Day Sixteen- September 24, 2018
Yes – it is yet again a beautiful day filled with sunshine. We could get used to this! After breakfast and a final inspection of our room we set the GPS for the next hotel and are off to Yosemite.
We see some familiar sights along the way. The rail system in San Jose.
The road signs for produce.
And other stuff too!
The effects of the drought – these mountains should be covered in green.
The San Luis Reservoir.
And then some new territory!
We didn’t expect to see cotton!
Are these elk?
More signs of the drought. Really, a sod farm?
More almonds and harvesting.
These rocks look like little fingers sticking out of the ground!
The going gets a bit slower as we encounter some roadwork that is really tree work – clearing some of the trees that have been burned in the wildfires.
We also encounter a detour – a one land bridge and then one lane road and then another one lane bridge – the other land, original road is covered by a rockslide. Scary – hope no one got hurt in that!
We get to our hotel before check-in time but our room is ready and we start unpacking the car. There is no elevator so the unpacking is a little slower this time. This room is billed as a suite with a fully equipped kitchen, separate bedroom, and a dining table with six chairs. Nice!
Eager to get started exploring we set out for the Visitors Center in Yosemite Village. Winding roads with guard rails as we climb upwards. There is not very much water in the rivers and streams. We remember Trista saying they have not had rain since April.
Once we get to the Park gates we show our Senior Passes and get in for free. The signs read $35 per car for a seven-day pass – that’s not too bad. The Senior Pass is now $80.00 – when we got ours the price was something like $12 dollars. Glad we got them when we did!
The traffic is now busy in the park – and we are relying on the Visitor Center to help us with our research and what to see. The parking lots are woefully inadequate for the number of people trying to get into Yosemite Village where the Visitor Center is. It takes us about 15 minutes of circling around trying to find a parking spot. We feel fortunate to find one and are off in search of information.
Yosemite Village is just that – a combination of eating places, souvenir shops, an Ansel Adams gallery, and the Visitors Center. It is a little bit of a hike to get there and we haven’t eaten lunch so we stop at the closest grill. You place your order and then they call your number when ready. Lunch in hand, veggie wrap and chicken sandwich, we sit outside at a table looking at signs that remind you not to feed the wildlife.
Now we head for the Visitors Center. A little jaunt up the hill and there it is. There is a line at the Rangers’ Desk so we start through the exhibits. A lot of good information on how the park and the mountains evolved. We didn’t know there were six types of granite.
There should be a video or a movie explaining the park so we look for the theater. Unfortunately the theater is closed for renovations so they are showing a video of all the National Parks on a large screen outside.
Not really what we were hoping for we look for the Rangers’ Desk – there is still a line and there are three youngsters getting sworn in a Junior Rangers. How cool is that? Very cool.
A Park Assistant asks if we have easy questions – and since we don’t know what to ask she gives us a map of the Village and points of interest. Not very informative and we are surprised at the lack of information at this particular Visitors Center. Usually we experience an overload of info at the Visitors Center. As we are listening to other guests we come to understand there is much to see but you really need to hike to these places. There are a few you can see from your car but viewing is more optimal by foot. Okay, now we are getting the idea.
We walk around a bit more and decide to head back to our hotel before the sun sets behind the mountains. There are no street lights along the highways so we don’t want to be on unfamiliar winding roads after dark.
We make a couple of stops to see the sights but nothing compares to El Capitan. You can certainly see this from your car as you pass by but we decide to park and hike it – it’s a short easy walk. We crane our necks looking upwards. We pass a man with binoculars and look to see what he sees – people are attempting to climb this mountain—a 2,700 feet tall sheer rock vertical wall. We are standing at the base at 4550 feet above sea level. The rock climbers are making their way to the top at 7250 feet above sea level. Deeming them crazier than crazy we continue on for a better look. Now we can see them more easily as they near the apex of El Capitan. We wonder about sleeping on the face of a mountain – how cold and damp it might be – how hanging off a mountain would be downright nuts! The climb can take days to reach the top so the rock climbers actually sleep on the face of the mountain – we understand you can see their lights at night. Crazy!
El Capitan is breathtaking in itself. We are so glad we made the hike in to see this up closer.
We head back to our hotel and get ready for dinner. There is a restaurant and a bar and a grill – all separate but housed in the same building. There are two other couples looking over the restaurant menu and we ask what looks good! They are from Britain and have been traveling together for a bit – when they ask where we are from all they hear is New York – like most others – anything in New York State is New York City. They are surprised we drove all this way – so we tell them of our visits to daughters and new granddaughter. “What’s her name” they ask. “Esmé” we tell them and after the oohs and ahs they say “beautiful.” We did about the dining option and decide they will try the restaurant and we will try the grill and then compare.
The grill has limited options but we were happy splitting Jalapeno Poppers and Burger. We are missing all of our kids and grandkids and wander back to our room – not meeting up with the Brits to compare notes.
With no internet service or cell phone service we look over the materials we got from the Ranger at the Park entrance. The woman at the Visitors Center told us there is virtually no water in the lake or any of the waterfalls – so those attractions are not as intriguing as they would be in winter or spring. Okay – we decide that tomorrow we are off to see the Grand Sequoias.