dare2go

Yosemite National Park


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By the time we had returned to Lee Vining, bought a few essentials at the local grocery store and made use of our cell phone reception to call a friend, it was 3.00 and time to make the drive into Yosemite in the hope of finding a campsite for the night. You drive up and up through a beautiful gorge until you reach the eastern entrance to the Park at an altitude of 9945 feet! I didn't know what to expect of Yosemite, but the scenery was really beyond my imaginings! The snow peaks we had been seeing and getting closer to all day were suddenly right there beside us. The snow has lasted a long time this year [in fact, the eastern entrance via Hwy 120 had only been opened a few days before our arrival] and the sight was just splendid. The canyon dropped away below us but when we crossed the road to make our first stop at a lookout point, we were both totally stunned to find a huge lake below us rather than the canyon we expected. And this was all before we even officially entered the park!
We entered and drove on through the park and made a stop at the Lembert Dome. There are a few of these domes scattered through the park. What they are is basically a huge rock. The largest, El Capitan, is claimed to be the largest granite monolith in the world and rises over 3500 feet from base to summit. It is unsurprising that climbers love to scale these huge rocks! We drove on and passed rushing waters, bursting with snow-melt, huge pine trees and the occasional sequoia amongst them, and in the distance, always the peaks with their winter wonderland appearance. With all this beauty surrounding us, it was a pity to have it spoiled by constantly having to watch out for people driving well over the park speed limit and cutting corners, endangering on-coming vehicles. I can't really understand the need for speed in such a beautiful environment - these people must really miss everything but the road!
The other disappointment was that there were no campsites to be had in the Park. Most of them were still closed - winter really hangs on here in the high altitudes - and of those that were open, all but one were reservations only and booked out for up to six months in advance. The only first come-first served ground was well and truly full by the time we arrived (right on the western edge of the Park) at 6.00. So we headed out along Highway 120 to check out the campsites outside the Park. The first we arrived at was an RV Park that doesn't bear description - enough to say that we weren't going to join all the others in this parking lot after a day in such beautiful nature surroundings. We drove on up the road into the forest (Yosemite is surrounded by National Forest and on the western side it is the Stanislaus) and took a likely looking side track. It yielded a very quiet, almost level clearing among tall pines where we spent one of our best nights in a long time. The only draw-back was the mosquitos, but that was no problem if we stayed inside the camper - and you could leave all the windows and blinds and curtains open, because there was no-one around. It was truly beautiful.
On Friday morning we were loath to leave our little paradise, but we wanted to drive back into Yosemite, into the Valley to see the famous falls. We weren't disappointed with the falls at all. The first sight we had was of the Bridalveil Fall from a scenic overlook. It was a long way in the distance, and hard to measure its size. We drove on and reached the carpark of the short trail to the base of these falls. The park was packed with cars and it took two times driving around to find a spot where someone else was leaving. I had heard this park was busy, but this was definitely beyond my definition of busy - overwhelmed is closer! We walked to the base of the 620 feet falls and felt the mist from about halfway up the path. The water is blown about by the wind and seems to be more mist than a falling stream.
We drove on towards the visitor centre, stopping to view El Capitan and to pick out the small specks that were climbers almost to the top! We left the truck in a day use carpark and caught the shuttle bus to the visitor centre. The shuttle bus is free and drives around the upper end of the valley. We had thought to catch it to see the sights, but realised that the Yosemite Falls were within easy walking distance of the visitor centre. These falls come down 2425 feet, in two parts (making them the fifth tallest in the world). The absolute power of the falls is amazing to behold. The number of people observing them was also amazing...
Checking out the shuttle bus on leaving the falls, we discovered that the majority of the stops were at accommodation, shops and other tourist agencies and only 3 stops at things to see - one of which we had already walked to, and one we had passed on route. We decided to go back to the truck, find the dump station to empty out the waste and fill up with fresh water, and then leave the crowds of Yosemite behind. The place is certainly wondrous, but the masses of people, many of whom seem to be in such a 'big city paced' hurry, did not make our visit a pleasant one. It's a shame that places like this get 'over-loved'!