Nov 1 - Yosemite National Park, California - Yosemite Valley, Vernal Falls trail

  We spent part of the morning up at the lodge, again, as Peter needed to get a blog post done.  Once the office opened, we then arranged to have the Propane tank on our RV filled.  Since the nights here have been down to 28 degrees, we have used a fair amount of propane on the heater.  Also, when the power was off, at this camp and the previous one, we had the refrigerator on propane as well.  So, we unhooked everything, and went over to the office for a propane fill.  Then, back to the campsite and re-level the RV, then re-hook-up everything.  Ugh!
   We had lunch, and took off for the Yosemite Valley again.  I'm getting pretty good at driving on the curvy, winding, steep, high roads.  We decided to hike the Vernal Falls trail, up to the only other waterfall with water in it.  The sign said 0.8 miles to the lower falls.  It a good 1/3 mile to get to the trail head, through the woods and over the fen. What it didn't say was that the 0.8 miles was ALL uphill, and at a steep grade at that.  The trail was paved, and there were LOTS of folks walking up it.  Peter and I did quite well, considering, taking it slow and easy all the way.  However, when we were mostly there, and thinking of saying that's enough, some folks coming back down the trail said "you still have a ways to go, to get to the 700 stairs that lead up to the lower falls".  At that, we decided we were ready to turn around.  It was a beautiful walk through woods, by the stream, on a beautiful day.  We drove over to the Village Store, and had a cup of coffee, then drove back to the RV.
   We got back at dusk, and found that our water wasn't working.  So, over to the closed office we went, and called the after-hours maintenance person.  He told us that the water was turned off on November 1st in the members section, where we were indeed camping.  I was very disturbed that no one had mentioned that the water would be turned off on our last day when we checked-in.  Or, that no one had come by to tell us they were turning it off.  Oh well.  At least we had a full fresh water tank, which we turned on and used.

Vernal Falls hiking trail photos:

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"

Oct 30 - Yosemite National Park, California - Tioga Road

  This morning we got an early start, and went over to the laundry facility in the park.  We were out of clean clothes, and definitely needed to do the wash.  The sign on the door said the laundry was open from 8 am to 9:30 pm, but the door was still locked.  A maintenance man drove by on his motorized cart and unlocked it for us, saying that it should have been open.  So, we did the wash, hanging out in the lodge which now had WiFi (no cell coverage).  When I finished the drying, a man came in and told us they were going to close the laundry, so I went over to the office, and sure enough, they said that they were low on water, so they were conserving it by closing the laundry.  And, by the way, the laundry was locked, for that reason --how did we get in?  Wasn't there a sign on the door?  I explained, but was really glad that we were able to get our wash done.
   We decided to go up to the Tioga Road route through Yosemite today.  This road, if taken all the way, goes over to Nevada.  We didn't go that far.  It is one of the most scenic roads we have been on.  As most of the roads here do, it runs along the mountain sides, twisting and turning.  But the vistas are incredible.  The granite mountains show themselves in full color.  There are many places where the glaciers just sheered off everything, so there are slides of pure rock.  These mountains are huge.  The abundance of rock faces, with rock boulders strewn in the strangest places, and the sheer size of it all creates such an amazing feeling.  It is so BOLD, so SOLID, so MAGNIFICENT.  I couldn't get enough of it.  Each place we stopped at was incredible.
   We stopped for lunch at an overlook.  White, sort of flat rock, created a sort of plain we could walk around on.  We sat on some boulders, overlooking the amazing mountains and valleys, and ate our picnic lunch.
   The absolutely most amazing place (possibly of the trip) was at Olmstead Point.  This was an overlook, looking into the Yosemite Valley that we were in yesterday.  You get to see Half Dome mountain from a different angle, and now it looks like a full Dome.  This overlook had vast expanses of sheer somewhat flat, cracked rock, with boulders here and there.  But at the end of the overlook, there were some rock stairs going downward.  Very inviting.  We didn't even think about it, but followed them. Thank goodness we did.  It took us to a scenic overview, the like of which I have never seen before.  It was phenomenal!  Every direction you looked was incredible.  Huge mountains with the side sheered off.  Half Dome mountain in the distance.  Big roundish, flatish rocks to walk on to view it all.  Beautiful valleys.  Behind us more mountains still.  I could have sat there, in the sun, for hours.  We met a man from the Czech Republic, and Peter chatted with him for quite a while, while I drank up the view.
  We finally moved on to the picnic areas surrounding Tenaya Lake.  A sweet little clear-water lake.  We walked the beachy area for a bit, and started the journey back the way we came.
   We decided to go into the sort-of nearby town of Groveland for dinner, and to pick up a few things from the only grocery store around.  For the number of people that visit the park each year, there are very few amenities around.

Tioga Road in Yosemite National Park -lots of photos:

Oct 29 - Yosemite National Park, California - Yosemite Valley

  We decided to drive up to the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center to get maps and suggested hikes and things to see.  However, the 18 mile drive from the entrance station is a "Thing to do" in itself.  We kept stopping at the waysides and turnouts, to see the very far distance vistas.  Lots of deep canyons, mountain valleys, and rock formations.  The winding, twisting road took us to the one-way loop road around the Yosemite Valley.  We stopped at the Bridalveil Falls.  A short hike, on a paved trail, took us to one of the two waterfalls in the park that still has water falling.  Actually, is was a stream, that the wind would take and make into mists.  But it was really a high waterfall, and very impressive.  I imagine in the spring and summer it is phenomenal.  We then stopped to view the amazing vistas of Half Dome and El Capitan mountains.  The sheer size of all these Sierra Nevada mountains is magnificent  .  They rise up so high, with sheer sides.  They evoke an incredible presence.  This is the park that John Muir and Ansel Adams made famous (or maybe it made them famous).  We saw people climbing the sheer sides, using our binoculars, they were so high up.  Many people die or are injured each year, yet they still climb.  Not sure why.
   We finally arrived at the visitor center, and found a nice picnic table to have our picnic lunch.  Then, I went to watch the 1/2 hour video about the park.  Peter decided to stay at the picnic table and use the internet and cell service.  We haven't had coverage at all now for a few days, and he needed to catch up a bit.
  We picked one of the trails that the park ranger suggested, to hike a bit in our remaining time.  It gets dark here by 6 pm, and I wanted to drive the roads back to the RV in the light.  We went over to the Half Dome Village Upper Pines area, and walked through the woods for a bit.  We found the original stone visitor center, that was beautifully designed, using local stones.  It fit right into the scenery.  It is now the Sierra Club's park headquarters.
  The drive back out of the park, was just a beautiful as the drive in.  The sun was shining on the sides of the mountain tops, and the image was breathtaking.  This park is quite large, and we picked a few day trips to different areas --more on them in the days to come.
  Returned to the RV and found out the electricity is now on - yeh!  Made dinner, and came up to the lodge, which does have WiFi, but no cell service.  At least I can update my blog.

Yosemite Valley photos: