95 North to Mammoth Lake
On Monday September 18th, 2023 we set off for a 19 day adventure of a lifetime! We’ve been planning this trip for over a year, since the day we first met, and we were finally able to make it come to life today. We flew from Columbus, OH to Las Vegas, Nevada to pick up our campervan. We rented it from Native Campervans and chose “The Biggie Van.” When we arrived to Vegas she was sitting in the parking lot waiting on us! Her name is “V for Vandetta.” Native Campervans was super friendly and the check in process was a breeze. They even had a section of supplies left by other campers for us to pick and choose from. Our first stop was Walmart to stock and load up our van. We bought an extra cooler thinking we would need it and when we went out to the van to stock everything we realized we no longer needed it. So we thought, no problem we will just return it. Turns out they don’t let you return camping items in Las Vegas. We reasonably explained to the lady that we hadn’t even left the parking lot yet and she kindly accepted the return. So the van is fully stocked and we’re ready to take off to our first destination! It would’ve been helpful to have some kind of phone holder or suction cup for our directions, but we made do.
Our first big destination is Yosemite National Park, but with research we planned to stop at Hiltop hotsprings in Mammoth, CA. It was about 4 hours from Las Vegas and gave us the opportunity to rest up and only be 2.5 hours from Yosemite in the morning. We arrived to the hot spring right after sunset and let me tell you, it was pitch dark and very silent, but there were only a few other cars there. We changed into our bathing suits, put on our headlamps and headed down the path to the hot spring with friendly neighborhood cows just eyeing us. The hot spring was amazing. We were basically in the middle of a field, surrounded by mountains sitting in the hot spring with what must’ve been a million stars above us. While soaking in the spring, we were talking to other campers and locals about aliens and Area 51 when this bizarre string of 15-20 stars in a single line emerged from the mountaintop and started traveling quickly east through the sky. It was incredible and slightly eerie. After a couple of hours in the hotspring, we headed to the van to get some sleep and had a little whack a moth game in the van. DJ insisted on sleeping with the fan vent open and we slightly froze in the middle of the night, but we survived. We woke up in the morning in awe of our surroundings in the daylight. We were basically in a field in the middle of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in what seem liked the middle of nowhere. We percolated some coffee, made some breakfast and headed off to our next destination….Yosemite National Park.
Mammoth Valley, CA Hot Spring
Headed to Yosemite Valley
We ARRIVED to Yosemite National Park! The drive was absolutely stunning. I remember telling DJ, “I just want to document and blog this because I never want to forget this drive.” Between the mountains, winding roads, wild horses and other wildlife I was in heaven. One of the very first pull offs in the park was to overlook Half Dome, which we thought was super cool because we’re hiking it the next day! We arrived to Upper Pines campground around noon from Mammoth Lake. Make sure you are booking your campgrounds well in advance if you are planning a trip to Yosemite because it is busy! There are several great campgrounds in the park to choose from! Lower Pines and Upper Pines are the main campgrounds and require reservations five months in advance! Let me tell you, they sell out faster than Morgan Wallen concert tickets. I might know from personal experience. There is also North Pines campground which is permit only through a lottery system! You can book all your campgrounds through recreation.gov.
We ate some lunch and looked at the trail maps to see what we wanted to do for the day. We opted for something easy because we knew half dome was the next day and that in itself was going to be exhausting. A trip to the visitor center was definitely worth it for us. The park is massive in an almost overwhelming way. Nellie, the name of the conceigere was so helpful in directing us for our time here in Yosemite. So, for day one we hiked to lower Yosemite falls, a very easy and paved 1 mile trail. We then headed to the meadow to watch the sunset on half dome and sentinel bridge. All very worth it from a photography perspective. We were very happy to see some of the park with minimal exhaustion. We even stopped by one of the little gift shops and got a couple adult beverages as we enjoyed the sunset in the meadow.
First look at Half Dome
The meadow at Half Dome
Sunset in the meadow at Half Dome
Let’s Hike Half Dome!
Our alarm went off at 4am and we were headed to park in the trailhead parking lot which is only about 3 minutes from our campground. Lesson learned on the campground situation at Yosemite….Book them faster than you would book Morgan Wallen tickets as soon as they release the date and time! We were lucky enough to get all the nights we needed, but we had to move our campsite everyday, which was initially slightly annoying to think about, but it didn’t end up being a big deal at all.
We got dressed and got all of our gear together and off we went at 5am! We were full of excitement. I mean DJ was almost running up the first mountain, meanwhile I was rethinking every life decision I had ever made about this moment. About half a mile in, at 5am, going straight uphill with 16 more miles to go..I thought I was nuts. We made it up to Vernal falls at first light and it looked beautiful, but we had to keep going. As we ascended the stairs there were chunks of the most beautiful natural granite I had ever seen. By the time we hit Nevada falls it was about 4.5 miles in and I am not going to lie, we were pretty tired at this point. We had gained almost 6,000 feet in elevation and had one last chance to use the bathroom. I know while you’re reading this you’re thinking 6,000 feet is nothing, that’s pretty doable for the average fit person. It was intense and I was kind of gassed honestly. We finally reached the Subdome after about 5 hours of hiking. When we approached the area right before the cables we sat down for about 30 minutes, ate a snack and just stared in awe and also maybe nervousness about how steep
Half Dome actually is. No picture can truly do it justice and I am not going to lie, I almost said” absolutely not.” I had to stop thinking about and just do it, so that’s what we did. I’d say it took us about 30-40 minutes to ascend the cables themselves. We brought gloves to grip the cable and obviously made sure we wore great hiking boots with traction! So much of the cables is upper body strength. As you ascend the dome, you pull yourself up on the right side of the cable using your upper body. Then you can rest on a board as you see in the pictures while the people descending the dome come down the left side of the cable. When we made it to the top, DJ was officially out of water and I had 1L left and we still had the entire hike back. We definitely should’ve packed more, but we thought 6L between the two of us was perfect. We did completely run out of water about 6 miles before we were back, which was kind of miserable. We ended up getting some salt tablets from other hikers and as soon as we hit the water station back at mile one we took a big break and refilled our water! Overall, hiking Half Dome was one of the most incredible experiences of my lifetime. If you can do it, I highly recommend you do. DJ and I loved it so much to never do it again if ya know what I mean! It was incredible, but it was tough and we definitely underestimated it, but we are also so proud of ourselves for accomplishing the dome!
Exploring Yosemite
After conquering the beast of half dome, we went into Curry Village and used the public showers (a little secret from a friend). During prime season they charge a couple bucks to use the shower, but we were technically in off season and didn’t have to pay. Then we walked over and decided to order a pizza at one of the little shops to end our evening.
Day two in the park was dedicated to exploring all the other areas of the park that were on our bucket list! We started the morning driving our van over to El Capitan to admire its beauty. We even got to see some climbers ascending the wall, which was super neat! We then continued driving and stopped at Glacier Point and then Taft point. Glacier Point was really pretty, but the dome was covered by a giant cloud. We took some photos and had some lunch there then went on to Taft Point, which is probably one of my favorite areas of the park! There was seriously so much to see and so many good angles from a photography perspective! Taft Point is known as the iconic wedding destination in Yosemite! It’s where so many couples elope and take their wedding photos! I think we saw a total of 4 couples and it was a Thursday evening!
The spirit of the Sequoias
On Day 5 of our trip we were up super early to depart our Yosemite campground and get a good parking spot to catch the sunrise at Tunnel View on our way out of the park! We actually got an amazing parking spot and backed up our van right to the main view! We percolated some coffee and laid in our Campervan bed while watching the sunrise. We just laid there giggling and laughing about how cold it was, but we weren’t closing the doors. We just snuggled closer and sipped our coffee and enjoyed the moment.
We drove from Yosemite Valley to Sequoia National Park. The drive was about 4-5 hours long, so naturally I spent it editing photos! We went straight to our campsite at Lodgepole campground and then you guessed it, right to the visitor center to map out what we wanted to do during our stay! We went to the visitor center at every single park. Don’t shy away from them. We always asked the park rangers for recommendations and told them what our goals were, how long we were there and each time they were spot on giving us the best experiences! It’s like they do it for a living or something. By the end of the day we had hiked down to see the General Sherman tree and we also visited Moro Rock. The goal was to catch a sunset up there, but there was a forrest fire happening and it was incredibly smokey in the entire park. We spent the next day doing a longer hike through the big tree’s and that Saturday evening was dedicated to sitting in the Sequoia Lodge watching the Ohio State Buckeyes with fellow OSU fans!
Top of Moro Rock
Drive through Sequoia. The van didn’t fit
Little Change of Scenery
From Sequoia National Forest we head to Zion National Park. We knew from planning this trip a long time ago that these were 10 hours apart, but we were on Day 7 of our trip. So we had planned this purposely so we could drive 5 hours and stop at a hotel for a rest night. It was glorious. Shower, laundry, hotel room all of it. It was a much needed reset. On Monday morning, the 7th day into our trip we made the rest of the drive to Zion National Park. We camped at Watchman Campground where you also have to make reservations well in advance. I came across our sites on accident without knowing that and immediately booked them! The campground was awesome because it was actually right inside the main entrance of the park! So you could easily access the trail heads, but you could also walk over the bridge to the Main Street where all the bars, restaurants and rental gear is! On our first day we took it easy and hiked a one mile trail called Canyon Overlook Trail. It was the perfect little introduction to park.
Canyon Overlook Trail
The Narrows
We dedicated our first whole day in Zion to accomplish the Narrows! We had initially set our alarms super early for like 5am. We woke up and went to the bathroom and decided it was way too cold to go hiking in the water. We waited until about 8-9am before we got on the shuttle to go to the trail head. So the thing about Zion is that almost every trail head requires you to take the shuttle. There is no driving in the park itself. With that being said, you can drive to the canyon overlook trail parking lot from above, but that’s only because its right off the actual road that people use you travel between Zion and Bryce.
We were waist deep in the Narrows by 10:30am… literally. We rented our equipment from Zion Outfitters right across the bridge the night before. DJ and I both did the waterproof boots and socks with the hiking pole! We initially thought the hiking pole would be dumb, but it becomes your best friend real fast! You do not need a permit to hike The Narrows as long as you are hiking from the bottom up, which means you would start at shuttle stop number nine at the Temple of Sinawava.
Initially I had a goal of hiking the entire 5 miles in and 5 miles back out, but I truly underestimated how exhausting it is to hike and wade in the water. We ended up hiking to the famous “Wall Street” portion of the Narrows which is about 3.5 miles in. This is where the walls tower up super high and it truly becomes narrow! You can see the cutouts and waves in the rock from the floods and erosion over the years.
What if you don’t get Angels Landing Permits?
Ahh yes Angel’s landing! It’s again one of those life changing hikes that you dream of doing. Angel’s landing is one of Zion’s most popular hikes, but also the most dangerous! It is why they implemented the lottery/permit system! You can enter the seasonal lottery to win a permit two months before your expected season (spring, summer, fall). For example, as I am writing this the lottery for March-May opened on January 1st. Check recreation.gov for when you can apply for your permit for your dates. We unfortunately didn’t win the seasonal lottery so we tried for the daily lottery every day we were in the park! You simply apply for the permit the day before you would do the hike. We didn’t win any of those either so we opted for the next best thing. We rented a shuttle through East Zion Adventures and they took us to the East Mesa Trailhead so we could hike to Observation Point which overlooks Angel’s landing! This was 7 miles round trip and relatively easy with only 700 feet of elevation gain. Compared to Half Dome’s 8800 feet we felt great! We met some really awesome people on this trail and it was a great morning hike. We finished by the afternoon and then grabbed dinner in town at one of the restaurants right across the bridge!
Observation Point overlooking Angel’s Landing
The most underrated park IMO
A couple days in Zion was honestly plenty for us. We moved along to Bryce National Park after Zion and it is simply one of the most underrated parks and by far in my top three favorite from this trip! We stayed at Ruby’s Inn Campground right outside of the park and we loved it! We chose this campground because it had a few more amenities and we had been living pretty primitively for the past two weeks. It was worth it to splurge a little extra for laundry, private showers, and a nice bathroom. They even had a pool and hot tub!
We went to the visitor center after we checked in, I don’t know if you’re starting to see a theme here or not! Honestly if you’ve read this far down I am super impressed you’re still with me! We choose to do the Navajo Loop and Queen’s Garden trail at sunset. This was a 3.2 mile loop, I’d say moderate intensity because of the switchbacks, but overall a nice hike for us! The “hoodoos” are amazing to see, but what stole the show was the surprise sunset. The whole hike I had been complaining to DJ about how we started too late and I was so bummed we weren’t going to make it back out of the hoodoos to the top to see the sunset. Then we come up over this one hill and BAM, the most beautiful jaw dropping sunset I had ever seen in my life. And to top it all off here come cowboys and mules riding up over the hill. I thought I was in a literal movie.
Queen’s Garden Navajo Loop Trail at Sunset
Kayak the Colorado River
From Ruby’s Inn we drove to Lee’s Ferry so we could start exploring Arizona! It was about a four hour drive and we started off exploring Arizona by kayaking the famous Horseshoe bend! We rented our kayaks through Kayak the Colorado. Kayaking the Colorado river is not your typical kayaking or canoeing trip! You have to rent a backhaul or boat service to take you upriver to drop you off right at horseshoe bend. Then you kayak back down stream. Don’t worry though, Kayak the Colorado does it all for you! Just check out their website! We started our trip around 9-10am and still had plenty of time to drive an hour to the top of Horseshoe bend and watch the sunset! Horseshoe bend is an easy 1.5 mile round trip hike, but do note you have to pay for admission to park your car and your National Park Pass will not suffice. I think it was $10 a car. Anyways, from a photography perspective, it was way harder to capture the entire Horseshoe bend in my 24-70mm lens than I thought!
Horseshoe Bend
Antelope Canyon
Our next day in Page, AZ we booked a reservation to tour the famous Antelope Canyon! We had made reservations for 9am, but when we arrived we found out they sadly had canceled the tour due to flooding and the canyon needing maintenance. Antelope canyon is not something you can tour on your own. You must make a reservation to see it. We booked through Ken’s Lower Antelope Canyon tours. We had to wait in line to either cancel or rebook. DJ and I actually got super lucky because right as we approached the window a tour had been cleared for the 11am time and we got to go! Antelope canyon is a super cool slot canyon about 1 mile long. The guided tour last about an hour and there are many photo opportunities and formations that the guide will inform you of! There are lots of stairs and ladders involved in this tour!
Lower Antelope Canyon
The Grand Canyon
The last day of our trip was dedicated to the Grand Canyon. We drove straight to the canyon after touring Antelope and settled into our campground. Guess what? We went to the visitor center and she probably gave me my favorite recommendation of any park ranger. She gave us written directions to an unmarked sunset trail called Shoshone point. Turns out you can actually find it on google maps, but no one knows about it. It’s a 2 mile round trip trail and the end of the trail literally leads you to a rock in the middle of the Grand Canyon….at sunset! I was speechless. Fun fact about the Grand Canyon that I didn’t know, there are elk, lots and lots of elk. Especially during rut. While walking back to Shoshone Point we unexpectedly came across a huge buck crossing the trail. I was crapping my pants and snapping all the pictures from super far away!
Shoshone Point Grand Canyon
Back to Ohio
And that concludes our 3 week roadtrip out West. Seven big destinations and the experience of a life time. Each and everything we did was brand new to the both of us and somewhere we had never been. Our goal is to continue traveling and vacationing to places we’ve never been before because truly there is so much world to see. We do have another big trip planned for 2024 and I can’t wait to share the details and possibly write another blog post. If you have hung with me this far, thank you so much! Please let me know anything you may want in future blog, traveling or photography posts! This was such a fun way for me to summarize one of the best experiences of my life! I realize it’s not the most perfect or grammatically correct blog post, but getting to share my photos and my experiences so you can do this trip is all I care about!
