My 2024 Solo 9-Day California Road Trip

Before I get into the actual juicy parts of my trip, I’ll mention that I haven’t written on this newsletter in quite a while…over 2.5 months. If I ever feel like updating that same template then I will but I think going forward I’ll probably write spontaneously about random things I want to write about. This entry is going to be a (pretty detailed) overview and diary about my 9-day solo SoCal road trip from SF→Yosemite→SEKI→Red Rock(CA)→Santa Barbara→SF! If you read all the way until the end then congratulations on reading so much.

Hopefully when I have kids they’ll be interested in this dad lore and also a great way for me to refresh my memory. While a lot of people may learn a lot about themselves and feel a brand new energy after a long solo road trip, I feel like I had a lot of fun but more than anything reminded me that I actually value community a lot as well. It was great fun when Randy was there for the 2 days and while doing solo stuff was great, I know future duo or group trips are also going to be amazing.

Now onto the actual trip. I felt into SFO on May 6th and after running a few errands, trying out a climbing gym, and sleeping in Randy’s living room, I was ready to go for the road trip by May 9th. The previous day on May 8th, I had also done a fun trek across the Golden Gate bridge and up to the viewpoints on the other side of the bridge, and then walking back. I also later went with Randy up to Twin Peaks in the middle of SF which was super cool. At this point I was still adjusting my expectations coming from the GTA which has all but 20 meters of elevation at any given point.

Thursday May 9th

I woke up and had a pretty slow start to the morning. I didn’t need to pick up my rental car until 12PM and I woke up at around 9:30AM. Randy’s dad made us some breakfast since Randy was WFH for half the day today and was going to drop me off at the airport later for my car rental before he went into work. After finishing breakfast, I laid in bed for another hour or so on my phone while calling Jamie, half lazy and half procrastinating my packing. Then at 11:30AM I realized I was going to be behind plan, so I quickly showered and packed my stuff, then Randy and I left the house at 12:30ish. By the time I finished getting my car rental, it was way later than I expected, around 2PM. I was a little unimpressed at first that I got the Subaru CrossTrek because I had checked in online earlier and was upgraded for free to a Ford Explorer but there was an error and I didn’t get the Ford (later I realized the Subaru was probably the best choice I could’ve had, I also had no idea the brand was built for off-road activities..lol clearly not a car expert here). However when I was leaving the car rental area, the attendant checking the miles made an exclamation “Oh wow 7 miles it’s brand new” and that made me surprised and also feel a bit better about the choice.

I tried to hurry and pick up all my rental gear and buy groceries which also took quite a long time. I had to pick up a bunch of gear from LastMinuteGear, buy groceries from Trader Joe’s (cool experience but super hip and expensive), Sport’s Basement, and then pick up my luggage from Randy’s place. By the time I was getting on the road to Yosemite it was 5PM and my expected arrival was 9:45PM. By this point I knew I’d be driving into the valley through the switchback mountain roads for 1.5 hours in the dark but I wasn’t too worried, just excited. I was actually way more worried about pitching a tent in the dark because I had never even done it in the daylight before. As I drove and it got darker, it was scarier driving into Yosemite not knowing how high I was or whether the fall off the road would go into a ditch or off a whole mountain. Because of this, I went super slow for most of the time, and thankfully not many cars behind me during it. The 4.5hrs went by quickly since I was also on call with Jamie for much of it until I lost service closer to the park.

By the time I got inside the park it was closer to 10:30PM because of the detours I had taken for snacks and gas, as well as driving extra slow. Thankfully it was a weekday night in the park so I still had 1-2 bars of service even in the valley and was able to search up a picture manual for my tent setup, and a YouTube video on how to tie guylines properly. I also had brought a tent light which was still full charge so the light was perfect for setup. Funnily enough as I was halfway through setting up my tent I heard a couple in the tent beside me having intercourse…which was unexpected but then I realized I was in Camp 4 so I continued on.

I finally got into my tent and brought everything over from my car. I used my bouldering crash pad as my mattress (which honestly I highly recommend as it was so comfortable and insulated fully from the cold ground) and finally got to sleep.

Friday May 10th

I woke up super early to the cold of the morning. It was something like 6:50AM and I woke up shivering as I hadn’t zipped up my sleeping bag all the way since I was super sweaty from the night before when setting up my tent. Little did I know the temperature would drop to low 10s in the early morning. Being too cold to keep sleeping, I decided to get up. In the night I had seen some shadowy outlines of the big rock formations around me but when I actually got up and saw, it was amazing to see given the effort I had put in the night before without seeing any actual view (it got dark during the drive before I ever saw the park).

I quickly ate some breakfast which consisted of canned sardines, half a leftover burrito from the night drive, and bottled water before lining up for 30 mins to check into the campsite with the ranger since I had arrived super late the night before. This made me a bit late and by the time I drove to Curry Village for my “Welcome to the Rock” Yosemite Mountaineering School class, the 2 other climbers and the guide had already head out to Swan Slab to start climbing. I quickly drove back (and definitely enjoyed the views during my drives in the valley since I was surrounded by iconic features) and met up with them. We started by learning some rappelling and then how to belay. Since I had only used auto belays and done bouldering up to this point, it was nice to learn how to belay properly and do some toprope.

The instructor was super nice and made me feel super secure, learning the double figure 8 knot and how to belay felt like a breeze. I was able to quickly get on the rocks and flashed the YMS Friction Flake 5.6 on Swan Slab. The coolest part about Yosemite climbing and this day was not only being able to send some routes but also the world class crack and slab climbing. As a beginner climber it definitely was sad I couldn’t even experience the true classics beyond my ability but even the rocks I got to touch felt so awesome.

By the end of the 7.5 hour session, I had so much fun sending routes and was getting slightly pumped. However it seems like my conditioning from bouldering paid off since I wasn’t crazy pumped as I expected. Actually it was belaying that felt more strenuous than anything due to the use of muscles I don’t typically use that hard (grabbing and tightly holding a rope). I realized that this was also because most of the climbing was slab and crack climbing which just made my toes hurt like crazy and caused some cuts and scrapes through the hand and arm jams, but my arm muscles weren’t actually worked too hard.

I went back to camp and made some dinner and ate it. Some naan with salami and cheese, and a ready-to-make packaged salad with apple juice.

By this point it was around 6PM and I didn’t have anything else to do for the day. I wasn’t too pumped yet and I didn’t want to let the day go to waste so I decided to try out some bouldering around Camp 4. I met a really cool couple that I bouldered with, so we were able to have a combined 3 pads with 2 spotters. Meeting them was exactly what I had expected from climbing in the valley! You can see all the boulders and routes I sent on @ericnewclimber on IG!

By the end of the day I was tired, super fulfilled from the day, and had a blast. I also purposefully kept avoiding any hikes to save all my energy and views for the Half Dome summit attempt on Sunday. Here’s a list of the climbs I did this day. There was also a super cool 5.9ish route I attempted that had a V2/V3 boulder problem in the middle of it and I found it impossible after climbing up 20 meters prior to it.

I then drove to Tunnel View for the first time to soak in the sunset before calling it a day. It was totally worth it and the service there was amazing. I subsequently used this as my go-to chill spot for service and enjoying the views over the next few days in the valley.

When the sun finally set I was amazed by all the stars I could see. However it’s definitely nothing like the high exposure cameras where you can see galaxies and stars and planets, with the raw eye it’s still a pretty dark sky just with extra amount of stars so do not be tricked 🫣 

Saturday May 11th

On this day I got up a little later than expected at 8AM because of how tired I was from the day before. I quickly cooked and ate breakfast, did my morning poop (I found that this trip actually made my poops so consistent somehow, whereas I expected vacation constipation, but I was pooping 2x a day in the morning and night), and then met up with the couple from the evening before as planned at the boulders. We did some more bouldering before they had to head out to continue their road trip. I then did some more solo bouldering and found new people to boulder with throughout the rest of the day. Some of the highball boulders (super high boulders that a lot of people use ropes with but is doable with higher risk of injury as a boulder) looked so scary but I attempted one of the easier and smaller routes. Ascending this one felt pretty secure but downclimbing was so scary. Thankfully I wasn’t scared of jumping onto pads so I was able to jump down from 2 meters down. The camera angle doesn’t do this one justice as to how high it seems when you’re up there, especially it being a slabby face.

I bouldered for probably around 8 hours this day from 9AM until around 5PM before I finally decided to call it and go cook some dinner. Here is the list of boulders I was able to send on this day! PS. the guidebook was probably the most useful thing I rented for this trip (after my ice axe and tent). And only for $5!!

After that, I went and chilled at Tunnel View for 2 hours before meeting Randy who drove in for our Half Dome hike the next day!! I helped him set up everything into our tent and cooked us some noodles. By the time we got all settled in and ready to sleep, it was around 10PM. However, we knocked out quick and had a 4AM set time to wake up.

Sunday May 12th

Half Dome day. Today was the biggest day of the trip and by far the highlight of it. We got up at 4AM and expected an alpine start, but we were pretty slow and by the time we got on the Mist trail at 5:30AM we didn’t even need our flashlights or headlamps anymore. Thankfully we packed our bags and everything we needed the night before so we were ready to immediately hit the trail after breakfast, washroom use, and the drive to the trailhead. I definitely overpacked and was overprepared (but I kind of expected to be since I didn’t want to miss anything for my first super huge hike) and my pack ended up being probably close to 30lbs. Since Randy’s backpack was pretty small and wasn’t super technical (which was the right decision), I attached the 2 ice axes and pole to my backpack for the trek. I also had my harness attached and plenty of food, 3L of water (the heaviest), and other climbing/emergency gear (incl. gaitors, microspikes, poncho, etc.).

For a random fun fact, over 20 people have died doing the Half Dome hike, with 9 being on the cables section. This number rises to over 60 if you include the trails leading up to it, the green outline you see above!

The first 2 miles (3.2km) along the Mist trail felt relatively like a breeze and we were making great progress. We made it to the bridge and then up the Vernal Falls pretty quick.

At this point it was reminding me of the 2.5 hour continuous stairs I had done in Squamish in September 2023 so I felt pretty comfortable doing these switchbacks since at least most of it wasn’t wet here (although everything below Vernal Falls was pretty wet). Then we continued up to Nevada Falls and this was when we could tell the rest of the hike was not going to be a breeze. Randy and I kept on switching between who would use the singular hiking pole we brought along (even though we both rented a total of 4 poles between us GG) but it was pretty fair and efficient.

We kept trudging along and finally finished the switchbacks on the steps and it was a relative breeze hiking into the Little Yosemite Valley campground area. We saw a few deer and sat down to take a longer rest at the subdome area where the rangers would’ve checked for permits if cables were up. I also peed here.

Random Note: we are doing the hike cables down which means there are no extra wooden foot ledges and the cables are laid down on the rock. In my opinion it actually makes it easier since there’s less people and you only have 4-5 sections of swapping prusiks rather than once every two meters, although I probably would just use carabiners if cables were up.

At this point we were super on point since our soft turnaround time was 12PM if we hadn’t gotten to the top of Half Dome by then. We started back on the trail and we did some more moderate switchbacks which didn’t seem too bad. At this point we were realizing this was definitely more of an endurance hike than anything else since each portion of it was not too hard individually. From the start of the ranger check area to the 2 mile until Half Dome mark it took us less than an hour and it wasn’t too bad at all. We took another longer rest at the 2 mile mark since we knew the next 2 miles would be the toughest out of the whole hike. Then we continued on…

Out of nowhere, I felt my inner thighs begin cramping up really hard. I kept hitting them and trying to get blood to flow but I realized I definitely wasn’t hydrating enough and I needed to get some quick carbs in me. Out of the 3L I had probably drank less than 500 mL and we were already almost at the base of the subdome. We took another longer rest but mainly as I chugged some water and ate a banana and some granola.

We continued on and after not thinking about it for a while it felt pretty good and went away. Not sure if it was from the carbs and hydration or the adrenaline but something made it go away which I was glad for since at one point I was genuinely worried and thinking “what if I keep cramping every 2 minutes and actually can’t make it up”.

Subdome

We kept hiking and began encountering some areas with more snow along the sides. However the main path still didn’t have snow or it was very light and full of packed footsteps so we didn’t use any of our snow gear yet.

We then encountered some of the subdome with more snow. At this point we put on our microspikes a bit prematurely (there wasn’t much exposure and plenty of footprints in the snow but better to be safe for us inexperienced hikers.

We realized we put our microspikes on a little early so we decided to take them off until we reached the base of the subdome switchbacks which had a slightly sketchy part with snow covering the steps. To be safe, we put our microspikes back on and used our ice axes as we went up. I felt very secure with the ice axe and was glad I rented it for $14. There was a lady descending (who I assume summited) who was using microspikes on 1 foot (??) and had one trekking pole, probably unprepared and then borrowed her friends gear. As she was descending this part she was unsure of which way to go and even though the exposure of a fall wasn’t certain death, it was still quite a long fall and definitely many broken bones. At one point she slipped and fell on her butt and glissaded for a second before luckily arresting with the pole and singular spike. I was worried for her but thankfully she made it down safely when she found her footing, it also made me very happy I was overprepared since no one else was using an ice axe. Finally, we got past the sketchy part and got to the bare and dry switchbacks on the subdome.

Even though the switchbacks here weren’t too bad, the exposure was definitely pretty scary. However I knew that there was so much rock that any fall could probably be self arrested just by laying my body down and falling flat or aiming for a big rock or ledge. Regardless, maybe it was my 30lbs pack but I felt super heavy and the most tired during this point. While I was leading the pack throughout the majority of the hike up until this point (probably at a much quicker than needed pace), Randy was leading and cruising up for most of the subdome faster than me. I took some more time to rest throughout the subdome switchbacks.

We then got to the last stretch of the subdome which involved a 20-30 meter ascent of only snow followed by some more class 2 scrambling. While there was well packed snow and footprints, the snow was very soft and somewhat slippery, a slip with no arrest still meant a fall to potential death. Randy was a lot more confident going up the subdome whereas I was very careful with every step I took and used the ice axe the whole way.

Half Dome

And finally, we made it up to the top of the subdome. The cables section looks just as steep in real life as they do in the photos, it definitely does do it justice. It looks super steep though because the top of the subdome is actually higher than the base of Half Dome making it look even steeper than it is since it’s further out. However I was just relieved to have made it past the subdome as I knew with our climbing gear that there was pretty much almost 0% risk on the cables (as long as we tied our knots correctly).

We took a very long rest to relax and gain some of our strength back. We also ate some of our sandwiches and snacks and made sure we were plenty hydrated. Then we put our harnesses on and attached all of our gear. I had to reattach the ice axes and pole back onto my backpack which was some extra weight. At this point I was very thankful for my climbing experience (even if minimal) since I knew it would help with not getting too pumped on the climb up.

For our gear system on the cable, we attached ourselves with 2 Prusik knots attached to carabiners (1 around the 2 climbing loops and 1 around the belay loop) with a backup carabiner directly attached to the cable and around our belay loop. Props to Randy because I taught him how to tie the Prusik knot the night before and then once again at the cables and that’s all he needed (also he blindly trusted me that this gear system would preserve his life #Wfriend). We also used some gloves since coming up the cables without it would’ve been horrifying on our skin.

Funnily enough, right as we started climbing, Randy nearly fully fell over on the cable and pulled it all the way towards on saide, and since I was really close to him I nearly lost my balance as well. At that point I suggested putting the rope in between our legs and going up instead of doing it from one side of our body.

As we began going up, I actually realized how great this system was. All it really does is ruin the effectiveness for climbing from the backup carabiner since it grinds into the metal when attached to the cables, but for saving the strength it was totally worth it. Basically, the prusik knot works that if you lightly slide it along the cable it will move but any sudden pull upwards or downwards will stop it in its place. This is why you can also rest whenever you want to simply by leaning back. Normally you would have 2 prusik knots attached so that you have 1 point of contact attached the whole time as you switch between the 4-5 hitches throughout the cables where you have to deattach, untie prusik, retie prusik, reattach. Since we had 3 points of contact with 2 on cables at all times, this made it a lot easier and more secure when switching during the hitches, but the carabiner also carried the cable weight without us needing to pull it up with our hands. At the same time it did the work by sliding the prusiks along the cable since it was on the tail end of the three contacts. Then you just walk up the 45-50 degree incline while only lightly holding onto the cable for balance. You can see this in demonstration below.

The way up actually did feel a lot longer than I expected (and was way longer). My expectations were that I’d breeze through it, and I was under the assumption that you would always be able to slide your prusiks through the hitches in the cable, but turns out you needed to untie each prusik and retie each one. At some sections the area you had to do it on were quite far so many times there was almost a dance of body tension and balance to make sure you had 2 points of contact on at all times. At some points to save energy and time, I had just 1 point of contact on, but only if I knew the fall from the spot would be very minimal, typically if it was the beginning of the hitch. There were a few ledges on the way up that I can only assume was extremely refreshing for people who did it with no gear. Since I went ahead of Randy, I kept stopping to make sure he was all good. At one point, he dropped one of his prusik knots while retying, but thankfully a party behind us was able to pick it up for him and bring it to him as it hadn’t gone far. There was also shockingly this trio of 20/30 year old women that trekked up fully without any climbing gear which surprised me. I asked the leader of their party if they were climbers, since I assumed anyone brave enough to do that was very experienced. Even more surprisingly she said “I do some climbing, but my 2 friends I just convinced them to come up, they don’t even know what belay means.”

And finally…we made it to the top.

Finally it was time to go back down after spending a very long time on the summit. We knew the descent would be quicker and after having done the trail on the way up, we were okay with encountering some darkness on the way down if we needed to, but our worst case estimate was that we’d get back to the car by 8:30PM, almost perfect with the sunset.

We began our descent and did the same gear placement. Going down, we couldn’t put the cable-attached carabiner at the top to slide it since a fall would cause the carabiner to continue sliding the prusiks. So going down was actually a little harder for us since we had to use our arms to push the prusiks down now.

After getting through the sketchy subdome snow areas which was the last scary part, we were down the subdome. Surprisingly the switchbacks descending subdome felt super unexposed and easy compared to the ascent. Maybe it’s that you can see exactly where you’d fall and you know that theres very little chance you don’t catch a ledge at maximum a few switchbacks down.

And so we began our long trudge back to the parking lot. A lot of it felt much easier to me, even though this was also very physically demanding on the knees. Now it was Randy’s turn to get more tired, especially since he had an ankle sprain from the month prior. We took a few breaks but kept a relatively steady, and somewhat slow pace. We walked past the LYV campground at around 4:48PM and realized we were on track for the 8:30PM parking lot arrival.

Somehow, as we were descending Nevada Falls, we both had a sudden energy boost. I started almost dancing my way down (to others maybe it looked more like an expressive trail running style) as I used my tippy toes to maneuver for more accuracy and less pressure on the knees for the waterfall switchbacks. We did this continuously for Nevada Falls passing many parties carefully going down, again feeling the exposure risk was relatively minimal. As we reached Vernal Falls, we kept going. A little slower and more meticulous since everything was wet and misty, but still going much faster than usual.

By the time we got all the way back down to the valley and almost to our car, it was just before 7PM and a little more than 2 hours since we were trudging along at our most tired near LYV. We were shocked at how much time we saved from our last burst of energy, potentially an extra hour or more, especially since we didn’t take a single break from starting the energy boost down Nevada Falls until the car in the Curry Village lot. Shout out to my super light midtop hiking Salomon boots.

Finally, we finished our Half Dome hike. See here the final AllTrails results (excludes a 20 minute period when my phone glitched midway on the descent)

We got back to camp, I cooked us some spicy Chinese noodles with egg and sausage that Randy had brought, and then we both showered before almost immediately crashing in our tent, around 9 or 10PM.

Monday, May 13th

Today was my rest day. Randy got up pretty early around 6:30AM to head back out to San Francisco as he was flying out later that night. We said our goodbyes and I knocked back out to sleep pretty quickly. I woke up at 9AM and for the first time in what felt like forever had some time to relax on my phone and do nothing. Then, at 11AM I got hungry and made some breakfast. I was too lazy to make anything hot or savoury, but the morning was already getting very hot so all the fruit I had was refreshing.

I then took my bouldering crash pad, some books, and my pack and drove over to El Cap meadows. Got under a nice big tree with shade and just relaxed there while reading, using my phone, drinking water, and got the super needed rest. I switched between looking up at whatever rock face was in front of me and then occasionally standing up and looking at the huge El Capitan.

I must’ve stayed there at the meadows for at least 3 hours before I got up and drove to Tunnel View. I scrambled up the slab behind the parking lot and chilled there for a while, soaking in the view. As clouds started rolling in, I decided it was time to head back into the valley for dinner.

When I looked around, I saw that there was a cafeteria style building serving food right at Yosemite Valley Lodge, across the street from Camp 4. Randy and I had just been talking about getting cooked food the night before and I wish we had searched harder because this food would’ve hit so hard. I treat myself very nicely as it was my first real meal in days. I got a pork belly bowl, with chicken fingers and fries. By the time I finished eating and got back to camp, I still had 3 hours to kill before my scheduled 8:30PM guided night tour at the valley lodge. I got really tired and lazy, especially considering it also started slightly raining. After some encouragement from Jamie to still go especially as I had paid $20 for it, I got up and went after rotting away inside my tent for a solid 2 hours.

It ended up being a great time to learn a bit more about the history of the park, and some of the nightlife, flora/fauna, and stars and their systems. The skies cleared up and there was some temporal flooding from the rains which was super cool.

Tuesday, May 14th

I woke up this day knowing it would be my last half day at Yosemite. I already felt super fulfilled from all that I had done at the park. I packed up all my stuff and loaded it in the car. I then went out to some more final bouldering, since I figured I wouldn’t be near world class bouldering for another long while.

I ended up finishing up bouldering at 2:30PM after spending a few hours climbing with some more new people I had met throughout the day. The great thing about the valley is that it almost feels like gym climbing in terms of the community from random climbers you meet who you’ll just combine pads with and work on the same few problems with for a while. It was a shorter session and I attempted less climbs, but I felt the strongest on this day and was ultimately able to send another new V3, on top of repeating the previous one I did. It felt super good to be able to do that in such a sandbagged crag.

I took one more quick shower and cooked some lunch before heading out onto the road. I would be heading straight to my dispersed camping campground at the Big Meadow Campground in Sequoia National Forest, super close to Sequoia National Park.

Given that I started driving a little later than expected, the 4.5 hour drive, again, got longer as I was spending some time driving in the dark mountain roads. I got out of the car during sunset and took some photos because it was still very beautiful.

Directly after taking the photo above, I lost service for the night. At one point, Google Maps thought that the main road was closed and led me down an OHV (Off Highway Vehicle) single lane dirty and bumpy road. It felt super sketchy and even though my CrossTrek was built for this type of drive, I didn’t feel super comfortable doing it in the dark. I also got to this fork and the GPS was trying to lead me to an even sketchier OHV road which had a huge warning sign talking about how this is NOT for regular cars and sedans. I decided to take my chances and go back the way I came onto the main road, knowing that I could take a longer way as long as it was on main roads.

Thankfully, my maps recalibrated once I was on the main road and the way there actually ended up being way shorter…or so I thought. The coordinates I entered led me into the wrong campground and I realized it was a paid campground. Slightly annoyed, I remembered there was a review on freecampsites.net that mentioned the same situation. Instead of using the coordinates, I put in Big Meadow Campground directly and finally got to my destination. By the time I got to the dispersed campground site, I parked spaciously in between 2 RV’s and was a little spooked, so I opted to stay in the car as I organized everything for sleep. Needless to say, it was very difficult and I probably spent way longer than I needed to for setup. I settled down and watched the first third of my downloaded Netflix movie, “20th Century Girl” before falling asleep.

Wednesday May 15th

I woke up to a chilly morning in the Sequoias and when I looked around, I realized that there was actually patches of snow all around me. It was also a pretty nice spot to camp, since I had no idea what the surrounding area looked like at all as I had driven in during the night again. I didn’t realize that I had gone up that much in elevation, but after checking to see it was around 7000ft, it made more sense. I went out into the trees and did some nature style peeing, and with a lack of restrooms in the area, nature style pooping as well.

I then drove over to my first stop of the day, the General Sherman tree trail. Considered the largest tree in the world by volume, I was super impressed by the history and being able to go into the trails and explore the trees myself. I also had an overwhelming urge to roll some of the log stumps down the many hills.

Then I drove over to the Museum in the park and discovered that the road to get to Moro Rock was closed. Thankfully, I was given a map and found a great trail to take, stopping along the Hanging Rock, going to Moro Rock, and then seeing Roosevelt Tree and the Triplet Trees on the way back. It ended up being a bit longer of a hike than I expected but I was definitely taking it easy to not get too tired and just soaking in the views.

The top of Moro Rock was amazing and I took some more time to soak it in. Although it wasn’t as accomplishing as Half Dome, the rock was much skinnier so the immediate panoramic view was also a little unique in that sense.

After having done Half Dome, the stairs going up Moro Rock felt like a genuine walk in the park, but it did seem very accessible as I saw many older aged folk doing the trek up.

Finally, I came back down and continued back on my way to the car. I stopped by and took some pictures at Roosevelt Tree (which I later found out was just a name dedicated tree, not his tree), and the triplet trees (some cool Sequoias that had started as one and turned into three)

Feeling pretty fulfilled with the short period of time in Sequoia National Park, I finally got back to my car after the hike and started heading out for the 2.5 hour drive to Tulare, California in order to shorten the drive for the next day. Along the drive out of Sequoia, I stopped at a turnout vista point and cooked a quick lunch, some naan and packaged BBQ jackfruit.

As I kept driving out south, I saw new desert landscapes that I had rarely ever experienced before and I really enjoyed the drive along Southern California.

I then head into a Target to get some groceries and it’s really interesting to experience the American Target experience, feels like a hybrid of Costco and Walmart from Canada. Finally, I go and get some Pho, which is my first proper Asian meal in what feels like forever. After double checking all the reviews for the two dispersed campgrounds (or more so public parking lots) I decided that it might not be fully safe, especially because I knew I was tired and was hoping to have a more relaxed sleep. I also felt that I needed a shower, so I decided to splurge a bit and go for a Motel 6, which costed me $88 USD for the night. I later watched the first half of the movie “Meru” before falling asleep.

Thursday May 16th

I oversleep a little and wake up at around 9AM. Quickly eat some breakfast in the car before heading out to Remington Hot Springs which is a 1.5 hour drive away. At this point it starts getting really hot and windy so the hot springs with the river right beside it are about to be such a welcome addition to the day.

The hike down to the springs was super light and I quickly stripped down to my bathing suit and hopped in the small rectangle pool you see above. It turned out to be the hottest spring of the three and the way the mineral spring water felt on the skin was so nice. I switched between the nearly freezing cold river and the super hot springs, and in many ways the feeling of the river actually felt even more crazy than the hot springs. Closer to the end, I stayed in the river for almost a minute, catching my breath and letting my heart rate slow down and it felt very unique. I can now see why people do ice baths to improve circulation and for focus or whatever health benefits because it definitely felt like it woke me up. The transition into the hot spring after was also pretty amazing.

After the hot springs, I hiked back up to the parking lot which felt surprisingly more difficult than I expected even though it was a quick 15 minute hike back up, and drove onwards to the Silver City Ghost Town. This ghost town wasn’t an actual ghost town, but moreso an arranged museum that was made to appear like a ghost town with the original buildings and most of the original arrangements inside them. There were some more legit ones but those were closer to Death Valley and further East than I wanted to drive (or had the time for) so I opted to just get the experience of this one.

One of the most interesting parts of it, and which I wished there was more history about, was the old church that they had put in. There was one pew with a piano on the side and the preachers stand and Bible on it. It was turned to 2 Chronicles 12, but the Bible did also seem mysteriously well intact so I wasn’t sure how realistic this was. Regardless, I was hoping to learn more about the history of it but didn’t really get to since it had no corresponding sign to it. The idea of old desert cowboys and these local small churches kind of interest me.

I didn’t stick around for too long, the $7.50 admission fare was pretty worth it to me and then I went on my way to Red Rock Canyon State Park, which was another 1.5 hour drive away. I drove along some more hilly roads, but in a much more canyon style rock and desert roads. I finally ended up at the campgrounds and it turned out to be a self registration one where you put your money into an envelope. I picked a campsite and this canyon rock wall beside the campsite was so amazing. You could pretty much scramble up the entire face going up probably 300-400 feet and higher if you wanted. I went up initially to just test it out but then discovered cell signal up there so I decided to just chill up there for a bit and called my family and Jamie for a bit.

I stayed up until sunset and then head down as dusk approached. I cooked myself some dinner which was a huge struggle because there was so much wind, the fire from the propane gas thing could barely stay alight. Ultimately I had to cover it with my suitcases in order for the wind to not blow it out and so that the water could boil.

After I finished eating my instant dry noodles, chicken noodle soup, and naan, I cleaned everything up and prepared the car for sleep. I quickly went into the car because it was getting really dark and honestly slightly spooky again, I wasn’t sure if there was any wildlife around. When I went into the car, I finished the rest of 20th Century Girl on Netflix, the movie ended up being really tragic and really great. The vibes were super unique from the howling winds that made the car shake pretty often. I then fell asleep a little past 10:30PM.

Friday, May 17th

Weirdly enough when I woke up on this morning I was super tired and wanted to keep sleeping in, but it was slowly getting too hot to keep staying in the car. I got up and cooked my breakfast, some more instant noodles with random veggies eggs and meat mixed in. The wind had subsided and it was much easier to cook now. The sun was getting hotter and hotter, and by the time I began eating, the mix of the heat, making too much, and eating too much instant noodles got to me and I was only able to finish a third of what I made.

I quickly packed everything after eating and then left the campsite. There was a super short trail close by and I decided to take a quick detour before going on the 3 hour drive to Santa Barbara for surf school. I went along the trail to see the desert environment and it was interesting seeing all the reptilians all around me, most mini lizards, though I couldn’t be sure what animals they were exactly. There were also a lot of Joshua Trees which was super unique to the desert environment and super cool to see.

I then took a 3.5 hour drive to Mondos Beach, a more calm and beginner beach around 20 minutes south of Santa Barbara. I had a scheduled surf lesson at 1PM this day and made it with a few minutes to spare. After changing into the surf suit, getting some beginner tips, and I felt really comfortable surfing the small beginner waves. I now want to keep trying to learn how to surf, I can see why it would be so fun.

I got some takeout McDonald’s and ate a lot. Because of the salty ocean water, the McDonald’s felt surprisingly bland, especially the usually salty fries. I had a large fries, Filet O Fish, McChicken, and Big Mac. Finally I drove another 3.5 hours to the next and last dispersed campground, halfway between San Francisco and Santa Barbara in one of the National Forests at William Hill RA Campground. The road going up to the campground was probably the most dirt road there was on the trip and made the car super dirty, and was very shaky but it felt pretty comfortable given there was a dirt/snow driving mode with the advanced technology Subaru.

I cooked my food on the side of the road, ate it quickly and then stayed up for a bit using my phone since there was some minimal service. Also opened the sunroof and stuck my upper body out to get some fresh air and it was nice just sitting up on it and chilling. The stars were definitely also very nice but there was much more light pollution here from the surrounding cities in the distance.

Saturday, May 18th

Since this was right on top of some of the hills, I woke up inside the clouds. I spent quite a while packing everything up and sectioning everything off for the rental returns. Originally I had planned to go visit Monterey and Big Sur along Point Lobos and the Brixby bridge but I cancelled that after seeing how cloudy the conditions were across the area, even though that was a 1.5 hour drive to the coast. So I took the 3 hour drive back to San Francisco and returned everything, dropping off the car last. And that concludes my 9-day road trip across Southern California, having driven a total of 1282 miles (2063 km).

And that concludes my road trip. Overall, it was very similar to what I expected from it. I definitely didn’t expect it to change my life or outlook on everything, but it was really amazing getting to spend the time and seeing so many new geographies and seeing God’s creation in work in so many places I had never experienced before. I had a lot of fun and look forward to going on more group trips in the future to share more experiences with people.