Western Region – Chase the Big Dream

Great Basin National Park

Onward to Great Basin National Park! This park is in eastern Nevada, near the Utah border. The park is located in the Great Basin Desert, but most of the park is actually mountainous terrain, with its centerpiece Wheeler Peak soaring to an elevation of 13,000 feet. We really don’t know much about this park and hadn’t even heard about it before we started planning this trip. Highlights of the park include Lehman Cave, full of beautiful marble and limestone formations, as well as an ancient bristlecone pine cone forest.

Yosemite National Park

We are so excited for our next stop – Yosemite National Park. Stunning sheer granite walls, meandering rivers and iconic landscapes. We are camping in the park at Lower Pines Campground in the heart of the park – we feel very lucky to have the reservation. There are only a couple spots that our 30-foot Airstream will fit in – we were so happy to get one of them by booking the instant reservations open online five months in advance! We also are relieved that the park is open – it has been closed due to forest fires for weeks and just opened a week and a half before we are scheduled to arrive. We are also concerned about smoke – we are hoping that the park and campground will be clear!

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks are our next stop. The parks abut one another in Northern California in the southern portion of the Sierra Nevadas. Sequoia National Park is home to groves of enormous towering sequoia trees – the largest trees on earth. And Kings Canyon is one of the deepest canyon’s in North America.

Lassen Volcanic National Park

Cinder Cone volcano at Lassen NP — Cinder Cone volcano

Our next stop is Lassen Volcanic National Park in northern California. This park is known for volcanoes – and they are actually active volcanoes, adding a little bit of excitement to the visit. We hope that none of them decide to erupt while we are there. The park sits at the southern end of the Cascades range and is home to all four different kinds of volcanoes: shield, composite, cinder cone, and plug dome. The last eruption here was in 1917 when Lassen Peak erupted in a series of eruptions that started in 1915 and went on through 1917. There is supposed to be great hiking here, but we are a little bit concerned that the smoke from nearby fires will interfere with our plans.

Redwood National/State Park(s)

We are headed south, out of Oregon and into California! Redwood National and State Parks – we are looking forward to walking among the giants… and sleeping among them too!