Valley & Meadow

Yosemite National Park is famously the area that began the concept for the National Park system. It is arguably the most beautiful National Park, and certainly the most talked about, especially in the news this past week. One of the things I happened to learn last week on a hike is that fires are natural to areas like Yosemite and need to occur for the life cycle of the trees and vegetation to continue. The beautiful political combination of sequestration & global warming in this "Rim Fire" story is what's making it big news. But I should note before continuing-- No, we were nowhere near the fires. We did not see them, feel them, or get engulfed by them. They really got going the day after we left.

So, last Sunday (the 18th), we left Santa Cruz on the four hour journey to Yosemite Valley. It was a cut right through the heart of California through spread out farmland, isolated suburbs, and eventually desert plains. That backdrop made our entrance to the Valley more dramatic, as we first followed the Merced River along a winding road for some 20-odd miles before finally finding ourselves surrounded by granite walls and peaks all around us. There are three fairly large campgrounds in the Valley, all of which are reservable about 4-6 months in advance, and sell out within minutes of being available. Thanks to a lucky morning back in April, we had ours in the Upper Pines for two nights. We did a quick, short hike to Mirror Lake (which, during the dry season, becomes a meadow) before getting groceries, firewood, etc. and settling in.

Monday was our day with the big hike. On the advice of a ranger, we did a loop of the valley from our campsite. We started up on the Mist trail, which took us past Vernal and Nevada Falls. Once we got a mile or two in and started hearing the falls, the trail went from an uphill dirt path to a stone staircase. Gorgeous views of the granite cliffs and waterfalls. From the top of Nevada, we intended to bear onto the Panoramic Trail to glacier point, but we (I) missed the turn and we hiked about 1.25mi down to Clark Point. Whoops. So, we hiked back up and didn't miss the turn a second time. From there, it was more high switchbacks and a long trail along the canyon rim to Illilouette Fall, where we stopped for lunch and a dip in the river. More miles finally took us to our destination at Glacier Point, with THE view of the canyon (below). Despite being surrounded by others who had driven the hour to that spot, I felt a bit of quiet solitude and satisfaction at having hiked the half-marathon from the valley floor to get to that point. From Glacier, we took the four-mile trail back down to the valley, descending some 3,500ft over 4.6 miles. That downhill was probably the harshest part of the whole hike, believe it or not. We were pleased to finally come across the ending trail head and shuttle stop. After starting out around 9am, we got back to camp by 6pm and ate and slept very well.

Our reservation in Yosemite Valley was up come Tuesday morning, so we awoke early and drove east. Tioga Road runs thru the northern half of the park, and we took it out to the eastern most campground at Tuolumne Meadows. Managed to snag a campground for the next two nights since we had gotten there so early, and then proceeded to set up camp and cook a decent breakfast while being serenaded by the Beatles as the handymen worked on the bathroom across the road. Feeling a bit tuckered out from our hike the previous day, we spent the afternoon laying and relaxing on the lakeshore of Tenaya Lake. It poured later that evening, but we waited the rain out under our well rigged tarp at our picnic table. Wednesday morning, we got up and did a short hike up to the top of Lambert Dome. Weather looked dark though, so we skipped down and went further east out of the park to Lee Vining. The drive along 120 between Tuolumne Meadows and Lee Vining is on the edge of a huge canyon and was quite the sight. It makes perfect sense why the road is closed in the winter. In an RV park there, we got our first showers, laundry, and cell service of the week. Also managed to be under shelter when we got momentarily pelted with pea-sized hail for twenty minutes. Definitely a needed rest point.

There was a stark difference between the Valley and the Meadows-- the two areas felt like two completely different parks. We found out that our two days in the meadows were unseasonally wet, too bad for us. But really, we were too tired to do much anyway. The one main consistency was the granite cliffs everywhere we went in the park, that disappeared in all directions once we left. Thursday morning were our last few hours in the park, as we simply packed up and got on our way towards the coast. Later that day we went thru Monterey, Pebble Beach, and Carmel, on our way to Big Sur. Our weekend held a long scenic drive down the Pacific Coast Highway, followed by Raj's birthday weekend in Vegas and LA.  Lots of miles traversed, lots of sights seen, lots of people met.

Note: I'm doing my best to keep this blog up to date, but I'm about four days behind at this point. Posting on our way out of San Diego to Joshua Tree.