Senior Trip · May – June 2026
Leave Golden in the morning and push straight west on I-70 to a camp at the CO/UT border. Glenwood Canyon is still scenic on the way through. Pull off, sleep in the van, depart early Day 2 for the long push to Great Basin.
No longer free dispersed since 2024. $20/night + $8 reservation fee, permit required via rec.gov. ~50% of sites are on a 4-day rolling window for spontaneous bookings, grab one now while you still have cell range. Vault toilets, no water, van-self-contained territory.
Memorial Day weekend, popular spots could be packed.
Mile 0–60Front Range out of Denver. Precambrian granite-gneiss ~1.7 billion years old, the same ancient core that builds Pikes Peak. The Continental Divide crosses at the Eisenhower Tunnel (mile 213).
Mile 116Glenwood Canyon. I-70 squeezes through 1,300-ft vertical walls of Mississippian limestone (~340 million years old), carved by the Colorado River. Considered an engineering marvel, the highway is cantilevered above the river.
Mile 70Grand Mesa appears to the south, the world’s largest flat-topped mountain, capped by 10-million-year-old basalt flows over softer Cretaceous sediments.
Mile 25–0Book Cliffs rise on the north (tan-gray Cretaceous shale and sandstone, ~80 million years old). To the south, Colorado National Monument’s burnt-orange Wingate Sandstone cliffs (Triassic, ~210 my). Rabbit Valley sits at the transition from the Rockies into the Colorado Plateau.
Wake up at Rabbit Valley and get on I-70 west early. Detour south on UT-24 for Goblin Valley, then back to I-70, west to Salina, exit onto US-50 west, the “Loneliest Road in America.” Wide empty skies, distant mountain ranges, almost no traffic across central Nevada. Arrive at Great Basin National Park late afternoon and settle in at Baker Creek, down the gravel road south of the visitor center.
From US-50 take NV-487 south (~6 mi north of Baker), turn south through Baker, then west on NV-488 / Lehman Caves Road into the park. Pass the visitor center and turn south on Baker Creek Road (gravel) to the campground. Park visitor center: (775) 234-7331. Apple Maps
I-70 mile 230–160Book Cliffs continue along the north side, same Cretaceous coals and shales. To the south, the land starts to corrugate as you enter the San Rafael Swell.
I-70 mile 130–95San Rafael Swell. A giant earth fold (anticline) pushed up ~60 million years ago in the Laramide Orogeny, the same mountain-building episode that built the Rockies. I-70 cuts straight through the upturned layers, exposing Permian rock (290 my) at the core out to Cretaceous (~80 my) at the edges. The jagged vertical strata are the “Reefs.”
UT-24 southGoblin Valley’s hoodoos are Entrada Sandstone (Jurassic, ~170 my) eroded into mushroom shapes by water sorting harder layers from soft.
US-50 mile 65–35After Salina, US-50 enters the Sevier Valley, a structural valley between the Pavant Range (west) and the Wasatch Plateau (east). This is the geologic boundary where the Colorado Plateau ends and the Great Basin begins.
Across NevadaYou’re now in the Basin and Range Province, a 200,000-square-mile region of internal drainage where no water reaches the ocean. Every ridge you see is a fault-block mountain: a slab of crust tilted up between extensional faults that are slowly pulling Nevada apart.
Approaching BakerThe snow-capped peak ahead is Wheeler Peak (13,065 ft), tallest in Nevada outside the Sierra. The Snake Range holding it up is granite + quartzite with bowl-shaped glacial cirques from the last ice age. The bristlecone pines on its flanks are some of the oldest living things on Earth (5,000+ years).
Pack up at Baker Creek early and head to the Lehman Caves Visitor Center for the 8 AM cave tour. After the tour, drive up Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive ~3 miles to Upper Lehman Creek (7,500 ft), closer to the alpine action. Afternoon: Alpine Lakes Loop hike to glacial lakes and ancient bristlecone pines.
From the Lehman Caves Visitor Center, continue up Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive ~3 miles to the Upper Lehman Creek turnoff. Park visitor center: (775) 234-7331. GPS: 39.0140°N, 114.2272°W. Apple Maps
Lehman Caves is a karst cave dissolved into Cambrian Pole Canyon Limestone (~500 million years old). The cave is famous for its rare “shields”, flat parallel discs that grow out of cracks in the wall, found in only a few caves worldwide.
Wheeler Peak Scenic DriveClimbing the Snake Range, granite, quartzite, and limestone uplifted along normal faults during ongoing Basin-and-Range extension (Nevada is actively stretching at ~1 cm/year).
Alpine Lakes LoopStella and Teresa Lakes sit in glacial tarns, bowls scoured by ice and dammed by moraine debris. The cirques here held small glaciers as recently as the Little Ice Age (~1850). Look for glacial striations, parallel scratches in the polished bedrock left by rocks dragged under the ice.
Continue west on US-50 across central Nevada, the Loneliest Road in America, through Eureka, Austin, and Fallon. At Carson City stay on US-50 west into the Tahoe basin, then pick up CA-89 north at South Lake Tahoe and roll along the west shore through Emerald Bay to D.L. Bliss State Park. Beach Camp sits right above Lester Beach, a short flight of stairs down to one of the best stretches of Tahoe shoreline.
From Great Basin, head west on US-50 across Nevada to Carson City, then over Spooner Summit into the Tahoe basin. At South Lake Tahoe, take CA-89 north along the west shore through Camp Richardson and past Emerald Bay. Park entrance at 9881 CA-89, Tahoma, CA 96142, ~17 mi south of Tahoe City, ~2 mi north of Emerald Bay. Park info: (530) 525-7277. GPS: 38.9779°N, 120.1027°W. Apple Maps
First 30 miClassic Basin and Range, each pass crosses a fault-block range, drops into the next valley. The pattern repeats for 380 miles of US-50 across Nevada.
Ely, NVOld copper-mining town on the Robinson Mining District, a porphyry copper deposit ~110 million years old (the same Mesozoic intrusive episode that built the Sierra Nevada batholith visible at D.L. Bliss).
Eureka, NV (mile 75)Lead-silver mining town on ~40-million-year-old Eocene volcanic rocks. The wide valleys between ranges are filled with thousands of feet of sediment shed off the ranges over the last 15 million years.
Austin, NV (mile 165)Sits on the Toiyabe Range. The pass east of town (Austin Summit, 7,484 ft) crosses Paleozoic limestone and silver-rich Tertiary volcanics.
Sand Mountain (mile 295)A 600-ft tall singing dune east of Fallon, windblown sand from the ancient Lake Lahontan bed, the Ice Age lake that once filled half of western Nevada. The dune “booms” when sand avalanches down its lee face.
Fallon → Carson CityDriving across the Carson Sink, lowest point of the old Lake Lahontan basin. To the south the Stillwater Range rises sharply.
Carson City → TahoeThe Sierra Nevada appears ahead, the world’s largest fault-block range, uplifted nearly two vertical miles on its east face. Granite of the Cretaceous Sierra Nevada batholith (~100 my), same rock as Half Dome. The Tahoe basin itself is a graben, a block that dropped down between the Sierra crest and the Carson Range during Basin-and-Range extension. Glaciers carved and polished the shoreline at Lester Beach.
A full day at D.L. Bliss. Morning paddleboard on glassy Tahoe water off Lester Beach, then the iconic Rubicon Trail hike along the west shore cliffs to Emerald Bay in the afternoon. If you’d rather post up on the beach all day, the cove right below camp is one of the most picturesque on the whole lake.
Morning paddleboard off Lester Beach, checkout from Bliss by noon. Head south on CA-89 to US-395 south, the Eastern Sierra corridor, one of the most dramatic drives in California. About 1.5 hrs gets you to Bridgeport. Turn onto Buckeye Road for the afternoon: bouldering on granite scattered through the hills, then soak at Buckeye Hot Springs right in the creek canyon. Depart Bridgeport by late afternoon, continue south on US-395 to Lee Vining, then west on CA-120 over Tioga Pass (9,945 ft) into Yosemite, arriving at Crane Flat Site 414 by early evening.
CA-89 S to US-395Dropping off the Sierra’s west flank and into the Walker River canyon. The east face of the Sierra Nevada is one of the most abrupt fault scarps on Earth, 10,000+ ft of relief in just a few miles, the range tilted like a trapdoor.
Bridgeport ValleyA broad graben, a valley floor that dropped between parallel faults during Basin-and-Range extension. Buckeye Hot Springs are geothermally heated groundwater rising along one of those faults, the same tectonic activity that built the volcanic landscape south of here.
US-395 S to Lee ViningPassing the Mono Craters on the right, a chain of young rhyolite domes, the youngest erupted only 650 years ago. Mono Lake comes into view: 760,000 years old, hypersaline, rimmed with tufa towers that formed underwater when calcium-rich springs met the carbonate lake.
Tioga Pass (9,945 ft)The Sierra Crest. Bare granite domes of the Sierra Nevada batholith, same 80–100 million year old plutons that build El Capitan. Tenaya Lake sits in a glacially scoured bowl just west of the pass.
Transfer from Site 414 to Site 311 within Crane Flat Campground, then drive 30 min down into Yosemite Valley for the full first day. The valley is about 30 minutes from camp via Big Oak Flat Road. Get oriented at the visitor center, pick up snacks at the village, and scout the trailhead for the next day’s Mist Trail hike.
From D.L. Bliss, take CA-89 S along Tahoe’s west shore to South Lake Tahoe. Pick up US-50 W over Echo Summit to Placerville, then I-205 / CA-99 south into the Central Valley. Cut east on CA-120 through Manteca, Oakdale, and Groveland to the Big Oak Flat Entrance Station. Crane Flat is 8 miles past the gate, at the intersection of Tioga Rd and Big Oak Flat Rd. Yosemite Valley is ~30 min south via Big Oak Flat → El Portal Rd.
Address 9035 Tioga Rd, Yosemite NP, CA 95389 · Park info (209) 372-0200 · GPS: 37.7530°N, 119.7997°W · Manage reservation · Apple Maps
The one everyone comes for. Take the shuttle from the valley to Happy Isles and hit the Mist Trail. The climb to the top of Vernal Fall involves steep granite steps cut directly into the cliff face and you’ll get completely soaked from the spray, in the best possible way. Ponchos or rain gear are not optional in early June. The view from the top of the fall is staggering.
Afternoon: recover, wander Yosemite Village, then head to El Capitan Meadow to watch the wall climbers as the granite turns golden at dusk.
The last Yosemite day, top to bottom. Drive up Glacier Point Road in the morning for the best concentration of short, high-payoff hikes in the Sierra, two trailheads off the same road, then Glacier Point itself for the full Half Dome / Nevada Fall / Vernal Fall panorama, with a stop at Tunnel View on the way. Then drop back into the valley for an easy afternoon of waterfalls and a Merced River swim before tomorrow’s long drive east.
Check out of Crane Flat and head east on Tioga Road over the Sierra crest at 9,945 ft, last big views of Yosemite’s granite domes before they drop behind you. Drop into the Owens Valley via US-395 south to Bishop, the climbing capital of the Eastern Sierra, for a morning session at the Buttermilks. The valley floor heats fast in early June, so Bishop is a bouldering stop rather than an overnight, climb in the cool shade, then push east. From Bishop, US-6 east to Tonopah and US-95 south drop into the Nevada desert, skirting the western edge of the Nevada Test and Training Range, the vast restricted military airspace that contains Area 51. The corridor strings together a run of high-desert oddities: the Rhyolite ghost town and its open-air sculpture field outside Beatty, the turquoise spring pools of Ash Meadows, and a genuinely excellent Punjabi kitchen hidden in a desert gas station. Continue through the Amargosa Desert to Pahrump for the night, a high valley that runs noticeably cooler after dark than the Las Vegas basin.
A real bed, a hot shower, and a cool room for the desert leg, Pahrump sits in a high valley (~2,700 ft) that runs cooler at night than the Las Vegas basin, which makes it the smart base before the Zion push. A good spot to refill the van’s water, reorganize after the long Yosemite stretch, and reset for an early start. Sets up Day 11 within easy reach of Las Vegas for a supply stop and the run north into Utah.
Tioga Road eastClimbing through the Sierra Nevada batholith. Bare granite domes (Polly Dome, Pywiack Dome) are 80–90 million year old plutons exposed by erosion. Tenaya Lake sits in a glacially scoured bowl.
Tioga Pass (9,945 ft)Highest highway pass in California. The Sierra Crest divides the granite batholith (west) from metasedimentary rocks on the east edge.
Mono Lake760,000 years old, hypersaline (3× saltier than ocean), rimmed with tufa towers. The Mono Craters just south are young rhyolite domes, the youngest erupted only 650 years ago.
June Lake → MammothDriving along the rim of the Long Valley Caldera, a 20-mile-wide supervolcano that erupted 760,000 years ago. The pinkish valley floor is Bishop Tuff from that eruption.
Owens Valley to BishopDeepest fault-bounded valley in North America, 10,000+ ft of relief between the floor (4,000 ft) and White Mountains crest (14,252 ft) just east. Actively rifting along the Owens Valley Fault, same fault that caused the 1872 magnitude-7.9 Lone Pine earthquake.
US-6 / US-95 · Nevada Basin and RangeEast of Bishop the route enters the heart of the Basin and Range, dozens of parallel fault-block mountains and dropped valleys formed as the crust stretched and pulled apart over the last ~20 million years. The dark, flat-topped mesas around Tonopah and Goldfield are Tertiary volcanic tuffs and lava flows from massive eruptions ~15–20 million years ago, the same volcanism that seeded the gold and silver which built Rhyolite and the other boom towns.
Amargosa Desert · Ash MeadowsThe turquoise pools at Ash Meadows are fed by a vast regional aquifer of “fossil water”, rain and snowmelt that fell thousands of years ago, traveling underground through carbonate rock before surfacing along fault lines. Devils Hole is a window straight down into that water table. Pahrump and Amargosa sit in down-dropped basins between the Spring Mountains and the Funeral/Grapevine ranges that wall off Death Valley just to the west.
From Pahrump, drop down NV-160 into Las Vegas and pick up I-15 north for Utah. Build a quick gear stop into the morning while you’re still in a big town, then cross the Virgin River Gorge into Utah’s red-rock country. Break the drive with a midday swim at Sand Hollow State Park, where warm turquoise water sits against orange Navajo sandstone, before turning east on UT-9 into Zion National Park for the headline hike, wading The Narrows up the Virgin River between 1,000-ft walls. Exit Zion in good daylight (see the deer note below) and run US-89 north to Panguitch, a tidy ranching town 25 minutes from Bryce, for the night.
With a Narrows hike and an evening exit from Zion, a reserved RV-park site removes the after-dark guesswork, no hunting for a first-come forest site that may already be full, no navigating BLM two-tracks in the dark. Red Canyon Village sits right on US-89 between Zion and Bryce with hot showers and full hookups (good to have, even unused) and an easy 25-minute hop to Sunset Campground in the morning. Apple Maps
Las Vegas Valley → MesquiteI-15 crosses the eastern Basin and Range out of the Las Vegas Valley, a down-dropped basin between the Spring Mountains and the Muddy/Virgin ranges, before threading the Virgin River into Arizona’s northwest corner.
Virgin River Gorge (I-15)One of the most dramatic highway corridors in the Southwest, sheer Paleozoic limestone and sandstone walls, 1,000+ ft of relief, folded and tilted by the same compression that raised the surrounding ranges. One of the most expensive highway segments ever built ($10 million/mile in 1973).
St George · Sand HollowYou’ve climbed onto the edge of the Colorado Plateau. The orange domes around Sand Hollow and the red dunes of Sand Mountain are Navajo Sandstone, Jurassic (~180 million years old) petrified sand dunes, the same formation that becomes the great walls of Zion just upriver.
Zion CanyonThe cliffs are that same Navajo Sandstone, here stacked 2,000+ ft thick. The Virgin River has sawed straight down into the plateau and is still deepening the canyon today, the Narrows is the river working at the bottom of its own cut. Upstream, the Zion–Mt. Carmel tunnel (1930) bores through the sandstone past cross-bedded Checkerboard Mesa.
US-89 N · climbing the Grand StaircaseFrom Zion (~4,000 ft) the highway climbs steadily toward Bryce (~8,000 ft), stepping up through progressively younger rock layers, the Grand Staircase. Panguitch sits in a high valley along the Sevier Fault at the foot of the pink cliffs, with tomorrow’s Claron limestone hoodoos waiting just above.
An easy morning from Panguitch, barely 40 minutes to the park. Head south on US-89, then east on UT-12 through Red Canyon, where the highway threads two arches carved straight through vermilion rock and the first hoodoos of the trip crowd right up to the road. Continue on SR-63 into Bryce Canyon and settle into Sunset Campground (Site A250). With the whole afternoon free, drive to Bryce Point and walk the Rim Trail back down to Inspiration Point along the lip of the amphitheater, the best standing-still view in the park. Then layer up for the evening: a ranger Dark Sky astronomy program at Sunset Point.
Exit Zion east via Zion–Mt. Carmel Hwy (UT-9), then north on US-89 approximately 1.5 hrs to Bryce Canyon City. Turn west on UT-12 / SR-63 to the park entrance. Sunset Campground is 1.5 miles south of the Visitor Center on the left, Loop A is the RV loop. Note: 2026 forest thinning work in progress, chainsaw noise 8am–5pm. GPS: 37.6219°N, 112.1714°W. Apple Maps
UT-12 · Red CanyonThe vivid red rock the highway tunnels through is the Claron Formation, the same Eocene (~50 million year old) freshwater-lake limestone that makes Bryce’s hoodoos, stained a deeper red here by a higher iron content. The two highway arches were hand-cut in the 1920s to open the road to Bryce.
US-89 → UT-12 · climbing to the rimYou’re on the top step of the Grand Staircase, the youngest plateau in the sequence that descends south through Zion (Jurassic) to the Grand Canyon (Paleozoic). Bryce sits at ~8,000–9,000 ft on the eastern edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau.
Bryce amphitheater · first lookBryce isn’t a canyon but the eroding rim of the plateau. Pink comes from iron oxide, purple-grey from manganese, in soft Claron limestone and siltstone. At this elevation ~200 freeze-thaw cycles a year pry the rock into fins and then into the spires you’ll drop into the following day.
A full day in the park. Get an early start and drop into the amphitheater before the heat and the crowds on the Queen’s Garden + Navajo Loop, the ~3-mile combination the rangers point to as the single best way to see the most of Bryce, winding down past Queen Victoria, Thor’s Hammer, Two Bridges, and the slot walls of Wall Street. Back on top, take it easy, you already walked the rim from Bryce Point to Inspiration on the arrival evening, so the afternoon is a free shuttle hop to Sunrise and Sunset Points for the changing light, or just downtime at camp. After dark the sky does the rest, Bryce is one of the darkest parks in the country.
Bryce isn’t actually a canyon, it’s the eroding edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. The hoodoos form as the plateau slowly retreats westward, breaking up into spires as harder layers protect softer ones beneath.
The pink-orange rock is the Claron Formation, an Eocene (~50–40 million years old) freshwater lake deposit. Iron oxides give it the pink color; manganese gives the purple-grey streaks. The Claron is mostly limestone and siltstone, soft and easily dissolved.
How hoodoos form: Bryce sits at 8,000+ ft and gets ~200 freeze-thaw cycles per year. Water seeps into cracks, freezes overnight, and expands 9%, prying off chunks. Combined with slightly acidic rain dissolving the limestone, cliffs erode into vertical columns. Harder caprock on top protects each column; once the cap erodes, the column collapses.
The Grand Staircase: Bryce is the top of a staircase of plateaus stepping south to the Grand Canyon, Bryce (Eocene) → Zion (Jurassic) → Grand Canyon (Cambrian-Permian). The climb up from Zion the day before ascended two of its steps.
Bristlecones again: Look for ancient bristlecone pines on the rim, especially out at Rainbow Point, same species as Wheeler Peak in Great Basin. The oldest at Bryce are 1,600+ years old.
Pack up Bryce and take the long, beautiful way to Moab, starting with a short walk to Mossy Cave just outside the park, right on the road out. UT-12 east through Escalante and Boulder is one of America’s great drives; rejoin the main roads at Torrey, skirt Capitol Reef, then take UT-24 to I-70 east across the San Rafael Swell before turning south on US-191 to Moab, the red-rock capital wedged between Arches and Canyonlands on the Colorado River. It runs hot in June, so the night is built around water and shade, a riverside camp on the Colorado or a Moab room with AC, decided by the forecast. Dinner is sorted either way (see below).
The La Sal Mountains rise to 12,000+ ft behind Moab, and two little Forest Service lake campgrounds sit up in the aspen and spruce where nights are cold, not hot. Warner Lake (9,400 ft · 19 sites · $20 · lakeside · a few sites reservable from June 14, earlier dates first-come) and Oowah Lake (8,800 ft · 11 tent sites · $10 · first-come · opens in May). Both ~40 min up the La Sal Loop Road. Trade-off: ~45 min back down to the Arches gate in the morning, but you’ll actually sleep. If both are full, dispersed camping is free and needs no reservation along the La Sal Loop Road and forest side-roads in the Manti-La Sal NF, pull into an already-established site (no new fire rings) and pack out everything.
UT-12 · Aquarius PlateauClimbing onto the Aquarius Plateau, the highest forested plateau in North America at 11,000+ ft. The cap is basalt flows (~5 million years old) sitting on the same Claron Formation that makes Bryce’s hoodoos. Down through Escalante you drop back onto Jurassic Navajo Sandstone slickrock.
Capitol Reef · the Waterpocket FoldUT-24 cuts through the Waterpocket Fold, a 100-mile wrinkle in the crust where the rock layers were bent steeply upward ~60 million years ago during the Laramide mountain-building that also raised the Rockies. The white domes that name the park are Navajo Sandstone; the red cliffs below are older Wingate and Moenkopi.
I-70 · San Rafael SwellI-70 slices across the San Rafael Swell, a giant dome of layered rock pushed up and then sawed open by erosion, one of the most spectacular free stretches of interstate anywhere, with the tilted edge (the “Reef”) and Black Dragon Canyon along the way.
Moab · salt anticline countryMoab sits in a collapsed salt-valley (anticline), an ancient bed of salt thousands of feet thick flowed and bulged upward, cracking the rock above into the fins that erode into Arches’ arches, then dissolved and let the crest drop, forming Moab and Spanish valleys. The cliffs are stacked Wingate, Kayenta, Navajo, and Entrada sandstones; the Colorado River has the final say, cutting down through all of it.
One last red-rock sunrise, then the long, scenic run home. Hike Delicate Arch at first light (or take a final dip in the Colorado), then point the van north on US-191 to I-70 east. The interstate climbs from desert into the Rockies, through Grand Junction’s orchard valley (a peach stop in Palisade), the deep walls of Glenwood Canyon with a free hot-springs soak, up over Vail Pass and through the Eisenhower Tunnel beneath the Continental Divide, then the downhill glide into Golden. The trip ends the way it started, Colorado geology doing the work.
Arches · Entrada SandstoneThe arches are eroded from Entrada Sandstone, Jurassic dune and tidal-flat deposits, cracked into parallel fins by the salt bulge underneath, then hollowed by freeze-thaw and water until windows broke through.
I-70 · Book Cliffs to Grand JunctionCrossing the western edge of the Colorado Plateau past the Book Cliffs, Cretaceous shale and sandstone from a ~75-million-year-old inland sea, then up the Colorado River through De Beque Canyon into Grand Junction’s orchard valley (Palisade peaches).
Glenwood CanyonOne of the most dramatic interstate stretches in the country, 1,300-ft walls of Leadville Limestone and ancient Precambrian basement, with the hot springs fed by water circulating deep along faults.
Vail Pass · Eisenhower Tunnel · Continental DivideClimbing into the Gore and Front ranges, Proterozoic granite and gneiss ~1.7 billion years old. The Eisenhower Tunnel bores under the Continental Divide at 11,158 ft; everything east drains toward the Atlantic.
Foothills → GoldenDropping the Front Range into Golden, the Dakota Hogback at Morrison (Red Rocks) is the last landmark. You’ve crossed a complete transect of the American West on this trip: Sierra Nevada batholith, Great Basin, Mojave, Colorado Plateau, and the Rockies. Home.
| State | Miles | Gallons | $/gal est. | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colorado | 600 | 30 | $4.00 | $120 |
| Utah | 1,100 | 55 | $5.75 | $316 |
| Nevada | 800 | 40 | $4.60 | $184 |
| California | 500 | 25 | $8.50 | $213 |
| Arizona (no fuel bought) | 30 | , | , | $0 |
| Total | ~3,000 | ~150 | ~$835 |
Meal plan: bean burritos · egg burritos · tacos · veggie dogs · nachos · bag salad + ranch · tuna wraps · PB&Js · oatmeal · cereal