Sequoia + Yosemite National Park

Moving to San Diego was equal parts planned and spontaneous. Blake and I knew we wanted to move to the west coast eventually, but weren't sure where or when. So when I got a job offer here while we were still living in Tampa, we got the ball rolling pretty quickly. And by quickly I mean within two weeks our lives were packed and we were headed to the other coast. After spending the better part of a week navigating two cars, two motorcycles, a 25-foot U-Haul, and a stressed-out cat, we made it. And then I went to work on Monday.

I suppose the point of this blog is to say that since moving here I haven't had much time to chill out and, more importantly, explore! Sure, I took advantage of the weekends, trekking about Southern California – but aside from that, I was worried about blowing my savings so I jumped right in to working full time.

But in April I finally took a trip I've wanted to go on for a while.

I took advantage of a long weekend and padded it with a few extra days off from work and left for Sequoia National Park early on a Friday. The drive, which is maybe five or six hours, isn't bad once you're out of L.A. I stayed in an adorable Airbnb my first night in the little town of Three Rivers, just two miles from the park entrance. My host left a stocked mini fridge full of cheese and other road trip-approved snacks, and even a mini loaf of homemade banana bread.

I settled in, took a quick nap, then headed to the park entrance. I purchased an America the Beautiful pass at the gate since I would be heading to Yosemite later and (hopefully) many more national parks in the coming year. Since it was 5 p.m. by now, there was no one in line to get into the park and I breezed right through.

Since I only had maybe an hour and half of daylight left, I didn’t drive too far in, but the views were already offensively beautiful and seriously stoked my excitement for what was in store for me the next few days. As the sun began to set, I headed back to the park entrance and stopped for dinner at a great little place called Ol’ Buckaroo. I treated myself to the ultimate dinner; grilled cheese and a glass of wine before heading back to my Airbnb and sleeping like a baby.

I didn’t intend on writing this much so I’ll leave you with some of my favorite photos I shot with my old Canon K2 and a 50mm lens. These are a mixture of photos from both Sequoia and Yosemite. As someone who had only seen the Smokey Mountains of the East, my mind was, and still is, blown.