When planning for Arizona I’d come up with the idea of a road trip from San Francisco to Yosemite National Park, and then down into Nevada. The first two places were about the only parts of California I’d not visited after having been to the state first for Comic Con, and then later for a Big Sur road trip. There were a few National Parks in Utah that one of my friends wanted to visit as well so combining our ideas resulted in what we thought might be a good trip.

As we planned more of this we decided we’d leave out the section of the trip that would go through Nevada, and instead fly from San Francisco to Salt Lake City once we’d done Yosemite. This meant we’d have more time in the National Parks, and less time driving. I had hoped we could fit in a visit to Antelope Canyon which we’d missed whilst in Arizona, but unfortunately it didn’t quite fit with the time we had.

My passport was damaged in Arizona, and after being questioned about this when I went to Nepal I decided I’d need to get that sorted. This also meant a new ESTA was required before I could fly out, but other than that everything was fairly easy to book. Most things were booked only a couple of months before, as it never felt like we needed to rush. We’d even pre-booked a four hour tour of Alcatraz to make sure we’d see as much of the island as possible.

For this trip I’d decided to get a new travel tripod – Manfrotto Befree Carbon. This meant it’d now be easier to carry a tripod around with me so would more likely make use of it, and would open up possibilities during the road trip.

I did a little research before the trip to see where would be good to run, and what other sights we could see whilst in San Francisco. I hoped we’d get to cross the Golden Gate Bridge as I heard there were good views from a lighthouse in Marin County.

The only downside as far as planning was concerned, was that the exchange rate for Pound Sterling to US Dollars had plummeted. There was no sign of it recovering either which meant the trip would be more expensive than we’d hoped.