Yosemite Summer Road Trip - July 2026

The idea behind this road trip was pretty simple: drive from Virginia to Yosemite National Park, hike Half Dome, and drive home. Of course, anyone who knows how I plan road trips knows there was almost no chance it was actually going to remain that simple.

Half Dome had been sitting near the top of my hiking bucket list for years, and once I finally had the opportunity to make the trip happen, it seemed ridiculous to drive across most of the country without exploring everything I could reasonably fit along the route. What started as a journey to Yosemite eventually became a nearly two-week, 6,776.7-mile adventure through mountains, deserts, caves, giant sequoia forests, slot canyons, and some of the most remote stretches of highway I've ever driven.

I left Virginia early on July 15, 2026, and my first stop was Camp Nelson National Monument in Kentucky, where I arrived shortly before closing and had just enough time to learn about its important Civil War history, collect the stamps, earn the Junior Ranger badge, and get back on the highway. 

From there, I continued west to Great Sand Dunes National Park, arriving early enough to spend the afternoon trekking into the enormous dune field beneath Colorado's Sangre de Cristo Mountains. I attempted to reach High Dune but came up a couple ridges short and learned very quickly that hiking steep hills made entirely of sand at more than 8,000 feet of elevation is considerably harder than it looks. 

The next leg carried me across Utah, where crossing one of the most wonderfully empty landscapes of the trip on the way to Great Basin National Park in Nevada. Great Basin turned out to be an underrated stop. I toured Lehman Caves, drove toward Wheeler Peak, and hiked roughly 4½ miles along the Alpine Lakes and Bristlecone Pine trails, where some of the trees have been alive for more than 3,000 years.

Rather than spending a second night at Great Basin, I packed up and drove south to Tonopah, Nevada and the next morning I continued into Death Valley National Park, which turned out to be one of the biggest surprises of the entire trip. I expected Death Valley to be little more than a hot, flat desert that I could drive through while grabbing a few stamps.

It was already 106°F around 8:00 AM when I reached Furnace Creek, but a conversation with a ranger convinced me to spend more time exploring. I visited Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level, drove Artist Drive to Artist's Palette, stopped at Zabriskie Point, and enjoyed the added bonus of visiting several filming locations used for Star Wars and The Mandalorian. On my way toward the Sierra Nevada, I made a short stop at César E. Chávez National Monument before finally arriving at Sequoia National Park.

I explored the Giant Forest, walked the Big Trees Trail, stood beneath the enormous General Sherman Tree, and then climbed the granite staircase to the top of Moro Rock. My timing worked out perfectly, allowing me to sit near the summit and watch sunset over layer after layer of the Sierra Nevada. It produced some great photos from the entire journey.

The next morning began with a sunrise hike to Tokopah Falls before continuing into Kings Canyon National Park. I visited the General Grant Tree—which, despite technically being smaller than General Sherman, I actually found more impressive—then drove deep into Kings Canyon toward Cedar Grove and Road's End. Stops included Muir Rock, Roaring River Falls, and my first significant wildlife encounter of the trip when a young black bear wandered near the road.

Then came Yosemite National Park. Even after years of looking at photographs and planning the trip, I wasn't prepared for the scale of Yosemite Valley. Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite Falls, and especially El Capitan simply don't translate properly into photographs. At the same time, neither do the crowds. Yosemite in summer really is the Disneyland of National Parks.

I spent my first bonus day learning how to navigate the park, riding the free shuttle system, visiting Yosemite Falls, and eventually hiking to the base of El Capitan. Ironically, one of my favorite Yosemite experiences happened there, away from the crowds, where I met two other park lovers and spent some time simply sitting beneath that enormous granite wall and taking it all in. But the reason for the entire journey came the following morning.

At about 3:45 AM on July 22, I started the long hike to Half Dome. I made the mistake of carrying far too much weight—multiple heavy water bottles, extra bottled water, food, a DSLR camera, GoPro equipment, and assorted gear that pushed my backpack toward 25 pounds or more. That decision would haunt me later.

The route climbed past Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall, through seemingly endless switchbacks, up Subdome, and eventually to the legendary Half Dome cables. By then I was already exhausted. The cables required whatever arm strength and determination I still had left. I said a prayer, grabbed the cables, adopted what I called the turtle strategy, and slowly worked my way upward. No rushing. No heroics. Just two arms and maximum effort. Eventually, I reached the summit. I spent several minutes lying on top of Half Dome simply recovering before taking in the incredible views, calling the family from the summit. Then I had to get back down.

The descent proved every bit as difficult in a different way. Knees, feet, shoulders, and joints slowly began protesting. I snapped one of my trekking poles after slipping near Nevada Fall, and by the final few miles my normal hiking pace had collapsed to a painfully slow shuffle, making it back to the car after hiking for almost 13 hours. I've completed hikes that frightened me more—Angel's Landing still owns that title—but Half Dome became the most physically difficult hike I've ever completed a and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

The remaining portion of the trip became a mixture of recovery and desert exploration. I spent the following day taking a much-needed scenic-drive-style visit through Joshua Tree National Park, stopping at Keys View and Skull Rock before continuing to Flagstaff.

Near Page, Arizona, I finally completed another long-standing bucket-list adventure at South Coyote Buttes, sometimes called the Southern Wave. Five years after hiking the famous Wave at Coyote Buttes North, I rented a high-clearance Jeep and tackled the rough road to Cottonwood Cove. Temperatures climbed toward 100°F, limiting how much exploring I could safely do, but I reached the formation I had come to see and enjoyed something increasingly rare at famous Southwestern destinations - absolute solitude. I didn't encounter another person during the entire hike.

The final true sightseeing day of the journey was spent inside the Navajo Nation, where I completed tours of Upper Antelope Canyon, Lower Antelope Canyon, and Canyon X. They weren't strenuous hikes, but they produced more photographs than any other day of the entire road trip. Every bend in those sandstone walls revealed another composition that looked like it belonged on a desktop wallpaper. Lower Antelope Canyon was my favorite overall, while Lower and Canyon X produced many of my best photographs.

With the main adventure complete, I squeezed in one last stop at Navajo National Monument, and kept heading east. I camped near Molas Lake, drove Colorado's spectacular Million Dollar Highway between Silverton and Ouray the following morning, and then simply kept driving finally making it home by late Monday.

On Monday, July 27, I finally pulled back into my driveway around 7:00 PM.

Final Count: 

13 Days on the Road

6,776.7 miles Total Miles Driven

7 National Parks Visited

3 National Monuments Visited

Half Dome Hiking Time: ~13 hours

Great Basin Hiking: ~4.5 miles

Tokopah Falls Hike: ~4 miles