Yosemite

From Wikipedia – Yosemite features sheer granite cliffs, exceptionally tall waterfalls, and old-growth forests at a unique intersection of geology and hydrology. Half Dome and El Capitan rise from the park’s centerpiece, the glacier-carved Yosemite Valley, and from its vertical walls drop Yosemite Falls, one of North America’s tallest waterfalls at 2,425 feet high. Three giant sequoia groves, along with a pristine wilderness in the heart of the Sierra Nevada, are home to a wide variety of rare plant and animal species.

• Established: 10/1/1890
• Annual Visitors: 4,009,436
• Size: 761,748 acres

Yosemite – May 1, 2021

We stayed in Groveland, CA last night (pop. 600-ish) in the historic Groveland Hotel at a little over 3,000 feet. See pictures and historical plaques in slide show, as well as the hotel’s website’s explanation of its history directly below. It was purchased in 2017 by a family that already owned the hotel across the street. It has been nicely renovated and has a wine bar, menu and music that locals and travelers a like attended the Friday night we were there.

Originally an adobe trading post built in 1849, the Groveland Hotel has had many incarnations over its 163 years – Gambling House, Saloon, Hotel, Ranger Station, business offices, and even a Greyhound Bus Stop. It was known as “the best house on the hill” during the Gold Rush, and this hotel in Groveland, California may be the only Sierra Nevada Mountain building constructed in the Monterey Adobe architectural style that was popular during the late 1840s and 1850s.” https://www.groveland.com/about

We started our first day at Yosemite by heading to the section of the park that is less visited, according to the Park’s brochure. Hetch Hetchy Valley is at the northwestern corner of the park. This section of Yosemite has two of the tallest waterfalls in North America. The Native American named Tueeulala and Wapama Falls. Both are pictured in our photos below. Gary walked across the O’Shaughnessy Dam and through a tunnel towards the falls but Rangeley was not allowed so he and I took pictures of Gary and the falls : )

After Hetch Hetchy, we drove south, exiting the park into the Stanislaus National Forest for a short time and reentering Yosemite at Big Oak Flat Entrance. There was a 1/2 mile backup, 30 minute wait to get back into the park. We try to avoid entering any national park mid-day due to crowds, but this is unique, as we had no choice but to exit and reenter from the morning at Hetch Hetchy. The Big Oak Informational building and bookstore were closed (season? COVID?) Gary had planned for us to do a dog friendly hike but we missed the very small sign and turn-off so, in looking at the park map we discovered the trail we were going to take actually continued to a Tuolumne Grove Trail which was ahead of us. What a great picnic lunch spot and a wonderful hike. The temperature was 68 degrees, the skies were mostly blue, and this 6,000-foot elevation, shaded hike was perfect.

Continuing on Big Oak Flat Road, now heading east, we took pictures of Bridesvail Falls and stopped twice to marvel at the gushingly full with spring run-off, Cascade Falls.

In order to go west towards Mariposa, CA, outside the park, where we are staying tonight, we needed to go around the mountains heading east a bit more and then do a 180 and catch El Portal Road to the 140 west. We got a glimpse of what we will see on tomorrow’s adventures enjoying El Capitan and Half Dome mountains in the distance. They are both in Yosemite Village located slightly southwest of center of the park.

May 2, 2021

Today we got up and out of the hotel a little after 7am. This park is busy and we wanted to get a jump on the crowds. We are staying in Mariposa, CA, “butterfly” in Spanish, settled in 1849. According to Yosemite.com, The town was booming for a couple decades during the gold rush and obtained roads and railroads during that time. Later came ranchers, loggers, quartz miners and farmers who continued to contribute to Mariposa. The town has maintained its small town feel without chain stores and has no stop lights. Those wanting to visit Yosemite have helped add to this towns economy off and on since the 1870’s.

The only unfortunate part of staying in Mariposa is the long very windy 35+ mile road just to get to the western edge of the park. But I must add, it is a beautiful ride along the Merced River and the closet town on the west side of the park. It was another 13 miles to Yosemite Village located roughly in the center of the park.

Our day began with some confusion as to where Yosemite Village and Valley Visitor Center were actually located. This has never happened to us before. We parked in a lot that indicated where the visitor center was, but we didn’t see it. There were some young ladies riding bikes on a bike path. We asked them where the visitor center was and they were very helpful. We needed to walk along the bike path, cross a street, walk into the Village and continue to the end where we found all the federal/park owed buildings closed. The park rangers and volunteers were under tents, behind totally enclosed plexiglass and wearing masks to assist visitors. We had experienced this last fall but not this trip, nearly 6 months later. It was a little sad how distanced these workers were from visitors. There were signs all around Yosemite Village saying to wear your mask outside if you couldn’t distance. Again, no such signs in other parks this trip. It is expected and has been all year, to wear your mask, indoors, in all federal buildings, including bathrooms but this park really accentuated the wearing of them outside too. The bookstore attendant was also completely secluded behind plexiglass and spoke through a microphone just like the rangers did under their tents. I picked out my postcard and pin through a window where all the items are numbered, then would tell her the numbers, pay her, then move to another location where my items would be placed on a table for me to pick up. We found it impersonal and stressful. A bit of overkill even for COVID times.

We decided to find a few locations that we could walk to with Rangeley and enjoyed the views of Half Dome Mountain both on foot and by driving to the far east side of Yosemite Village. This granite mountain has one side of the upside-down bowl shape sheared off, hence the name. It’s a popular challenging climbing location.

We enjoyed seeing the 2,425-foot-high Yosemite Falls. The spring snow run off made for a magnificent show. We were able to see two of the three separate tiers, Upper Yosemite and Lower Yosemite by walking and driving coming in and out of the Yosemite Valley.

There are numerous falls that we loved and enjoyed their natural white noise. Below is the description of the larger falls in the park on their website:

https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/waterfalls.htm

The next stop was to view the wonderous El Capitan. Gary has seen the movie Free Solo. I have not yet rounded up enough courage to watch it.  The National Geographic’s documentary, released in December of 2018, filmed extreme (an understatement) climber, Alex Honnold, rock climbing the 3,000-foot sheer granite cliff with no safety equipment. He climbed up “free” and “solo”, no ropes. As the ads for the film say, “perfection or death”. He did it! I am in awe of those that can achieve ultimate greatness in their own minds and often in other’s. The best of the best athletes succeeding at what no other has done before. But, yes, I think it’s a bit nuts! El Cap, as the climbers call it, is incredible to see in person. I enjoyed standing fairly close to its base, looking up, and feeling that Alex, and many others that have climbed it with ropes, must have felt elated at the top.

I think my favorite parts of this park were viewing and hearing the numerous whitewater rivers like Merced. We saw rafters and kayakers, people fishing, visitors stopping along the roadside to enjoy the gushing waters and the sun’s rays on the white foaming water as it navigated around the various size boulders in the river. All made for spectacular sights and sounds.

We finished the warm sunny day with burgers and local drafts on the patio at the 1850 Restaurant and Brewery right in town Mariposa. Followed promptly by a long nap!

Tomorrow we will go back into the park to take the road down to Wawona, the southwestern section of the park and our last day in Yosemite.

May, 3, 2021

Happy 35^th Anniversary to us!

Yesterday I broke the protective glass lens on the Nikon camera and we couldn’t get the cover off  : (  so all the pictures from May 2^nd above are on our phone cameras. I was pretty bummed but, it is what it is. Our phones have pretty amazing cameras in them. We will be in Fresno, CA tonight and plan on getting the camera issues remedied.

Yosemite National Park was photographer Ansel Adams’ main inspiration. Ansel’s wife, Virginia Best, inherited her father’s Best’s Studio in 1936. It still stands in Yosemite Valley today, under the name The Ansel Adams Gallery.

The only direct road to and from the town of Mariposa to Yosemite National Park experienced a devastating landslide in 2006. The Ferguson Landslide in the Merced River Valley cut off the main road completely. For several months, people who worked in the park were forced to drive two hours, one way, around the mountains to get to work. The local economy was hurt so badly, a state of emergency was called in June of 2006. Temporary bridges were built within a few months, but it wasn’t until June of 2008 that the current two bridges we drove over several times, to and from Mariposa, were built to circumvent traffic around the slide.

We headed out for our last day in Yosemite. Once we were through the Arch Rock Entrance on El Portal Road from Mariposa, we headed southeast as we had done yesterday, but this time continued due south on the Wawona Road climbing to 6000 feet in elevation. On the way, we enjoyed spectacular views of some of Yosemite’s most famous scenery, El Capitan, Half Dome and Bridalveil Fall from Tunnel View lookout. We also saw what can happen when fires rage through hundreds of years of forest growth seeing evergreens with no growth and new forest floor plants struggling to regrow 30 years after a fire.

Arriving in Wawona we stopped at the Pioneer Yosemite History Center. An outdoor village of buildings that have been moved from various locations in the park to this one community museum. I am in awe of the hard work it took to build late 19^th century buildings. There was a covered bridge, jail, mountaineer’s cabin, military outpost buildings and a homestead to name a few.

Wawona Visitor Center is not open for the season yet. It is next to the Wawona Hotel which is being readied for summer guests. There was a general store and post office near the entrance to the pioneer museum that was open and we found a picnic table to enjoy our lunch before a walk in the woods.

Across the street from this historic hotel site is a dog friendly hike Gary had researched and located. The Wawona Meadows Trail followed an old horse path, turned stage coach road, turned forest road. The meadows that the trail encircles have had a nine-hole golf course on it since 1918! Other portions of the meadows have been used for agriculture, horse grazing and even an airstrip over the years. The wooded, maintained road consisting of dirt, gravel and old blacktop here and there, from years ago, was a pleasure to walk on. What a difference from the bustle of the popular locations in the park to this quiet stroll amongst large coniferous trees and old split rail fences… and… not another sole in sight. Rangeley had a trickling stream to play in with his sticks and ran free to his heart’s content, I loved the forest bird chatter and Gary enjoyed the history of the golf course. A great time was had by all : )

Mariposa Groves was not open while we were there so we exited the park through the south entrance and into the Sierra National Forest. The road remained twisty-turny like the road through the Merced Valley by the river. It soon straightened out and quickly turned to very flat, golden grass fields as far as the eyes could see. A stark contrast to the last few days in the mountains of Yosemite.

We are spending the evening doing the usual when we get to a bigger town. We are in Fresno, CA for the night (pop. 500,000+) to shop for Rangeley’s food (he’s fed an all raw DIY diet), a cover and protective glass lens for our camera, quarters for laundry and doing this journal. We will make chocolate chip cookies and toast to celebrate what a splendid 35 years of marriage, over 38 years together, we have made for one another.

We have planned for over 40 years to enjoy life and travel by age 60. And here we are!

Tomorrow starts yet another wonderful adventure, experiencing some of what Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks have in store for us!