4 day weekend and a trip up the Sierra Nevada's

With 4th of July in front of us and the fact that our city gets FLOODED with people we decided to get out and head out for another road trip. With 4 days to spare we weren't really sure on what we wanted to do, so we headed north up 395 to see Yosemite and it's surroundings.

(FYI, you can click on the pictures for a bigger more clearer photo)

This was our first stop, a break out in the Mojave Desert



And then we came into Yosemite from the east side off of 395. What a unreal place. Neither of us have ever been there so it was really one of those experiences where we looked at each other and tried to figure out why it took us so long. Gorgeous place. Luckily the traffic wasn't that bad either considering it was a 4 day holiday weekend for most.



Some more shots from Yosemite



the lake




little critter we ran into



After this we headed up north and stayed the night in Carson City. The next morning we woke up and decided to do Lake Tahoe, which was just PACKED, and unfortunately didn't have any good chances to pull over for some pictures as all the turnoffs were packed. Spectacular place though.

After that we headed up HWY 89 past Truckee where it connects with HWY 49 which would be our route over the mountains and down the other side.

Here is a turnoff off 89.



HWY 49 is a FANTASTIC road, and for any motorcyclist out there or other car road nuts this is a MUST do.

Here is a little hint of some of the road





After you do the loop, HWY 49 goes a long many of the old Gold/Silver Mine towns like Angels Camp, Jackson, Sonora, etc.



an old Saloon



After that we headed back towards the mountains and did a little hike among the redwoods.



We then attempted to come up the South side of Yosemite but it was way to crowded so we just stopped for a quick shot. Here's my wife Adrienne in front of a stream.



After this we stayed the next night oustide of Fresno in a town called Dinuba in order to get to the Sequoa National Monument/Forest the next morning.

On the way up to the the big tree's we found a great road called Boyd Road right outside of Dinuba. Another fantastic road that was empty. This road had no center divider, etc. A true back road.

This picture basically sums up the whole "Wide Open Traveler" aspect in my mind.



This road then leads you to HWY 245, which is another spectacular driving road.



I then managed to hit 10,000 miles on my GTO after 5 1/2 months of ownership. Pretty scary



And then, a chance to drive through the Giants. It's funny, everyone kept telling us how we should drive through Yosemite, or up by the coast to see the big Redwoods. Well we had done both, but nothing was as mystic as this park. It was just UNREAL.



Here's a good perspective of how big these tree's are. (My wife claims she's 5'5", but I say she's 5'2"; so this gives you a little perspective of the size of these trees)






After 32 1/2 hours in the car and roughly 1500 miles we were finally happy to be back home in Huntington Beach. Hope you all enjoyed!