Day 2 - The Tioga Road and Bodie Ghost Town

Another morning dawned in our Anniversary trip. We once more were up at 3am (time change messed us up) and we headed out early. We took yet another road from Angels Camp across the Sierra Nevada mountains. We decided to take the Tioga Road in Yosemite, since we visited the valley area of the park the day before. We decided this was our favorite place of the park yet! There were some amazing overlooks, and it was just fantastic to be able to see so far out over Yosemite valley! But before we got to the views, we stopped to see the Hetch Hetchy reserve, and it wasn't quite as amazing as we had hoped, but it was ok.

We continued driving and soon arrived at Tuolumne Meadows. It was gorgeous - fantastic - surreal. Everything of my dreams and fantasies! We were able to walk out to the river, and explored a section of the meadows that was large boulders scattered in picturesque way over the meadow. I will just let the photos below speak for themselves!

We continued on through Yosemite Park, capturing scenery and marveling at how much the terrain changed from one turn in the road to the next.

As we neared the borders of the park, the landscape changed yet again, and we left the park to head towards our next destination. It grew less lush as we dropped out of the high mountains.

We finally arrived at the Bodie Ghost town, a mere miles from the Nevada state line. This was another highlight of the trip for me. (Who am I kidding. Every moment was a highlight!) We wandered on foot through the ghost town, taking photos and marveling at the in-tact stores and home - looking as if people just dropped the newspaper and walked out, never to return. There was a haunting beauty in everything. We overlooked the area that used to be China town - the location of all sorts of debauchery and darkness. I was sobered to think of all the women who will never be remembered who lived and died in that town - used and discarded by evil men. I'm sure many of them felt they had no choice to live the life they did. They were trapped.

This wraps up day two of our California trip. We headed home and crashed early, deciding that day three would be spent in Angels Camp, CA so we could recover from the three hour drive back from Bodie Ghost town.

Comments

Brush off your jeans and get up

I am in a season where words no longer feel effortless for me. I used to sit down and fill an entire page with confident, concise words. I knew what I wanted to say and I knew my target audience, and I had no doubt that what I had to say would be a blessing to someone. And it was. And then life happened. I have fallen on my face many times. Gotten up. Brushed myself off. And then fallen flat again. Sometimes I bounce back up, but more often than not, I have stayed fetal. Curled up. Protected my organs so to speak. Bruised, peering around, unsure if there's any use to use my words. Decided there wasn't a use and tucked my head, grasped my knees, and stayed down, because there was too much in my head. Too much to sort out. Too much that I was unsure about, so I convinced myself I had nothing worthwhile to say. A lifetime of bouncing up and not processing what things meant had made me weary. So I stayed down. This became my normal reaction over the past ...

The Good, The Bad, and Homeschooling

We started school again on Monday. This year holds a first for me - I am schooling FIVE kids in FIVE different grades. Unlike what my preference would be - I wasn't able to send my little blessings off to school for another year of peaceful growth. Yes, you read that right. I am not not one of the homeschool moms that loves homeschool. It is brutal and excruciating, and I only do it because I feel like it's right for our kids, not because I WANT to. I am glad there are some mothers out there who like homeschooling. We need those women, but we also need you to try and understand where we are coming from. And those who dislike homeschooling might feel validated and seen by this post. :) It's humbling to admit that I'm at the breaking point every single day. It's humiliating to admit that a week of homeschooling has so thoroughly kicked my butt that I'm unable to go to church on Sunday. It's excruciating to admit that I am so exhausted after merely five da...

End of an Era

I've been in a bit of a haze the last three weeks. My Grandpa left us to be with Jesus on April 9th. I have not been allowing myself enough moments to process and grieve, and as a result, the fog thickens. I am hoping that allowing myself to crawl back into my memories for a little while will help to dispel some of the fog. I've had multiple best friends through the years... my childhood best friend, my cousin best friend, my adult best friend, my soulmate best friend. But the one person that was my best friend through all of the years of best friends - was my Grandpa. As a little girl, I remember taking Grandpas big hand, and leading him along, jabbering about my toy horses and telling him all about my cats and fussing about my brothers. He mostly listened. He had the most gentle. husky voice and his laugh is forever burned into my memory. He had a little raspy chuckle he would do in response to my chattering, and that chuckle always told me that he was listenin...

Joyful Scribblings of a Bookish Wanderer

Search This Blog