Yosemite Ho!

We picked up and moved from our park at Santa Nella and headed about 35 miles east to a park at Chowchilla. The Santa Nella site was an economical choice that was a little rustic but gave us good access to the coastal areas. At Chowchilla, we are staying at an upscale RV resort that is next to a golf course and has all the amenities. Besides enjoying the pool, the hot tub and great home education environment this park gives us a good route to the famous Yosemite National Park.

Heading into the foothills and approaching the park, the terrain gets rapidly more rugged. The road winds steady gaining elevation and began to run next to the raging Merced river, churning over the rocky bottom and forming white water rapids as far as you can see. The walls of the canyon are a steep study in geology.

Falling rock signs began to increase in frequency. At one point. we were stopped by a traffic signal that was creating a one way detour across a temporary bridge over the river. Signs advised that we would have at least a 15 minute wait. We were only 4th in queue but missed the first opportunity to make the one way trip as one driver several vehicles ahead was a bit slow on the take-off. Maybe he was sleepy?

We wound along the detour and looked across the river to see where several thousand feet of highway was buried under a mountain of rock. We wondered how long it would be before the road is cleared again - that's sure to be a hold-up for the summer visitors to the park! Aren't we glad we're retired and can enjoy speculating!

Yosemite is so huge and has so much variety, we knew we had to choose only a handful of the possible areas to peruse. We ventured into the park and were immediately enamored with the roadway alongside the river. We were following the posted speed limit, but found ourselves slowing down a few vehicles. We stopped at the first opportunity to get a closer look and take pictures, which also allowed a couple of vehicles to buzz on past us. One vehicle had its bumpers plastered with Obama '08 stickers and PEACE NOW. The driver apparently missed the introductory peace movement 101 class for the hand gesture because she showed us only 1/2 of a 'peace' sign.

After enjoying the sight and sounds of the rapids for a few minutes, we moved along to the next photo op near a small waterfall. We clambered around on the large boulders and took some photos near the pretty stream and rockwork bridge. We even found some bona fide bluebonnets!

Moving further into the park, we stopped at Bridal Veil Falls and noticed a lot of wet folks returning to their vehicles. We climbed a short and easy trail to get a closer look and experienced the cold mist from the falls for ourselves. Any place along the trail afforded beautiful backdrops and cameras and posers were everywhere! We got our few pictures and picked our way through the crowd back to the vehicle. I suppose that those trips to Disney World have provided some training for these situations!

Not much further along, a pull-out invited us to view a marker that described a meeting between explorer John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt. Lovely place to have a meeting and apparently influential for the future of national parks as well!

Near the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center, we found the main parking area and rode a shuttle back to the Visitor Center and on to the Yosemite Falls viewing area. The park newsletter showed another parking area closer to the visitor center, but we were glad we didn't go there, as it's marked for only 30 minute parking. Defined as a trail, it's really a relatively flat paved path that circles from the roadway to the falls and back. Half of the circle is wide and flat enough to be wheelchair accessible. The boys enjoyed the opportunity to leave the path and do more boulder climbing to get a closer (and wetter) look at the base of the falls. Craig and I tagged along more cautiously - as always.

We decided that we'd like to return to Yosemite and hike the Lower Yosemite Falls trail. It will be more crowded a little later in the summer, but surely worth doing! After a quick tour of the visitor center's exhibits, we returned via the shuttle to the parking lot and began our drive over to Glacier Point. We had read that this would be about an hour's drive and that was accurate - a long, winding road that passes through a very cool tunnel along the way. Did we already mention how much we like leaving the 5th wheel behind while we climb around on these scenic routes?

Arriving at the fairly large parking area and seeing the fairly large number of vehicles there, we thought maybe we shouldn't have made the drive up just to join another crowd of folks. We were not disappointed however, after making our way up and down the short trek to the vantage point. The Yosemite Valley yawns out below you - waaaay below and you can see several of the water falls at once. We saw a photo display of the seasons in Yosemite and were glad to catch the snow melt time frame. While always amazing, it's hard to imagine the scene without the roar and sight of the waterfalls all around.

A little tired and hungry, we loaded back into the truck with the dogs and drove down the mountains to our cozy spot at the RV park. Craig hunted and gathered miscellaneous beans and beef on tortillas (Taco Bell) for a cheap, but satisfying meal to close the day.