• Welcome to AlpineZone, the largest online community of skiers and snowboarders in the Northeast!

    You may have to REGISTER before you can post. Registering is FREE, gets rid of the majority of advertisements, and lets you participate in giveaways and other AlpineZone events!

Three National Parks in three days

loafer89

New member
Joined
Apr 21, 2004
Messages
3,978
Points
0
Location
Enfield, C.T
I thought that I would share some of my pictures of my tour of Yosemite National Park, Death Valley National Park and Grand Canyon National Park. We toured each one last week from June 8-10th and put over 2,000 miles on our rental car (thank goodness for unlimited mileage).

We left Mammoth on thursday June 8th after skiing from 8-10am. Yosemite is usually an easy drive as Tioga pass road is only 23 miles north of Mammoth Lakes, but the pass was closed due to avalanche danger from a record 55 feet of snow this winter, so we had to drive over Sonora pass at 9,624' with it's pleasant 26% grade:

Sonora.jpg


The round trip drive to the park and back was approximately 450 miles and since I did not want to drive over Sonora Pass at night, we had about 2 hours to see the major sights and go home. Bridalveil Falls was spectacular with water pouring over the 620' drop:

BridalveilFalls.jpg


We got a good look at the Halfdome as well:

HalfDome.jpg


Yosemite Falls:

YosemiteFalls.jpg


The Minarets on the way back to Mammoth:

TheMinarets.jpg




We made it back to Mammoth at 9:00pm and skied on Friday June 9th, from 7:45am to 12:30Pm before driving back to family in Las Vegas via Death Valley. We entered into Death Valley and paid enterance into the park at a self pay honor system kiosk in Stovepipe Wells where the temperature was a balmy 116F. I took Warren to see Badwater, which at 282' below sea level, is the lowest point in the United States:

Warren reaches a new low (my bad):

Badwater.jpg


Death Valley Salt Flats:

DeathValleySaltFlats.jpg


We left for the North Rim of the Grand Canyon at 6am on saturday June 10th. I wanted to visit the North Rim because it is higher up than the South Rim and also much cooler. At 8,800' the Kaibab Plateau temperature was a refreshing 65-70F all day long. It is also alot less crowded than the South Rim is, and we got our first look at the canyon from Bright Angel Point:

GrandCanyon.jpg


Really nice view from Point Imperial (highest viewpoint in the park):

GrandCanyonfromPointImperial.jpg
 
Last edited:

Greg

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Jul 1, 2001
Messages
31,154
Points
0
You and Warren have the exact same stance! :lol:

Seriously though - your boy is going to remember these trips with Dad forever! :)
 

loafer89

New member
Joined
Apr 21, 2004
Messages
3,978
Points
0
Location
Enfield, C.T
My wife calls it the stiff uptight German stance, but seriously I think we where both happy to be out of the car for a short time to take pictures.

Hopefully Warren will remember this trip, but I want to take him to Mount Rainer and Mount Saint Helens next year, as he really likes volcanoes.
 

andyzee

New member
Joined
Sep 14, 2004
Messages
10,884
Points
0
Location
Home
Website
www.nsmountainsports.com
Loafer89, you have some great pics there, thanks for sharing, I definetly enjoy looking at them. And I'm sure both you and your son will have some great memories for a long time. I'm glad you had such a good trip.
 

wintersyndrome

New member
Joined
Mar 8, 2006
Messages
544
Points
0
Location
Stamford, Connecticut
truly fantastic photos there. Reminds me of touring the nation with my parents back in 1990 going to Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Badlands...those memories do stay with you forever...cheers
 
Top