Two Days in Yosemite

Yosemite.... According to one of the guides.. Indian for "There might be a killer amongst them"....


Follow the signs... Park....get out the park map....terrible...terrible.... Yet another piece of work by a graphic designer who has let their ego get in the way of the effective transmission of information.... Eventually find our way to Lodge... Book a tour for tomorrow.... Stop in the food court for coffee....Hire some bikes.... Head off... 100 metres... Have you got the camera.... Oh... Oh... Check the bike rental... Check the food court... Check the front desk... Fill out a form.... Check the tour desk.... The camera is restored to its rightful owners... Fire up the bikes.... Explore... The Falls...

 

 

 

 

Past the meadows....

 

 

Past Curry Village.... Exhaust the batteries on the camera... Exhaust the legs of penguin number one.... Rest up at Happy Isles..... Slowly back to Lodge..... Photograph.... Photograph some more....

 

Squirrels everywhere...

 

 

It is not only the squirrels who are active.... The woodpeckers have been at work...

 

 

The population of visitors has risen rapidly and by 12:00 has peaked... People park along roadsides.... Give up on the established car parks... We dread to think what August will be like.... If the plan was to make things difficult for cars then the plan has succeeded... The problem is that the alternative to the car is not sufficiently attractive to lure their owners away from them... The penquins think it might be time for the park service to rethink it's parking and shuttle arrangements.... It is hard to imagine that the park can sustain the automotive population...

We cut and run early.... This is a special place... Dine in the restuarant at the Yosemite View Lodge.... Surprised.... Actually ok....

Up early.... Into the ParkAnd through the portal.....

 

The tour starts at 8:45.... 63 year old female driver and guide.... 40 foot bus .... Roads too small for the size of the bus.. Great driver... Great guide....

Through the Yosemite Tunnel.... Upto Glacier Point.... Look in amazement down on the valley.... Look with utter respect at the hikers emerging from their climb up 4 mile trail..... 3500 feet in 4 miles... Average grade.... 17%...

 

 

 

Watch female after female attempt to make use of the rest rooms.... Only the most desparate among them able to persist in the presence of the foul air exhausting itself from the long drop toilets.... Again think of the chaos that must exist in the august peak

Californian poppies... Wild flowers everywhere...

 

 

 

 



On to the grove of giant sequoia at Warona.... Large... Large... Large....

 

 

 

 

A fallen sequoia... On the ground for at least 200 years.... 96 short steps long.... 180 feet...

 

 

 

 

Enjoyed the tour.... Enjoyed Yosemite... Wait an inordinate length of time for a shuttle to the car park.... The shuttles are caught up in the five o'clock traffic chaos.... Join the chaos ourselves....

Feel like writing to the head of the park service... Would suggest that all visitor cars be removed from the park... Shuttle services and bikes be enormously expanded.. And those toilets!!!!!!

A lasting memory...

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Towards Yosemite

The gunfighters rise early.... Refreshed... Ready to leave the Badlands far behind.. Beatty is quiet save for the gas station... The long distance truckie need their services and petrol is just one of them...

 

It takes some time for the dry barrenness of the landscape to be tempered with touches of green... To look like it might be a place that a human could productively sustain itself.... Slowly but surely the tempering takes place... The wide, wide gently undulating valley floors overseen on one side by significant mountain ranges by Australian standards and by the enormous Sierra Nevada's on the other.

 

 

We keep an eye on what the garmin lady is telling us to do but let her have her head... She avoids the main roads.. Takes us past signs that say no service for 50 miles... Past sign designating open range land.... Over cattle guards...

 

Through Lida.. At the top of a moderate pass... The historic meeting place of the neighbouring Indian tribes.. The site of now deserted mining exploits.... Wander into the old town on gravel tracks past dilapidated and deserted houses ... Clearly it doesn't get too many visitors.... One residence is impressive by the standards of the area.. The owner stands on his balcony observing the interlopers... Perhaps they may be prospective purchasers... Ever the optimist.... Onwards...

 

The newer Valley shows more signs of agricultural productivity... It may well have been conveted by the Indians of the former Valley... Through Oasis.... Through Dyer... Join the highway 6... The route first grade north... Then West.... A change in course dictated by White Mountain Peak ..... A lazy 14000 feet.... Out of Nevada... Into California... Pass through the agriculture inspection station... Memories of the causeway station at home.... Into the Fish Creek Valley... The agricultural prowess of southern California on display... Huge centre pivot Irrigators... Crops of wheat and other cereals... A vineyard...


Follow the signs towards bishop.... Turn on to i120 at Benton before we reach Bishop..


We feel like we have reached civilisation... A sign to Yosemite still 150 miles away... Let's have a coffee... A country diner precisely like the country dinners of television and cinema..... Sit up at the counter.. Order coffee.. We are exactly what this long distance truck driver is looking for... Someone to talk to.... We listen to his tale .... From Idaho..comes through here often... Didn't sleep well last night... This is the last trip before he and his wife head off fishing... He has a fishing spot no one else knows about... Gave up alcohol 20 years ago... Did it save your life.... Not sure but it saved my marriage.... His places his order.. We use the opportunity to escape...

 

More backroads.. More scenery to die for... Look at that view behind.... A road with no artificial adjustment of grade.... lay the road base on the existing undulations of the terrain... Perfect straight bitumen.. The result... A poor man's role coaster... Enjoy... Approach the crest... It is blind.... Off course it is straight.... Crest the brow.... Check that the road is still straight... Enjoy the exhilaration of the next blind crest.... Crest after crest....

 

 

Approach Lake Mono.... Through forests of impressive Jefferys pines.... Stop overlooking the lake.... Penguin number one engages the American tourists... They tell us off their travels... Enjoy i120 they say..... That will be just wonderful for you.... Enjoy Yosemite they say.... We met there 40 years ago...


 

 

 

To Lee Vining.... Turn on to i120.. up the Tioga Pass and into the national park....

 

Stunning.... Just stunning... Everything that anyone has ever told us about Yosemite and we are just inside the park..... It is not quite summer yet the park is already busy.... a long... long... drive through the national park from West to East... The road twisting... The surface perfect.. The scenery amazing... Out of the park to the Yosemite View Lodge... tired... exhilarated...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy