Yosemite National Park

September 2, 2017 - Saturday

We got up really early, made coffee, and ate a quick bowl of cereal.  We got on the road by 7:20.  We had to take a 1-1/2 hour detour to get to our stop for the night because part of 299E is closed because of a wildfire.  We took 101S.  We saw a large herd of cow and calf elk just before we got to Trinidad, in a field just by the ocean.  A little while later we saw a large bull elk right next to the road.  The largest elk I think we saw on this trip.  Just south of Eureka we headed east on Hwy 36.  This road was narrow, curvy, and hilly.  The first part went through a section of redwood by a couple of state parks.  It was pretty, but in places the road was extremely narrow because of the trees.  Later a part of the had road construction and was very narrow and curvy.

Section of Hwy 36 with road construction

After about 50 miles we got on 30N which took us about 60 miles to our campsite at the Trinity Lake KOA.  It became very smokey because of the wildfire.  At Weaverville, 30 miles south of our KOA, we saw a lot of firetrucks and firemen.  We got to our KOA at 1:30.  The KOA is okay, but too far out of the way.  It was the only place I could reserve for 1 night because it was Labor Day weekend.  Learned my lesson.

View of mountains on road to Trinity Lake

Another view from the road

It was about 60 degrees when we left camp at the Redwoods and was 95 degrees here.  Quite a difference.  I washed two weeks worth of dirty clothes then took a shower.  We had the last of the spaghetti for dinner then went to bed early because we had to leave for Mariposa by Yosemite in the morning.

September 3, 2017 - Sunday

We left Trinity Lake KOA by 6:50.  This was an extremely long driving day.  We took 3S to Weaverville where we got coffee, breakfast, and gas.  There were a lot of fire fighters and fire trucks in town assembling to go fight the Junction City wildfire.  I read that it was over 5000 acres and destroyed many homes and outbuildings.  We headed west on 299 until we got to I5 in Redding.  We went south on I5 until we got to Sacremento then got on 99S to 140W which goes to Mariposa.  On the way to Weaverville we saw 4 turkeys (2 hens and 2 poults), 1 deer and 1 bald eagle.  Traffic was pretty heavy all day after we got on I5.  It also got extremely hot (105).  On one very long mountain leading into Mariposa our car almost overheated.  We saw a lot of almond trees, some olive trees, rice fields, and row crops today.  Mainly lots of almond trees.  We spent one night at the Yosemite West/Mariposa KOA before going into Yosemite.  This KOA was okay.  Temperature was 97 degrees.  Glad we had electricity for air conditioning.

September 4, 2017 - Monday - Labor Day

We slept in this morning.  There was no need to get up early since it was only a 1-1/2 hour drive into Yosemite.  After breakfast we both took showers (once we could get into a stall, they were very busy this morning).  We left the KOA  a little after 10:00 expecting lines of traffic, but there was not much traffic heading into the park; mainly just out of the park.  On the way in there was a section of one lane road because of a massive slide.  They had to put 2 temporary bridges over the Merced River to route the traffic away from the slide.  Hwy 140 followed the Merced River all the way into
the park.

Rock slide we had to detour

Road into the park

When we got to the entrance we were able to get right in and to our campsite at Lower Pines about 11:30.  We are in site #4 which is very close to a shuttle stop.  The site was so long and level that we didn't even have to unhook.

Campground sign

Campsite #4

The Arches from our site

Merced River by Lower Pines

We ate lunch then rode the shuttle to the Visitor's Center.  We got information, looked at exhibits, and watched a video.  We sat outside and made some phone calls since there was cell service here but not at our campsite.  We took the shuttle back to camp and had dinner.  The weather was warm but bearable.  It was extremely smokey all day, but cleared off some in the evening.  We can sit and have somewhat of a view of the Arches from our site.  We sat out until dark then called it a day.

September 5, 2017 - Tuesday

I got up fairly early this morning, made coffee, then sat out looking at the views.  It was a cool, clear morning.  While I was sitting drinking coffee, a doe mule deer walked by about 5 feet from me.

Arches from our campsite

Another view from our campsite

We caught the shuttle about 9:15 and rode to the Lower Yosemite Falls trail.  This was a fairly easy 1 mile loop with only a very short steep section.  In one spot there was a good view of the Upper and Lower Falls together - the tallest fall in North America.  After seeing the Lower Falls up close, we took a short side trail to another view of both falls that was at the spot where John Muir built a cabin to live in.  It was a beautiful spot by Yosemite Creek.

Mike with Yosemite Falls in the background

Lower Yosemite Falls

Mary in front of Lower Yosemite Falls

Both of us in front of falls

Yosemite Falls

We caught the shuttle to the Visitor's Center where we ate lunch.  By this time it had begun to get smokey.  We rode the shuttle to the Vernal Falls Footbridge Trail.  It was paved, but a very steep incline up most of the 0.8 miles of trail.  It had gotten warm and very smokey.  It was a little difficult to make it all the way, but it was worth it. There was a view of Vernal Falls at the footbridge that was really pretty.  It started raining about the time we started down, which cleared some of the smoke out. There were a lot of people on the trail, some very pushy and in a big hurry.  One woman even almost knocked Mike off the trail.  Ridiculous!

Merced River

Merced River from the trail

Mike on the Vernal Falls Footbridge

Mary on the footbridge with Vernal Falls in the background

We sat around the campsite the rest of the afternoon until we went to Half Dome Village to get pizza for dinner at the Pizza Patio.  Really good pizza and good 'Half Dome Wheat Bear'.  We liked being able to ride the shuttle everywhere we went.

September 6, 2017 - Wednesday

Our last day and night at Yosemite.  We kind of slept late.  After breakfast we caught the shuttle about 9:30  and rode to the Mirror Lake Trail.   This is a 2 mile trail to view Half Dome at a small 'lake' on a stream.  The trail markings weren't good so us and several others hiked up the wrong side of the stream which was a pretty, but rather difficult hike to the lake.  When we got to the lake we could tell that we were on the wrong side, so like many others, we crossed over to the correct side on some rocks that in the past were used to form the Upper Mirror Lake.  The view of Half  Dome and other formations was spectacular here.  We walked the road back to the shuttle.  Much easier.

Mike on the 'wrong' side of Mirror Lake

Mary in front of Mirror Lake

Reflection from the 'wrong' side of the lake

Reflections in Mirror Lake

Mike with Half Dome in the background

Mary in front of Half Dome

Half Dome reflected in Mirror Lake

A view of Half Dome and Yosemite Valley

We took the shuttle back to the Visitor's Center where we caught the shuttle for El Capitan.  We got off at the El Capitan picnic area and ate lunch.  It had a good view of El Capitan and The Three Brothers, but the gnats were horrible and it was still smokey.

The Three Brothers

El Capitan

We returned to our campsite by about 2:00.  We rested and got things ready to head to Sequoia National Park.  We enjoyed Yosemite more than we thought we would.  We were afraid the crowds would bother us a lot, but the park is so well run that for the most part the crowds didn't matter.  We also liked how well they managed the recycling effort.  We wish all national parks were as good at this.

September 7, 2017 - Thursday

We left camp by 7:15.  It was very clear and we had the best views of some of the formations as we were leaving the park.

The Arches

El Capitan