Tour Diary - Day Seventeen
Jan. 18th, 2017 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waitingmanTwo entries in two days... it's almost like real-time...
Thursday 20th October - Mammoth Lakes to Oakdale
Up around 8ish to find that Travis had not been broken into by bears, so the windows & doors were intact... the insurance deposit survives another day. Quite a brisk, but clear morning, so after lugging the luggage, food & water back down to Travis, we decided to drive up to see the lakes, as we weren't hungry enough for breakfast yet - last night's pizza was pretty filling. We'd only gone about quarter of a mile before we saw freshly-plowed snow on the side of the road & the road was wet too. I thought it was a cold night!
Lake Mary, Lake George, Twin Lakes... all very beautiful at that time of day, reflecting the surrounding, snow-capped mountains in still, clear waters, with a thin ice crust formed around the shallows & the shores. Fishermen were in all the carparks, checking rods, donning waterproof overalls, inflating boats & generally getting ready to deplete the trout & salmon stocks in the lakes. Some were already staking out good fishing spots, a couple of which were also good photo spots... so, not wanting to disturb them, we found other vantages. After about an hour of crunching around the shoreline & hillsides on the mud & snow, we'd finally worked up enough appetite for a small breakfast, so headed back down into town & found coffee & breakfast at the 2nd place we tried
After which, north to Bridgeport to cross the Sierra Nevada. On the way, we stopped in at the Mono Lake Parks Office, where we heard that the 120 road over the mountains through Yosemite Park had just re-opened. We'd seen some roadworkers at the turnoff about 5 minutes earlier, but assumed they were there to keep the road closed... This was good news, as it not only meant we could revisit one of our favourite parks, but it also put us much closer to San Francisco on the other side. So, back down the road a few miles, then a right turn onto the mountain road
Which became visually stunning after about 2 minutes, when we found the first of a couple of high lakes. It also became a little hairy after about 4 minutes, when some rolling stones (Mick? Keith??) tumbled off the hillside & across the road just in front of us. Not small stones either. The car deposit survives again... The road then continued a twisting, narrowing path around the mountains, with evidence in a few places of recent rockfalls. I didn't want to go much faster on that winding road, but found a few extra m/ph in those areas...
After about 30 minutes, we rounded a bend & saw the back end of Half Dome in the distance, across what used to be the glacier valley. No snow, unfortunately, but still plenty of evidence of the glacier that came through here a few millennia ago - bare pink granite, with only a few areas where trees could find enough purchase & soil to grow in. It was our first sighting of the Yosemite we know & love, so with spirits lifted, we began the long descent to the Valley floor. It took a lot longer than I expected & I was also surprised by where the road ended - at an intersection halfway down the western road into Yosemite Valley that we'd taken a couple of times 4 years ago. I'd thought we would come into the Valley somewhere at the back near Half Dome... Geography was never my favourite subject
Bridal Veil Fall actually had water falling, unlike last time we were here, so it was our first stop on a nostalgia trip around the Valley floor. Two things were different to last time - they are doing a lot of roadworks & construction, as it's the end of the season. Despite that, there were a LOT of people everywhere & their SUVs, RVs & tour coaches. One coach ran me off the road into the ditch as we headed to a remembered favourite spot by the Merced River, so Travis got to do some unexpected off-roading & has some plantlife firmly wedged in his front bumper, but is otherwise unscathed. The deposit survives again... what a day this has been!!
Up to the location known as Tunnel View, where you look out down the length of the Yosemite Valley floor, with all the famous bits - El Capitan, Half Dome & Bridal Veil Fall... which was catching the light just perfectly for a rainbow effect in its waters. Some last photos before heading out of the Park & westward, destination sort of unknown, but preferably close to San Francisco. On our 2nd attempt, we found the correct exit road & left the Park, through the fire-ravaged State Forest & came to the town of Oakdale just after sunset. Google found us a modest little motel on the main road, with the China House restaurant just down the street. Great food, just a lot of it... keep forgetting we're in the USA, so even Chinese portions are super-sized
Thursday 20th October - Mammoth Lakes to Oakdale
Up around 8ish to find that Travis had not been broken into by bears, so the windows & doors were intact... the insurance deposit survives another day. Quite a brisk, but clear morning, so after lugging the luggage, food & water back down to Travis, we decided to drive up to see the lakes, as we weren't hungry enough for breakfast yet - last night's pizza was pretty filling. We'd only gone about quarter of a mile before we saw freshly-plowed snow on the side of the road & the road was wet too. I thought it was a cold night!
Lake Mary, Lake George, Twin Lakes... all very beautiful at that time of day, reflecting the surrounding, snow-capped mountains in still, clear waters, with a thin ice crust formed around the shallows & the shores. Fishermen were in all the carparks, checking rods, donning waterproof overalls, inflating boats & generally getting ready to deplete the trout & salmon stocks in the lakes. Some were already staking out good fishing spots, a couple of which were also good photo spots... so, not wanting to disturb them, we found other vantages. After about an hour of crunching around the shoreline & hillsides on the mud & snow, we'd finally worked up enough appetite for a small breakfast, so headed back down into town & found coffee & breakfast at the 2nd place we tried
After which, north to Bridgeport to cross the Sierra Nevada. On the way, we stopped in at the Mono Lake Parks Office, where we heard that the 120 road over the mountains through Yosemite Park had just re-opened. We'd seen some roadworkers at the turnoff about 5 minutes earlier, but assumed they were there to keep the road closed... This was good news, as it not only meant we could revisit one of our favourite parks, but it also put us much closer to San Francisco on the other side. So, back down the road a few miles, then a right turn onto the mountain road
Which became visually stunning after about 2 minutes, when we found the first of a couple of high lakes. It also became a little hairy after about 4 minutes, when some rolling stones (Mick? Keith??) tumbled off the hillside & across the road just in front of us. Not small stones either. The car deposit survives again... The road then continued a twisting, narrowing path around the mountains, with evidence in a few places of recent rockfalls. I didn't want to go much faster on that winding road, but found a few extra m/ph in those areas...
After about 30 minutes, we rounded a bend & saw the back end of Half Dome in the distance, across what used to be the glacier valley. No snow, unfortunately, but still plenty of evidence of the glacier that came through here a few millennia ago - bare pink granite, with only a few areas where trees could find enough purchase & soil to grow in. It was our first sighting of the Yosemite we know & love, so with spirits lifted, we began the long descent to the Valley floor. It took a lot longer than I expected & I was also surprised by where the road ended - at an intersection halfway down the western road into Yosemite Valley that we'd taken a couple of times 4 years ago. I'd thought we would come into the Valley somewhere at the back near Half Dome... Geography was never my favourite subject
Bridal Veil Fall actually had water falling, unlike last time we were here, so it was our first stop on a nostalgia trip around the Valley floor. Two things were different to last time - they are doing a lot of roadworks & construction, as it's the end of the season. Despite that, there were a LOT of people everywhere & their SUVs, RVs & tour coaches. One coach ran me off the road into the ditch as we headed to a remembered favourite spot by the Merced River, so Travis got to do some unexpected off-roading & has some plantlife firmly wedged in his front bumper, but is otherwise unscathed. The deposit survives again... what a day this has been!!
Up to the location known as Tunnel View, where you look out down the length of the Yosemite Valley floor, with all the famous bits - El Capitan, Half Dome & Bridal Veil Fall... which was catching the light just perfectly for a rainbow effect in its waters. Some last photos before heading out of the Park & westward, destination sort of unknown, but preferably close to San Francisco. On our 2nd attempt, we found the correct exit road & left the Park, through the fire-ravaged State Forest & came to the town of Oakdale just after sunset. Google found us a modest little motel on the main road, with the China House restaurant just down the street. Great food, just a lot of it... keep forgetting we're in the USA, so even Chinese portions are super-sized
