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Made it to Virginia City and crashed the night at my parents' house, then drove down to Bodie first thing in the morning:
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My favorite picture out of the 300 or so I shot there:
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A view of Bodie from the road to my next stop, just a few miles away, of Masonic:
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Lots of dark clouds in the afternoon. Masonic is another ghost town of sorts, although there are very few buildings left:
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Sunset looking east:
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And looking west after the sun had pretty much set:
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Early morning at the camp:
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A couple miles up the mountain at the big mill remains:
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Got up the next morning, grabbed a bite to eat in Bridgeport, then headed up Tioga Pass into Yosemite. I actually lucked out about 2 months ago and found 1 solitary campsite available in the valley. Normally these things are sold out a year in advance. Everyone's seen Yosemite, so I'm only going to post a couple from there:
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This guy (the squirrel you can barely make out) ran up on the table next to our site, grabbed the edge of a paper towel roll & ran off. There was, at one point, a whole roll of paper towels unfurled a few hundred feet across the campsites. Pretty amusing to watch:
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As to Yosemite itself, I really don't feel the need to visit there again for many years to come. It felt more like a shopping mall during Christmas than anything else.
We drove down into the central valley, through Fresno (gag), then back up into the Sierra to Kings Canyon National Park. We found a great campsite pretty much on the edge of a cliff that overlooks the central valley:
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The name of the game here is trees. Lots of giant Sequoia all over the place. The big one near our camp, the General Grant Tree, is 46' in diameter:
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Down the road into Sequoia National Park. We parked the car at the General Sherman Tree:
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Then we took off on a 6 mile loop through a massive grove of Sequoia:
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We then drove to the coast, immediately taking us into the cold coastal fog, and stayed at a state park about 5 miles from Hearst Castle:
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This was close to sunset. I was flying my stunt kite, but the wind became a bit too strong. I like this picture for some reason:
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Hearst Castle:
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I have no idea why I can't get 3 women to pose nude for me:
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Then it was up to Monterey for 2 hours in the aquarium before it closed:
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Back to NV & kayaking day trips to Tahoe & Independence Lake:
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Of course I parked my kayak right next to a fight. This beetle looking thing was losing in a big way:
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One of the other places we went, a mountain peak composed entirely of crystal (incredibly, it's name is Crystal Peak), was a very hot ordeal. Plinking away at rock with a rock hammer & no shade was pretty harsh. One little section of one of the roads leading out was basically just a really long dropoff. I swear the thing is almost vertical. I popped it into 1st, 4L, then clicked the hill descent switch. Absolutely amazing. I did nothing but steer & the Pathie just inched down the slope, making those disturbing grinding noises similar to when the VDC kicks in.