October 6, 2014 Monday   Palo Alto and Redwood City, CA

We awoke early for our journey to Yosemite National Park.  With only one wrong turn we were over the Dumbarton Bridge to East Bay.  There were signs to San Jose so we both broke into the song.  Burt and Dionne were good, weren't they? 

Then we hit the traffic as we pulled onto the I-880.  Three lanes were filled with 18 wheelers so we had them on each side of Cream Puff.  Soon we were headed east toward Livermore/Stockton and the traffic almost thinned out.  We went from the city to surburbs (with boxed apartments everywhere on the hillsides) to agricultural land.  We were in the San Joachim Valley where they grow fruits and vegetables.  Almonds are a big crop in California and it is their main use of water in the state.  It takes a lot of water to grow almonds.  You had better eat your almonds now.  I have a feeling when the real water wars start, almonds will be the first to go in California.

Speaking of water, French told us of the drought they have been experiencing in the Bay Area. He was trying to water his trees to keep them alive but the grass looks parched everywhere.  Recall that we ran into this a few days ago as we traveled down from the wine country in the north.  The vineyards, of course, are watered but you can see that the rest of the landscape is suffering from lack of rain.  The grass is not green.  It is a yellow color and hay-like in appearance.

Within a few hours we saw the signs we dreaded..warnings that the Tioga Pass was coming up. When you read about steep passes in the U.S. (something you do if you are pulling a travel trailer), Tioga has a reputation.  Signs warn even cars to turn off their air conditioning before going up the pass.  The grade is so steep for so long that it taxes all engines but especially those that are pulling weight.  Fiona has analog temperature gauges for both the engine and the transmission so I can monitor how she handles the grades.  She got an A though Lib and I get a C.  The needles never went above mid-point on the gauges.  Fiona did fine.  But we had to deal with the tight curves and oncoming traffic that is trying to brake coming toward you.  Some of the curves have 20 mph limits and, if you are pulling a trailer, you follow the speed limits or below. 

Soon we were over the dreaded pass and Rhonda was barking out instructions to our destination.  We had made reservations at an RV Park near the west entrance to Yosemite National Park.  We would be near a small little town, Groveland, CA.   The park has no wifi and no cell service.  But, we were able to get our satellite TV so we had some one-way communication with the world.

We got to the park fairly early and unhitched Cream Puff.  After a Maggie walk around the park, we took off to check out Groveland, a very small town about 11 miles away.  We found a nice market and bought some fresh produce and other supplies.  Still no real bagels.  Pepperidge Farm is about as close as you can get. (French told me they have a Jewish Bakery in Palo Alto but we never made it to that bakery),

Back to the park where we meet some other folk.  Two German couples in an RV next to us and some people from Phoenix who brought their daughter here for her fall break in school.  We also met a nice British couple from the Southhampton area.  They flew into Denver and “let a motorcar” and are traveling to the west coast with a stop for a day at Yosemite.   Our national parks attract quite a few international tourists.

We had a nice dinner, watched a little TV and off to bed.

October 7, 2014  Tuesday  Yosemite National Park

After a leisurely morning of coffee and chatting with our neighbors from Phoenix, we are off to the park.  The park entrance is 12 miles from our RV Park.  They do have camping in the park but this time of year it is limited to tent camping.  Much of the park is getting ready to close.  One of the main roads into the park closes next month because the weather becomes so iffy.  We heard from the English couple that they had 3 feet of snow at Estes Park last week and they closed the road to Rocky Mountain National Park.  Wow! We spent a week there about 6 weeks ago.  So far, we've hit the weather window perfectly.  Except for a few cold nights at Yellowstone, we've had excellent weather.

Prior to the park entrance you start seeing some of the valleys carved out by the glaciers.  At one lookout, you can see how the Rim Fire of August 2013 really ravaged this area.  In fact, the RV Park we are in was evacuated and the fire did get on their property but they didn’t lose any buildings.

You can see how devastating this fire was in the photos below.

This area is called The Rim, hence the name Rim Fire

And this is what the Rim looks like today...pretty stark! Check out the dry grass in the bottom left of this photo.  It sort of looks like my hair!

Soon we entered the park and when the young, female Ranger asked us for our fee, we held up our “Senior Pass” card and said “We are the elderly.” (Once you are 62 you can buy a pass that gets you in all National Parks).  This usually gets a smile from a Ranger.  Only once, on a busy and obviously harried morning at Yellowstone, did the Ranger not smile.  But I think he was awfully close to qualifying as “the elderly” so maybe that explains why he didn’t smile.  With a big grin, our Ranger waived us through. 

The Rangers are Friendly, Courteous and Kind!

It was fascinating to us that we drove for miles still seeing the remnants of the Rim Fire.  Many trees were burned and dying.  Timber trucks were cutting and hauling off huge timbers…and coming down the Tioga pass fully loaded!

Soon we started seeing the burns fade out but only to drought-stricken land.  More yellow, hay type grasses along the roadside.  Fire warning state “VERY HIGH” hazard of forest fire.  So when you see that the west is having a drought on the news, we are in the midst of it here.  You can easily “see” the drought.

Just as we were having some doubts about what Yosemite would look like, we started seeing better signs of life; more green areas.   We were getting near the river and streams that flow out of the granite mountains of Yosemite.  As we learned traveling through Montana, it was easy for the early explorers and settlers to find the water.  All they had to do was look for the trees.  The rivers are lined with trees.

The road was better than Glacier Park’s Road to the Sun but it also is winding, full of curves and there is a deadly penalty awaiting in many areas should you venture too far to the side.   And there are tunnels!  I can’t imagine how they carved these tunnels, one of them fairly long, through these granite mountains.

There are three tunnels on the way to the valley floor of Yosemite.

The first signs of the landmarks we’ve all seen for Yosemite started to appear.  Many of the famous landmarks are on the valley floor and that was where we were headed.

Half Dome

El Capitan

If you watch the Ken Burns series on the National Parks or do any reading about them, you will learn about a guy named John Muir.  He was the one person who saw what was happening to the open lands…the killing of the buffalo herds and basically raping and pillaging the land if there was any monetary gains to be made.  (You can get the series on NetFlix).  He begged President Teddy Roosevelt to meet with him in the forest and he picked Yosemite for the meeting.  Roosevelt “slipped away” from his other presidential duties and met with Muir.  They camped at the site below.

What happened at this campsite changed the U.S.  Go Teddy!

He spent about three days with Muir and by the end, had become enthusiastic about conservation and saving places like Yosemite for the generations of the future.  That meeting was very important as it led to Roosevelt becoming a supporter of the national park system in our country.  Ken Burns documentary actually shows the men camping in this area.  What you don’t see is what they looked at across from the campsite. The following photos are what they saw opposite of their camp.

Muir was a pretty smart guy.  We can all be thankful that he was or there would be a Subway and McDonald's here.

What these photos show is what makes Yosemite so fascinating.  You stand in a meadow in a valley and look up to cathedral like granite mountains that go straight up.

When you look up..this is what it seems like..

We went by the Village which houses a Post Office, museum, visitor’s center and, of course, places for the thousands of tourists to buy food and souvenirs.  Again, we are here at one of the best times to come and we still found it hard to find a parking place.  I can’t imagine what it is like in the summer.  We were told the line to get in the park (where the Ranger charges you or checks your “elderly” pass) is over 2 hours!

I took this photo because there was a large group of international tourists eating next to us.  They brought in their own food which looked like raw seafood to us. (See boxes on table). I guess they didn't want American hamburgers, french fries or pizza.  (We have found that almost all these places have vegetarian meals).  I could not tell which country they were from.  They all had shaved heads, even the women, and some wore what appeared to be ceremonial type clothing.  But, again, by far the most frequent country represented was China.  There were bus loads, literally, of Chinese tourists.  Other than that, we ran into quite a few Germans.  This was very similar to our Yellowstone experience where Michelle and I were trying to develop an understanding of where the tourists were coming from.  Again, the photo below does not show how many people were at this location.  I would say there were about 200 people in this immediate area; probably about 2,000 people at the valley floor based upon the number of cars in the parking lots. All forecasts use the SWAG method.

Our Parks are filled with International Tourists

We ran into a couple with Auburn shirts on.  I spoke to them to find out where they were from.  Huntsville.  And when I volunteered we were Alabama fans he had to volunteer that he had just watched the replay of the Bama v Ole Miss game on some cable channel and, he added, with a huge smile across his face: “They lost the replay too!”  He just had to say that.  I just nodded in agreement as I’ve found all video replays end up with the same outcome.   So, did I let his comment bother me?  NOT AT ALL, DAMN IT!

We went into one of the buildings that had all sorts of displays explaining the wildlife, plants, and origins of Yosemite.  First, yes, they do have bears here and they do have brown as well as black bears.  (Remember they differ in that black bears like garbage; brown bears like you!).  But, apparently they aren’t having many bear problems now.  My guess is they’ve left looking for some rain.  They do have the bear warning signs all over the place.

Second, Yosemite has Mountain Lions.  They tell you not to crouch and hide but to make noise if you are confronted with one.  The only wildlife we saw other than squirrels hanging out at the outside dining areas, was one coyote that ran across the road in front of us.  He looked large and healthy and had a huge bushy tail.  Must be plenty of food for him to eat.

How did these tall granite mountains appear?  Seems like it was a volcano followed by glacier action.  This sign explains it:

We spent most of the day on the valley floor and we also took a drive down Highway 140 for a few miles.  Then we realized Highway 120 was the way home so we doubled back.   The other main road through the park we take tomorrow and we will spend quite a time on this trek as it will take us about 50 miles completely across the park on a route that is north of the valley floor.  We are looking forward to more sights of Yosemite tomorrow.

Addendum: About the time we drove down Highway 140 a fire erupted.  They immediately sent in planes to douse the fire with water and a plane crashed.  Tragically, a pilot was killed in a crash.  We tried to get local information during the night about the fire and we could not get any information.  I even sat in Fiona and tried to get radio stations. We only heard about the fire by watching Lawrence O'Donnell's, The Last Word, on satellite. It appeared as one of those "breaking news" stories.  So, we went to bed early thinking we may be awakened at 2am to evacuate.  Fortunately, that did not happen.  But we got a good, long night's sleep!

More on Yosemite tomorrow!