would chase her away. She would sneak back five sites down and try again, and they would chase her all night long. The rangers would yell at her, “Drop it, bear!” and then they would chase her.

We learned that bears would break into cars and RVs. They learned how to open the doors using the handles. So, don’t forget to lock your car every time you go to Yosemite and other places with bears, too.

We learned that bears like apples and apple blossoms. They climb up into apple trees to eat them. So, don’t forget to not park under an apple tree where bears like to eat the apples. The ranger told us that there was a nice car parked under an apple tree with a bear in it, and the bear pooped on his car and then hopped down onto his trunk when he was ready to leave.

In a bear trap, a ranger was fixing it and the door slammed shut and he was trapped. He had no radio with him. The ranger called for help when people walked by.

The ranger told us where the bears are usually at. They are usually at a fen, which is really a lake.

On May 5, after we saw the giant trees, we drove down into Kings Canyon along the Kings River. Kings Canyon was named by spanish explorers. Momma says it was named for the three kings in the christmas story.

Kings River was going fast, and it looked like it was going backwards, because it was full of waves and they looked like they were going backwards. There were so many waves because the water had to make its way over rocks and to the left and the right of the rocks. It was a very long river. It went all the way through Kings Canyon. The river was wild all the way up into the canyon, and then where all the trees were, it was calm and it looked like a lake, but it was a river.

We stopped for a short walk to Grizzly Falls. It was a big waterfall and it had a lot of melted snow coming down. It was like a big thunderstorm. We couldn’t walk right up to it because it was too wet and the air was full of cold water. Instead, we walked up to a rock along the side of the falls where it wasn’t so wet.

Happy and wet in the mist of Grizzly Falls

We walked to Roaring River Falls. I heard water. I smelled the smell of water. I saw a lot of rocks and a waterfall and a river with rapids and two lizards fighting on a big rock. I was careful near the rivers because I didn’t want to fall in. It would be scary and cold and I would drown maybe.

Sitting on the banks of the Roaring River in Kings Canyon

May 5th, we drove into Sequoia National Park. I really liked this park because of all the awesome trees… But I didn’t know about the Giant Sequoias on the first day. Well, I saw one Giant Sequoia that was only about 30 feet around the bottom, plus a giant stump, but that’s all we saw before we made it to our campground. But before the campground…

I was surprised when we came to a sudden stop. Dad told us to get our shoes on and hop out, so I did. I was the first one out (again) and I walked along the the sidewalk until I spotted the giant stump Dad had told us about. I walked over to it and stood by it, waiting for the rest of my family to come. Finally they came out and we got ready for a picture. Dad said, “Who can touch the top?” None of us could. It was at least 10 feet tall, maybe higher. I tried to kinda climb up it a little, but of course that didn’t work. It was just a giant stump with no branches and nothing to grab hold onto except the woodpecker holes. But we walked around back and there were way more woodpecker holes, bigger ones too. Greta tried to climb up and made it, so I decided I could make it, too. I did. When I stood up on top and walked to the end so I could see the family on the other side, Dad asked, “Could you camp up there? I mean, with a tent and everything?” I answered, “Oh, yeah, definitely.” And Greta agreed. It really was huge up there, but we didn’t have a camera up there to take a picture, and we were too high up to have Jean or Dad hand us one.

The Big Stump

The campground we stayed at was a pretty nice one, at least I thought, but it didn’t have showers, water, electricity, or any other hook-ups. We left early in the morning, and headed towards the Visitor Center. We made it to the Visitor Center and I was the first one out of the– (AGAIN!!!)–RV. I went down the street to the building and went inside. There was a cool museum in there. The parents didn’t give us enough time in there, but I guess I got a good enough look.

Later, we headed off to the Grant’s Grove Trail. I liked the Grant’s Trail. It was really cool ’cause of all the HUGE trees, and I do mean huge when I say it.

That's Jean and Ellie at the bottom of those giant trees.

There was this one tree that was 107 feet around the base. Now do you think I mean HUGE??! I know I was actually there, so even right now, when I’m writing about it, it’s easy to picture, but try to picture a tree that huge… Here’s a picture to help you out.

The giant sequoia behind us is called General Grant, and it is the second largest living creature in the world.

In Grant’s Grove, there were also two FALLEN Giant Sequoia trees, and they were definitely my favorite things on the trail. They were at least 250 feet long, and were hollow inside so you could walk all the way through them. It was awesome!!! There was one flat on the ground, and the other was laying on tilted ground, so if you wanted to go through it, you had to climb up-hill the whole way. When we went in that one, we climbed all the way up to the other end. When everyone else made it up, Ellie, Greta, and Ana threw pinecones down. It was really funny to see how far they would make it. And they had fun doing it too.

Inside a giant sequoia

Everything at Sequoia National Park was fun. You should go there someday too!

May 3, we drove out of Death Valley and made our way across the Sierra Nevada mountains. Along the way, we caught a glimpse of Mt. Whitney and its neighboring giants along the east face of the Sierras. Our next stop would be in Sequoia National Park, so we chose a pass through the mountains at the southern end of Sequoia National Forest.

Oftentimes we pick smaller roads, which might yield a more scenic view of the country. This time we learned–when it comes to mountain passes–the bigger roads are often a wiser choice. Our little road was beautiful, but the RV really struggled to climb up through the endless twists and turns in the forest. We thought the pass would never come. On the bright side, we did spot a bobcat crossing the road along the way.

We camped in Three Rivers, CA that night, next to a wild river, gushing over its banks and boulders, full of spring snowmelt.

The next day, we entered Sequoia National Park at the Foothills Entrance, planning to drive up through the park from the south, to see the grove of giant sequoias, one of which is General Sherman, the largest living creature on Earth. Instead, we learned that our RV was not allowed up the southern road through the park, and that we would have to turn around and drive back down out of the mountains and north to another park entrance, missing General Sherman altogether. Sigh.

So, we missed General Sherman, but General Grant, the second-largest living creature on Earth, would be waiting for us at the other park entrance.

May 4th, we were driving down the road. Suddenly we appeared in a forest of Joshua Trees. Dad and I had been looking for one since Tuzigoot and suddenly we were surrounded by them. I just wanted to let you know, Joshua, that I took a picture with one for you.

Me and the Joshua Tree

On May 3rd we finished our Death Valley junior ranger packets. When we got to the Visitor Center, we went to a table and looked at an album that taught you about the park. We had to look for a nocturnal animal. Guess what? I got a Badger. Don’t you think they are not nocturnal?

We turned in our junior ranger packets. Ranger Mike did our packets and our pledge. He was so nice.

Us with Ranger Mike

We went to the Salt River to see pupfish. When we got there we were all so hot. My dad and Ana and Greta left and me and Mommy and Stella stayed and locked up the RV. Then we came and saw minnows which were actually pupfish. We walked up to Daddy and said look at the pupfish. I thought they were so cute. We saw males chasing each other around and around. I told Daddy that I wanted one as a pet because they were cute.

Watching pupfish at the Salt River

After that we left Death Valley. I had fun but I hated the hotness.

After leaving Vegas and going to Trader Joe’s, we headed into my least favorite national park so far: Death Valley. I tell you, it was HOT. Grossly hot, disgustingly hot. By the time I could see the valley I was sweating by butt off and I was DYING. Now I don’t question why they call it Death Valley. When we reached sea level it was even worse. We took a picture of the “Sea Level” sign:

Ana doesn't actually look THAT hot. She did a lot better than me, that's for sure! You'd think living in Atlanta would teach me about hot weather extremes!

We finally got to the visitor center in Furnace Creek, at the bottom of the valley, and got out of the RV. I sprinted into the building, which to my fabulous luck was well air-conditioned. I’m not sure if I had ever appreciated air-conditioning as much as I had right then. After meeting the rangers and finding out more about the park, we went to do a walk in the lowest point in North America- Badwater Basin. I also believe it is a place where people can die of being overheated. We were 282 feet below sea level when we reached the salt flats where we would be walking. It was kinda cool ’cause there was a sign on the side of the cliff 282 feet above us saying “Sea Level”:

You see it way up there?! Directly above the RV, halfway up the cliff.

The ground was full of salt, (you could lean down and taste it!) and water that flows into the basin carries it there. The walk was excruciatingly hot, and Dad and Jean made me wear a ridiculous hat ’cause of the sun. Go ahead and laugh; I know I look SOOOOOOOO stupid. Here we are in Badwater Basin:

On the salt flats. Do we look as hot as I say we are?

We unfortunately had to go on another hike that night into the golden canyon. Luckily it wasn’t very long. It was really pretty and the heat was actually worth it for this one, except at the end. The sand fleas came out and bit Stella and me to pieces, so I guess that wasn’t so great. Those bites hurt!!!

We stayed at a campground very close to the visitor center. We had a small meal of sandwiches and salad ’cause Jean didn’t want to turn on the oven because of the heat. We went to bed sweating. I hated it. 🙁

Death Valley was awful!!! Go there only if you like extreme heat and sweating basically all the water out of your body.

We went to a lunch buffet at Treasure Island. Our dad told us to get a lot of vegetables and healthy food before we went to the desert line. I got mashed potatoes, bbq ribs, a biscuit, and a huge caesar’s salad. I felt a little full, but I remembered it was time for desert. Me and Stella ran to get our deserts. We split some cinnamon donuts and powdered donuts, and we each grabbed a cookie. We also got ice cream; Stella got chocolate vanilla swirl and I got tropical fruit. Greta told us she had gotten malted milk balls. We all went back and got malted milk balls, three each. We stuffed them in our pockets to save them for later because they were so good.

Dad says this picture sums up Las Vegas better than anything else

After lunch we continued our walk along the Vegas Strip.

On May 2nd, we took a day in Vegas and it was AWESOME. I love the city so so so much. We woke up and got ready; I got my camera because I knew I would be taking tons of pictures. Our campground was at an old casino called Circus Circus, and we went through it to get into the city. I would tell you every single thing about it, but the day was too long and there was just too much to even remember every detail. I was glad I took my camera- throughout the course of the day I took almost 400 pictures! I’m not even kidding.

If only I could shop there

We saw lots of cool casinos- Treasure Island, with two life-size pirate ships, Mirage, a fancy one with lots of fountains, and Venetian, a casino with a sky on the ceiling inside! There were lots more but those are some of the big ones. Then we went to one called Caesar’s Palace and I took over 100 pictures of all the glamorous shops.

There's Poseidon, Stella's hero in huge form

By this time we were very hungry, so we stopped back in at Treasure Island and found a buffet. It was DELICIOUS, except for one thing: I accidentally ate a SUPER hot pepper that left me in pain for hours afterward. I had sushi, sandwiches, pasta, salad…..and of course dessert; LOTS of it! Everything (except the pepper!) tasted so good.

The moat in front of Treasure Island. Doesn't it look like it is about to eat Stella?

After lunch we got a bus pass and rode around in an awesome double-decker bus and looked around at all the casinos we hadn’t seen yet: Luxor, a casino shaped like a giant pyramid, Excalibur, one shaped like a castle, and New York New York, with a Statue of Liberty made entirely out of jelly beans! Jelly beans are my absolute favorite candy, so it was a completely awesome surprise to see it! Here I am with it:

I wanted to eat this Statue of Liberty so badly!

We saw a super cool fountain show at Bellagio, another casino, and then we headed back to Circus Circus to take a little break. Our feet hurt and some of us had headaches. However, that little break never did happen. We got last-minute tickets to The Blue Man Group, this show starring these three crazy men painted completely blue that do hilarious bizarre things. I’m telling you, they are HYSTERICAL. You have GOT to see them. We rushed back to the RV to get our sweatshirts, picked up sandwiches at a Subway, then caught a shuttle to Venetian where the show was playing. We ran to the theater and watched the show, laughing our heads off and enjoying the show thoroughly. I won’t tell you any more about it ’cause you’ve gotta go see it for yourself.

Doesn't he look awesome?

For the rest of the night we rode around on the shuttle looking at all the casinos lit up. They were so pretty. We watched a pirate show at Treasure Island but it was a big disappointment because we could hardly see anything and nothing really that exciting happened. After the show we seemed to wait FOREVER for the bus to come, and then we finally rode back to the RV and went to bed. It was an exhausting, fun, and exciting day!