July 19

Today was Yosemite. That is more than enough for one day. I had planned to stay three days, but Mother Nature has not cleaned up her snow mess in this area. The NPS still has Tioga Road closed. This is the vehicle access to the northern portion of the park. There went all the hikes in Tuolumne Meadows and along a couple of rivers. And Devils Postpile NMon is still closed. There goes another day. So, I flew home early. There is no Wi-Fi in the rooms in Yosemite Valley, so I am posting these comments two days later (yesterday was travel to Ohio, arriving at midnight).

Back to Wednesday. I came in from the south, on route CA 41. Signage before the entrance kiosk said how long the wait would be if you were stopped here. I saw “60 minutes” and “45 minutes”. Well, I was here at 6 AM, and even the park ranger was still walking in from her car. Since the sign said to proceed, I did just that. My annual pass makes this more of a formality, though the NPS does like to know how many people enter a given park. The car’s thermometer read 54 degrees F. Now that is what I am talking about. Time to take a break, you triple-digit days. The first stop was to be Mariposa Grove, one of the three Sequoia groves in the park. But on arriving at the side road, a sign said it is closed to private vehicles. One must park and take a shuttle. The shuttle starts at 8 AM, so I figured all the Sequoias I had seen in the previous two days was good enough. Thankfully, Glacier Point Road was open (it was closed last year), so I headed there first. Famous Glacier Point is at the end of the road. There used to be two historic hotels at this location (both long gone), mainly because one can view most of the valley from here. But this has been a challenge since June 28 when the Pika Fire started. The fire is near the North Dome, and as of July 17 is 0% contained, burning over 800 acres. You could see helicopters across the valley, carrying large buckets of flame retardant, dumping the chemicals onto the forest. I drove back on the road a couple of miles to the parking lot for two wonderful hikes. Sentinel Dome hike (2.2 miles RT) and Taft Point (2.2 miles RT) were rewarding. At Taft Point, I met a family from Charlotte, NC. They had been at Sequoia two days earlier, and Kings Canyon yesterday. We just never crossed paths. Well, they are big parks. Then I met a lady from New Zealand. She had come to California for her daughter’s wedding. The newlyweds were also enjoying the view. I congratulated them on their new journey.

Taft Point had plenty of park enthusiasts. The next family was from Illinois. A daughter is a recent college graduate and will begin her career at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. My grandmother, mother, cousin, and cousin’s daughter were/are nurses, with my grandmother and mother practicing in Chicago. My mother was at Chicago Wesley Memorial, which was founded in 1888. Passavant Memorial (founded in 1872) merged with Wesley in 1972 to become Northwestern Memorial. Is this not a small world? I asked her if she liked North Michigan Ave, the Magnificent Mile. She replied, “yes”. Yes, the hospital is on this street, but it has some of the best shopping in the country. I wished her the best in a great profession.

I headed back towards Glacier Point, but instead stopping at Washburn Point. Much fewer people than Glacier Point, and the view is better of Half-Dome and the area to the south (includes Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall). Here I met a family from Pittsburgh, PA. The husband used to be in the Pittsburgh Penguins organization, playing for the Wheeling Nailers. The daughter had the prettiest Penguins dress. I mentioned I used to watch Jagr and Lemieux back in the day. Those were the times when the Columbus Blue Jackets did not exist. Today I cheer for the Jackets. A couple at Washburn were from Germany. They were quite interested in my record attempt. Great to see citizens of other countries coming to America to enjoy these lands. The husband did say he wanted to see a black bear before he left, getting to the meadows at dawn, but no luck so far. As we all know, this is hit or miss since we cannot control the movement of wildlife.

Back on route 41 a long winding road going north let out into Yosemite Valley. The first “attraction” was a long tunnel. On the east end there is a parking lot. This was the beginning of traffic-jam-city. Cars were trying their best to find a spot so the humans could get out at Tunnel View. For me the views are better further east so I crawled through the mass and headed to Bridalveil Fall. The place was packed, with vehicles and humans. Cars were inching forward, hoping to snag a spot of someone leaving. One let out in front of me; what luck. This is a 620-foot tall beauty, fed by a creek which gets its water from melting snow further up the mountains.

Swinging Bridge is the next stop of the Valley Loop (traffic goes in counter-clockwise direction). Traffic was stopped since so many cars were trying to squeeze into too few parking spots. I wonder how many people know the bridge does not swing. The current bridge was installed in 1964, after the original bridge, which did swing, was torn down due to flood damage.

The Park Service recommends getting into the park before 8 AM, find a parking spot, then leave your vehicle there the rest of the day… use the park shuttle service. When I arrived at the main parking lot at 1 PM it seemed that suggestion was well founded. I drove around a bit until finding a spot. There were thousands of cars, and multiple thousands of visitors. Everyone was here instead of Sequoia and Kings Canyon. The shuttle has two routes. One does the entire valley, taking about 70 minutes for a loop, stopping at 17 locations. This is the GREEN option. The PURPLE option sticks to the Yosemite Village and Currey Village areas, at the eastern end of the valley road. I used the GREEN to go to Lower Yosemite Fall. You can also see Upper Yosemite Fall while on the hike. Thirty years ago, I hiked to the top of Upper, which is over 2,400 feet via switchbacks. I was not in shape today to tackle this feat again.

On the way back from the falls, a couple stopped me. They had seen me at Kings Canyon the previous day, recognizing my Quest shirt. They live in Lynchburg, VA. They have two daughters and two sons-in-law all graduates of Virginia Tech. The Hokie world is alive and well. Yes, our nickname is “Hokie”. The name comes from an age’s old poem about “Hokie, Hokie, High… Polytech, Virginii.” The school used to be named Virginia Polytechnic Institute, as of 1944, which becomes VPI. Older graduates still use VPI instead of the 21st century Virginia Tech. Anyway, we are proud of the term.

There are a couple of lodging options in the Valley. The Ahwahnee is the high-end on the price scale. I stayed at Yosemite Valley Lodge, which still packs a $325/night price tag (including tax). No Wi-Fi or A/C (by nightfall the temperature was in the 60s, so the ceiling fan was more than sufficient to stay cool). But the room was very comfortable. The ice machine in the hall was heavily used by all the residents. All the campgrounds were FULL, and my impression was all the lodges were full as well. Be sure to reserve early. I think reservations open 365 days prior to your target date.

Anyway, a great experience in Yosemite National Park, even with the thousands of cars and people. Maybe try the park in September or October. May can be an iffy month due to snow on Tioga Road and Glacier Point Road. Time to get ready for my return trip to Alaska to catch Glacier Bay National Preserve, then onto the Northeast.