Day 19: Yosemite and Southeast...
Our final day in Yosemite today... We drove in from Oakhurst and went directly to the Mariposa Grove. Dane had one final activity to complete in order to fullfil his requirements to be a junior ranger... and we opted to attend the audio guided tram tour of the grove in order to finish his book.
The grove was amazing... hard to truly put into words. The sequoia trees were huge.. and the tour was super informative. The trees are estimated to be approximately 2000 years old!! And their resistance to decay, pests, and disease is unreal! Some of the trees have huge holes in them, and yet they keep on living and thriving.... and their sheer size, and age... unreal...
From the grove we drove through the park to the east entrance. Dane was sworn in as a "Little Cub" on our way out of the park. I think he was a little embarrassed, as she called for everyone's attention in the visitor's center to congratulate him on his accomplishment!
We drove out of the park with plans to stop somewhere between Yosemite and Vegas for the night.. However, the one town we attempted to stop at had no rooms.. and as we drove closer to Vegas, there were fewer and fewer options, so we decided to drive straight through. We missed the turn for the original route we had planned on and opted to drive through Death Valley at night. We would have never taken that route during the day... Even at night the heat was intense, I cannot imagine what it would have been during the day!
We approached Vegas shortly before 2 am and found our hotel quite easily. They were able to check us in early.. and it was hard to decide to sleep or explore! The city was fully alive at 2 am.. and the hotel Circus, Circus was hopping! We opted to sleep, as we knew we needed it!
The grove was amazing... hard to truly put into words. The sequoia trees were huge.. and the tour was super informative. The trees are estimated to be approximately 2000 years old!! And their resistance to decay, pests, and disease is unreal! Some of the trees have huge holes in them, and yet they keep on living and thriving.... and their sheer size, and age... unreal...
From the grove we drove through the park to the east entrance. Dane was sworn in as a "Little Cub" on our way out of the park. I think he was a little embarrassed, as she called for everyone's attention in the visitor's center to congratulate him on his accomplishment!
We drove out of the park with plans to stop somewhere between Yosemite and Vegas for the night.. However, the one town we attempted to stop at had no rooms.. and as we drove closer to Vegas, there were fewer and fewer options, so we decided to drive straight through. We missed the turn for the original route we had planned on and opted to drive through Death Valley at night. We would have never taken that route during the day... Even at night the heat was intense, I cannot imagine what it would have been during the day!
We approached Vegas shortly before 2 am and found our hotel quite easily. They were able to check us in early.. and it was hard to decide to sleep or explore! The city was fully alive at 2 am.. and the hotel Circus, Circus was hopping! We opted to sleep, as we knew we needed it!
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