Three Parks, no waiting

Today is our last day in the foothills of the Sierras. So of course we did our best to pack in all the experience we could of the three national parks on our doorstep (so to speak, we put a ridiculous number of miles on our long-suffering diesel) and search out the places the casual tourist wouldn't find in the last week.

Monday
Hikes to Bridalveil and Lower Yosemite falls in Yosemite park. I was pleased to find both of these hikes were short (well under a mile, all paved) though a bit vertical. They both put you as close as you can get to the cliff walls. You can actually get even closer just by climbing the large sharp tumbled boulders that litter the bases of all the cliffs. sometimes you can even relate which huge rock fell off which part of the wall. We finally figured out the shuttle system so we were able to find an open parking space and just ride from place to place, allowing the designated driver (me) to rubberneck.

Okay, this is a prime spot for tourists.

There are signs all over telling of the danger of doing just this.

There wasn't much snow last year and this is the dry season. Bridalveil is just a trickle.

That green streak is where Lower Yosemite flows......it's still there, but not much.

These big tumbled rocks are all over.

Half Dome



 Lambert Dome

I just can't resist a cool motorcycle.
This 1913 Indian Powerplus is the very first motorcycle to be refused admittance to the park.
The owner took it apart, packed in the pieces separately and rode through the park anyway.
50 or so years later he had the bike restored and donated it to Yosemite.

Lots of basketwork in museum. There were several tribes living along the canyon, each with their own styles.

Tuesday
Might as well take advantage of the shuttles, eh? This time though, there wasn't a bus stop near Mirror Lake. Not bad, maybe a mile or so hike, over improved trails and even asphalt roads no longer used by traffic for one reason or another. Only thing, when we got there, the lake wasn't. Dry winter, snowfall 10% of average. The stream just up and got tired before it got to the dam. Not a man-made dam, by the way. A few hundred years ago, a rockslide off the cliffs dammed a stream, making a lake where there hadn't been one before. Did I mention there are rocks of all sizes all over the valley floor? Anyway, still a nice walk. On the way back we got a little disoriented and happened on the Ahwanee Hotel. This high-buck lodging was built 1n 1927. Among other things it was used as a convalescence center for the navy during WW2 and was the model for the set of "The Shining". Just down the way is the Royal Arch, an arch-shaped erosion feature of the valley wall. After that we hiked on down to Yosemite Village and hopped on an express shuttle to El Capitan, mainly to check out the beach alongside the river. As we got off the bus we saw a small crowd around a couple of telescopes. Through the scopes you could see two pairs of climbers on the face of El Capitan. Every now and then the scale of this place hits you between the eyes! They were all on the third day of their climb and looked to have a couple of days yet to go. One of the young men at the scopes had been up it 3 times. He explained that they carry 170 or so pounds of gear up with them, first climbing a section then hauling the stuff up after them. It includes at least a gallon of water per day, canned food, a cot(!) and a "poop tube", a piece of 3" PVC with end caps. Of course, if you want to wimp out, you can always hike uphill about 17 miles to the back side. Oh yeah, the river was very cool, also cold.

They put one of these signs wherever a bear is killed. Drivers speed up when they see the bear and run over a cub.

Most of the trails we walked that day looked like this.
More a road than a trail.

Here's Mirror Lake where the creek got tired and just quit.

We saw lots of horseback tours.

Ahwanee Hotel. Rooms range from $438 to $1060 per night.  

Ahwanee Hotel

Royal Arch

Can you see the climber? Just left of center.

Trout, just sitting there.

Merced River in Yosemite Valley.



Gratuitous scenery

Wednesday
It turns out there was a whole national park we'd pretty much ignored, King's Canyon. This is the place the locals go to avoid (mostly) the tourists. It's right there on the maps but there's only the one road into it (dead end). Spectacular scenery along about 25 miles of, um, interesting road. Just take it easy, stop often at the turnouts and appreciate. At the end is Zumwault Meadow with a couple of mile easy hike leading across the river, through meadow and bogs and then through a spectacular rock field up to the valley walls. On the way back we took a turnoff to see Stump Field. Gee, I hadn't had a chance to use 4wd in a while, works fine. Stump Field is the location of a short-lived logging operation and sawmill. Nice place to see tree stumps the size of houses.

The foothills in Kings Canyon National Park are covered with grass and really big boulders.

Typical windshield view. Go slow, don't look down.

Find the road. Hint - it has a switchback.

There's a river down there. Wish I had 3D.

That's the kind of driving I'm talking about!



At a scenic stop, I met a local who fishes this river.
He swore it was full of huge trout.
From the looks of it, the trout must be mostly bruises.

View from Zumwault Meadow.

Another favorite view of mine.

Somewhere in there is a hiking trail.

Oh boy, I get to try my 4wd!

Stump Meadow

Biig stumps!



Mike and young sequoia

Most of the trees in this picture are young sequoias.

I honestly thought there was something wrong with my glasses.
No, those are actually 3 mountains almost lined up.

Thursday
We gave in to exhaustion. Time to enjoy the A/C. Temperatures in the valley have been in the high 80's to over a hundred degrees during the day though evenings are a very comfortable 60's or 70's. We also  picked up the new toy my darling wife ordered from Amazon. A dashcam! I haven't had time to do much with it and editing the films looks to be a pain but now I can hopefully capture some more dramatic scenery.

Friday
In the extreme northwestern edge of Yosemite is a place called Hetch Hetchy. Who can resist a name like that? I first had no idea that there was a dam there. Not only is there a dam, a very pretty reservoir, yet another challenging scenic drive, but there is also a long running controversy about the dam's existence. I'll just give you a link, it's way too deep to go into here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O'Shaughnessy_Dam_(California)

More of those grass and tree covered foothills.

The river gets further down later.

Natural tunnel

Actually, the road does go down at that angle.

Elevation of 4750 is not nearly as high as other park places.

Government property. Do not remove.

Down the face.

Way down there is the outlet for the generators.

Even a tunnel at the end of the Hetch Hetchy Dam

It leads to the access road around the reservoir.

Hetch Hetchy Reservoir waters San Francisco

One last look at Half Dome as we say good bye to Yosemite.

So tomorrow we head for San Francisco. Well, Marin RV Park in Greenbrae. It's near public transportation, both land and sea so we should be well situated for exploring the city.