Day 11 - Wednesday, Oct 4 - Fresno to Yosemite to Bishop, CA
Starting mileage: 3768 Starting time: 9:00 am
Ending mileage: 4043 Ending time: 7:00 pm
Travel mileage: 275 Travel time: 10:00 hours
The only way to describe today is AWESOME!
On the way up to Yosemite, we passed two reservoirs and the current water level was at least 200' below the high water mark. The reservoirs are usually low this time of year but the vegetation growing around the edge indicates that it has been quite a while since it has been full.
The drive up is winding but not nearly as bad as the road to Sequoia. One aspect that is a bit scary is the absence of guardrails. In many places there is a sheer drop into the canyon below.
Forest fires have been just about everywhere with different indications of the magnitude and how long ago it occurred. Some just have scorching around the base. Others have black 10-20' up the trunk but the trees are still living. In some areas the trees are completely burned but still standing and in yet others, there is just new vegetation and young trees regrowing. As we drove to Glacier Point in Yosemite, there were signs warning of smoke blowing across the road and we could see logs still smoldering only 100' from the road. Apparently this was a "prescribed" fire that had been set to clear underbrush and prevent larger fires in the future. But it was certainly disconcerting to drive through.
Glacier Point is the most spectacular spot to view Yosemite, with Half Dome and two waterfalls on one side and El Capitan on the other. You can see Yosemite Village and the visitor center 3200' below. We ate our picnic lunch in the amphitheatre looking out over the mountains.
An unfortunate aspect of the popularity of Yosemite is that it is so crowded with people making it challenging to find parking and long lines for bathrooms. We thought it might be less crowded "off season" but I think that once American families stop visiting when school starts, they are replaced by tourists from other countries. Often we didn't hear anyone speaking English. There were many people from China, Germany, Japan, Russia and countries with languages that I couldn't identify. I guess Trump has not scared them away, although no obvious Muslims.
We then drove down to the visitor center which has a great display of the geology, history and culture of Yosemite. The valley has an unfortunate but unfortunately, not unique history of white gold seekers and settlers coming in and driving out and killing the native people who lived here.
We walked into the Bridal Veil waterfall which fortunately had water going over it and was quite beautiful. From the valley we could also see the part of El Capitan where a 130 ton boulder flaked off as two people were climbing, killing one person and injuring another.
We wanted to get as far as we could towards Death Valley so we took the route through the Tioga Pass over the Sierra Nevada mountains. This route would be a worthwhile visit on its own. It goes through dense pine forest to high meadows and lakes at over 8000'. There are piles of boulders in the moraines from the last ice age, rocks scraped smooth by the glaciers and snow-covered mountain peaks. We were a little surprised to see snow already along the side of the road. When we got to the hotel in Bishop, the desk clerk told us the road had been completely closed the day before due to snow. It would have been quite a surprise after making the hotel reservation from Yosemite if the road had been closed. There is no other way over for hundreds of miles.
Coming down from the very top of Tioga Pass at 9945', there was a spectacular view of Mono Lake with the mountains in the distance and the rising almost full moon over the mountains.
We stayed for the night in Bishop and had a tasty meal at the Mountain Ranger Brew Pub in Bristol.
Ending mileage: 4043 Ending time: 7:00 pm
Travel mileage: 275 Travel time: 10:00 hours
The only way to describe today is AWESOME!
On the way up to Yosemite, we passed two reservoirs and the current water level was at least 200' below the high water mark. The reservoirs are usually low this time of year but the vegetation growing around the edge indicates that it has been quite a while since it has been full.
The drive up is winding but not nearly as bad as the road to Sequoia. One aspect that is a bit scary is the absence of guardrails. In many places there is a sheer drop into the canyon below.
Forest fires have been just about everywhere with different indications of the magnitude and how long ago it occurred. Some just have scorching around the base. Others have black 10-20' up the trunk but the trees are still living. In some areas the trees are completely burned but still standing and in yet others, there is just new vegetation and young trees regrowing. As we drove to Glacier Point in Yosemite, there were signs warning of smoke blowing across the road and we could see logs still smoldering only 100' from the road. Apparently this was a "prescribed" fire that had been set to clear underbrush and prevent larger fires in the future. But it was certainly disconcerting to drive through.
Glacier Point is the most spectacular spot to view Yosemite, with Half Dome and two waterfalls on one side and El Capitan on the other. You can see Yosemite Village and the visitor center 3200' below. We ate our picnic lunch in the amphitheatre looking out over the mountains.
An unfortunate aspect of the popularity of Yosemite is that it is so crowded with people making it challenging to find parking and long lines for bathrooms. We thought it might be less crowded "off season" but I think that once American families stop visiting when school starts, they are replaced by tourists from other countries. Often we didn't hear anyone speaking English. There were many people from China, Germany, Japan, Russia and countries with languages that I couldn't identify. I guess Trump has not scared them away, although no obvious Muslims.
We then drove down to the visitor center which has a great display of the geology, history and culture of Yosemite. The valley has an unfortunate but unfortunately, not unique history of white gold seekers and settlers coming in and driving out and killing the native people who lived here.
We walked into the Bridal Veil waterfall which fortunately had water going over it and was quite beautiful. From the valley we could also see the part of El Capitan where a 130 ton boulder flaked off as two people were climbing, killing one person and injuring another.
We wanted to get as far as we could towards Death Valley so we took the route through the Tioga Pass over the Sierra Nevada mountains. This route would be a worthwhile visit on its own. It goes through dense pine forest to high meadows and lakes at over 8000'. There are piles of boulders in the moraines from the last ice age, rocks scraped smooth by the glaciers and snow-covered mountain peaks. We were a little surprised to see snow already along the side of the road. When we got to the hotel in Bishop, the desk clerk told us the road had been completely closed the day before due to snow. It would have been quite a surprise after making the hotel reservation from Yosemite if the road had been closed. There is no other way over for hundreds of miles.
Coming down from the very top of Tioga Pass at 9945', there was a spectacular view of Mono Lake with the mountains in the distance and the rising almost full moon over the mountains.
We stayed for the night in Bishop and had a tasty meal at the Mountain Ranger Brew Pub in Bristol.
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| Half-Dome in background |
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| Mono Lake at Sunset |
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| High meadow and snow on mountains |
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| Bridal Veil falls |
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