Saturday Morning the Rest of the Way
What comes after Friday Night Halfway? Well, Saturday Morning the Rest of the Way, of course! After we drove to Chowchilla on Friday night we finished up the drive to our true destination Saturday morning. The first of our true destinations, that is. Angel Falls.
This is just the first of many waterfalls at Angel Falls, a view we enjoyed seemingly just steps after starting the hike. More to come soon!
Getting to Angel Falls was easy this morning by virtual of having done our "Friday Night Halfway" thing. We intended to get up early, perhaps even at 6:30am, but set an alarm for 7 instead and then swatted the snooze button until almost 8. But that was okay because we didn't have hours to drive. We rolled from the hotel at 8:30am after pooh-pooing the crummy breakfast offered there.
We arrived in the town of Oakhurst about 75 minutes later. It was 48 miles of driving through the Central Valley at the Sierra foothills, plus a stop for gas in Coarsegold, where gas was ridiculously cheap (by California levels).
I mentioned last night that Chowchilla is small (by California levels) at 19,000 population. Oakhurst is even smaller, at about 13,000. But Oakhurst is a gateway town. Gateway towns are kind of like gateway drugs, except they're generally good for your health, not destructive. They're gateways to outdoor adventure!
In Oakhurst we stopped for breakfast at Jack in the Box. ...Yeah, it's low-brow, but Jack in Oakhurst is kind of a ritual for us. We also visited a knickknack shop in town but didn't buy anything because it was all junk. (Eating crummy food and shopping crummy junk stores are typical gateway-town activities, BTW.) After that we made the easy 15 minute drive up past Bass Lake to the trailhead for Angel Falls. We started the hike at 11am.
This is just the first of many waterfalls at Angel Falls, a view we enjoyed seemingly just steps after starting the hike. More to come soon!
Getting to Angel Falls was easy this morning by virtual of having done our "Friday Night Halfway" thing. We intended to get up early, perhaps even at 6:30am, but set an alarm for 7 instead and then swatted the snooze button until almost 8. But that was okay because we didn't have hours to drive. We rolled from the hotel at 8:30am after pooh-pooing the crummy breakfast offered there.
We arrived in the town of Oakhurst about 75 minutes later. It was 48 miles of driving through the Central Valley at the Sierra foothills, plus a stop for gas in Coarsegold, where gas was ridiculously cheap (by California levels).
I mentioned last night that Chowchilla is small (by California levels) at 19,000 population. Oakhurst is even smaller, at about 13,000. But Oakhurst is a gateway town. Gateway towns are kind of like gateway drugs, except they're generally good for your health, not destructive. They're gateways to outdoor adventure!
In Oakhurst we stopped for breakfast at Jack in the Box. ...Yeah, it's low-brow, but Jack in Oakhurst is kind of a ritual for us. We also visited a knickknack shop in town but didn't buy anything because it was all junk. (Eating crummy food and shopping crummy junk stores are typical gateway-town activities, BTW.) After that we made the easy 15 minute drive up past Bass Lake to the trailhead for Angel Falls. We started the hike at 11am.