7/14-716 – Yosemite Park

We continued our mini-vacation from the ride with our visit to Yosemite Park. The first stop was an early morning visit to the White Wolf Camp Ground off of the Tioga Road to secure a camp site for two nights. We then decided to visit the Hetch Hetchy Canyon. It has a dam that has created a large reservoir to supply San Francisco with water. Built in the early 20th century after the San Francisco fire, it was controversial since the original canyon was said to be equal to or better than Yosemite Valley in beauty. We had a nice five mile hike to Wapoma Falls along the lake shore. The falls were running with plenty of water. We next drove over to Yosemite Valley. As expected it was crowded but the shuttle bus system helps. Since it was late in the day we limited our visit to the valley floor. On a late day hike to Yosemite Falls we caught a glimpse of a bear climbing out of the stream. As we learned, the park is full of them.

We started the next day with a short hike to Tuolumne Grove of Sequoia trees. They are the largest living things on earth by mass and date back to the era of dinosaurs. They only grow in a few specialized climate zones. At the park gas station at Crane Flat we saw a sow bear with two cubs grazing just off the road. We then returned to Yosemite Valley and hiked up to Vernal Falls with the crowds. It is amazing the lack of preparation some people have to take what is a moderately hard hike in hot weather. And it was hot, high 90’s in the valley floor. Our camp was at 8000’ so much cooler. After returning to camp we had a nice dinner at an adjacent tent camp lodge. This night’s quiet was interrupted by the cries of “bear in camp”. Every 15 minutes or so, from a different part of the campground, we could hear people yelling and banging to chase the persistent bear. It came sniffing past our campsite a couple of times but just passed on through as we had placed all of our food in the provided bear proof containers. The next morning we broke camp and headed for Tuolumne Meadows (9000’?) for a hike up to Elizabeth Lake. The lake was situated in a high meadow surrounded by the ridge line. We then drove back toward Woodfords, the town where we had stopped riding, to prepare for resuming the ride after this little vacation.