Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Melinda at
West Metro Mommy Reads.
After a brief hiatus, I am finally getting back to
my National Park photo series. I think this will be my last National Park post for a while because I have covered all of the parks we have visited across the U.S.! Click on the link to see the rest of the photos.
So, this week is devoted to the far West - California and Southern Oregon. Though we usually take long road trips, that year - the summer before our oldest son's senior year of high school - we decided to go all out and fly out to California for an extra-special trip. We used my aunt's house in Sacramento as our home base and spent the first week heading north into southern Oregon, where we visited Crater Lake National Park and Lassen Volcano National Park. I have no photos from Lassen because the park was still closed due to snow - in late June! - so we didn't see anything past the entrance and a huge field of snow. As you'll see from my photos of Crater Lake, there was still a LOT of snow around. They'd gotten over 60 feet of snow that winter, and when we visited in late June, they still had over 40 feet of snow and had only cleared 1 mile of the park road around Crater Lake!
For our second week, we rented a small RV and visited the National Parks in central California: Yosemite, Sequoia, and King's Canyon. King's Canyon doesn't get much attention, but it is a beautiful park. We spent our last week in San Francisco and driving down the coast along Route 1 (no National Parks in that portion of the trip).
So, here are a few photo highlights of the National Parks we visited in California and southern Oregon:
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| Crater Lake NP...in late JUNE! |
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| Over 40' of snow still remaining (my son is almost 6') |
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| Family pic in front of lovely Crater Lake |
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| Bridal Veil Falls in Yosemite NP |
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| Half Dome in Yosemite NP |
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| View of the entire Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point |
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| My son & I w/General Sherman tree at Sequoia NP |
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| Close-up & personal with a sequoia in Sequoia NP |
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| King's River & mountains in King's Canyon NP |
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| Hiking in King's Canyon National Park |
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| Family pic in King's Canyon NP - river was REALLY high! |
Hope you are enjoying a great weekend!
Your pictures are magnificent! What a fun trip that must have been. Although I've been to Crater Lake and Yosemite, I've never been there when there's still snow around. Gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteMy Saturday Snapshot post features the Arboretum in bloom, Seattle.
We THOUGHT we'd be missing the snow by late June - what a surprise that was! And, yes, it was a great trip.
DeleteWow America does BIG so well. Huge mountains, huge piles of snow, ginormous trees!
ReplyDeleteha ha - quite true, Brona! Our National Parks are truly amazing.
DeleteAren't all those National Parks something else? Crater Lake is just amazing. The color of the lake is so unreal. Good photos.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Anne! Yes, we really liked Crater Lake - would love to go again when we can see a bit more of it!
DeleteI can't believe that Crater Lake and Yosemite were full of snow in June( not that I've ever been there :( )
ReplyDeleteIt was quite a surprise to us to find that much snow remaining at Crater Lake & Lassen Volcano...guess we'll have to go back when we can actually see them!
DeleteLove your photos!! i would love to go visit the parks out west some time.
ReplyDeleteThis was an exciting trip for us! So much to see out there! I'm ready to go back.
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