When we got engaged

My husband and I got engaged one week before the pandemic shut down. During that week, we dreamed less about our wedding and more about our honeymoon. We thought about going to an all-inclusive beach resort or touring Ireland. When the nation shut down, we knew that we would not be able to have a honeymoon outside of the states. We also wanted to be relatively isolated for fear of contracting Covid. So as we started to rethink our honeymoon, which we began to call our “coronamoon,” we decided to visit as many national parks in California as we could. To save money and to further isolate ourselves, we rented a camper van to drive and to sleep in.

Day one

We flew into San Francisco and rented a camper van from Escape Camper Vans.

Our camper van had a queen size bed and kitchen essentials, including a propane gas stove and a sink. We should have checked the supplies before leaving the site because the next morning, we noticed there was no propane and no coffee. I was not happy because I do not do well without coffee in the morning, but we survived. As soon as we picked up the van, we drove to Redwoods National Forest, which was a 5.5 hour drive.

Day two

It was late when we got into the forest so we spent the night in our van and woke up the next morning to an incredible fairy land of ginormous trees. It truly was a magical place.

After we hiked for awhile, we visited the visitor’s and found information on a state park called Patrick’s Point and she highly recommended it. It wasn’t on our itinerary but it was only 20 minutes away so we drove down and I am so glad we did! It was beautiful and I saw myself taking a trip just to visit again. There was even a place appropriately called “The wedding rock!” We explored the agate beach and ate dinner listening to sea lions.

As of September 2021, it is now called Sue-meg State park.

Day three

The next day, we were planning on going to Yosemite since that was the next park on our route but even in 2020, there were so many visitors to the park that you have to reserve your entrance in advance. Even though we weren’t reserving a camp site, and we already had an “American the beautiful” pass, reservations were still required. Since we didn’t have reservations for the next day, we decided to bypass Yosemite and drive further south to Sequioa and King’s Canyon and come back to Yosemite. I hated going out of our way but we didn’t have much choice.

We arrived at King’s Canyon on day 3 and hiked some easy but beautiful trails and climbed around and inside giant sequoias. King’s Canyon doesn’t get advertised much but if you go to Sequioa, include King’s Canyon in your trip because they are right next to each other.

That night, we drove to Sequioa and spent the night in the park. We made sure to park on top of a mountain so we could watch the sunrise. We were not disappointed!

Day four

The next day we explored Sequioa. We visited lots of famous sequoia trees, walked around a meadow, and climbed Moro Rock, a large granite dome with a concrete and stone stairway of 350 steps leading to the top

While we were talking around the meadow, we saw a black bear about a hundred yards away on a walking path. It walked within a few feet of a couple of hikers and pooped right in front of them on the trail. We heard their laughter even from that distance. The bear went back into the meadow and we lost sight of it in the tall grass. After a few minutes, it popped back on the trail in front of us. It stayed long enough for us to take a few pictures and then it ran off again.

Day five

The next day, we backtracked to Yosemite. On the way, we stopped at a truck stop to take a shower, because we hadn’t had one in 4 days (what a way to start a marriage, huh?)

We stayed 2 days at Yosemite and it was absolutely incredible. We hiked and drove around the part and visited Tunnel View, El Capitan Meadow, O'Shaugnessy Dam, Yosemite Falls (which was dry, unfortunately), and Half-dome. As we were ending our hikes for the day, we heard a prairie dog calling from the top of a rock formation. It was taking is its protection duties very seriously.

From Yosemite, we drove to Joshua Tree National Park. We got there in the evening but it was still very hot. We decided to go to sleep early and get up before the sun rose to beat the heat.

Sleeping inside our van was miserable because of the heat. My husband couldn’t sleep so he sat outside and tried to sleep in a camping chair. At one point in the night, we woke up surrounded by scorpions so he was unable to sleep the rest of the night.

Day six

We wanted to go to Joshua Tree because with the government shut down and the vandalization of national parks, we were worried about never getting to see Joshua Trees. If we decide to go back though, we will not go back in the summer. Even in the very early morning, the heat was almost too much. Even the bees were so dehydrated that they would swarm people to drink their sweat.

Despite the heat, Joshua tree was beautiful and had a unique ecosystem. We both boulder and we would love to go back.

We were so exhausted and so hot that we didn’t stay in the desert long. We were planning on staying another night but we just couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to suggest it because I thought I was being a baby but I asked Vaughn if he would be interested in driving to LA that afternoon and getting a hotel and he enthusiastically said yes.

So we drove to LA, got a hotel, took a luxurious shower and fell asleep in a nice, comfy bed.

My poor husband fell asleep looking at his phone in bed. We woke up rested, dropped off our van at the Escape Camper van location in LA and went to the airport.

We had a fantastic honeymoon, we learned a lot about each other, and thinking back, there isn’t much I would change.

I can’t wait to visit Redwoods and Yosemite with my family again.