Oct 31 - Yosemite National Park, California - Mariposa Grove

  We spent part of the morning up at the WiFi friendly lodge.  Then, we packed our lunch and headed out to the Mariposa Grove.  Once in the park, we stopped at the Tunnel View.  This is a remarkable vista of the Yosemite Valley, showing the major mountains on both sides of the valley, including El Capitan and Half Dome.  Up to now, we have been seeing them from different locations, and not all in one vista.  Very nice.
   There are three main roads in Yosemite Park --the one leading to Yosemite Valley, one to Tioga Road, and this one heading south to Mariposa Grove.  This is a large grove of trees, containing many giant Sequoia Redwoods.  You drive an hour on a long, winding road, to get to the Grove's visitor center.  Then take a 10 minute shuttle bus up to the Grove.  There are many trails leading all through the grove.  We took the Grizzly Bear loop trail --about 2.5 miles.  We saw some very large, very old, very stately Sequoia Redwood trees.  We also saw one of the few remaining Redwoods that you can walk through.  The trail was very well maintained and fairly easy.  We met some folks from Portugal on the trail, and chatted while we walked.  Nice day, and nice hike.
  We headed back, and ended up taking the wrong road out of the park, before we realized it. Oh well.  We got to see a different entrance to the park.  Had leftovers for dinner, had a beer, then came up to the lodge to blog.  I haven't been able to publish my blogs, as I can't get Google photos to backup the photos from my camera to the computer, so I can insert them into my blog post.  We are heading to San Francisco in a few days, so I should be able to catch up then.

Yosemite National Park-- Tunnel View photos:

Yosemite National Park - Mariposa Grove photos:

Yosemite Valley roadside view photos"