N. America road trip

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I'm finally on the road after thinking about this for too long! Going to these places has been on my List of Things to Do for a very long time. The circumstances could be a bit happier as I was not quite ready to leave the West Coast but make the best of all the little detours that come your way, right?

Let's get started.
Day 1 and Day 2: August 21-22, 2009 - departed Palo Alto and headed straight to Yosemite. My car navigator served me well and brought me on a nice drive, although it did not map my hotel correctly! I was trusting it to lead the way and I drove by the hotel the first time around. Not a big deal as I went straight in to the park and purchased my Annual Parks Pass. Woohoo!! I only allowed time for a quick tour as I was worried about not finding my hotel once it was dark but the highlighted photo was from Tunnel View giving a view of El Capitan, Half Dome and Bridalveil Falls - well, you can't see much of the falls - I will add better pictures of that specifically. It will be very difficult to choose which pictures to post. I will need to do a Flickr album or upload on Facebook I think to show them all. Some of these are out of order between Day1 and Day 2 but it makes more sense to present them this way.

I will point out that there will be a recurring theme in some of these photo's - a beanie baby buzzard named Buzzy given to me by Pat before I left. This is something a few people are doing during their cross-country road trips. See Buzzy at the Yosemite sign! (on the bottom...). At first I thought "Buzzy" was referring to my fondness for Happy Hours but Pat says it's because of my constant curiousity about pathology and so we often talked about dead things. Hm. what do you think?

My hotel for the night was adequate and I got on the road bright and early - ok, it could have been earlier... I did not sleep well in my "adequate" hotel... I headed straight for Hetch Hetchy Reservoir - thanks to one of the CA public access channels that runs special programs on the California parks. They highlighted Hetch Hetchy as a gorgeous place (as you will see) and one that does not get as many visitors. All the guidebooks say that Hetch Hetchy was considered "just as beautiful as Yosemite Valley" before they put in the dam and flooded it. It is still beautiful... The picture is from the reservoir itself. I will load two - one with Buzzy posing on the dam and another from around the side. I was on my way to the falls when I realized how much time I had already taken and turned around, especially because a lot of the falls are dry now (as you will hear further on!). The drive in to and out of Hetch Hetchy was really gorgeous with sharp drop offs on the road and sweeping vista's. It was well worth the trip and I am glad I started my day this way.

I headed in to the park again (this is actually when I got the Buzzy/sign picture) and went straight to Yosemite Valley. More wonderful views of the famous El Capitan and Half Dome - see pics of Half Dome closer here.

I was looking for a parking spot in one of the lots and was throughly annoyed with the damn tourists in my way when I realized they were all trying to take pictures of bear! This bear was just hanging out - at one point started heading for the vehicles and everyone scattered. Then the bear got freaked out - maybe someone sprayed it - and was running right at my car! needless to say I jumped inside and rolled up the windows but it veered off and found it's way back under the fence.

I took a little walk to lower Yosemite falls and they were DRY. so disappointing. I will not bore you with the dry picture. Instead I am putting in a close-up of BridalVeil Falls. I wonder what it looks like in high water season - but this was quite nice with the misty water blowing up and away like a veil for which it's named. After another quick stop at Tunnel View for better pictures I headed on to Tioga Road and the Alpine meadows to cross the park. I'll be staying on the other side of Yosemite at the close of Day 2.

More beautiful views along the way here - great places to stop and take a break. GORGEOUS. Pictures of an alpine lake and a pond, the view down the valley as I'm heading down the other side (was over 9000 ft) and then of Mono Lake. More on Mono Lake tomorrow.

I don't want to be too wordy and bore people so I'll stop Day 2 now. I am not sure how often I can post, it depends on if I have internet access and can stay awake long enough...
I love my trip so far 😊 and it keeps me from remembering to miss people (except when I type things like that). I miss most of you already 😉.

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Photos

Buzzy at the dam
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir

Buzzy at the sign
he's the tiny little thing below the T

Bear!
This was in the parking lot around Yosemite Village

bear
he didn't care at all how many people were standing there...

Bridal Veil Falls
The "veily" part

valley
on my way down the other side

Mono Lake
This picture doesn't do it justice. I'll get a better one tomorrow.

Comments

[Sheryl]

WOW
Gorgeous Christina! Great story to go with it too! Can't wait to see the next post!

[Pat]

A Good Start
With three sets of travellers going cross-country when will I ever find time to get my work done? Who cares? This is great Christina, I will happily follow you and Buzzy along.