Conquering the West Coast: The First Leg!

It’s been so long since I wrote a blog post that I hardly know where to start, but with the opening leg of an awesome West Coast trip seemed a good place! I returned last Monday from a three-week trip to Australia and in a pretty short turn around, James and I set out on Friday for our most recent slew of adventures: to tackle America’s gorgeous West Coast. We’ve got the full fifty (states, that is) firmly in our sights now, and we’re ticking off another three this trip. (It’s four, if you want to be technical, but since we’re visiting Oregon properly in June, I see no reason to count it now). 

Anyway, with all of that nonsense out of the way, onto the meat of the story!

Friday 20 April 

We got an early start out the door on Friday morning at around 6, knowing we’d be gaining about another two hours along the road. It was a long day, with about fourteen hours to drive from Lawton to our Airbnb for the night in Kingman, AZ. As always, we split it up fairly evenly, taking (relatively) frequent chances to fuel up and change over from the driving seat to the ‘studying/co-driver/navigator’ seat. Those kinds of days are always enhanced by a good lunch and some great scenery. Sadly, West Texas is a little short of the latter, but Albuquerque provided the former in spades and, finding ourselves at Calico’s, we dug into some fantastic sandwiches with gusto. Some time later, we pulled into Kingman to find our Airbnb situated on the edge of the historic district, and a sweet little Italian diner—Mattina’s Ristorante Italiano—just a block or so away. We’ve never been known to resist a good meal, so despite being inappropriately dressed (it was me, really), we headed in there for dinner. If you ever find yourself in Kingman, I would strongly recommend you retrace our steps, because our dinner was fantastic! In fact, Kingman in general just seems pretty lovely: not quite sure how Lawton got the ‘out of the way town’ vibe so wrong, but Kingman certainly didn’t.

Saturday 21 April

Kingman continued to woo us on Saturday morning with a quick stop in at Beale Street Brews—a refurbished bank with some truly excellent peanut butter chocolate-chip cookies—for some hot beverages to take on the road. Luckily it was a significantly shorter day than the previous one, and with some more activities planned along the way! We took the chance to drive through Death Valley and tick off some different milestones—we’ve officially visited the lowest point in the USA—while checking out Bad Water Basin, the Natural Bridge, Artist’s Palette, and some pretty good burgers for a late lunch.

From there, it was on to our evening abode at Durwood Creekside Lodge in Sequoia National Park.  

Here’s where it got a little hairy. For one, the roads in the park are windy: it’s hard driving work. Add in that a later lunch and a series of poorer choices saw us decide not to bother purchasing dinner (or even the makings of dinner) on our way up into the park, and we had a recipe for trouble. We saw a sign for McNally’s renowned 40oz steak, & thought eating would be a simple affair… and we were dead wrong. The lodge’s check in process was painful—our key to the ‘Bear Room’ opened the door to the ‘Deer Room’—and we were both tired and worn out from two big days. A quick jaunt back down the road to McNally’s yielded little more than a deserted establishment (opening for business again in two weeks’ time) and two grumpy travellers. As far as we knew (reception being patchy), the next closest option was some way further down, and with James on the tail end of a cold and both on the tail ends of our tempers, that wasn’t on the cards. Plain Tostitos were thus the order of the day!

Luckily, Tostitos, even without any kind of dip or salsa, are actually pretty tasty… What was less so, was me figuring out that I had something due for uni that night. Oops. Needless to say, by the time I finally got to sleep, I was less than thrilled with how the day had turned out, and hoping that Day 3 of our West Coast adventures would prove more fun. 

Sunday 22 April

We woke up fairly early on Sunday morning with no real desire to wait around until 0830 for the promised breakfast, and packed up instead. Although all the signs along the way warned that the Trail of 100 Giants was closed, we took a risk anyway… Lo and behold, the trail was ‘closed’ but accessible, and we had the opportunity to tick off yet another amazing sight on our journey. The sequoias on this trail truly have to be seen to be believed, and as with most natural wonders, photos really can’t do them justice. 

Fresno’s quaint local breakfast cafe, Benaddiction, provided a welcome site for gorging ourselves: if you’re in the area, their pancakes, their various eggs Benedict and their hash browns are pretty phenomenal!

Thus fuelled, we headed off to visit American National Parks’ crown jewel: Yosemite. By the time we’d entered the park, the scenery was already breathtaking: eventually, James had to take over the driving because I so badly wanted the chance to look around me. Passing Bridal Veil Falls on our way into the park, we decided to take the chance to check it out—and almost froze in the process: the spray near the base was icy!—before heading on to the Visitor’s Centre. Honestly, if there is one thing America does well, it’s their National Parks system. The Visitor’s Centres are always well-laid out, well-staffed, helpful, and informative, and we always enjoy visiting them. One of the rangers recommended a few hikes, including trekking part way up the Upper Yosemite Falls Trail that afternoon, and we decided to tick it off before checking into our accommodation at Housekeeping Camp. 

After getting back to the car buzzing with excitement—being outdoors and hiking in some of these beautiful places tends to do that to me—we made our way to Housekeeping Camp and checked in. We were duly warned about the dangers of black bears to our food, toiletries, and rubbish, and promptly emptied every possible item out of the car… Including the oil and the coolant, just in case Yosemite bears have some weird tastes. While James handled the administration, I diligently read the signs about what to do in a bear encounter, which reassured him no end. 

We decided against buying and cooking our own food, and instead availed ourself of ‘The Loft at Degnan’s’ fairly subpar dinner (handy information for anyone planning on a Yosemite trip, Degnan’s really isn’t worth your time). Buying our own food for the next few days moved up the priority list. We considered trying to befriend the people around us who clearly knew exactly how to ‘camp’—we saw everything from personal BBQs to fairy/Christmas lights, microwaves, and toaster ovens—but none of them seemed interested. Fair enough, I guess. luckily, it turned out that the other half of our little accommodation block housed some friendly travelling Brits! (Not that they fed us, but they were really lovely, so I guess you can’t have everything).  

Monday 23 April 

It’s always ridiculously enjoyable to wake up without an alarm, and we found ourselves up bright and early on Monday. A quick breakfast of cereal, and we strapped on our hiking boots, ready to hit the trails. Vernal Falls is one of the most-recommended hikes in Yosemite, and since both the ranger and my family had given it the tick of approval, I was pretty pumped about checking it out on Monday. We didn’t have any other pressing things to do, and decided to trek all the way up to Nevada Falls and really get some kilometres racked up on our (ridiculously unprepared) legs. 

The ‘Mist Trail’ is aptly named: thank goodness James thought to bring along our raincoats! The path to the top of Vernal Falls skirts the base of the falls and is in the shade; coupled with icy-cold spray and a chilly breeze, it was a relief to make it all the way to the top and burst out into the sunshine. In many ways, the space around Emerald Pool seems like a completely different world to that of the hike up. There were rainbows on display when looking over the age of the falls, and it was a fun challenge to try and capture those on my SLR.

The river is so incredibly powerful here in the Spring, and it’s easy to see how people die at Vernal Falls every year, especially if they come in Summer and are lulled into a false sense of security by the reduced water flow. It’s awe-inspiring and mesmerising to watch the churn and thrum of the water, and terrifying to imagine how helpless a human being is against the forces of nature. 

From there, we continued on up through some pretty challenging switchbacks with regular breaks (for me, but ostensibly so that I could take photos). At the top of Nevada Falls, we took off our boots and dipped our toes in the water—though not for long, it was painfully cold!—and sat down to look out the falls and eat our snacks. This adventure  also proved one terrible, inescapable fact to me: no matter how many snacks we take hiking, there will never be enough snacks. 

Lunch at Yosemite Village’s Grill was delicious—perhaps in part due to hunger, but I wasn’t questioning it—and afterwards we limped our way (mostly my way) back to Hut 263. Spending most of my life barefoot at the moment (not having a job is pretty great in that respect) means that subjecting my feet to long periods of time in shoes, even well-fitting runners or hiking boots, is always a challenge. Invariably, I wind up blistered. Slipping back into thongs—yes, I know how bad they are for your feet, but they’re pretty great for blistered toes—was a relief. Since I’m on a two-week uni break right now (there are things I could/should be doing, but…) I took the chance to nap while James studied, only to be later woken by the caterwauling of some nearby children. James, neck deep in readings and trying to focus, was understandably less than thrilled. 

We’d earlier decided to cook our own dinner, so a short trip into the Village left us with a marshmallow toasting fork (I really wanted one), a big-ass bag of marshmallows, and some dinner supplies (that’s the less crucial part of the story, I think). It was, all in all, an awesome night. We cracked open some ciders, ploughed our way through most of the rest of the bag of Tostitos—this time accompanied by the all important salsa and sour cream—and had a great chat to our neighbouring Brits, Louise and Nathan. James got pretty smoky figuring out the stubborn campfire, but served us up a delicious steak, grilled capsicum and mushroom couscous dinner.  

How do you finish up that kind of night? With chocolate and roasted marshmallows, of course!

Tuesday 24 April 

We both woke up a bit sore on Tuesday morning, especially my poor feet, and were glad we’d decided to set aside some dedicated study time. I didn’t get very much done, but James was wildly efficient at least! It ended up being a relaxed, lazy day, and really highlighted to me how much I’d like to spend longer in Yosemite.  

Later in the day, we took a casual stroll to the base of Lower Yosemite Falls and yet again were left frozen by the icy spray at the base. It’s astonishing how much the temperature can change from standing in the sun to standing close to the water; even just walking past the river brings cooler air and a few goosebumps. It was fairly crowded, but we had the chance to take a few cool photos using my new hand-me-down camera, including some close ups of feeding deer… Which made me hungry and sent us to Half Dome Village for a pretty average sausage and egg sandwich at the Deli. I was pretty keen to take my runners off by the time we got back to Housekeeping Camp, and we walked down to the river to take some photos of the scenery and dip our toes in the frigid water before pulling them back out again to defrost. 

On Louise and Nathan’s recommendations, we headed in to Half Dome Village for some pizza. It was absolutely delicious, and featured countless squirrels dropping by in hopes of a crumb. Sadly, the Half Dome Village ice creamery wasn’t yet open: much to my disgust. Instead, we bought some from the store and caught the shuttle back to Housekeeping camp, where we proceeded to pack as much of our stuff into the car as possible without providing too much temptation for the bears. We were about 90% sure that most of them were still sleeping, but considering a black bear can rip your car door off (and you’d then get fined for leaving food in your car), it wasn’t really worth taking any risks!

Wednesday 25 April

We woke early on Wednesday for a few moments of silence in the pre-dawn, commemorating Anzac Day in our own way, something that is always important to us, despite the distance and the time difference. 

Pack up was quick and easy, and after a shower, and a quick stop in Half Dome Village for a coffee and a muffin, we were back on our way. Our next West Coast brunch stop off was Stockton—apparently the ‘armpit of California’—where James had found a tasty-sounding creperie… which turned out to be closed. I was not happy. Still, we managed to find some truly excellent sandwiches and potato salad at Gian’s, which rapidly improved my mood. 

Then onto Winters, CA! We’re currently staying with John and Sue, my uncle and aunt, who live in a beautiful property in Winters and both work at UC Davis. It’s an idyllic spot, with an orchard, chickens, two dogs, two cats, four little chicks under a heat lamp, and a parrot called Sydney who really doesn’t like James. Despite their unfortunate encounter (which left James with a decent-sized war wound on his thumb), we settled in, unpacked and did some washing, all the while studiously avoiding Sydney’s domain in the kitchen. 

Thursday 26 April

A relaxed start to the morning included a bit of light gymnastics training and some of Sue’s incredible bread—toasted, with butter and choice of spreads. We’re about five minutes away from moving up here to live! Diligent James started drafting his essay and I wasted a lot of time faffing around before caving in to fatigue and having a nap. Around midday, we strapped on the bike helmets and saddled up for a ride into the UC Davis campus to meet up with Sue for lunch and tour of the lab. Despite it being the first time I’d ridden a bike in at least a year, it turns out it is ‘just like riding a bike’, and we had a lovely trip into the campus. Sue came and found us and gave us a tour of the university’s Arboretum from the bike track before we feasted on an amazing lunch, then rode back over to the Vet School to look around and hear all about her work. It was absolutely awesome, and now I am once again unsure about my life choices!

Having been denied ice cream in Yosemite, we couldn’t resist the chance to find it in Davis, though this was possibly unwise since we were still very, very full from lunch. The Davis Creamery didn’t disappoint, however, with some delicious scoops that left us (or at least me!) feeling a little queasy for the ride back again.

We’re off to San Fran today: the Golden Gate Bridge, gargantuan Ghiradelli sundaes, and some delicious seafood await us (and I am preeeeetty excited).

See you next week for the second leg!

Ana.