We awoke to a clear blue-sky. No white smoke nor could we smell any smoke. We talked to our friends from Phoenix who had told us they were stopped going out of the park as the rangers were handing out road-closed messages and alternative route maps due to the forest fire. They said it took them about an hour to get out of the park because everyone had to wait at the exit to receive information about the fire. We JUST missed all this by minutes yesterday.
Our Phoenix friends had no new news about the fire. But, they had decided to go west and spend a few days in Carmel and Monterey Bay instead of another day in the park. I decided to drive to a nearby restaurant that was bustling with breakfast business. I had no trouble getting help when I walked in, map in hand, and asked: "Anyone know anything about the fire." People love to talk when they are drinking coffee. What I learned was that Highway 140 was closed and it runs southwest of the main part of the park. We wanted to travel along Highway 120, a west to east route that is north of the valley floor. I was assured that 120 was open. The only problem, you get on 120 where it intersects with 140. So, we took the chance and took off. Fortunately, it was exactly as the coffee drinkers said. Signs closed off the road to our right, Highway 140, but the road was open to 120.
Highway 120 across Yosemite National Park is similar to many of the roads we find around the parks. Narrow, winding, sharp curves, with grades up and down! Also, there are usually 20-somethings following right on your rear end as if they may be able to pass. Sure! But, we do pull over frequently at pull-outs and let the 20-somethings scream by. By age 50 they will realize they need to slow down and enjoy where they are instead of thinking about where they are headed. I think my parents called that being mature.
Just as we make the turn, Lib catches smoke from the fire below us. This was all we saw of it and we were thankful for this!
You can just see the smoke, through the trees, in the valley
You don't want to go over the side of this road!
We rode through thick woods with giant trees for several miles. We have been lucky that we've been seeing the color change for a few weeks now. Even though this area is in severe drought, you still have the color change where there is foliage. Continuing on, we begin to break out of the woods and see the huge granite outcroppings.
We stopped at Olmsted Point. See the sights below...
The back side of Half Dome. You can see the other side from the valley floor where we were yesterday.
This photo shows where the glacier made a smooth surface of the granite as it slowly scraped along the earths surface
Fiona and Cream Puff parked at Olmsted Point
There are several small lakes along the roadside. Tuolumne Meadows is a beautiful sight. Supposedly you can see wildlife in the meadows but the best time is at dawn and sunset. We were there for neither.
Those are granite rocks in the foreground. Granite is everywhere; large and small pieces
Ellery Lake is at the east end of the park
Soon we are out of the park. It was a beautiful 50 mile drive. Now, I'm so smart, I've figured out a way to go south toward Las Vegas by using some California State highways. Well, this was good and bad. Good in that we saw some incredible scenery and had an unusual driving experience. Bad in that, for many miles, we felt like we were on the moon in terms of isolation. Secondly, bad in that we had an unusual driving experience!
Some of the colors along U. S. Highway 395
Highway 395 was beautiful and then we turned onto CA 168. As soon as we turned to the east I told Lib, "I think we are going to have to go over those mountains ahead!" What seemed like a simple little State Highway, was a trek across the Sierra Nevada mountain range! We would finally make it up and over a mountain, relieved to see a valley below but, in the distance, another mountain! This went on most of the afternoon. We tried to get some pics.
Coming over one mountain and, ahead, another!
Talk about isolation! Can you see the road in the valley? Other cars were rare. Look at the mountains in the distance...we had been over all of them!
At this point I became a bit alarmed. I was constantly monitoring Fiona's vital signs. I sure didn't want to have a breakdown out here. Forget cell signals. I could only envision sitting on the side of the road with a broken down vehicle and Clint Eastwood, smoking that little cigar, riding up on horseback. It looked just like one of those spaghetti western scenes.
Now what replaced this anxiety of isolation was the anxiety brought on by this sign as we neared the top of yet another mountain...
What? One lane road! This is a State Highway! It would be bad enough on a county road but a State Highway!
While there was little traffic there was traffic...sometimes a speeding 18 wheeler. What was worse, as we approached the one lane, we could see it was really a narrow piece of road between two rock walls. We both said something akin to a prayer about hoping there was no one coming our way and kept going. This is what we soon saw.
Note the brake marks on the road. I suppose this is what you do when you spot another vehicle coming at you! Fortunately, we made it through!
Now you may be wondering why, if we were under such duress, would we be taking pictures? For this, we have to give our boating buddies, Todd and Joy Greer, credit. We learned, if the situation is not really life threatening (OK, maybe some guesswork here), they would often take a photo to remember the event. On one of our first trips together, we had sailed across the Gulf from Pensacola to Clearwater, Florida. When we pulled up to the dock, Joy got her hand in between the boat and a piling. This is not good when the boat weighs several thousand pounds and is moving. Joy fell prostrate on the deck, rolling in pain. My immediate thoughts were "ambulance?" "Hospital?" "Broken arm"??? But all these negative thoughts subsided when Joy looked up and said "Don't stand there, get the camera!" We continued to do that the next quarter century so its now part of our DNA. Lib had the camera out and was "at ready." By the way, about 500 feet out of the one-lane, between- the-rocks road, we met a 20 something, speeding along toward us. Wheww! That was close!
By the way, it didn't hurt that Todd is an MD and had ice on her hand within a minute. A day later I was swinging Joy around a dance floor by that hand. She survived AND we had pictures!
Finally, we reached another U.S. Highway, 95, and the road was much more normal and had traffic. We decided not to try to get all the way to Las Vegas. Beatty, Nevada looked like it may be large enough to have an RV Park. This was the first time we had traveled without reservations but, as long as you are not near a National Park, reservations this time of year aren't that essential. We had our choice of three parks. We chose the Death Valley RV Resort. Yes, its near the entrance to Death Valley National Park but they had several vacancies.
We got parked and called Missie. All is "go" for picking her up at the Las Vegas airport on Friday! We are very excited about having our bud with us.
On to Las Vegas tomorrow!
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