Yosemite

 

Time to leave the Ponderosa and head south. We need to go through numerous mountain passes to get to our next stop. They start at 7700' and go up to 9900' before we start working our way down. 

Because they hug the mountains, there are a lot of switchbacks and hairpin turns as we rocket to sure doom.

Sheer luck and incredible driving get us through. Now we have time to enjoy the grandeur of the majestic peaks. The respite from the driving gives me a chance to massage my braking foot. 

Anyhoo, we arrived in Bishop CA safely and got settled in. It's noticeably warmer here; have we finally escaped the freezing nights? 

The main reason we went this way was to go see Yosemite Park. Actually, our mascot, Yosemite Sam has been bugging us for years to go see his home, so here we go. Why do all our trips start with impenetrable mountain walls?

Well, this is the way through. This is Tioga Pass which gets us to Yosemite Park. If you can see the narrow scar on the left side, that's our route. 11 miles long and over 9800' high. Glad we're driving the jeep. 

At the top of the pass we can see part of Yosemite Valley, our goal today. That bump in the middle is half dome, a famous feature in Yosemite. Another couple of hours to get there though. 

This is the kind of scenery we drove through all day. You should see the pictures I'm not showing.

Once we arrived at the valley, the drive was relaxing and beautiful. What a great area to explore. 

This rock is called El Capitan. Once considered unclimbable. Thousands of feet of sheer granite, as smooth as glass. One of the major features of Yosemite. Which reminds me, when you think of Yosemite, what comes to mind as a must see there? That's what we came up with. Couldn't think of anything either. We had heard of El Capitan so here it is. It's an incredible park for awesome vistas but nothing that is a must see, like Old Faithful in Yellowstone; at least nothing we could think of.

One thing we have learned with all our park visits is that nothings open this time of year. Grammie is getting our lunch ready while I plan the rest of the day. The food does taste good at this altitude amongst the whispering trees and smell of  pine. 

The drive through the valley is lovely. It's a warm day with lots of sun and lovely colours, surrounded on all sides by vertical cliffs and waterfalls. Well, except that water levels are low and there aren't any waterfalls right now. Some are over 500' high; just use your imagination. 

The drive out of the canyon hugs the cliffs and goes through tunnels. In most cases there aren't any guard rails so PAY ATTENTION! 

Back up through the high passes. This road just opened 2 days ago after being closed for snow. Glad we made it through. 

There are lots of roadside stops and we hit most of them. Grammie's not getting too close to the cliff to her right. And she's bracing against the high winds coming down the pass. 

A lot of the park is made up of these granite hills. Very impressive. 

The lakes are awesome but I'll bet they're cold. It's 9000' and most of the water comes from melting snow. 

We stopped here for a snack break but sat in the Jeep. Cold and a very strong icy wind.

Here's the final pass we need to get through to get out of the park. Our route hugs the far left hills. This pass was built in 1910 for $62,000. It's 11 miles long and rises 8000' to over 9800', or as in our case, falls 8000'. Yosemite Sam told us it's just like he remembered. Well, we've been to all the parks on our list for this fall so I guess it's time for our final run to Hemet. Hope you've enjoyed the tours along the way. Maybe one more post about this trip. I know, is that a promise or a threat?