YOSEMITE PARK

One thing I've forgotten to tell you in previous blogs, if you double click on the pics, they will enlarge.

June 7^th we left the Sequoia & headed to the Yosemite Area.  We had decided to stay a month because I thought there would be a lot to see in Yosemite Park.  Our RV park is about 14 miles from the entrance to the South end of Yosemite.  I thought that would be a great thing.  What I didn’t realize was, that it’s a minimum of an hour and a half to anything you might want to see there.  Some areas are at least 3 hours or more.  The other thing they don’t tell you is that the roads in, as were those in Sequoia, are steep & curvy.  Here there are no guard rails or shoulders & believe me, it’s hundreds of feet down.  I’m enclosing part of an email Collins sent to our kids describing our descent.  “Which reminds me of the thrilling roller coaster ride we went on a cpl days ago.  It started out as a leisurely drive into Yosemite, gawking at the sites, & ended with what I first thought was the most exciting 26 mile roller coaster ride Karen had ever experienced.  At least I thought that, until I realized her screams of delight as we came around hairpin turns with between 5,000 & 6,000 foot vertical drop-offs into the valley floors ( based on what the nice signs said), wasn't delight at all.  To properly appreciate the event one needs to realize this two lane road has no railings, was cut out of the side of the mountain, there rarely is any shoulder, & the "S" turns and drops are as quick as any you've experienced at an amusement park.  In spite of driving in a down shifted mode, & only going about 35 MPH, Karen was so excited (again, so I first thought), that she was holding onto the door with one hand & dashboard with the other.  It was only after I realized she wasn't having the time of her life, but fearful for her life, that she told me the hand on the door was for her escape, that I could take the final trip by myself.  Go figure.”  In all honesty, he scared the crap out of me!! 
We did take 2 trips into the park.  The first one we spent the day touring Yosemite Valley.  They have a shuttle bus that takes you to many areas of the park. 

A young buck we saw in the meadow

What they don’t tell you, is once you get to a stop, you usually have to hike at least a mile(usually way more than that) to whatever it is you want to see.  The one hike we decided to take was to a place called Mirror Lake.  We were told it was just a short walk; I’d guess about a mile and a half, which is short if you’re a hiker.  Collins isn’t really fond of that word!  What they didn’t tell us, was that Mirror Lake was really more like Mirror pond.  However, it’s surrounded by tons of pine trees & it smelled great – like Christmas trees! 

There are a couple of huge rock areas that people climb.  One of the most popular is called ElCapitan.  It is rather sheer granite, rising about 3,300 ft high. 

ElCapitan

 Most climbers take 4 – 7 days to climb.  They also have to carry all their food, water, sleeping gear, etc.  While we were watching them, we talked to a man taking pictures.  He had a huge lens & let us look thru it to see one of the climbers.  He said they put their packs on a pulley & pull them up the mountain as they go.  When I asked about their sleeping arrangements, he said they sleep in hammocks hung over the side of the mountain!!  No thanks!!  Those people are braver than I !!  The photographer said the climbers have to have a high skill level to climb there.  There is another huge rock called Half Dome, which is also popular with climbers.  It is a 16-18 mile round trip but can usually be done in a day.  I can’t even imagine. 

Half Dome

After watching the climbers for awhile we took our own little hike toward the base of lower Yosemite Falls.  The Upper & Lower Falls are beautiful to see.  I found it interesting to note, that by around the end of July, they have dried up for the year.  They were already shrinking due to a lower amount of snowfall this past year. 

Bridal Veil Falls

Cathedral Rocks & Bridal Veil Creek

Yosemite Falls

Lower Yosemite Falls

Merced River, Yosemite

On a second day, we made the trek back to Glacier Point, Glacier Point is a viewpoint above Yosemite Valley. It is located on the south wall of Yosemite Valley at an elevation of 7,214 feet, 3,200 feet above Curry Village . The point offers a great view of Yosemite Valley, including several of the waterfalls & Half Dome. 


Upper & Lower Yosemite Falls



Us with Half Dome in Background

We went in the early evening because we were told the views were really beautiful at Sunset.  The views are beautiful at any time of day.  I can’t really say I’d make a special trip for sunset again.  The rocks took on a different color as the sun dropped, but by that time we were chilled & just wanted it to be done. 

Half Dome at Sunset

Sunset from Glacier Point

It gets cool up there in the evening.  We had gotten there a couple hours earlier, thinking we were going to make another stop, which we didn’t.  On top of that, it was dark coming back down the mountain, which didn’t thrill me. 
On another day we decided to travel the Sierra Vista Scenic Byway.  It’s about 80 miles thru the Sierra Nevada Mts with heights up to 7300 feet. 

Karen, Collins & Snuggles at Mile High Lookout

Mile High Lookout

Check out the size of that Pine cone

Redinger Lake

Sierra Scenic Byway

Globe Rock- Scenic Byway

We really did see some fantastic scenery.  Unfortunately, pictures do it no justice at all.  About 8 miles of the trip was unpaved road which took forever & reminded us of our trip to Costa Rica (lots of pot holes).    We did see some logging going on.  It was interested to watch them.  It reminded me of a show Collins likes to watch - Swamp Loggers or something like that.  Those logs were huge.

Logging

One thing I did discover on that trip – we took the dog & she tends to get car sick when you make a lot of turns, so Collins took all the curves extra slow.  I should have taken her with us to Yosemite!
One hot day we decided to check out a nearby Casino.  We don’t really gamble much, but we each  had a coupon for a buy one get one free buffet & some money to play if you got a players card.  We went 2 days.  After having 4 dinners & playing the slots for around 4 hours, we walked away with $4 more than we started.

Today is the 4^th of July & it’s really hot.  One of the close by towns was having some festivities
These are very small towns mind you.  If you blink twice you’ll miss this town.  Anyway, we parked & walked down to the town center only to find ourselves in the middle of a “big” Tea Party ( & I don’t mean the drink) Rally.  Needless to say, we didn’t stay too long!
We’ve made several trips to nearby Bass Lake.  It is a really nice Lake that was very clear & had that beautiful blue color. 

Bass Lake

We found a fairly quiet spot that had a lot of pine trees, so we took our beach chairs, a sheet, a picnic lunch & our books.  It smelled like Christmas trees & we got a decent breeze.  The water was warm but we didn’t go swimming.
One day we made a trip to Fresno, which is about an hour away.  We went to a place that was an Underground house & garden.  The guy who “dug” it, had come from Italy & couldn’t stand the heat. 

Chapel & tunnel to other rooms

Bathroom

Underground Kitchen

Summer Bedroom

Winter Bedroom- See the fireplace

He had originally bought the land to start a citrus grove, but the land was mostly rock & the trees wouldn’t grow.  He started digging the underground home to get out of the heat & also planted some citrus trees in areas he left open to sunlight. 

Fruit trees underground-Grafted to grow several kinds of fruit on one tree

The Aquarium- there was a chair in a tunnel underneath where he could watch the fish above

It was quite an interesting place.

While in Fresno, we stopped at a Japanese Garden.  Unfortunately, it was kind of a let down.  It was a nice park, but not much to see.  We did see a couple peacocks & a lot of ducks.

Collins & Snuggles at Japanese Garden

Peacock in the Japanese Garden

I think I mentioned in our last blog that we had purchased bikes.  Until it got so hot, we would go out in the morning or evening for a ride.  We wanted to take the dog & let her run for a bit, but she couldn't go as far as we wanted to go, so we bought a basket for her.  Now, when we go, she does a little run, then we put her in the basket.  She loves to go with us.

It has been really hot here the past couple weeks, with the temps this last week over 100.  We went to Bass Lake twice but the past few days we’ve just stayed inside.  Even trying to keep the RV cool has been hard.  There has been a problem with the RV site electric when we tried to run both ACs at the same time, so we’ve kept the back half closed in the day & run the front AC & closed off the front at night & run the back AC.  I guess we should be happy we have AC.  There are tent sites just below us & believe it or not, there have been tenters there every night.  I really don’t know how they do it.

Tomorrow we’re moving to an area outside San Francisco.  It’s also very warm there.  Hopefully, it’ll start to drop soon.  We’re planning to do some sightseeing in that area.  We’ll keep you posted!