California Roadtrip – Yosemite National Park

Below is the first colour we have seen in ages, beautiful autumn foliage with our mountains getting closer.

We were headed for the Tioga Pass on Highway 120, the road closes by the end of October due to the elevation and snow which normally shuts it down for 7-9 months of the year.  We were lucky as they had had a snowfall whilst we were in San Francisco…..this road is the only one to traverse the entire park from side to side.  The elevation is 9,945 feet….our ears were popping.  Bridgeport to the parks entrance was an hours drive, the road as soon as we entered the park was amazing.

The roads twinkle in the sun from the parks granite that was used in the sealing of the roads.  It is a very user friendly operation, toilets every couple of miles, amply lay bys to stop for photos and information stations at every outlook. Even at the highest elevation the road is smooth and wrinkle free.  All traffic is stopped at a Ranger Station about 7 miles into the park and a fee per vehicle is paid, $20 allows us access to the park for the next seven days.

This granite monolith is like a skate bowl, it is so smooth, ancient glaciers once covered the landscape here and as they moved and melted, they polished the stone that they covered.

Keep saying to yourself  ‘this scene is huge’, its so hard to imagine the enormity of it all.  And what a vista it was, we pretty much had this view to ourselves as we sat at a picnic table and had an early sandwich the drive to this point roughly 2 hours when we reached this point. The silence was deep and intense, the air was crisp, Rosie closed her eyes and almost had a zen like moment…then The Operator started tapping her on the shoulder..off in the bushes the most beautiful Blue Jay had landed, its back and wings were the colour of the lake, it came closer  and closer and just watched.  So much for not feeding the animals in the park, this critter new what a sandwich was…it didn’t know that Rosie don’t share her food…no matter how cute you are.   Another rustle alerted the Operator to a little grey squirrel, which came and sat by us, it too was looking for scraps.  This quite excited the Operator as the park handout the ranger gave us said there bears and bobcats in the vicinity as well…he was feeling pretty hopeful of a big animal sighting.

This is the above lake taken from a higher vantage point about 8 miles further along the road, you didn’t believe me when I said it was big.  My favourite picture.

This granite pinnacle is the poster child for Yosemite, it is El Capitan, the most photographed site in the park, they say that if you look close enough you are bound to see more than one rock climber on the face, my camera zoom wasn’t even strong enough to look that close. To get to this point we turned off our road and joined the main trunk tourist line leading to the valley centre, Yosemite Village this is the Yosemite that 80% of visitors see, the condensed tour of the park.  Immediately the tranquil peace was gone, hundreds of cars were jostling for parks in the laybys to take photos, people were everywhere, the road even turned into two lanes up and back, it was crazy, completely mad.

  Rosie and the Operator were still revelling in their experiences further up the line, we thought we would have a chilled afternoonsie and wine in the Valley overlooking the sites…..instead we scarpered at the next exit. While the views were still impressive on the tour route, the throngs of people and the aggressive drivers detracted from our experience. On reflection, Rosie and the Operator agreed they would have given the 2 hour deviation a miss if they had known about the craziness in store.  And, the Operator never saw a bear….