Day Seventeen – September 25, 2018
There is no complimentary breakfast here so we have a banana and pack up the car and start our day. We understand the park gets busier as the day progresses so we get an early start.
The day is a bit cool but bright and sunny. Today we are excited to see the giant sequoia trees in the Mariposa Grove. We check out of Cedar Lodge, and after a short ride we are back in Yosemite. The check point ranger lady tells us it’s about a 1-hour drive to the south part of the park on Route 41 to Mariposa Grove where the giant sequoia trees are. Fire danger in the entire state is still very high.
We pass El Capitan and wonder how far those people got on their mountain climbing trek – and reiterate how crazy they are!
Traffic is not as bad as yesterday in the Park and we bypass the Village turn and continue on Route 41 through the Park. There are several sights we want to take in before we get to the Sequoias and we think we are dressed appropriately with socks and Merrill hiking shoes.
This 25 plus mile ride took us on a twisty 35 mph road over a mountain range with an elevation of over 6100 feet.
Near the top we stopped at an observation point—the tunnel view. Here you could see El Capitan, Horsetail Fall, Clouds Rest, Half Dome, and Sentinel Rock. What a view!!
Leaving the observation point, we drove through a tunnel that is about 0.75 miles long.
You could see the fire devastation of recent and past fires. Sadly, with the recent drought and fires, more trees than ever are dying. Tree crews were cutting down dead trees and pushing them off the road to decay and provide nutrients for new trees. Living trees had been sprayed with a red fire-retardant substance.
We also see signs that say “Wildfire in area. Do not report.” There are so many areas of this section of the Park that have been badly burned from the wildfires this year.
We are stopped for a while by roadwork – that is actually more tree work and notice the ground looks like snow where the ashes are so thick. We are able to see a worker in a bucket truck saw a tree and we watch as the tree hits the ground and sprays ashes everywhere. This tree would not come back as it had no growth on it at all. This close to the road makes the tree a liability. These guys have a lot of work ahead of them.
We stop at a little picnic area just past the campgrounds. There is a little stream running through here and we are curious as to what the views might be. It is so quiet and peaceful and the air smells a bit smoky.
When we finally get to the entrance of the Grand Sequoias about 1.5 hours later.
We find a large parking lot and lots of spaces to park. We brought our Merrell hiking shoes, brought plenty of bottled drinking water, drinking water bottles that had been frozen into ice, snacks, camel back backpacks (to hold water and snacks), a cooler full of ice, fully charged phones, and fully charged camera batteries.
The visitor center signs direct us to the shuttle bus that will take us up the Mariposa Grove Road hill to the next visitor location, 2 miles away with 500 feet elevation change—no cars are allowed between 8 am and 8 pm or at all during the winter on this narrow twisty road.
Before we have a chance to get an idea of what we will see and do a Park Shuttle Bus pulls up and offers to take us up to the trails. Okay, we get on board and wonder what we have gotten ourselves into.
Once we arrive at the trail head we realize we are not as well prepared as we could be – we left our water and Camelback backpacks in the car. That’s alright – we can do this. The hiking maps lay out trails that are “Easy” or “Moderate” or “Strenuous.” We feel we can do moderate – so we set out for the Grizzly Giant.
As we start our ascent we are amazed at the height and girth of these trees. We are also aware that we might need to get in better shape before we tackle these trails. But it is not a race and develop a leisurely pace through the woodland. There are places to rest along the way, benches or seats made out of the trees.
The sequoias only reside in this part of the park.
There it is – the Grizzly Giant – wow!
We follow the loop trail, and a bit further and we see the California Tunnel Tree.
Now we need to decide: go back the way we came for 0.6 miles OR finish the loop trail that will eventually get us back—but its 1.3 miles, and the trail is much narrower and rocky.
We are not going on the strenuous trail! Since we already came up one side we opt for the other side of the loop and start the 1.3-mile descent. Too bad we didn’t bring any drinking water! Also up here out of the valley, other people are saying they finally have cell phone service. Too bad we didn’t bring our cell phones.
The descent is deceiving because at first you need to climb for a bit before you start down. The path is not as well worn as the other part of the loop but there are additional tree sights you will not find on the .6-mile trail.
The trail back was more difficult and less traveled, but well worth the journey.
It takes us a bit but we make our way down to the trail head and catch a shuttle bus back to the center to take some more photos and change our footwear for the next leg of our trip.
We have spent a lot of time here and loved it all. Perhaps some day we will be back when the water is flowing so we can see the falls and the meadows with flowers instead of dead stems.
We continue south on Route 41 into Fresno.
We stop for a late lunch at the nearest place to the highway – another Denny’s. Vegetable beef soup and a club sandwich and we are ready to look at the map and decide where we should stop tonight.
Our next destination is the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. The GPS says we could be there before 7pm and we look in the AAA Tour Book to see what might be around. Okay there is a good hotel only 2.1 miles from the Library. We book a room for the night and take off.
Back through Bakersfield in rush hour – we are only stopped for a few minutes here and there and are able to make pretty good time this way.
Not expecting to see such a mountainous route we make our way towards Los Angeles.
The traffic is zooey! Worse than up near Los Gatos! But Dale is doing a great job and although we make a slight wrong turn the GPS gets us back on track and we find Simi Valley and our hotel – Posada Royale Hotel & Suites (Best Western).
There is a restaurant right in the hotel – we opt for a salad and Penne Pasta with Grilled Chicken with onions, garlic, diced tomato, broccoli and mushrooms tossed in light alfredo cream sauce. Very yummy!
Eager to get on the road tomorrow for the Reagan Library – we rest up.
You certainly have been seeing some wonderful things. – What a trip.