Day 70: Benton Crossing to Yosemite National Park, CA

We were up with the moon again this morning for our last hot springs experience of the trip. Hilltop Hot Springs was our chosen hot tub this morning to watch the moonset and the sunrise.

The moon being cradled by the mountains.

Back at the campground, we tidied up the trailer, did a few loads of laundry, and everyone showered. Breakfast was pancakes for the boys; eaten with a gorgeous mountain backdrop made us feel incredibly lucky to be here.

We then packed up and headed into Mammoth Lakes for a grocery stop. We found $4 chickens. Imagine, a whole chicken for $4. What is this insanity?! We bought three and Ian butchered them into five meals (thighs, breasts x2, drumsticks and wings, everything else for soup). Can take the farmer off the farm and all that….

Our goal for today was entering Yosemite National Park via Tioga Pass, Elevation 9945 ft. The drive into the park was incredible, we passed huge stone domes and massively tall trees.

Our campsite tonight is at Crane Flat Campground. The site looked amazing online (pull through - what a treat!) but in reality is very hilly and requires a tight turn between three pine trees with several rogue tree stumps in very inconvenient places. Not ideal but we made it work though the trailer remains at an unfixable slant. Hopefully no one (aka Alistair) rolls out of bed tonight. All the campgrounds here are full so we, unfortunately, do not have many other options.

Slanty McSlant Slant.

We are taking it easy this evening in anticipation of likely chaos tomorrow in the Yosemite Valley. We are having a campfire and homemade chicken soup for supper.