We had no trouble getting out of Yosemite Valley this morning, even though road signs had changed and some of the closed road was now open. We were on Tioga Road by 8:30 am. It was drizzling in the valley and as we climbed altitude snow flurries fell. We took our time. There was little traffic. We enjoyed the alpine scenery and made our photo and geology stops. The winter’s snow still covered much of the ground and the meadows were flooded. It was cold and we got out the hats and gloves. During the day we drove through snow flurries, [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday (5.21) while Frank went on the Geology walk with a ranger, I had time to catch up on writing the blog. We parked in the day lot again. After lunch we wanted to walk the Bridalveil Fall Trail. Since it’s in the West end of the Valley, toward our campsite, we drove CT. We got stuck in road construction traffic, were directed to the wrong road and it was an hour and a half later before we reached BVF. Good thing we weren’t in a hurry. All the new roads are supposed to open Friday. After all that, BVF is [View Full Entry]

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We got to Day Parking early and found a shady parking place. The day was slightly cooler. A cold front is supposed to come in Wednesday. The photo class had about 12 people. One woman in the class lived in Richmond, Short Pump in fact. We walked around the meadow and the Instructor gave different ideas about compositions. She showed us where to find reflections in the meadow ponds. When the class was over I took the bus to Ahwahnee Hotel. It’s the luxury lodge for the park and was built in the 1920’s. I walked around. It was interesting. The [View Full Entry]

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We arrived at the southern entrance to Yosemite about 9:15 am. For the first three nights are staying in this end of the park. Our campsite is at Wawona Village and it’s about 45 minutes (on winding road) from Yosemite Valley and all the scenic views. This location was all that was available when I made reservations in January. We spend 3 nights at Wawona, one night in a valley campground and 1 night near the northwest entrance to the park. We decided to visit the Yosemite Valley Visitor’s Center first. We wanted to get our bearings, see what the crowds [View Full Entry]

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King’s Canyon National Park, California May 17, 2008 Today we drove north to King’s Canyon. Sequoia and King’s Canyon are close together and are almost a combined park. There is a lot of wilderness and diversity in these two parks.We took our time and stopped at overlooks and spent most of the morning on the road. King’s Canyon is one of the deepest canyons in North America, even deeper than the Grand Canyon. The canyon floor is about 8,000 ft below the highest mountain peak. The mountains are granite, like Yosemite. From the overlooks we could see the raging Ki [View Full Entry]

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This morning we hiked to Tokopah Falls (about 4 miles). It was sunny and not to cool. A beautiful morning. The trail started up from the campground so we didn’t even have to move CT. The Kaweah River goes through the campground and fed by the falls. The river was roaring. It was a leisurely hike for us. We saw few people (until the return trip) and just enjoyed the forest and the river. You could see the snow on the opposite bank and on the granite cliffs. There are no Sequoia trees in this part of the park. The birds [View Full Entry]

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Sequoia NP was about an hour from the campsite where we stayed. We passed orange and lemon groves as we made our way toward the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We entered the park from the south entrance, which is at a low elevation. Wildflowers were blooming on the roadsides. As we gained altitude the road twisted and turned. Based on our experience on the coastal highway and here, California’s mountain roads are right up there with West Va and North Carolina. We took our time and enjoyed the view as we climbed. When we reached the first grove of Sequoia trees our [View Full Entry]

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Today was a catch up day. We went to Fresno to do laundry and go to a Wachovia Bank because we were having problems with our debit card. We were very grateful that there were bank branches in Fresno. Bank problems resolved, I tackled the laundry. I have to say this laundry experience was not on the same level as Sedona’s! I think the number of out of order machines almost equaled the operating ones. We decided to stay in a campground on the way to Sequoia National Park, our destination for Thursday, which was about an hour away. [View Full Entry]

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Today we left the relatively isolated Big Sur area to go to the Monterey Peninsula. It was a beautiful drive, more sheer cliffs and rugged coastline and more traffic as we got closer to Carmel. Our first stop was Lobos Point, which is a wildlife refuge and supposed to be beautiful. We were refused entry because no dogs are allowed. It was a disappointment, but what can you do? We traveled on to Pacific Grove Marine Park. Pacific Grove is north of Carmel not as touristy a town and full of old Victorian homes. I liked the area. We walked the [View Full Entry]

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Today was a relaxing day. We got up later and didn’t drive far. We visited Julia Pfeiffer State Park about 10 miles south of where we’re staying. There was a short walk to a waterfall overlook and a great coastal view. It was a beautiful area, very peaceful and we had it almost to ourselves. It reminded us of Hawaii. There was another short trail with a little stream, wildflowers and huge redwood trees. This is the furthest south redwoods grow. After lunch we did a beach hike at yet another state park about 5 miles up the road. We had [View Full Entry]

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