When we bought the National Parks Pass last year, this park was in our sites. Rodney had not visited in 20 years and Rasila had never visited. Rodney took Friday off and we left at 5:00 AM to beat the LA traffic. We stopped at a Starbucks just past the grapevine (I-5 pass into the San Joaquin Valley), and again for a date shake just north of Visalia on CA-99. In Fresno, we took CA-41 to the park.
We stopped and took in the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad. It was fun, but a little more expensive than Rodney thought it should be. We had missed the last train of the day (shortly after 11 AM), so we got a ride down in a rail car powered by a Model-T engine. We road back in the train, though.
The snow was sparse this year and all roads were open, so we drove to Glacier Point on our entry. It is a 16 mile (27km) segway off CA-41, but worth it for the spectacular view of Half Dome (see the pictures) and the valley.
We stayed at Curry Village in a tent cabin. It ended up being a lot of fun, although I would prefer camping usually. Our reservation included breakfast, which turned out to be great! We went to the El Capitan Picnic Area Friday and Saturday to cook our own dinner and on Sunday we were at a Picnic Area between the Yosemite Village and The Ahwahnee.
We took our tandem bike, but forgot our helmets! Luckily, Curry Village has a bike rental place that also rents helmets, so we rented some for $5/each. We took the bike to the base of the Vernal and Nevada Falls trail and took what's known as the Mist Trail to the top of Vernal Falls (about 1000 feet/300m elevation gain). The Mist Trail is carved out steps in the granite that is dripping wet, so we chose to take the longer way home, which is 3 times as far. The total hike was about 4.5 miles/7.5 km. Rasila wore some blisters on her feet even though we put moleskin on and had her good hiking socks. I suspect we need to get her new hiking boots that are more snug to prevent her feet from moving so much in the heel. We also visited the lower Yosemite Falls, where we saw a California golden bear tooling through the woods!
The next day, we took the bike for a tour of the valley and did do a 3 mile/5 km hike along Mirror Lakeas well as the 12 mile/20 km loop of the valley. We had 3 deer cross Tenaya Creek in front of us and feed right off the trail. They were obviously used to humans and allowed their pictures to be taken.
We took the scenic way home, driving CA-120 over Tioga Pass (elev. 9945 feet/3031 m) to Lee Vining and US-395 about 24 miles north of Mammoth Lakes. We made it home in time to see most of the Stanley Cup game one where the Anaheim Ducks are currently up 2-0!
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Joshua Tree National Park, May 11-13, 2007
As a "warmup" for the camping season, we made a trip to Joshua Tree National Park in mid May. Joshua Tree is famous for it's monzogranite piles of rock that attract climbers from the entire world. We took Ziwi with us, so we didn't do any climbing.
The park is very close, being just north of Palm Springs. We drove out the CA-91 to the CA-60 to I-10 to the 29 Palms Highway and entered via the West Entrance. Our National Parks Pass doesn't expire until June 30th, so we had entry covered.
We camped at the Ryan Campground, since the Hidden Valley and Jumbo Rocks Campgrounds are usually filled first. We didn't make a reservation since only a couple campgrounds actually accept reservations and both were not in the Lost Horse Valley, which is where we wanted to be. We arrived about 6:45, after leaving at 3:30. Traffic was nasty on the 91 until the I-15 intersection, otherwise we could have been there by 6 easily.
Weather was nice. It was cool, but not cold at night (about 55F/13C), and not too hot during the day (86F/30C). We took in Key's View of the Coachella Valley and the 4 wheel drive Geological Tour and read during the mid afternoon heat on Saturday. On Sunday, we drove to the border of the Mojave/Colorado desert to see the Cholla Gardens and exited through 29 Palms.
We'll be back after it cools down (October?)
The park is very close, being just north of Palm Springs. We drove out the CA-91 to the CA-60 to I-10 to the 29 Palms Highway and entered via the West Entrance. Our National Parks Pass doesn't expire until June 30th, so we had entry covered.
We camped at the Ryan Campground, since the Hidden Valley and Jumbo Rocks Campgrounds are usually filled first. We didn't make a reservation since only a couple campgrounds actually accept reservations and both were not in the Lost Horse Valley, which is where we wanted to be. We arrived about 6:45, after leaving at 3:30. Traffic was nasty on the 91 until the I-15 intersection, otherwise we could have been there by 6 easily.
Weather was nice. It was cool, but not cold at night (about 55F/13C), and not too hot during the day (86F/30C). We took in Key's View of the Coachella Valley and the 4 wheel drive Geological Tour and read during the mid afternoon heat on Saturday. On Sunday, we drove to the border of the Mojave/Colorado desert to see the Cholla Gardens and exited through 29 Palms.
We'll be back after it cools down (October?)
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