Yosemite National Park, CA
June 24th-June 25th
We had tried to reserve a campsite in Yosemite but everything had been booked for months. I half expected to find camp site reservations on Ebay for astronomical prices- it’s that popular! Nevertheless, it’s not a park to miss so we left Fresno very early in the morning to arrive in the park around 8:30 AM, hoping to get a site. We were discouraged by the line of cars at the entrance station, but our efforts paid off and we were able to get a site (from a cancelled reservation) for one evening. We’d have to try again on Saturday which would be even more difficult. We began our visit with another giant Sequoia grove, this time on a ranger-guided nature walk. We saw some interesting trees including the “Telescope Tree” where you could see straight up the trunk to the blue sky overhead (the tree was still alive) and another that had two trunks fused together. After the hike, it was time to check into our campground and make lunch (hot dogs today.) That afternoon, we visited some old homes and structures that reminded us of the early habitation during the park and then we drove up to a beautiful viewpoint (still snow-covered) with views of several waterfalls and Half-Dome and before a picnic dinner watching the sunset.
On Saturday morning, I went to the Campground Reservation Office when it opened to try to get another last-minute spot, but this time we weren’t lucky. All of the extra spots were filled by people from the Yosemite Valley Campground who had to be moved due to flooding. In fact, many of the campgrounds were still closed because of snow or flooding. In addition, poor Fabien was suffering from a serious cold. We decided to take advantage of the day in the park and worry about lodging later, so we drove to Yosemite Valley to visit some of the main sites, Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite Falls, the tallest waterfalls in the United States and Mirror Lake. The waterfalls were magnificent, bursting with the waters of the melting snow but we were shocked by the traffic going into the valley and by the number of people on the waterfalls trail (only about ½ mile from the lodge.) What was even more interesting however was the lack of people on the trail between the Falls and Mirror Lake. You only need to go farther than ½ mile from the road to find true tranquility in a national park. After fighting the crowds in Yosemite Valley, we took the long road up to Tioga Meadows and Tioga Pass. There was still and abundance of snow along the roadside as we passed California’s highest mountain pass. From some of the viewpoints along the road, we saw mountain lakes, still half-frozen at the end of June. No wonder so many campgrounds and trails were still closed within the park. We finally exited the park late in the afternoon and decided to drive 20 miles south to Mammoth Lakes (a ski resort) where we ended up finding a cozy little hotel with a gas fireplace for the evening. It was the perfect place for Fabien to begin his recovery.
Tags: BIG TRIP 2011, California, In English 2005-2006
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