Parks 48, 49, 50 Yosemite, Manzanar National Historic Site, Devil's Postpile, and Death Valley

7/13/14. Yosemite. We set out at 7 am this morning for the Tioga Pass Road, which is the northern route across Yosemite. The air was so clear and the park was quiet this early in the morning. We traveled through miles of forestland and meadows with many camping sites. Eventually the road got higher and higher in altitude, reach through the sub alpine and alpine regions of the park. The plants and trees gradually changed as we went higher. When we climbed on rocks or even small hills we were completely out of breath. By the time we got to 10,000 feet we had a bit of a headache and felt breathless. The sites, as always, were amazing, especially the lakes in this section of the park.

We exited the park and drove through Inyo National Forest and Mono Lake region. The road was narrow, winding, and right at the edge of the mountain. It was a bit terrifying and I had to concentrate totally to stay on the road, but it was also thrilling.

   

We continued driving east and got to US 395. We followed this south for a few hours. Along the way, we stopped in Mammoth Lakes for lunch and went to the visitor's center for the Devil's Postpile National Monument. It was too hot to do much hiking in the area so we got on the road again, heading southeast.



Manzanar National Historic Site. Next we stopped at the Manzanar National Historic Site. In 1942, the United States government ordered more than 110,000 Japanese American citizens and resident Japanese aliens to leave their homes and detained them in this remote, military-style camp during World War II. The visitor's center had an abundance of information about the camp and the activities there, as well as a film that firmly denounced the camp. This led to a fascinating debate among us about the ethics of this and the decisions made in war and how the problem was too simplified by the film. The area is marked off with signs to show where the buildings were and the guard tower is still there. This site certainly prompted a lot of thought.












 
Death Valley. We continued south until we reached the turn off for Death Valley. We drove for miles across desert landscaping, thinking that Death Valley National Park would be more of the same. When we finally reached the park, we were once again stunned. This park has the most strange variety of landscapes we have ever seen! Each time we went over a hill and saw a new part of the park we gasped with awe. We got through the sandy bottom of the Paramint Valley area and went a little further up the next set of peaks, which looked like a river of sand. We continued up the next set of peaks, but by now it was 115 degrees and the car was struggling a bit with the steep grade. It was 4:30 so we turned around and stopped at the Paramint Springs gas station and got some refreshing milk shakes. We then headed back the way we came, stopping for photos and admiring the unbelievable beauty and strangeness of the colors, textures, shapes and vastness in Death Valley. We will definitely try to return here so we can see the main valley, but we decided it might be better to try entering from the Nevada side since it takes hours to drive across this park.

We then headed south and found a very simple motel to stay at on US 395. Tomorrow we will head back to civilization!

Park 47: Yosemite National Park - Day 2

7/12/14. Day 2 in Yosemite Park started early. We drove in through Yosemite Valley, taking photos of the domes and cliffs in the morning sun.
We parked at the Yosemite Valley Visitor's Center and got a map of the shuttle system and our passport stamps.
Next we took the shuttle to the Nature Center at Happy Isles, enjoying the sarcastic humor from the bus driver who turned out to be from New Jersey: Commenting on the people entering the bus: "At this speed the water will all run out by the time we get to the falls!" We began the rather steep trail to Vernal Fall. The trail was rated as easy to moderate because it was paved, but it was quite steep and at this altitude (4-5,000 feet) we really huffed and puffed our way up. There was a lovely feeling of being in the woods with the loud running water below. The trail was crowded, but there was a nice feeling of companionship amongst us with people cheering each other up the hill.

After slowly reaching the view of the top of Vernal Fall, we headed back down and took the shuttle back to the visitor's center. Along the way, we saw a black bear on the side of the road that got all of us tourists quite excited. At the visitor's center, we had lunch and then watched a new Ken Burns film of Yosemite that was made for the 150th anniversary of the Yosemite Grant that created the park. We also viewed some of the exhibits and read about much of the unusual geography of the area.

We left early afternoon and went back to the car. We drove out of the valley, admiring more of the sights of El Capitan and the amazing scale of the valley walls and sheer cliff faces. Once again, we marveled at the beauty. There is truly no photo that can do this justice because you don't get the feeling of size. We were overwhelmed by the majesty of it all.

We headed north from the valley up the Big Oak Flat Road. The geography changed significantly as we drove through Crane Flat and Hodgdon Meadow. There were different kinds of granite, not as smooth, and different tree growth. There was a great amount of fire damage and we don't know if this was from planned fires or not. It was hard work concentrating on driving the steep curves with so many interesting views. We stopped at the Big Oak Flat Information Station, talked to the ranger about the area and got passport stamps.

We returned back down most of the way we came, stopping for more scenery along the way. We had an amazing view of the Half-Dome before leaving the park to return to our hotel. We arrived about 5:30 and had a rest and finished our puzzle before dinner at the hotel. Tomorrow will be a long day since we are planning to finish the northern Tioga Road and then head to Death Valley - so we went to bed early!

Park 47: Yosemite National Park - Day 1

7/11/14. This morning the three of us (Catherine, Jason, Muriel) hit the road in the trusty Subaru Baja and headed north on the I5 over the mountains. We traveled through all the farmland and stopped at the Bravo Farms country store for a break and to soak up some local color!

We made our way to Yosemite by 3:00 or so and headed up the southern entrance. We stopped first at the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees to see the sequoia. This, of course, looked just like Sequoia National Park, and it was a real delight.

Next we headed to the Wawona Visitor's Center and got our passport stamped. The ranger was very helpful - as always - in planning our visit, and we headed up to Glacier Point. We were stunned at how beautiful the view was. We had high hopes for Yosemite being amazing and this was even more awesome than we could have imagined.

Photos and videos of Yosemite do not give you a sense of the incredible size and scale of everything. Huge peaks, huge rock walls, huge trees, huge waterfalls, huge views. We could hardly process how incredible it was. We stopped at Washburn Point on the way up and, like the other tourists, climbed out on a high rock for photos and better views. It was a blast! Then we made it up to Glacier point early evening with the sun low in the sky. The shadows gave a terrific contrast and made it look like Ansel Adams photos. The clarity of everything is heightened by the dry, thin air. It looked like HD.

Next we stopped at Bridalveil Creek and we hiked a short way to the falls, which were dry at this time of year. Jason enjoyed climbing on the rocks and we had beautiful views of the surrounding cliffs.

At the end of the evening, we drove back down the mountains, stopping along the way for more amazing views of El Capitan and the valley. We left the park through El Portal and drove on 140 to the Cedar Lodge where we are staying. We stayed up for a while working on a puzzle and trying to use the very slow Internet. There's no phone service at all, so it was weird to not be able to communicate with friends and family. As always when visiting parks, we fell asleep from exhaustion. Tomorrow we visit Yosemite Valley.

Park 46: Pinnacles National Park (and Lands End Lookout at Golden Gate NRA)

5/28/14. We started our morning at Lands End Lookout which is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. We became fascinated with the ruins and history of the later 19th century Sutro Bath House.
The pictures of the original structure made it seem like it was right out of a Victorian novel.

We also walked down to the Cliff House, trying to imagine the huge Victorian structure that once sat on the cliff in all its elegance.







Here's a picture of the Cliff House from 1902:

 The beach was also fascinating. The waves were beautiful, coming in row after row, but there were signs all over the entrances saying that people who swam or waded in the water have drowned here. Needless to say, there was no one in the water as far as we could see down the coast. We began to understand why they wanted the huge bathhouse to swim in.


We drove down the coast for a ways, stopped at Fort Funston for the amazing views of the water and coast, then headed into the mountains on our trek to Pinnacles National Park. We were curious to see this newest National Park although we knew that the "bat caves" that are a focus of the park would not be open because the bats can't be disturbed during the summer.





We arrived after a long journey into the barrenness of the desert and mountains. This is a very remote park! We thought there would be very few people visiting here because of the long, hot, barren drive, but the ranger told us that they were very crowded this weekend and all the camping spots were reserved at one point.

We drove up a little ways to the  Gulch and did one of the shorter trails. It was peaceful and quiet and the wind in the trees was lovely. We didn't think that this park was all that special compared to other national parks, however. Most of the views and experience were similar to areas outside the park. We assume that we needed more time here and needed to experience more of the park to discover what made it worthy of national park status.

 
We left the park and headed southeast to the I5 in the Central Valley. Oh my goodness, it is hard to describe the barrenness and desolation of this drive! It was a couple of hours of dry, barren land with an occasional ranch. It looked the setting from western movies like Rango! We were so happy to finally make it back over the mountains into the Central Valley and hit the Interstate! I don't think we would hurry back to this park given how hard it was to get to. But we are looking forward to exploring more of the California park units this summer!

Park 45: Muir Woods National Monument

5/26/14. After spending the morning at the Mary Blair exhibit at the Disney Family Museum, we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and up the hills to the Muir Woods National Historic Monument. The weather was perfect and the park was quite crowded. It was great to see so many people who wanted to experience the amazing beauty and feeling of the national parks.

We really enjoyed learning more about the redwoods and comparing them to our experiences with the Sequoias in November. There was a similar feeling of quiet stillness and awe. We loved all of the redwood sorrel growing in the underbrush. They looked like huge clover. It was also cool to see all the spring growth on the ends of the tree fronds.

We again realized how much we love trees - it must be from growing up with so many trees. Here are more photos of the woods from our terrific afternoon:

 

Parks 43 & 44: Presidio of San Francisco/Golden Gate Recreation Area and Fort Point National Historic Site

5/25/14. We left from Southern California this morning and hit the I5 at 7am to head north to San Francisco. We were amazed again at the vast expanse of agricultural fields once you get over the Santa Monica Mountains.

This time, evidence of the drought was everywhere. It truly looked like one big desert with patches of bright green where the fields are irrigated. Many fields of nut trees were completely dead.

















We were thrilled to see the coast and the green lushness of San Francisco. After we got to the city, we headed right for the Presidio since it was almost 3 pm. We stopped first at the Visitor's Center and decided to change our plans slightly and visit the other park sites before they closed today.

As always, the ranger was very helpful and we did a walking tour of the Presidio's main military post. It was a beautiful clear, cool day and there was a Memorial Day celebration on the main parade ground with music and food tents. We had some fantastic cheesy grits and strawberry lemonade on our walk. 

The buildings reminded us a great deal of Fort Hancock at Sandy Hook. They had similar barracks and officer's quarters, although many of the buildings had interesting Spanish architecture incorporated into the eastern style.

Next we drove down to the parking are by the bay and walked along the path down to the water. The views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco Bay were unparalleled. It was truly a perfect weather day.

 We stopped at the Warming Hut and got a passport stamp, then walked along the bay to Fort Point. This fort is very well reconstructed and looks very much like the other forts we've visited such as Fort Clinton in NY.  The gift shop had just closed when we arrived so Catherine convinced one of the young rangers to let her in to get our passport stamps.

We walked back up the hill to our car, enjoying the amazing view of the bay. It was a terrific day and we are excited to explore more of the San Francisco area tomorrow!