Yosemite and Napa Valley

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Sep 24 - 07
After visiting the colorful desert dunes and mountains of Death Valley, I headed towards Yosemite national park. Passed the towns of Lone Pine, Big Pine, Bishop, Independence. Drive on Route 395 is beautiful. On one side you have desert mountain range and on the other the Eastern Sierras. Mount Whitney, tallest peak in the lower 48 lies on this range. It was cool and cloudy that day. The peaks of Sierra range were covered with some snow which made the scenery more majestic. The photographs however didnt turn out good. Something to do with today's digital cameras when shooting in low sunlight in cloudy conditions. Night photos are even worse.

I stayed overnight in Mammoth Lakes. Visited the June Lake area and saw the Tufa structures in the Mono Lake. This area is quiet beautiful and more popular among skiers during winter.

Entry to Yosemite is through beautiful Tioga pass. This pass is closed during winter. There being no functioning gas station inside park at that time (there is one but was under repair at that time), I had to go back 12 miles from the park entrance to fill gas. The Mustang Convertible I was driving was guzzling gas fast and I had to fill gas frequently. Given prices are upwards of $3 in California, driving long distances imply that you would spend a lot on gas. Why dont these rental companies rent fuel efficient Japanese cars? I wonder.

Inside Yosemite, I saw the popular sites including El Capitan and view of the Half Dome from the Glacier point. There is a trail leading up to the top of the Half Dome. It is 16 miles round trip and I was not sure if I wanted to do that given that I didn't have enough time. It would take about 10-12 hrs to do this hike and if you wanna do it, start early in the morning. I just hiked till the top of a waterfall on this trail. That was a round trip of 3 miles with lot of climbing.

After Yosemite, I headed towards San Francisco. Stayed overnight in a small town called Jamestown. Visited Baringer and Sterling vineyards in the Napa valley and saw a geyser near a town called Castiloga. It was a 20-30 min wait for the geyser to put up its show. And when the water started bubbling over, it was time for it to spring up. The show lasted about 4 min and the water was cold!!

More full size photos at

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Photos

Tufa in Mono Lake
It is Calcium Carbonate structure formed from precipitation

a Geyser called Old Faithful
This is in Castiloga in the wine country

Wine barrels in Sterling vineyard
Sterling has a cool Gondola ride which takes you from the ticketing center to their vineyard

Waterfall
Waterfalls are supposed to dry up by end of summer since they are fed by melting snow but there had been some rain ,it seems, before I visited the park