Craig's blog

Well, we're home safe and sound (in fact I'm already back at work). The trip was great. Sunday we got off by 7:15 and were home around 2:00. We climbed up Tioga Pass (9900 feet) with surprisingly little difficulty. The drive through Yosemite was gorgeous, but there were so many people coming in to the park. Yikes!

I came home to a dead Prius (12V) battery, but other than that the house is fine (and so are my fish).

Since I like stats, here are a few from the trip:

Total miles driven: 3,235
Total miles with trailer: 2,848
Longest driving day: 488 miles from Grand Canyon, AZ to Santa Fe, NM
Total nights camping: 21
Number of states visited: 5 (California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico)
Hottest daytime temperature while camping: 107 in Zion National Park, UT
Coolest nighttime temperature while camping: 37 in June Lake, CA
Hottest temp while driving: 112 in Nevada
Highest elevation while driving: 9900' over Tioga Pass
Highest elevation while camping: 7900' in Bryce Canyon, UT
Total gas consumed: 355 gallons
Avg fuel economy: 9.1 mpg
Total cost of fuel: $1120

Today was our last full day of camping. Tomorrow we drive home. It was a great finish to a good trip. This morning we did some fishing, had a yummy breakfast and then went on a day trip to Bodie which is a ghost town high up in Eastern California. Just the drive was amazing to see how isolated the town would have been (13 miles east of 395 up a steep road) in the 1800’s. It was a gold mining town. The weather there was awful (it’s above 8,000 feet). But it’s neat because it’s been kept (by the state park service) in a constant state of (dis)repair since the 1970’s. It was a really interesting visit.

On the way back we ate lunch at the Mobil station at the corner of 395 and 120 that we learned about last year which has excellent food. I had the fish tacos which were great. When we got back to camp we enjoyed the beautiful setting, Maddie and Katie went fishing, Patty went for a walk, Jessie and I rented a pedal boat and Kelly stayed at camp and read.

We’re all struck by how beautiful Gull Lake is. We drove the June Lake loop which went by Grant Lake, Silver Lake, Gull Lake and June lake. They’re all pretty lakes, but Gull is the smallest and we all like it the best. Our great campsite doesn’t hurt either.

We had a delicious dinner – bbq ribs, vegetable-rice stir fry and pasta for some of the girls. Then we made a big, final campfire, and sat around and sang songs. We also each talked about the things we really enjoyed and things we didn’t like so much on the trip (roses and thorns). It was an excellent final evening.

Everyone (especially the girls) is excited to get home, so we’re getting up at 6:00 and hope to be off before 7:00. We’ll see how it goes.

On Thursday we drove to June Lake. It seemed like a long day of driving. It was probably a combination of the fact that we left Las Vegas pretty late (around 10:30), it was hot (95 when we left), it was a long drive, and Patty suggested we take some backroads that cut some miles off and were supposed to be more scenic. The roads basically had us go over several mountain ranges that we otherwise would have gone over. We climbed and descended some serious roads with the trailer in some real heat. The Suburban has performed spectacularly and continued to yesterday, but it was work (both for me and the car).

We got to June Lake around 5:30 without reservations. We went to Oh Ridge campground first because it was the biggest. I spent some time with the lady at the kiosk and managed to find one space that was left. We paid for one night and put the trailer there. It didn’t have a view of the lake and was in a chaparral sort of setting. We unhitched the trailer, but didn’t set it up and then we drove in to town. First we checked out the June Lake campground – it had one site that was better than where we were, but it was very small and there were a million mosquitoes. We decided we couldn’t take the mosquitoes and decided not to take it. Then we got some groceries and asked where we could get some dinner. On the way to dinner I saw Gull Lake campground. We pulled in there – there are about 12 sites, and four of them are spectacular right on the water. We talked to the guy in one of them. He said folks line up to take them when people leave (they aren’t reservable). He also said the guy next to him was leaving at 6:00 the next morning. We decided it would be worth the effort to try to get it. So when we got back to our camp after dinner (it was late) we only opened one of the beds (it was close quarters) and I hitched the trailer up so we could make a quick departure. We were off by 6:10 and arrived at Gull Lake 10 minutes later. Sure enough – the lakefront site was vacant and we pulled in. It’s absolutely spectacular. Patty thinks it’s in the top two sites we’ve ever had.

We spent today fishing. We have two poles which I spent all day keeping outfitted as the kids (and I) broke or tangled line after line. We fished from our campsite, from the park here at Gull Lake and from a pontoon boat on June Lake. We watched a lot of people catch fish, but we hardly got a bite. The kids got really discouraged. We came back and made homemade mac & cheese (and the kids fished) and then had dinner by the lake. As the sun went down Kelly, Maddie and Kate headed for some rocks to fish some more. About 20 minutes later Katie called on the radio in a thrilled voice to say she had caught a fish. Then Kelly caught one a few minutes later. Jessie was really disappointed because she had tried the hardest all day, so she and I went over to help the girls and give Jessie one more chance today. She also caught a fish. So we now have three.

Tomorrow the girls want to do some more fishing in the morning and then we plan to head to Bodie to see a ghost town. Tomorrow is our last day. I think everyone’s ready to be home – especially Jessie. Kelly & Maddie are making plans for another trip later this summer. Kate is too. ☺