Favorite National Park you have visited

Redwood, Lassen and Yosemite

After leaving Olympic we drove down through PDX then swung west out of Salem and hit the Oregon coast. One of wifey's biggest goals for this trip was to see the Oregon coast and it did not disappoint. We took it all the way down into Cali where we hit Redwood National and State Parks. Very confusing trying to figure out where the National portion of the parks actually is but irregardless it's a mute poont and this place is awesome. We stopped at the Big Tree Wayside and did the loop trail around there. My oldest was in a whiny phase last summer that he's mostly grown out of since - his two targets for the trip were Redwood and Sequoia and he actually enjoyed them both when we were there. Win. After checking out the trees we swung by the Kuchel VC on the beach and saw a sea lion swimming in the surf maybe 10 yards out. Highly recommended park.







We left Redwood headed east for Lassen Volcanic and definitely underestimated the climb from the coast to Redding (or wherever it levels off). Also hit our second longest dead stop of the trip, this one thanks to logging somewhere on highway 299 before Willow Creek IIRC. Whiskeytown Lake was a cool pit stop. We got to Lassen too late to hit the VC but had time to do the whole loop before dark. We got some cool views of the peak though you can really only see the top of the mountain from most of the places on the park road. We got out and played in the snow somewhere on the south side of the loop. Besides the volcanic dome Lassen also has weirdo volcanic features similar to Yellowstone, we got to see some mud pots and other oddities. Wildlife was real sparse here, I don't think we saw a living creature outside of maybe a few bird...until driving south past the Kohm Yah-mah-nee VC towards the park exit we had a black bear maybe 20 feet from us foraging up on the hillside. This was my favorite bear sighting of the whole trip because this guy was all ours - we didn't find him thanks to a traffic jam or somebody else giving us a heads up. There wasn't another soul in the area - actually I don't think we saw more than 2 or 3 people our whole time in the park. Didn't get any good pics of him but this was a fun one for me. Overall Lassen is highly underrated IMO - cool thermal features, pretty mountain, and not at all spoiled by crowds. Would love to return here with some real time to spend.







The next day we turned south for Yosemite, one of six parks we would actually get to spend a night in (Yellowstone, Glacier, Banff, Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Grand Canyon). Honestly, I tried to set my expectations fairly low. I've seen pics of Yosemite my entire life. I knew crowds can be a massive issue. One of the big debates on the trip was do we do the north side first (which we did) or the south side, because we knew timing wise whichever end we did first was going to be less crowded since schools in the west would be getting out right around the time we got to Seattle. We made the call to see Yellowstone/Grand Teton/Glacier at less crowded times and sacrifice the California/Utah parks. So I was prepared to be disappointed at Yosemite.

We came in the Big Oak Flat entrance, once again a bit unprepared for how significant the climb would be. We got in late afternoon and thankfully had maybe a two minute wait to get in (we were prepared for an hour to two hour wait). We took in the views on the descent into the valley then like I presume most people we stopped to see Bridal Veil Falls once we reached the valley itself. While we're admiring the water fall the people behind us point out a black bear back in the weeds towards the edge of the trees. While checking out the bear a pretty big crowd gathered but we were at the front of the crowd with decent views of him the whole tim. He wasn't super close but we got to see him move around a bit and eat (berries I assume). Was a great start to our tim in Yosemite.







We checked into our room at the Stoneman Lodge in Curry Village, hauled every piece of food out of our vehicle as per instructions so the bears didn't try and break into it, then walked around Curry Village. Really cool area, plenty to do, options to eat, etc. Tons and tons of people, as expected.

After getting some ice cream we decided to drive around while there was still some daylight left. Maybe 200 yards after leaving the parking lot we came upon a bear jam, we stopped and admired this one for a bit but we didn't have great views due to the crowds so we drove off fairly quickly. Once we got on the westbound side of the loop the crowds thinned out pretty quickly and we found a quiet spot to hang out on the Merced River. There was one other family within sight for the first half of our time there and then they left and we had the place all to ourselves. Never in a million years did I expect to have our own idyllic spot with no one around in Yosemite Valley. This was maybe one of the coolest outdoor experiences of my life. Stunning scenery, absolutely perfect weather, water that was shallow enough and moving slow enough my two year old could play in it without me having to really stress about keeping him alive. Just a super relaxing evening. Gorgeous sunset lighting on the rocks too.





The next morning we took one more drive around the valley, stopped and did a mini hike with views of Yosemite Falls, then headed out of the valley.

Right there with Many Glacier for my favorite stop on the trip.