BigWeather's Blog

I was remiss in the prior day’s blog in not mentioning what a beautiful location the Minden, Nevada HIEx we stayed in had — gorgeous view of the Sierra Nevada from the pool and breakfast room.  We woke up at 5a or so and were on the road by 7a in an attempt to get into Yosemite by 9a.  Really proud we were able to pull that off!  After McDonalds and gas we headed down route 395 to the end of Carson Valley, passing several ranches, and then into the hills.

The hills were rocky with scrub bushes dotting them.  We listened to the surprisingly close USA v. Lithuania basketball game (USA won 99-94, incidentally the score in the NCSU v. UNC game in 1991 when the Wolfpack won for the second time that season) as we drove on the windy road alongside a rocky stream.  We passed a very pretty blue lake called, appropriately enough, Topaz Lake and eventually arrived at Mono Lake and the town of Lee Vining, California.

We turned on to route 120, Tioga Pass Road, and drove the sixteen miles to the park entrance at Tioga Pass, elevation 9,945 feet.  We were stuck behind this really slow truck the whole time, until he finally turned off the road and into a campground.  Earlier a RV had courteously used a turnout to let the faster traffic by but the truck didn’t take the hint.  We also saw a helicopter flying low near the road and land at what must have been a helipad hidden from our view.

The peaks, despite weighing in at an impressive 10,000 feet plus, didn’t seem as huge as we were at nearly 10,000 feet ourselves.  Meadows, including the famous Tuolumne Meadows — the largest alpine meadow in the Sierra Nevadas, were all about, as well as small ponds.  Unfortunately the flowers were all gone, whether by drought or just being late season I don’t know.  It left the meadows brown, the main color coming from rocks that were scattered all about, deposited by glaciers long ago.  We stopped by the visitor center to acquaint ourselves with the park and what to see and do.  There were many hikers, including one just sitting in a portable chair in a meadow reading a book and relaxing.

During the long drive down to the village center we stopped a few times.  First at Tenaya Lake, a beautiful alpine lake surrounded by peaks.  Later we came to Olmsted Point, a vista that offered an amazing view backwards to Tenaya Lake as well as of Half Dome and parts of the valley.  It was named after Frederick Law Olmsted, famed landscape architect, who designed New York City’s Central Park and the Biltmore Estate’s landscape, among other things.  There were many hillsides worn smooth by glaciers and populated by many free-standing boulders deposited by glaciers as well.  It got to the point that I think “A glacier did it” is the geological equivalent of the standard answer for how things work in much fantasy, like Harry Potter — “A wizard did it.”

Arriving at the bottom of Tioga Pass Road we turned east into the valley, descending still and going through several tunnels.  Every once in a while we’d catch a stunning glimpse of the El Capitan or Half Dome, and even saw that Bridal Veil Falls was still flowing a little bit.  We were directed by a ranger to park pretty far from the village near a low stone bridge that offered a very nice view of Half Dome.

We first grabbed lunch, right at noon, at Dagnan’s Deli in the Village.  It wasn’t bad, Addison and I had meatball subs and the ladies had a pepperoni pizza.  We then checked out the Village Store as well as blew through the displays in the visitor center, and opted out of the Yosemite Museum as well as the Ansel Adams gallery.

Unfortunately the Valley was super crowded, as it was twenty years ago during my first visit.  Eager to get away I led the family on the small loop trail to Lower Yosemite Falls.  Sadly, it too was crowded and it turns out the falls were just a trickle — the bone dry stream beds and lack of any noise should’ve been a clue there.  You’d think the rangers would have a sign saying something to the effect of “Falls are dry, don’t waste your time!” at the head of the trail but ah well.  There were people (stupidly, in my mind) climbing up the dry falls bed strewn with huge boulders.

Right after the walk we head a couple of cracks of thunder and saw a lightning flash.  We had just made it back to the covered area at the Lower Yosemite Falls trail head when it started to rain.  Not super heavy or anything, and clearing in short order, it was nonetheless the first rain we had experienced during our two week (thus far) trip — incredible considering most of that was in the normally raining Pacific Northwest!

When the rain let up we set out for the car.  We saw a monarch butterfly that flitted close to us for quite a bit as well as some mule deer.  The first mule deer sighting was a male and female that were prancing about.  The male ran right in front of a car but luckily didn’t hit it while the female stopped short and decided not to risk it (smart!) — possibly because of her fawn which just came into view.  Some stupid tourists were getting as close to the fawn as possible and the mother moved in between them and her baby and stood her ground ferociously before a ranger saw it and yelled at the tourists to leave the fawn alone.

We crossed the street on to a boardwalk that crossed the large meadow (and some marsh) in the center of the Valley.  So this is where all the views had been hiding!  The Valley was thickly wooded outside of the meadow, obscuring gorgeous views of El Capitan and Half Dome, among others.  We also saw a second set of mule deer just relaxing in the shade of a tree.  Both had a nice sets of antlers.

Back at the car we headed out of the crowded valley and towards Glacier Point Road on route 41.  There was an incredible view to be had just prior to entering the long tunnel that led out of the Valley but we had to pass on it as no parking was to be found.

Glacier Point Road was quite interesting — a steady climb with quite a few curves and little to no shoulder leading to a steep drop.  We made it almost to the end of the twenty or so mile long road when a ranger blocked the road and was saying that law enforcement had closed the point.  Other people were parking on the sides of the road and walking the remaining distance, but we figured that if the road was closed it was for a reason and headed back down towards Mariposa Grove of giant sequoia trees.  A darn shame, as the view from Glacier Point is considered to be one of the best.

We got near the Mariposa Grove just after 5 o’clock and turned into the parking lot of the Pioneer Museum as the Grove lot was supposedly full.  There we bought some candy and such and learned that the Grove lot probably wasn’t full at the late hour but that the last guided tour tram ran at 5 o’clock.  The cashier said that she heard that Glacier Point had been closed due to an accident, but we never found out for sure (someone else said a hang gliding accident).

We parked at the Grove and enjoyed seeing even the giant sequoias to be found in the parking area.  Amazing trees!  Though not as high as the upper-300 foot tall redwoods the giant sequoias have very wide trunks and are the most voluminous trees in the world.  They are also long-lived, several in the grove were around 1,500 years old.

As we had missed the tram we decided to walk to the California Tunnel Tree, about 0.6 miles away (so a round trip total of just over a mile).  It was a moderate climb, climbing about 400 feet in that distance (nothing compared to the Valley to Glacier Point trail — 3,000 feet over four miles!).  Sadly, despite a split rail fence and repeated signs asking people to stay on the trail (as stepping near the trees can damage the root system and, eventually, the trees), some people just couldn’t resist going right up to the trees to get their picture taken.  I walked past one group and told them I hoped the tree fell on them but then realized that was a bit mean.  Oh well.

The trail started by passing by a huge fallen tree, one that had been documented down even in the late-1800s.  Soldiers charged with protecting the grove (set aside by President Lincoln in 1864 along with the Valley) posed by it every year for many, many years.  It was immense, particularly the root of the trunk.

We saw a small cluster of trees called the Bachelor and the Three Graces — the Three Graces were right on top of each other!  Apparently giant sequoias, when that close to others, doesn’t compete with them as most tress do.  Rather their root systems intertwine and they can share water and such.  Nifty.

It was at this point that Michelle decided not to go the remaining 0.3 miles and instead just sit on the bench.  Addison, Genetta, and I hiked on, up the steep and very dusty trail, to the Grizzly Giant.  What an immense tree! Impressive in a way that no other tree I’ve ever seen could be.  Its top had died and fallen off, likely because at a certain height giant sequoias can’t get groundwater far enough up.

Another 50 yards and we were at our goal, the California Tunnel Tree.  There had been another tunnel tree, through which millions passed from the late-1800s through the 1960s when it finally fell under an enormous weight of snow.  It and the California Tunnel Tree were great examples of early promotion of the park that often involved altering nature to attract visitors.  If the other tree had not had a tunnel cut into its trunk it would’ve probably been strong enough to support the snow.

We headed back down to the parking lot, picking up Michelle on our way.  Climbed into the car for the very short (about five miles) trip to Fish Camp and our hotel for the night, Tenaya Lodge.  It was a bit out of our league fancy-wise, offering stuff like rock climbing, archery (which Genetta was dismayed to learn we wouldn’t be around for the next morning) and several restaurants of varying degrees of fanciness.

We relaxed in the room a bit before heading down for dinner.  Since the ice cream store was closing soon I ordered for future dessert a coffee milkshake.  We were finally seated at Jackalopes Bar and Grill where I had a salad and some french onion soup.  Good stuff!  The kids had burgers, which they enjoyed, while Michelle had soup and grilled cheese.

Once back at the room Addison and I got our swim trunks on and went to the pool and hot tub for an hour or so, returning to the room about midnight and finding Michelle and Genetta fast asleep.

While I was bummed to miss the falls (due to them being dry) which led us to get to Glacier Point after it closed (and missing that as well) which led us to miss the tram tour of Mariposa it was not all without a silver lining.  We saw all those mule deer, weren’t involved in whatever went down at Glacier Point, and got some nice exercise hiking about the Mariposa Grove.  It was all good.

A note, though, to anyone wanting to visit Yosemite — go in the spring or early summer.  Not only are the meadows in full bloom but the waterfalls are flush with snow melt.  Also get there early — by even 10 o’clock the park is a bit jam packed.