Four Jewels Trip

Death Valley

It  has been a very busy April and May!  Getting ready for a craft fair in Portland and then also getting ready to go on a trip to 4 National Parks in California.  For this post, I will keep it short with just pictures of our trip but tomorrow I want to post pictures of the craft fair that my sisters and I did while I was away.  Just a little thank you for doing the hard work of setting it up and greeting customers.  

Our trip was amazing it was with Road Scholar and there were 34 of us altogether.  The weather was perfect but isn't it always in California! This was our second Road Scholar trip and again there were 6 of us from Maine.  The Petersens and the Elas were traveling together but we met another couple from Bar Harbor, Maine.  The trip was called the 4 Jewels-Sequoia, King's Canyon, Yosemite and Death Valley. We went from 8,800 feet above sea level to 282 feet below sea level in this trip and the hottest too in Death Valley at 112 degrees!  Yikes! 

Sequoias

Grizzly Falls

Our first National Park was Sequoia National Park and it was amazing how big these trees are!  There was actually a tunnel through one of the Sequoias that had fallen down and we walked through it.  We had a tour guide that joined us here and did a portrayal of John Muir at dinner.  He was great.  What would we have done without John Muir?  General Sherman was the biggest Sequoia in the Park. 

General Sherman

Mark and General Lee

After Sequoia we headed to King's Canyon and then onto Yosemite.  There was a fire in the canyon but firefighers were able to get it under control but we did see helicopters bringing in water to put out the fire.  We saw rock climbers on El Capitan and just before we arrived in Yosemite 2 rock climbers fell to their death off El Capitan.  There is a camp in Yosemite which is mostly filled with rock climbers.  Pictures below of Yosemite's waterfalls and the landscape. 

Rock climber in red

Fire in the canyon

Bridal Veil Falls

Another view of Bridal Veil

Yosemite Falls

Walking to Yosemite Falls

We headed to Death Valley after Yosemite and stayed in Lone Pine where a lot of old cowboy movies and television series such as  Rawhide and Bonanza. Recently, movies like Star Wars and Back to Future shot some scenes in the desert. If you ever, get a chance seeing any or all of these Parks is definitely worth it.   

Death Valley

Death Valley

The National Park Travelers

One last picture is a picture of our bus driver.  He was terrific!   Driving on some of these roads and going through the canyons that we did, took some expertise at driving and we all felt safe with him at the wheel.  He was a cool guy also, he came to the US 20 plus years ago from Poland and I loved his accent.

Thank you Frank!