The Twins Meet The Roadtrip
We’ve not ventured more than 5 hours from Portland because Noah and Isabel were never car babies. During their first year of life, before they could talk they screamed the entire time they were in car seats. It didn’t matter if it was a 10-minute ride or a 3-hour ride. They screamed the whole time and there was no consoling them. So after a trip, Will’s Big Adventure, a surprise birthday roadtrip that the kids screamed through for 5 hours, I vowed to never take them on another roadtrip until they were older.
A few years ago we went to the Redwoods and we spent 2-days to go 8.5 hours. It made the drive easy and we had a lot of fun, but our adventures were limited. So this year, with the kids having turned 6, I mustered the courage to try my luck at a longer trip. A trip to Yosemite. The drive there I would make in 3 easy days of 3-6 hours a day and the way back we would try two 7.5-8 hour days and hope for the best.
To make things a bit more manageable, I preplanned and brought almost anything you can do in a car, except video games and electronic devices. When I was a kid, I didn’t have these luxuries and I believe it taught me so much, patience being one of them. I want my kids to experience the world around them good and bad, boring and exciting. A few roadtrip essentials: books, snacks, music, books on tape, drawing/coloring, and of course the open road.
Also for the trip, I planned all the meals and snacks then placed them in individual day bags. We ended up with a single ice chest full of food for 10 days and we really didn’t need ice. However, we did buy ice along the way because I wasn’t certain how the string cheese and pepperoni would keep on 100 degree days. I preplanned food including dinners that didn’t need to be refrigerated, pepperoni cheese roll-ups for lunch, homemade oatmeal packets for breakfast, and lots and lots of snacks (each in individual serving sized bags).
Snacks I made were:
- Energy Bars (Cranberry and Apricot)
- Brownie Bites (These didn’t keep, they need to be kept really cold)
- Fruit Roll-ups
- Coconut Lime Energy Bites
- Beef Jerky
- Custom Trail Mix (various almonds, cranberries, m&ms, peanuts)
- I also brought along some dried apricots and mangos and freeze-dried mangos and jackfruit
We started the trip like the Redwoods, a trip to Winston. Before the trip I gave the kids $20 spending money and told them they could spend it on anything they wanted, they also had saved some money so each had about $30 in cash. They both kept their wallets with them and could smell a gift store a mile away.
Day 1: Winston/Wildlife Safari
Miles: 185
We arrived late the days before and drove through once and then with special call ahead permission they let us go through in the morning before we left.
The kids remembered very little about Wildlife Safari from 2-years ago so this experience was like new for them. In reality, not much had changed, the bears were still lounging around and the zebras were still grazing the plains. They did have a new “Feed Me” cup program that allows you to feed some of the animals. The one thing Noah did remember was the camel ride and he knew he was spending his money on another ride.
Day 2: Joline and Jerry
Miles: 280
From Winston we drove down to see our friends, Joline and Jerry Beaver. We stayed at their cabin near Redding, California. Along the way we started the book on tape, Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters. I wasn’t sure how much the kids would be interested in a book on tape, but discovered that would be the key to a perfect car ride the entire trip!
During our drive we drove down I-5 to Redding, crossing over Shasta Lake. I told stories of my youth when we houseboated on the lake and how high the water rose. The kids couldn’t believe the lake, which looks like a river now, went up to the tree line and how big it was. It was an amazing site. You can follow our route.
Day 3: On the Road…
Miles: 375
Because of the location of the cabin we decided to go towards Lassen and then to Reno and down into Yosemite. It proved to not disappoint. We went through at least 3 or 4 ecosystems, pine, volcanic, desert, and high country. When we started the trip, we agreed not to stop at any franchise places. I would highly recommend trying it, this added a certain flair to our trip. We stopped along the way in Minden for lunch and found a deli with something like 30+ beers on tap and they were mostly ones we hadn’t heard of. After our short stop for lunch we continued along toward Yosemite. We arrived late, but still had enough daylight to see Toulumne Meadows. I didn’t realize how large the park was when I was planning, so I was really glad to go through this way otherwise we would have missed this granite wonder. Next time though, I have big plans for Toulumne Meadows…
We arrived at Crane Flats Campground about 8 and set up camp. After a bit of traveladvisor.com research, our campsite site 522, was perfect! I think had we had any other site, the car camping portion would have been disappointing. This site was secluded from the other sites and we didn’t see our camping neighbors on the one side and we didn’t have any neighbors to worry about on the other. Behind us was a meadow that bears roam. No bears this time for us, but it was a pretty perfect campsite for being in such a large campground.
Day 4: The Valley Floor
Miles Hiked: 7
Crane Flats campground is near Tioga Road and 30 minutes from the “Valley Floor” where all the action is. This proved to be the perfect distance for us, since the valley floor is a lot like Sunriver with bike rentals, rafting rentals, shuttles, pizza, and bars. Everything a city person needs for a weekend in the woods.
BridalVeil Falls
Our first stop was Bridalveil Falls one of the hikes on our list, but we didn’t know where it was at the time. We stopped for the view and then I noticed a trail going off to a waterfall. .5 miles later we were at the falls. It was a quick simple hike. We didn’t realize it then, but this would be the simplest hike of the trip.
When we asked the kids originally what they wanted in a vacation I gave them three criteria, rocks, water, or mountain views. They unanimously said rocks. I was thinking, Grand Canyon rocks. Isabel was thinking, pretty rocks she could find in a stream, Noah was thinking climbing rocks. So when we found this little rock fall on the hike, we couldn’t resist stopping for some rock climbing time.
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After checking out Bridalveil, we continued along into the valley. We picked up our bear canister and our backcountry permit for the next day. Also we took a bit of time to browse the museum, gift shops, and watch a movie. In order to see everything I had planned we had to do the Mist Hike today. So we hopped on the free shuttle and off we went to Vernal Falls.
Vernal Falls
Vernal Falls is a strenuous, 1,000 foot vertical gain in 3 miles. To put it into perspective it was similar to climbing a staircase for 3 miles. The first half of the hike (to the footbridge) is paved. Myself, I prefer dirt on that incline to pavement. Noah and I both got toe blisters coming down the sloped incline on the way back.
At the footbridge there were bathrooms and water. It’s amazing how hot it is there and the difference in temperature from the top of Yosemite and the bottom. Anyway, we found this cute little Chickaree family looking for crumbs, which everyone was happy to oblige (including one boy who fed them gummy bears).
After the footbridge you climb more, rather than a paved slope you climb a dirt incline or granite stairs. Think of how much work went into building this staircase. It was a great warm-up for things yet to come.
Day 5: The Hikers Bus
We broke camp early because the directions for where to park the car, where to catch the bus, were sketchy at best. We planned on hiking from Tioga Road down to the valley floor via Porcupine Creek and Yosemite Falls. I thought it shouldn’t be that hard after looking at a topo map. We planned on a 4,000 foot elevation loss over 7 miles. How hard can that be, right? We just did Vernal Falls yesterday and that was 1,000 over 3 miles. What I didn’t take into account was the ascents, it might be a 4,000 foot loss, but you have to go up and over some ridges along the way, meaning you may go down a few hundred feet, but then you have to go back up 300 feet to get over the next ridge to go back down a few hundred feet more. This backpacking trip would be one big learning lesson.
So back to the hiker’s bus. We asked about 5 people who worked at Yosemite and they all said, “I think it’s somewhere over there.” Really, nobody had an answer. Nobody even knew where we could park overnight. It took us about 3 hours to figure out where we needed to be and where we could store our food while we were gone. (You can’t store food in your car, so you have to store it in a bear locker at one of the parking lots, but it isn’t the same one we were allowed to overnight at and catch the bus).
After yesterday’s hikes we were all a little spent, so an hour and a half on a nice coach was very relaxing. Isabel even got in a little snooze.
We were dropped at the Porcupine Flat trailhead 8,000 feet. At the trailhead there are signs posted everywhere about a cougar sighting and not allowing kids too far away which spooked me just a little until I realized I’ve backpacked a dozen places with the kids and we are pretty smart about what we do and already stay in tight groups. I also gave them a quick refresher on what we do for bear encounters (lots of noise on the way, back away quietly, and jump on my shoulders). The day before at the ranger station the women said there was a bear, whom they had a name for, that was notorious for dropping canisters off ledges/cliffs to get the food out, so to make sure you placed the canister away from the came and where she couldn’t wedge the canister between logs (to sit on it and break it) and make sure it wasn’t near a ledge (drop off to break it open). She was a really smart bear.
We hiked down to Lehamite Creek about a 4 mile hike (according to Google) where we would set up basecamp. Everything went great, except Noah and his toe blisters and my friction blisters which made walking a bit miserable for both of us. Hiking this year is a lot like hiking last year. Lots of snack breaks, but our distance has grown to about 7 miles a day.
There were two other backpackers that night, one from Berkley that had a boy the kids played with and some folks from Maine. Both on a summer adventure of 3 or more weeks and seeing many different National Parks.
At camp, there was a deer the kids named “Eatee”. Because she munched on grasses about 10 feet from our tents and she watched over us the whole trip. It was really cool, another deer tried to enter the camp and she chased it away, literally have a squirmish at one point.
Day 6: At 7,531′ – North Dome
We woke up to the sounds of woodpeckers and luckily our bear canister wasn’t touched. The neighbor said she hear sniffing around her tent, but nothing was touched there either. I think Eatee was watching us the whole night. The hike to North Dome was about 2.5 miles and it was worth the entire trip. The day was clear and you could see Half Dome and it felt like you were directly across from it. It was such a beautiful sight standing on the granite dome looking over everything.
Along the way we saw Golden Mantel Ground Squirrels, Chickarees, Eagles, Deer, Lizards, Snakes. It was awesome. There were downed trees the kids climbed and rocks galore. It was the perfect hike for the entire family, not too steep, not just flat, and lots of views. I think we went through two or three different ecosystems just in 2.5 miles.
Day 7: The Hike Out
Total Backpacking Miles: 13 miles
We knew today was really going to be a push, we had about 6 miles to go and a lot of switchbacks (over 100 before I lost count). We expected to go down, not back up and then down and back up again. So about halfway through the hike I got the look from Will that said, “What in the %^* is this…” as we looked at another climb. Noah on the other hand was happily skipping along the whole trip, blisters healed and loving every minute of it. Isabel was so cute, she started by saying, “Mom, I never want to do this hike again.” Then we would get to a vista and she would say, “Mom, this is totally worth it. Thank you.” Then down another set of switchbacks in the heat and she says, “I think this hike was a little over the top, don’t you think Mom?”
Myself, I didn’t think the hike was all that bad, it WAS downhill (steep downhill, very steep), but I said to myself it was better than going up the hill. …but then I was feeling the same as everyone else when I hit the second set of switchbacks after I felt like I was so close to the end. To believe that what we went down was only 3.6 miles it unbelievable. It felt like we were hiking down Mt. Everest, but what I realize now was we had hiked ALOT of up and down miles the days before and this steep hill, though almost all down, was a lot for our tired old legs. But I wouldn’t have missed it for the world!
At the end of the hike we appreciated the Sunriver like atmosphere and ate pizza and drank beer. We stopped at the give shop and Isabel had this wonderful idea to gather patches and sew them onto our backpacks as we visit parks. Then we said goodbye to Yosemite and vowed to return soon.
Day 8/9: On the road again…
Miles Driven: 516
After leaving Yosemite we stopped some where between Sacramento and Eureka. We had decided to fly through the Redwoods again, including the Avenue of the Giants, (and the gift shops) and remind the kids a little about our first National Park adventure, which was a good thing since Isabel had decided to buy patches with her money. We stopped at the end of day 9 at Prairie Creek State Park, where we camped before. We were lucky to get the last camping spot at 6pm. We did a little sight seeing and saw two majestic Roosevelt Elk with velvet still on their antlers.
You can click on an image to go to a larger image, close the larger image from the upper left corner.
Day 10: Going Home
Miles Driven: 351
After a short stop-over at the Tree’s of Mystery Gift Shop, we drove home. Somewhere before the Oregon border we finished Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters and the kids are officially hooked on books on tape + roadtrips.
We can’t wait to do our next one and are planning it for August. We are addicted… we can’t wait to see all of our National Parks.