Week 12: A Series of Unfortunate Events

Our plan for Sunday was to make the drive from Death Valley to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. We started off our travel day on a good note. We wanted to see two more spots before we left Death Valley so we stopped at Mesquite Sand Dunes and walked on the dunes a bit and then drove a little farther to Father Crowley Vista Point, an overlook. After those stops we were on our way to Sequoia and Kings Canyon.

Our drive out of Death Valley was very mountainous and required us to drive up and over a mountain range. So we did a lot of driving up and then driving down. A little bit into our descent from the 5000 ft of elevation our brake light came on. Thankfully there was a spot to pull off, so we did that. Trevor did some reading in the van manual but we couldn’t really tell what the issue was. We hoped that letting the breaks cool down for a bit would solve the problem. After sitting for a bit, we turned the van back on and the light was off. We were thankful it wasn’t anything but it was definitely unsettling heading down a mountain in a big heavy van with potential for brake issues. After a couple hours of driving, we emerged from Death Valley to a mountain range right in front of us. From looking at our maps we could see that our destination was just on the other side of the mountain range. But unfortunately there was no route through and our route would take us 5+ hours to go out and around the range.

We had many beautiful views as we were driving - rolling green hills, huge orchards of orange trees, beautiful mountains. During our drive, we realized we were running low on groceries and weren’t going to be staying anywhere close to civilization for the next week so we last minute decided to pick up some groceries along the way and also picked up some Chipotle for dinner as well. We realized that since we had to make those stops we were going to have to drive several hours in the dark, which we usually try to avoid, but decided to just keep going.

Our destination campground was up in the mountains of Kings Canyon. We drove about 2 hours up into the mountains in the dark, to about 7000 ft of elevation. Many of the roads were right on the edge of the mountain, with about one foot of shoulder before huge drop offs. We even hit a few patches of dense fog along the way. We realized this was probably not the wisest decision but Trevor drove very carefully and around 9:30 PM, we made it to where we had planned to stay the night. But this was just the beginning of our night 😩

We didn’t realize that the campground we had planned to stay at was still closed for the winter season. Many of the roads in the park were still closed due to snow including some of the campgrounds. We had picked out several backup campgrounds in the same area but all of them were closed. There were many people parked and camping overnight outside of the campgrounds or on the various turnoffs from the road. We didn’t want to break the rules so we kept looking. We eventually ended up at the one open campground up on the mountain. It was a first come first serve campground so we drove in just a bit and found an empty spot. We were so happy to have found a spot. We pulled in and started getting ready for bed. We didn’t have any service so we tried to set up the Starlink but it wasn’t working - of course. We decided it was a problem for tomorrow so we settled into bed around 10:30. I had just barely fallen asleep when we heard a loud knock on our van door. Trevor went to open it and it was a couple that said they had paid for this spot and had just left for a bit. They explained there was a bulletin board further in the campground where you reserve and pay for your spot. We had things out all over the van so I quickly threw things on the bed so they wouldn’t fall off the counters while we drove. We drove around the campground but all of the sites were full. At this point we started to stress out a lot. We didn’t want to make the 1+ drive down the mountain in the dark. We eventually decided we would go to the nearby visitor center and just spend the night in the parking lot. We knew this was frowned upon and there was a good chance we could be asked to leave, but at this point we were desperate. We pulled into the parking spot and went back to our bed, ready to just drop. And to put a cherry on top of our wonderful day, I discovered that one of the water bottles I threw on the bed had been open and spilled water all over our bed. It completely soaked through the comforter and all of the sheets. Trevor and I were just so over this day at this point. We stripped the bed and didn’t have the mental capacity to find a place to hang all of our wet blankets so just made a pile, grabbed a couple throw blankets we had and went to sleep. I didn’t sleep the best as our bed wasn’t super cozy with just the throw blanket and I was just waiting for someone to come knock on our van again and ask us to move. But thankfully we were able to stay in the parking lot undisturbed.

We woke up the next morning and went back to the campground and were happy to see some available campsites after people had left. We picked one and tried setting up the Starlink again but it still was not working. We were frustrated at this point as we didn’t have service. We decided to go back to the visitor center for Wi-Fi to see if there were any stores that carried replacement Starlink cables that we could go pick up that day. Unfortunately, we learned that all nearby stores would need to order in a Starlink cable and it wouldn’t arrive until later in the week. We weren’t excited about not being able to do any work the whole week so we decided to order a cable from Amazon to the nearest Amazon locker, which happened to be about an hour and a half down the mountain. We knew that we would be out of Wi-Fi for that day and probably all of the next day until the cable was delivered. So since we couldn’t work, we decided to do as much exploring as possible.

There are still a lot of trails and roads closed in Kings Canyon and Sequoia as the snow is still melting. On Monday, we were able to go see the third largest sequoia tree, General Grant tree, and did a trail called Big Stump Loop where we did in fact find a very big stump 😊 We were in awe of the massive sequoias and beauty of these trees. We then drove to a few overlooks but the clouds were low and we weren’t able to see much. We headed back to our campsite for the evening and did some crosswords and sudoku puzzles to pass the time in the evening.

That night I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like I needed to throw up. Thankfully I didn’t, but slept with a grocery bag by my side for the rest of the night. I felt a little better in the morning but my stomach still felt a little off. We decided to spend the day again doing some hikes, this time going about an hour south to Sequoia National Park. The drive was beautiful with many groves of enormous sequoias along the way. We did a trail called the Big Trees trail which took us through many sequoias and then went to see the General Sherman tree, the largest tree (by volume) in the world. Trevor wanted to continue on to the three mile Congress Trail hike and I was feeling quite pooped just from the short trails we had already done. He went on by himself to do that trail while I went back to the van and slept. I was feeling much worse at this point and found that I had developed a fever. Once Trevor returned we drove back to our campsite and I laid in bed the rest of the evening while Trevor made dinner, cleaned up and took care of everything in the van, including me.

Tuesday night I woke up in the middle of the night with a nosebleed, I’m guessing due to the high elevation we were staying at. Wednesday morning we accidentally slept in until 10, but we probably needed it after our stressful few days. Our Starlink cable had been delivered the evening before, so we made the drive down the mountain to pick it up. We tested it and the Starlink was working again - yay! That morning when we left our campsite, we didn’t reserve it for the next night because we weren’t positive whether we would be going back there or finding another spot on the way to Yosemite. We decided we weren’t quite ready to make the drive to Yosemite so headed back to our campground only to find that all of the sites were booked again - ugh! We were frustrated but went to the Visitor Center to ask if there was anywhere else we could stay up on the mountain. Thankfully, the ranger told us if we drove just a little ways out of the National Park and into the National Forest, dispersed camping was allowed. This basically means we could camp for free anywhere we find as long we are far enough from the road. We drove a little ways and found a small pull-off from the road. Trevor set up the Starlink but there was too much tree coverage that it wouldn’t connect to the satellites. This may seem like a small inconvenience, and it was, but after all of the stressful events and problem-solving we had to do this week, I didn’t feel like we could solve yet another problem. I broke down crying and had to let all my frustrations out. We drove just a little bit farther up the road and found a nice big open area to try and thankfully there was enough of a clearing that the Starlink was able to connect. Praise the Lord! Finally, at 4:30 PM on Wednesday, we were able to start our work week. We worked late into the evening and then watched the Amazing Race and Columbus Crew game.

Thursday was a full work day while we tried to catch up on work. We are very grateful for jobs that allow us to be flexible.

We discussed our plans for the next week and decided that we would stay at the spot we were at, catch up on work, until the middle of the next week when we would head to Yosemite. Trevor booked a couple campsites near Yosemite. Probably about an hour after we made that decision, I got a notification on my phone that a winter storm warning was in effect for our area. At our 7000 ft of elevation, they were predicting about 10 inches of snow by Saturday night. Once again, we had to pivot our plans and decided we would head towards Yosemite on Saturday morning. That evening we talked with my parents via video call. Even though our Starlink was working, it would experience an interruption in service every few minutes due to the tree coverage which was quite annoying for a video call. Despite dropping the call several times, I’m grateful my parents were patient enough to still talk with us 😊 I needed that after such a tough week. Friday was an uneventful day of work which was much needed.

Saturday morning we woke up early, packed everything up, and started the three hour drive towards Yosemite National Park. The park is within the same mountain range as Sequoia and Kings Canyon so the winter storm warning was in effect for that area as well. Due to the weather, there were a few cancellations at campsites within Yosemite Valley, the heart of Yosemite National Park, so we snagged those spots for Saturday and Sunday night. We had to drive up the mountains to get into the park but the valley was at a low enough elevation that the snow wasn’t supposed to be too bad. Thankfully, we were able to make it to the valley Saturday afternoon so didn’t have to deal with driving in the snow.

Trevor and I both agree this was our least favorite week of van life...but we made it through. And despite the rough start to the week, we were still able to see some beautiful parks. We are SO looking forward to the time at home that we will have coming up in just a short week. It will be a much needed respite from the daily decisions and problem solving we are constantly doing on the road.