We got a late start this morning heading toward Yosemite which was probably good as we missed rush hour traffic. Though we still had to contend with normal California traffic and drivers. We took 101 until we got to I580 east. I was a little leery when I learned it was taking us toward the Richmond Bridge/Oakland. Esther was ecstatic when she saw we were going over the Golden Gate Bridge. I was petrified.. It was one of those situations where you had to decide which was more dangerous, hyper-ventilating or closing your eyes as you drove over the bridge. Luckily we were on the lower level and I could keep my eyes pretty much on the road. Esther however was tempting fate by saying every 30 seconds "Larry, look at this. It's just beautiful." After getting on the other side, I suggested we use the turnout so she could get some pictures, though my main purpose was to kiss terra firma. We discovered that our Golden Gate Bridge was actually the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, that didn't make it any less scarier for me or any less grander for Esther.
About 1:30 we put a Walmart into the GPS as we needed bread and salad. It only took three attempts of driving around a 2 mile square to get the correct turns down to get us there. We found two parking sites lined up head to head in between two rows of cars at one end of the parking lot and went in shopping. It didn't take long to discover this was no super center. It didn't even have bread. Luckily, next door was a Safeway which would have over charged us $9 if we hadn't asked for one of their cost saving cards. We went back to the trailer and ate lunch in the 5th wheel. 2 hours after we started looking for the Walmart, we backed the trailer back into one of the main driving lanes and were able to maneuver it back out to the highway. Now we just needed some diesel.
We did finally arrive at the KOA at the south entrance of Yosemite around 5:35. We met a nice guy and his son camping next to us from Naples Beach, FL He was driving his aging father around in the father's motor home viewing National Parks. They are headed to Yellowstone after Yosemite. We have decided to skip Great Basis as well as Lassen Volcanic National parks in order to spend the 4th of July in Las Vegas. We have reservations here thru Friday, and reservation in Vegas beginning Saturday and lasting thru Monday night.
7/1/2010
Got a late start to visit Yosesemite, but made up for it by coming back late. Esther made lunch for us to take with us as we assumed we would be gone most of the day. We started our sightseeing by taking a steam railroad ride through the Sierra Nevada's on the Yosemite Sugar Pine Railroad using the rails laid by a lumber company. We learned mostly about how the area had been clear cut and how it had grown back. They told us a lot about the lumber company and its failure in the depression. The railroad is now owned and operated by the National Park Service. We got to ride in a open car made of split redwood log for the bench seat and back. There was one on each side.
We then entered the park proper at the south entrance and went to the Mariposa grove of Sequoyah trees. These are the largest living thing on our planet. We took a tram tour which was narrated by the National Park Service over headphones. One of the first trees we saw has been named the "Bachelor and Three Graces". This is a grouping of four trees, one which is standing by itself (the Bachelor), and a small grouping of three trees (the Graces). These trees are all huge and gives you a sense of proportion of the role humans play in this world. These trees live to be over 2000 years old and grow to a height of 300 feet. They do not live the longest as some pines live for more than 3000 years nor are they the tallest as their Redwood cousins can reach 350 feet in height. But they are the largest in volume with some weighing 2 million pounds. These trees are resistant to fires, disease, and insects. But they have proportionally a small root system and under heavy winds or heavy loads of snow, can be tipped over and their roots pulled out of the ground. The center of the tree is dead and is used to provide strength to the tree, but is not needed for it to survive as long as the tree doesn't fall over. That is why the trees you can drive thru lived so long, and why trees that have had their centers burned out still live. One of these trees can absorb 100 gallons of water a day. Needless to say, they need to live in a very wet environment. The tunnel tree that you see pictures of so many people driving through fell over in 1968 during a heavy snowstorm. Another tunnel tree is still there but was built for driving a horse a carriage thru, not an automobile. It is now used by visitors for pictures. There is another tree called the periscope tree because it has been hollowed out by fire all the way to the top. You can step into it, look up and see blue sky.
I turned the driving over to Esther as it was nearing my nap time and because we needed to go over the mountain to the western entrance of the park. The roads were sharp and narrow and though there was lots of signs about road construction, we saw no one working. It took us a little over an hour to get over the mountain. Once there, our first amazing sight was going through a tunnel that must have been 1/2 mile in length. As we emerged from the tunnel, we got our first glimpse of the Bridalveil Falls, the longest waterfall in Yosemite dropping more than 600 feet into the Mercedes River. The view of the falls encompassed all the granite walls of the "dome" which surrounds the Yosemite valley. We drove a little further where we could walk to the base of the falls. Would be a great walk during hot days, because the water spray really would feel good. We had a beautiful rainbow at the base of the fall. Our next stop was Upper Yosemite falls. It doesn't drop as far as Bridalveil falls but still impressive. Right next to it is the lower Yosemite falls, which looks tiny compared to the other two. Though we got to see the lower Yosemite falls, we found no place to take a good picture. We then drove to "El Capitan" which is the worlds monolith of exposed granite, standing over 3600 feet above the Yosemite valley floor.
Bridalveil Falls
Bridalveil Falls at the base
Bridalveil Falls runoff which feeds the Mercedes River
Upper Yosemite Falls
By this time it was nearing 7:30 pm, sun was beginning to set, and it was beginning to get dark, so we headed back to get back over the mountain before it really did get dark. As we started our climb, we discovered all those places that said "road work ahead" were now manned and so we were stopped two times and then lead by a pilot car through the debris. It seems that they do the road work after six to limit the number of cars that are impacted. However, this made us take twice as long getting back over the mountain as it did going. Esther was exhausted when we finally arrived back at the KOA at 10pm. We had planned on having a Mexican dinner around 8:30pm, but didn't get to the restaurant until after 9:30. We ended up with tacos from Taco Bell. Not quite what either Esther or I had hoped for.
7/2/2010
Today was a maintenance day. We fixed breakfast, wrote out postcards and birthday checks. Went to look for a sign. It has been the second time we have found a sign carver shop without a person present. Guess he took off for the 4th weekend. After not finding the sign carver, we headed for Corsegold, CA for diesel. Found it for 3.09 which is low for around here. Only problem is that they wouldn't take Discover so we had to pay cash.
We then headed for Oakhurst, Ca to find a birthday card. We went into a Grocery store that indicated from the outside they had cards. When we went in, I asked Esther if we needed a cart. Eighty dollars later,I didn't need to ask again. After finding our $80 birthday card, we headed for the nearest post office so we could get it on it's way before the 4th weekend.
Then it was back to camp to wash the weeks laundry. Planned to get into the Hot Tub while we waited on the clothes to wash, but found it much to murky for my taste and decided to sit by the pool instead. After half an hour it was back to the laundry to move the clothes to the dryer. This time we went back to the 5th wheel to sit in the sun in our loungers. After another 45 minutes it was back to the laundry where we hung and folded. We then went back to the 5th wheel to put away our clean clothes.
We wrote the journal for yesterday to get caught up and loaded the pictures shot yesterday to the computer. We decided to wait until tomorrow to post our journals and pictures of Yosemite to the blog because of the WiFi here in the park. We think it will be better in Vegas. Esther fixed corn and salad for dinner and I grilled chicken breasts.
While Esther did the dishes, I went to put away all the stuff we had pulled out while here so we could get an early start tomorrow. Afterwards, we sat in the loungers watching the sunset highlight the trees, watched our new neighbors set up camp, and ate strawberry chocolate sundaes. Life is good.
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