Day # 27 - Yosemite & Giant Sequoias

We managed to get up reasonably early today. We wanted to drive through the valley of Yosemite and go down to the southern area so we could visit the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. We had asked about the open air trams that do tours of the grove yesterday, and were told that they sell out pretty early in the day. The first tours begin at 10:00 and we wanted to be there around 9:30 so we could catch the first tour. I looked at the map and figured it would take about 75 minutes to make the drive from our campgroud to the grove, so we needed to leave around 8:15. All was going pretty well. We had gotten the kids up and fed them a good sized breakfast and we were all in the truck pretty close to on time. But once we got into the park and turned south to go to the grove, I realized what we hadn’t considered. Yesterday when we drove into Yosemite to explore the valley floor we noticed that most of the roads going to the south and north parts of the park branch off from the middle of the valley. There are no roads that take you from the west or east entrance directly to the southern part of the park. Now I understand why.

When we drove into the valley from the west entrance yesterday we also commented that we had to come over the mountains from the entrance to get to the valley floor, and that the valley ran east to west. It was a steep, but pretty straight climb up and back down from the west entrance. But today we were leaving the valley floor and driving straight through the mountains to the south. The road twisted and turned almost as much as the one we were on coming up the mountains to the campground a few days ago. So my distance and rate of travel estimation were going to be way short.

To make matters worse, Sarah can get carsick on twisty roads. And about half way to the grove we started hearing the "tell tale" signals from her. A slight moan and heavy breathing means she is about to puke. Twice I pulled off to let her and Missy (who is only slightly less prone to car sickness than Sarah) get out of the car and get some fresh air. We did finally make it to the Mariposa grove. We got there at 10:45. And as soon as we arrived, poor Sarah got out of the truck, walked in front to the dirt path, and threw-up. So whoever coined the phrase “getting there is half the fun”…was an idiot.

I should also mention the Park Service only lets a limited number of cars up into the Mariposa Grove at any given time. We got lucky as they had just re-opened the gate to allow some more cars to go through when we arrived. So we didn’t have to wait. If you are not as lucky as us, you can park at the grove entrance and walk the 2-miles up to the grove or you can drive 6-miles back to the Wawona ranger station/lodge and wait for one of the shuttle buses to bring you to the grove. I understand why they limit the number of cars in the grove. Keeps the congestion down and the air clearer. But I would have been pissed after this long drive if I got told that I needed to wait or turn around and take a bus up to the grove. I don’t know why I got so lucky and didn’t have to wait…clean living I guess.

After being there for 10-minutes everyone felt fine again and the sight of some of the smaller Giant Sequoias that are in the parking lot got everyone pretty excited to get going. There are several walking trails through the Mariposa grove but they are all pretty steep and all are over 5 miles round trip. That is just too much for AJ and Abby to manage at their age. So we had decided when planning this trip that we would pop for the expense of the open air tram tour. It is pretty expensive. $25.50 for adults and $18.00 for kids 6-12. So even though two of my kids were free, it was still almost $70.00 for the tour. Luckily our timing worked out well. The first 3 trams had gone with all the early visitors and we got the first 5 tickets they sold for the 11:30 tour (tours departs every 30 minutes and lasts about 90 minutes). The tour was pretty cool. You sit in a bench seat in an open tram wagon. All 5 of us sat on one bench and everyone gets a radio receiver and a pair of headphones to listen to an audio program that talks all about the trees. Sarah had asked for the back row after the driver said that it was the bumpiest of the 8 rows (obviously she was feeling better) so that is where we sat. The tour starts at the bottom of the grove and works its way to the top of the upper grove. It pauses briefly several times on the way up, but on the way back down it stops for 10 minutes in several places and lets you off so you can walk around and get a closer look at some of the trees. Several guide books we read suggested taking the tour up to the top of the grove and then walking back down. We decided to do that. So we got off about half way back down and turned in our headphones so we could walk down the rest of the way. This was really nice. It allowed us to have some time alone with the trees after the tram had departed with most of the rest of the people. We took a lot of pictures of the largest tree in the grove “old Grizzly” and the girls liked having time to themselves to run through the California tunnel tree. I had really wanted to see the tunnel tree and it was definitely the highlight of my time in Yosemite being able to walk through a living tree. I should also mention that the Sequoias only make up about 10% of the trees in the grove. There are several other species of tree including Sugar Pines. Sugar Pines get almost as tall as the sequoias, but nowhere near as wide at the base. They are the largest pine tree in the world. What they do have is HUGE pinecones. I am talking about pinecones half the height of AJ. He is about 40” tall and several of the pinecones we saw were over 24” long. They average between 14 and 18” according to the ranger I asked. Missy and I were joking about their size and decided to call them P.O.U.S’s (Pinecones Of Unusual Size –those who are not fans of the movie “The Princess Bride” will not get this joke). While I will post some pictures of the trees in this blog (if you double click on the photo, it should enlarge to full screen) they are one of those things that you have to see for yourself. Kind of like the Grand Canyon. You cannot appreciate their scale and size from photos and video.

After the grove we found a picnic table with a park grill nearby. We had noticed many of these grills yesterday and when we went to the market after we were done at the park, I bought a small bag of charcoal so we could grill a hot lunch today. Missy and I packed hotdogs and hamburgers, a grill brush, tin foil, the charcoal, a spatula, extra paper towels, a garbage bag and a couple of zip-lock bags for leftovers. Did you notice from the list above what we forgot? I will give you a hint; if I had my little pipe travel case that I keep my pipe and tobacco in, we would have been fine. Yea…I forgot a lighter. Luckily, there were two very nice (and very gay…not that there is anything wrong with that) young men who were cooking up a couple of cans of Spaghetti-O’s on a portable stove who were happy to hook me up with some flame. They were from Berlin and we chatted with them for a while. They found the idea of our traveling all around our own country for vacation quite queer (I have no problem is you choose to live an alternative lifestyle…I just like a childish pun from time to time). They also asked if we knew about the festivities for “our holiday”. It took me a moment to figure out that they were talking about the Fourth of July.

So after lunch we headed back towards Yosemite Valley. We weren’t sure if we were going to leave the park or do something else, but the road back to the west entrance starts in the valley anyway. I drove much slower this time with the windows open and taking a couple of breaks for Sarah. One the way back we passed the overlook that all the travel guide books say is the best in the park. It is right after the long tunnel and has a large parking area since it gets lots of traffic. AJ was asleep so Sarah and Abby and I got out and took a look. The reason this is so famous is because you have a great view of Bridal Veil Falls, El Capitan, Half Dome and the valleys walls. It really is very, very, very impressive. I mentioned yesterday that Yosemite Valley is mostly made up of granite rock walls that were carved by an ice glacier. Standing at this overlook with the sun getting low in the western sky really makes the granite walls of the valley sparkle. It was very cool and another thing we saw that pictures won’t do justice.

Once we got back to the valley, we stopped by the Visitors center again so Missy could stamp her National Parks Passport. We had forgotten the passport yesterday when we were there. Then we decided to walk the trail to the lower Yosemite falls. It was getting late and, as I mentioned before, there are few roads out of the valley; so traffic was at a standstill anyway. Might as well take in one more sight.

There is a short paved ¾ mile walkway from the Yosemite lodge over to the waterfall. We illegally parked in the lodge parking lot and made our way to the waterfall. From a distance it is really impressive. There is an upper fall that is only viewable for the first half of the walk. The lower fall that is the part the trail takes you up close to. But honestly, while the waterfall is very tall, by early July the water is not flowing the way it probably does in spring. And since you cannot see the upper falls from the lower falls viewing platform, I was left a little underwhelmed. If we could have hiked up to the upper viewing platform, I bet it would have looked awe-inspiring. But it is a steep 6-mile hike to the upper falls and with little kids at the end of the day…not going to happen. So my lackluster review is probably not the whole story. What was a lot of fun is that the falls is near the side of one of the steep cliffs and there are a lot of large boulders strewn about the valley floor near the walkway over to the viewing platform. So the kids and I had fun climbing on the rocks and playing in the caves and other nooks and crannies that the random boulders have formed.

By the time we were done playing on the rocks, it had gotten past dinner time. Abby had been complaining for about 30 minutes that she was hungry and now AJ had chimed in. I knew when I chose not to fight the rest of the traffic out of the park that it probably meant buying dinner in the park. That is part of why I didn’t feel too bad about parking at the lodge. I figured we would end up there for dinner anyway. So we drove around the lodge and found the restaurant area. There were two choices. A food court with the kind of fare you would find in a nice shopping mall and the “Mountain View fine dining restaurant”. All together now…FOOD COURT!

The food court was funny because it summed up our experience at Yosemite as a whole. Nice with lots of choices, but very inconveniently laid-out and a hassle to deal with. If you wanted to visit Yosemite and stay at the lodge, this food court could easily provide a week’s worth of dining choices. My problem is that while there was a counter for Pasta and salads, and another for grilled food like hamburgers and sandwiches, and another for Pizza, and another for a rotating dinner selections (today the choices were fried chicken or grilled catfish), and another for deserts....they were all separate counters. Abby wanted a hotdog with French fries. Sarah and AJ wanted pizza. Missy wanted a grilled chicken salad. That is 3 different lines I had to stand in and 3 times thru the cash register (so the food I had just gotten would not get cold while I waited in the next line). After 45 minutes I had Missys salad (I got the kids their food first) and I decided to get one also (I really wanted to try the grilled catfish but I was not going to stand in a fourth line). Everything was good and the portions were good sized. But the total came to almost $50.00 for all of us. What are you going to do when the next nearest restaurant is over an hour away?

After dinner we headed back to our campground. The traffic had cleared and it only took about 45 minutes. Once we got back we quickly put everyone to bed…including ourselves.