#ThursdayThoughts West Coast Vacation Memories #5

Good Morning from Concrete, WA,

Well, we will be leaving WA on Saturday after visiting Mt. Rainier, Olympic and Cascades National Parks! I'll be sharing those memories with you soon, but as promised last Tuesday, today I'm sharing more of our California trip with you.

We spent 4 days in Yosemite National Park. This place is packed with people and filled with mountains, waterfalls and wildlife. One of the most impressive sights is the Upper and Lower falls. There's also a pretty little church in the park.

 

  

When we left Yosemite, we stopped in Placerville to visit one of my honey's friends and made a quick trip to South Lake Tahoe.... The lake was beautiful but way too commercialized for me.

After our visit to Placerville, we had 2 more national parks in CA to see, Lassen Volcanic National Park and Redwoods.

Lassen was absolutely beautiful. A lot of it was still closed off due to record snow fall this past winter but we saw enough to be satisfied with the trip. Along with the raw beauty of the volcano, there are places where hot, bubbling pots of green, slimy, sulphur boil up from the ground....UGH! 

It is amazing to find one extreme or another on the same mountain.

Next week I'll share the last National Park we visited in California along with the one in Oregon we saw so I hope you drop by for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

If you're just now joining me, check out the first 3 West Coast Vacation Memories posts Here, Here and Here!

Until next time, take care and God bless.

PamT

#TuesdayTreasures California - West Coast Vacation #4

Happy July 4th from Prospect, Oregon!

Last month I shared memories from my west coast vacation on Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

So far we've visited Texas, NM and Arizona. On June 19th we traveled from AZ to CA for the first of 6 National Parks and 1 pretty famous lake. We've spent a little over 2 weeks in California and let me tell you, except for our last stop (which I'll share next time) the temps have been from the upper 90's to 120 degrees!

Our first stop was Shoshone, CA and Death Valley where we actually hit that 120 degree mark. I got a photo showing the temperature when we went into the visitor's center. When we came out it was 120, but I couldn't get a photo because a TV news station was there interviewing people (no I did NOT get on TV LOL!) We visited the Ashford Mill Ruins and the salt flat of Badwater Basin. Death Valley is the Hottest, Driest and Lowest (below sea level) point in America!

      

But the most beautiful part of this entire park is Artists Way & Artists Palett - some of the most colorful and beautiful rock formations you'll ever see! Here are a couple of photos but honestly they don't come near to doing this gorgeous place justice...

                         

Upon leaving Shoshone and Death Valley, we went to Lemon Cove, CA and visited Sequoia and King's Canyon National Parks. We climbed Moro Rock (6275 feet!!) and saw the famous General Sherman Tree (Sequoia). This place is absolutely gorgeous too. 

King's Canyon was mostly a driving tour of beautiful mountains and valleys...up, down, twisting, winding roads with luscious views and raging water... 

                                    

 

I'm finding this country to be so much more than I ever dreamed and we've only scratched the surface of all the places to visit!

I'll share the other 3 National parks with you next time (Yosemite, Lassen Volcanic & Redwoods) but for now I'm going to leave you with this short video of that raging water. It's only 30 seconds but if you close your eyes you can feel the energy and power....

Hope you enjoyed today's post and that you'll join me each week for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care and God bless!
PamT