Day 21 - One Campground to Another (Yosemite to Kings Canyon)

We woke up a little sad knowing it was our last day in Yosemite.  We had so much more of the park we wanted to see and our campsite at Crane Flat was one of our favorites.  But we were also looking forward to visiting nearby Sequoia and Kings Canyon Parks and doing some more camping.
I cooked up some pancakes and we packed up camp.

 Our route took us through Fresno, where we were going to decide whether to get a hotel for the night and rejuvenate or just stock up on food and head straight to Kings Canyon.  When we arrived in Fresno, it was 106 degrees which made our decision very easy.  We stopped at a coffee house to do a few hours of work, got some gas and groceries and were on the road again.  Even though it was July 3rd and we didn't have reservations to camp, we were hopeful (or crazy) that we would be able to find something.

Highway 180 into the park was a steep, winding road (not unlike the roads into Crater Lake and Yosemite - they really make you earn getting to these National Parks!)  Of course it landed on my driving day

We nervously arrived at the park entrance, showed our park pass and asked the ranger if there were any campsites available.  To our surprise, he said 3 campgrounds near the entrance had spots and so did the campgrounds toward the end of the park (Cedar Grove - about an hours drive).

Plenty of spots!

 At this information, we became overwhelmed with options and even though Cedar Grove had been recommended to us, we chose a spot in one of the closer campgrounds called Azalea.

Happy to have found a spot for the night

After being spoiled by our amazing sites at Redwoods and Yosemite, we weren't quite as excited about this spot but figured we couldn't complain too much at finding a spot the day before the 4th of July.  (By the next morning, all of the campgrounds near the entrance were full - we got there at the perfect time.)  We set up camp and got a fire started so we could make some coals for our Hobo Dinner (for those of you that have never had a Hobo Dinner, it is meat and veggies wrapped in foil and then cooked in the coals of the fire).  I prepped the food while Dan tended to the fire.

Ready to get thrown in some coals

 We were so excited for our meal but neither of us knew how long to leave the food in the coals for.

Cooking away

Apparently we left them on a little too long because they were quite burned but we were still able to enjoy most of it (thank you ketchup!)

Ketchup makes everything taste better

We played a game of cribbage, watched the fire and called it a night...or so we thought...

(Please excuse the following rant)

At about 1:00 am, I woke up to a vehicle driving by, and then another.  Thinking it was just late arrivals looking for a site, I tried to go back to sleep.  Then the cars drove by again and stopped, what sounded like, directly outside our tent.  Then voices and more voices and lights and engines.  I heard them walking around outside the tent and was completely confused because I hadn't even noticed that there was an empty site next to ours the previous day.  I jealously looked over at Dan, who was fast asleep, and wished I was a heavier sleeper.  But not even Dan could sleep through the noise that was to come.  By this point, it was 1:30 am and they started putting up their tents (yes, there was more than one tent).  All the while they were yelling at each other and at their kids, making no attempt whatsoever to whisper or keep their voices down at all.  They didn't seem to realize that their flashlights and headlights were shining directly into our tent.  Once the tents were set up, you would have thought they would have gone to bed but no, they still had to blow up their air mattresses.  The cherry on top was when their car alarm went off and I literally laughed out loud.  By this point Dan and I were both wide awake and could not believe how inconsiderate our neighbors were.  We both had to pee so we got out of the tent and laughed as Dan said, "No wonder it was so fucking loud, their tent is 10 feet from ours".

Photo taken the next morning showing the proximity of our tent to our neighbor's compound

 By this time it was 2:30 am and we spent the next hour trying to fall back asleep and not think about camping next to our new friends for the next two nights.

-Lauren