Day 1 towards Yosemite

We (me and Shashank started from San Francisco) left San Francisco at around 2 am. Initially we had planned on a 2 day hikes: Tenaya lake to clouds rest (Around 10 mile roundtrip) and Mount Dana (Around 6.5 roundtrip). Mount Dana peaks at 13000 ft being the second highest mountain in Yosemite with spectacular views of Mono Lake from top.

Its a 216 mile drive from Stanford through a number of state and inter-state highways. Among the numerous exits, the exit to I-238 was closed and we circled around for an hour before we got on track. Winton Avenue became our own Mulholland Drive as we kept on landing on the avenue every 10 minutes. Finally I pulled off and got into a gas station shop. We met a lanky, stylish lad just about to open the shop. Shashank asked him the way to I-880 N and he asks back "Kya aap India se hai". Honestly I thought he was a mexican (never seen a desi with a stylish hairdo, chic outfit and jewelery. Talk about stereotypes). Anyway he was new and did not know and was so overwhelmed with joy to see a couple of desis around that he didnt even charge me for the coffee ! So after a couple of more rounds to the Winton Avenue, we got on to I-238 and on to Yosemite.

About 100 miles before Yosemite, we started seeing signs on Tioga road closed due to wildfires. We ignored them and thought we will get into some detour. We were dead wrong. If you see Tioga road closed signs,
STOP !!, pull over, have some coffee, open your maps and see if it affects you. We reached the Tioga road some 10 miles from Tuolumne Meadows campground when the ranger stopped us. "I am sorry sir but the road is closed. You will have to take the detour". No problem. "The detour is 231 miles". We jumped out of our seats !! It was a freaking five hour drive !! A 231 mile detour for a 10 mile road !!. We dropped the plans for Tuolumne meadows and instead decided to drive to Yosemite village and see if any campgrounds were available. I had just 2 hours of sleep and had been driving for some 5 hours straight and was almost drooping on the wheel. Finally we reached the Yosemite village and were greeted by the immense, 3000 ft vertical rock formation of El Capitan. It sets the stage for the amazing views of the valley strewn with bare cliffs all over. A nice lady cancelled our reservations at Tuolumne Meadows and put us into the North Pines. We promptly put up our tents and took a quick nap before starting on a car hike of Yosemite village.

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Part of trip: Yosemite

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