the last leg

back in seattle. soon to be moving to vancouver.

the last leg of the trip involved driving through death valley and a look at yosemite. death valley was really cool (and by that i mean fricken hot!). i was wearing a big shade-generating hat, but the wind was so hot it still felt as if i was in the direct sunlight. stopped a couple of times to walk around, but there is not too much you can do at this time of year - the campgrounds are closed because it is too hot! you could do more looking around and hiking etc in the cooler months.

did a couple of nice short hikes and stayed a night in yosemite in the upper canyon area. the valley area is the really busy popular part, but we decided to skip going there as you need more time to do it justice - yosemite is pretty huge. although it is awesome, yosemite now has problems with overcrowding and traffic congestion to sort out. zion canyon recently closed its main scenic road to all traffic except the free shuttle - yosemite might have to do something similar.

after that we pretty much drove straight back to seattle, with a short stop in portland to visit sarah's friend.