San Francisco and Yosemite epic family road trip!
We started out epic trip with 3 nights in beautiful San Francisco staying at the swish boutique Galleria Park Hotel. We had an amazing time exploring this fun and vibrant city, riding the famous street cable cars (queueing for one hour to be in the very front is DEFINITELY worth it!), eating yummy seafood and of course.. visiting Alcatraz. (TOP TIP 1) Make sure you pre-book Alcatraz as it always sells out.
Next we picked up our hire car and after just managing to squeeze our cases in the boot, we set off for a 3 hour drive to Yosemite. I’ll be honest we were a little nervous about driving in a big city like San Francisco again but to be honest it was completely fine.. the traffic moves slowly anyway and pretty soon we were on the open road! The 3 hour drive to Yosemite becomes gradually more and more spectacular as you get nearer and nearer, culminating in a dramatic ascent around fun curvy roads as you approach Groveland to the west and before you know it, you’re there!
We chose to stay at Rush Creek Lodge & Spa Resort which is a stone’s throw from the west entrance to Yosemite National Park. This is a lovely hotel with a country lodge vibe… there was a gorgeous pool, free s’mores around the fire, a cosy bar and restaurant plus a divine spa too if you fancy a massage! We all loved exploring Yosemite and as a parent it was really satisfying to see how speechless the teens were when coming face to face with sights like El Capitan and Half Dome. If you’ve never to Yosemite it’s hard to really comprehend what it’s like but if you think about beauty spots in the UK like the Lake District or the Peak District, it’s a bit like that but on steroids! (TOP TIP 2) Make sure you pre-reserve Yosemite entrance from April to October.
After Yosemite we drove through the Tioga Pass which cuts through Yosemite, this is the highest road in California and it’s another incredibly spectacular drive... was it scary? Maybe just a little but we all loved it. On our journey we also stopped at the beautiful Tenaya Lake for a well needed rest stop and a paddle… stopping here wasn’t part of the plan but we so pleased we did as it was stunning!
(TOP TIP 3) Our journey through Yosemite ended with a planned stop for a late lunch at the wonderful Whoa Nellie Deli which is a gas station where Highway 120 meets Highway 395. This place is a total must-stop location to fill up on gas and food – they specialise in beautiful home-made pizzas and authentic Mexican food.. this is NOT your average service station!! Rich and I stopped here on our honeymoon too and on that occasion, we were lucky enough to time our visit with a full-band playing country songs outside so we enjoyed our pizza that time sat on a picnic table with live entertainment.
After Yosemite we stopped for a night in the tiny town of Bishop just on the edge of Death Valley. This was another stop on our honeymoon and we really enjoyed it.. Bishop is a typical American town with a long street with shops and local bars and restaurants dotted along it.. there’s a tiny family owned cinema, bowling alley and kooky shops. After some tasty burgers we planned to get an early night before our long drive through Death Valley the next day to Vegas…
BUT THEN THIS HAPPENED… there was a super-rare downpour in Death Valley which caused flash flooding and they closed the park! We found this out about 9pm night before and some hasty re-routing later, we had a new route going ‘around’ Death Valley instead of through it which was a bit like driving from London to Reading via Manchester. I was a little apprehensive about spending 7 or 8 hours driving but to be honest it was actually a fun day - there was little to no traffic, the roads were HUGE, the music was on LOUD and we had some fun stops in tiny little towns where we just wouldn’t have visited otherwise and before we knew it, we were driving down the stop in Vegas on our way to drop the hire car back at AVIS!
SEE THE NEXT BLOG INSTALMENT TO FIND OUT WHAT WE ALL GOT UP TO IN VEGAS!