Yosemite Day 2

Thursday 6 September 2012 – A day with nature

Happy Birthday Claire

Day 147 and 11 days to go

After a restless night’s sleep we were awake by 8.30am and organising ourselves for todays adventure. After enjoying breakfast outside amongst the trees we were on the road by 9.15am and heading back into the wilderness. We followed HWY 140 through Sierra Nevada state forest, stopping to take photos of the dramatic landscape that enveloped us. Even though we had driven this road yesterday it still had us in awe.

I was watching the way the rock face stacked. It was like a perilous game of jenga, just one wrong move and it would all come tumbling down below and there was plenty of evidence of where it had happened. The rocks themselves were auburn, brown and golden as we drove towards the entrance of Yosemite they were magical.

We stopped at a few points along the road to check out the river flowing below. There were beautiful crystal clear pools in which we could see trout swimming around. I wanted to get down to the sandy beaches below and go for a swim, but as climbing boulders is not my forte I had to be satisfied with the view from above.

We also noticed from here that the rock colour was now white and grey in colour. There were plenty of large boulders in the river and you could see where they may have once sat perched high above. There was quite obvious scarring of the cliff faces above.

We entered the park through the rock arch again and drove onto Valley View where we parked up to check out the view of El Capitan, a large white granite, rock ascending from the valley floor and reaching to the sky. From here we were also able to see Bridalveil Falls, where there was some water cascading over the rock ledge from far above.

Our journey onwards saw us driving through the forest with the green leaves of the plants so vivid in the morning sunlight. Our next stop was Swinging Bridge. Here the water from the Merced River was reflecting the granite monoliths across from us. We watched the many squirrels playing and the noisy, blue steller jay’s flitting from branch to branch.

We walked the bridge crossing over to the meadow on the other side. From here I was able to walk to the water and dip my hands in. The water in the sun was quite warm, but under the bridge it was brisk.

We returned to the van and this time drove on to the car park where we could park our van. We then hopped on the free shuttle that took us to the village. We had to stop for a short time in the bus, as a mule deer was drinking water from a pool in the middle of the road, we where then able to catch another shuttle through the park. We passed many camping grounds that were full of campers, many in tents. I am not sure I would be game staying in a tent, as there are plenty of signs around saying bear area and secure your food in bear lockers. 495 cars were wrecked by bears searching for food in 2009, imagine what they would do to a tent!

We jumped off the shuttle at Mirror Lake where we had to walk through the forest about 1km to reach a large sand pit. The lake was dry unfortunately so I wasn’t able to get the fabulous photos I was expecting. We wandered around taking in the view of Half Dome, a large granite rock structure that is curved on top. We saw a mule deer in the forest that wasn’t particularly fussed about us.

Disappointed we wandered back towards the bus stop. All the while my sense of hearing was heightened, out detecting bears, mountain lions and anything else that might by lurking. I am sure we must have passed plenty of wildlife along the way that went unseen by us.

Once back on the shuttle we returned to the van where I made up sandwiches and we had a quick rest while we decided on our next step. 

When we had finished up we made our way to information to find out about the road we intend to take tomorrow and with the all clear we then walked into the Yosemite Valley where we checked out the local arts and the museum. The museum had a 3D model of the valley and the mountains. It gave a great perspective of what we are walking through and just how narrow and insignificant the valley floor we are traversing is.  Apparently the floor is widening though with each rock fall!

When we had finished in the museum we returned to the van and made our way  back along the winding road stopping at the El Capitan stop to check out the meadow and the Lower Brother mountain that some idiots, also known as climbers choose to scale. Gawd knows why.  Our final stop was just before the entrance at Cascade falls. From here we could see the water tumbling from the ledge, we could also see the road we would be taking tomorrow as we traverse the park from the west to the east entrance. Ahhh. It should be an interesting one.

We then drove back along HWY140. It was great to complete the return trip as we saw the valley from a different perspective and it was just as marvellous. We took the highway back to Mariposa where we stopped to do our food shopping for the next few days and then we filled the hippo with juice for tomorrow’s trek before finally making it home.

Once in I was straight into the bathers and off to the pool as it was quite warm and still, though there were grey clouds building. When Paul joined me we had a swim in the cool pool and relaxed before returning to the van. We stopped to talk to an American woman, whose Mum was an Aussie, she obviously liked to chat and gave us a few travelling suggestions.

Once back at the van Paul started on dinner while I loaded the photos and did some research for the next part of our trip. We then ate dinner. We were able to catch up with Merida and Brad on Skype and hear about what is happening back home before bringing out the cards again to end off the night. Playing to the sound of the extremely noisy crickets chirping away outside.