The 2nd Annual Great American Thelma and Louise Road Trip
We got up early, got breakfast to go at the hotel restaurant and hightailed it to meet our tour at Yosemite. The tour was an eight hour Grand Tour of the park on a bus. It was nice, a little slow at times, but we saw a lot and learned a lot. Unfortunately it rained almost all day. We saw sleet and snow up at Glacier Point, and on the way back from the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, we ran into fog so thick it looked like a white wall 10 feet in front of the bus. On the twisty and steep roads, it was just a tad harrowing, but we survived. We had a very experienced driver. She’s been driving those roads for 19 years and drives ski shuttles on the icy roads in the winter. We were in good hands.
One of the waterfalls. I wish I had taken better notes. I think this is Bridalveil Falls, but not sure. There were a lot of water falls. Most of them are seasonal, and due to the heavy rains, this one and some others had just started up that morning. Our driver said that people often ask when they are going to "turn on" the falls. I guess they'd have to ask God.
Me at the top of the world, with Half Dome in the back. This was at Glacier Point.
Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls from Glacier Point.
We ate lunch at the beautiful Wawona Hotel, oldest in the park.
We hit the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias after lunch. By that time, it was so cold and rainy we didn't walk around too much.
Here are a couple of interesting specimens with people so you can see the scale. One has a hole all the way through from fire damage.
This tree actually has a human cut tunnel through it. Some idiots did it a long time ago. It did not kill the tree. They can survive a lot of crap. Even Man.
Sorry it's so dark. Even if there were any sun, very little gets through the canopy.
This is the Grizzly Giant, the largest tree in Yosemite, and the 2nd largest in the World. The largest is in Sequoia National Park. This tree is the 2nd largest living thing on the planet. Coastal Redwoods are taller, but these are much more massive.
This is the Grizzly Giant with people on the other side of it for scale. Pictures do not do it justice.
The famous “tunnel view” of the Valley floor, the one you see on all the postcards and calendars, was totally obscured by clouds and fog. I was soooo disappointed. We decided we were going to go back the next day and try again.
After the Grand Tour, we got on a shuttle and hit a few other spots. Had dinner at the fabulous Ahwahnee Hotel, hit a gift shop or two and generally walked our feet off. I didn’t know that going to Yosemite was going to mean so much climbing on rocks, on and off buses and walking in the rain.
Everything at the Awahnee is out-sized. Here is one of the massive fireplaces in the lobby, and one of the many windows. It is fabulous, but we could never afford to stay there. We heard that Oprah was there that weekend. We don't know for sure that she stayed at the Ahwahnee but it would make sense. The Wawona is lovely, but does not have many amenties. She was taping her show in the park.
Before dinner we stopped at the Yosemite Cemetary. It's very small and literally takes an Act of Congress to get permission to be buried there. The people buried there are all early settlers, caretakers, etc. These guys were there too, taking it easy after another hard day of...deering. Look at the rack on that dood!
Speaking of wildlife, no, we did not see any bears. Our driver said she had not seen one in about 3 weeks, and she was due, but it was not to be. She did have some great bear stories though. We did see lots of deer, a coyote and lots of different squirrels. The driver said if anyone sees a bear to yell out "Bear!" and she would stop, even back up, but nobody had better yell out "Squirrel!"
The weather sucked, but it was still a memorable day. It can't express how much this place means to me. It’s been on my bucket list since I was a kid, so that’s one I can scratch off.