I have always felt that I would be a true Californian once I visited Yosemite. And after 12 long years living in California, I’m finally going to make it there later this month! But not just that, we are also going to Death Valley and Lake Tahoe! It is going to be an epic California road trip — and I’m really excited!
Jonathan and I tend to spend our vacations traveling internationally, which is great, but it sometimes means we don’t get to the wonderful places that are nearby. This is also our first big road trip together (well – if you don’t count our very first trip to Italy). So it is all pretty exciting. The trip is about two weeks way and I still have a lot of planning to do. I have been crazy busy all winter with BREAKurban projects and I haven’t had much time to focus on myself or planning our trip. But the clock is ticking now and we need to pin down the hikes and must see places we want to visit!
Jonathan visited both Yosemite and Death Valley as a child. His dad was very outdoorsy and took Jonathan and his brother all over the state climbing peaks. So Jonathan has a lot of vague memories of the places we are going and has some ideas about what we should see. I started reading the travel books we bought online last night. We also started reading Death Valley and the Amargosa: A Land of Illusion by Richard E. Lingerfelter. It is a really fascinating history. I was reading about the 49ers, the Mormon wagon trains, last night. But the book is 1500+ pages so I doubt I’ll get through it before we go.
I’m bringing along my new SLR and I plan to take a TON of photos on the trip. I’m a little worried about food. I’m vegetarian (almost vegan) and the food options for Death Valley look kind of bleak. I think I may be packing a lot of food in. This may turn into a peanut butter and jelly week, but I don’t care because I am so excited about seeing all this crazy geology. Plus, we may be out of cell phone range for much of the trip, which is probably a good thing. Just this once, I think it might be relaxing to see an amazing sunset but be unable to Instagram it.
What are the must see places/hikes in Death Valley?
Yosemite in March? Any tips?