Yellowstone to Las Vegas

On our way out of Yellowstone, we found the herd of Buffalo… again… took some more pictures and then made our way to Grand Tetons, NP.  There was a lot of smoke in the air; and it made it hard to see the mountains at some point.

The day after arriving there; we drove through the Park, and up and over the Grand Teton Pass, and ended up in Idaho… again.  But this time we actually drove for about 5 miles, found a gas station (used the facilities) and then headed back up and over the Tetons back into the Park.

Thankfully you can see a lot of these National Park highlights from your vehicle; as my foot is giving me lots of issues.  There are also short walks that you can do to see even more spectacular sights.

After leaving the Grand Tetons, we started to make our way further West and the next destination was Yosemite NP.  Again, we ended up in Idaho, but this time it was for roughly 30 miles, so we can now say that we were definitely there.

On our way to Yosemite, we found ourselves in Reno, Nevada.  We decided to stay for the weekend, and since there weren’t any close campgrounds, we stayed at a Vagabond Motel. 

Thanks to the dozen plus partiers on the second night there, our 2nd and 3rd night were both half price.

We also played a little poker and Mike won the tournament on the Saturday.  Roughly half an hour after that; I was in a $3-$6 cash game; and flopped a Royal Flush in clubs!  The odds of doing that are apparently 970,000 to 1.  The casino gave me a $400.00 bonus, plus a spin on the wheel netted me another $50.00; plus the pot made for a $480.00 hand.  First time in 16 years of playing poker that I got a royal flush; hopefully I won’t have to wait that long for the next one.

When we left Reno, we took “America’s Lonliest Road” to Yosemite; and was it ever lonely.  Not much to see except for mountains and sage brush.  The ride across was roughly 7 hours and we were happy to see the end of it.

Spent a few days at Yosemite; and were once again wowed and bedazzled by mother nature’s beauty.  The campsites were pretty rough; and our tent was squeezed in between 2 trees. 

Next stop was Kings Canyon and Sequoia NP.  These parks are right beside each other.  And we were able to do the drives that we wanted and to see what we wanted to within the 2 days there.

Sequoia NP has the oldest tree and the biggest tree (by volume) in it.  In order to get the whole tree in, I sometimes had to take 3 pictures.  The weather had certainly warmed up by this point; and didn’t need to sleep in our hoodies to make it through the night.

We also had a very nice large site that overlooked Fresno, CA in the valley below; and also had 2 great sunsets in a row.

Next stop was Death Valley.  And after a very long travel day (not by choice, but lack of hotels to stay at); we arrived at a lodge; which was across from the campground.  The outside temp was 41 celcius and with the wind, it felt like we had just stepped into an oven.

We found out from the lodge people that the campgrounds in Death Valley were closed because “it is too hot”!  We drove on a bit further to Beatty, NV and spent another night in an air conditioned hotel. 

The next day, we drove around Death Valley, and was surprised that the temp was only 42.  Have never seen our car reading in to the 40’s before.  At one point we were at “Badwater” which is 283 feet below sea level; and I thought for sure the temp would be higher. 

After spending the better part of the day driving around, we headed the car in the direction of Las Vegas and that’s where this blog is coming from.

We arrived here on the Saturday afternoon of the Labor Day weekend; and talk about busy!!!  We went from the serenity, peacefulness of Death Valley to the utter crazyness of Vegas inside of 3 hours.

There must have been millions (and I’m not exaggerating) of people walking along the strip.  We were lucky to find a room at all; at the Super 8; and we’re still here.  Have already noticed that things are a little quieter today.

We ended up doing a “timeshare” presentation yesterday; and no we didn’t buy anything.  But we are going to see Donny & Marie tomorrow night at the Flamingo, as a “thanks” for our time.

Please click here to take a look at our pictures.