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Yosemite - The Most Popular Park - Part 2

The end stop was the parking lot for the Lower Yosemite Fall trail. The hike to see the falls was surrounded by boulders and a few fallen trees that the kids loved playing on. We took some pictures by the falls and just like Kings Canyon the day before, the kids went to play on the rocks near the river. We spent ages crawling over rocks until the setting sun told us it was time to go. On our way back to the car, we picked up a snack and coffee at the lodge restaurant. 


The drive towards Lake Tahoe started with driving the switch backs and tunnels to get out of the Yosemite Valley. Once we were at the top, and had filled up on gas, we started the trip to the east exit of the park. Yosemite National Park is a massive 3000 square kilometers so it took some time to get out. There was some mountain night driving with drop offs beside us. Not the most fun drive and we were agonizing that we wouldn’t be able to see it in the daylight. 

We left the park and were looking for a campsite immediately. We found a few sites but nothing good enough, so we kept going. This led us to a massive downhill to take a thousand feet off our elevation. By the bottom, our brakes were smoking, we pulled over to let them cool. We found a National Forest campground and we drove the five minutes into the campsite and paid our $9 for a site. We set-up and went to bed. Next stop Lake Tahoe.

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