Trip out West - Yosemite National Park

Day 14; Thursday, July 12th
Mono Lake and Arriving at Yosemite

Our next stop was Yosemite, but as we got closer, we saw signs for a place called Mono Lake.  Intrigued, we had to stop.  It was worth it!  It’s this intensely saline lake (twice the salt content of the ocean), crowned with interesting mineral formations called “tufas”.  We walked around for a bit, enjoying the views of the water and the sea birds that nest there before we headed through Tioga Pass into Yosemite National Park.

At the gate we handed over our receipts for Carlsbad Caverns, Mesa Verde, the Grand Canyon and Death Valley, plus $8.00 and voila! We were in Yosemite!

OK, for the record: Yosemite is the awesomest of awesome parks.  We stopped for pictures so many times before we even hit the first visitor center that it wasn’t funny (but it was worth it!).  The color combinations of the clear blue sky, gleaming grey granite and delicate green vegetation alone was staggering.  When we finally made it to the Tuolumne Visitor Center Rick asked if there was a trail in the area where one could see waterfalls.  The ladies said “Yes!” and they directed us to a little-known trail called “Pothole Dome”.  Sounded good to us.

The trailhead was tricky to find but once we found it, the path was easy to follow.  We wound our way through a delightful mountain meadow shielded with pine trees and stark granite spires rising up in every direction on the horizon. We walked for a little way along a slowly meandering stream where deer grazed unconcerned.  After being briefly led through a lightly wooded area, we emerged back at the same river that was now playfully tripping down rushing cascades!

Rick was in seventh heaven.  He stripped down to his swim trunks and dove in, begging me to join him.  Though I found the place beautiful and perhaps worthy of a good dip, it was getting late in the evening (it was pushing five or six o’clock by then) and I simply wasn’t eager to jump into freezing mountain water at that time of day.  Rick was so insistent that I promised we could spend the whole of the next day there since I was interested in exploring further down the river and climbing on some the inviting escarpments that lined the river.  We were ahead of schedule still, so this would not pose a problem at all.

As promised, we returned to the enchanting river (this time I brought my swim suit).  We climbed up and down the rocks and waded through the river at shallow spots – pictures being taken at every juncture.

This was the northern part of Yosemite, not often visited by tourists, so there were few people about.  In fact, we could hike for a half hour or so and maybe come across a person or two.  It was just perfect!

I did end up going for a swim, but the water really was cold (even after walking around all day!) and I didn’t stay in too long.  Rick on the other hand was like an otter – slipping into a pool here, sliding down a natural slide there.  He was in his element in the river; I was in my element scaling the sturdy granite around us.

This was the day we did the “usual” touristy things in Yosemite.  We saw El Capitan and Half Dome.  Like the Grand Canyon, this area was packed with tourists – quite the shock from the tranquil day before!

We decided we’d hike the Vernal Falls trail, it wasn’t THAT long of a hike (only a couple of miles).  Well, those couple of miles were pretty much straight up.  Oh it was brutal.  Then we got to Vernal Falls and it was no longer torture without purpose; but getting to a good viewing point for these magnificent water fall wasn’t the half of it – you could go to the top of the falls!  This meant another arduous climb; this time up steep, narrow stone steps.

The top of the falls was unimpressive and rather anticlimactic but then we wandered upstream a little bit and discovered why so many people were willing to make such an insane hike.  It was a little place called the Emerald Pool.

The Emerald Pool is a soothing, calm pond that’s fed by water running down a washboard-smooth sheet of granite incline.  Normally the area is closed to the public (there’s signs EVERYWHERE telling you not to go in the water), but the water levels were low this time of year and though the water shooting down the incline was intense (you couldn’t walk across it safely), it proved to be the perfect water slide and that’s just was all these people were doing – sliding down into the Pool.

Granted, if you weren’t careful, you could easily get hurt and it is very obvious as to why the place is signed up and down, but people were careful and adults would often shunt children to safer areas as they went zooming down the rocks.

Of course Rick took his turn.  I was content to sit and rest; watching the people and the birds and squirrels drawn by the vast abundance of offered candies and nuts. (There’s signs saying not to feed the animals too).

After we were both rejuvenated, we worked our way back down the trail (going down is MUCH easier and quicker!)

Next we wandered over to the famed Yosemite Falls which weren’t as spectacular as anticipated being that the water levels really were rather low.  Still, that was an easy walk and a nice ending activity for our time there.

Back to the car and our next challenge – escaping Yosemite at 6:00pm on a Saturday – no easy feat!  We did make it out alive without killing anyone.  I wanted a hot shower.  Though I loved Yosemite to not end, I was done camping for now. 

This proved harder than we had thought possible.  Our first stop was Sonora.  Just so happened the town was hosting the Annual Junior Livestock Auction – which equates to a large county fair.

All the hotels in the county (county!) were full.  We were however, given directions to the cheapest gas station in town – our second highest priority.  With a comfortably full gas tank, we looked to comfortably fill our bellies and so we stopped at a Round Table Pizzeria.  Food perked us up and we continued our quest for a room.  We weren’t picky – it just needed to be clean and have a working shower with hot water.