Mono Lake and Yosemite

Carol's greeting from Glacier Point in Yosemite.

From Lake Tahoe, we headed east, into Nevada and then back into California, through some magnificent scenery. It was late in the afternoon and the fall colors with the sun on the aspen groves were striking. We headed for the small town of Lee Vining, on Mono Lake, which we also wanted to see, since Carol had read about it some years ago in National Geographic. Then from Lee Vining, we hoped to enter Yosemite from the east, over Tioga Pass. We were keeping our fingers crossed because that Pass often closes around this time of year due to weather or rockfalls. (If we couldn't get into the Park this way, then we faced a VERY long drive around to another entrance. Yosemite National Park is about the size of the state of Rhode Island!)

Looking down on fall aspen groves on drive to Lee Vining, CA.

Mono Lake Visitor Center in Lee Vining, CA.

Carol walking the path to Mono Lake from the Visitor Center.

Some of the Mono Lake tufa structures. We never did make it down to the shore to see the tufa up close, unfortunately, due to our concern about the van.

Our campground was nice, quiet with mountains behind us and looking down on Mono Lake in front of us. We didn't know a lot about this lake, other than it has weird, modern-sculpture-like limestone towers up to 30 ft tall, called tufa, in it and around its shore. Mono Lake is a salt lake, and it's the chemistry that forms these tufa towers--freshwater springs seep into the salt water from the lake bed and the chemical mixture of that water with the lake water forms the towers. They are formed completely underwater. However, the lake level has dropped drastically since 1941, when the City of Los Angeles conspired to steal (with the help of the government) most of the fresh water that runs into Mono Lake to quench its never-ending thirst, so many of the tufa towers now stand out of the water. It's a fascinating ecosystem and very important habitat for numerous bird species (a resting place during long migrations to South America).

The Visitor's Center for the lake was just down the road from our campground, and we planned to spend half a day exploring the lake before driving over Tioga Pass into Yosemite on Sunday afternoon, when our four-day prepaid reservation at Upper Pines Campground in Yosemite Valley began. (Even though it's the off season--sort of--at Yosemite, it was still difficult to get these camping reservations!) So on Sunday morning we packed up and got ready to go. A loud noise startled us when Jack turned on the van ignition--and then the engine light came on. Uh oh. Now what?

The van started and seemed to run OK, but the engine light stayed on. At least, it was a steady light. The manual said it was OK to drive for a while with a steady engine light on (a flashing light was the more dire and required instant attention). However, we were talking about attempting a steep mountain pass that afternoon and being inside Yosemite with no auto repair places, for several days. We talked it over and decided to stay in Lee Vining another day and take the RoadTrek to a mechanic first thing Monday morning to get the problem diagnosed. That meant missing Day 1 of our Yosemite reservation, so I called the Park phone number to let them know the situation, so they wouldn't give our campsite away.

We took a walk into the small town, had some coffee, and located a nearby garage where we planned to take the van first thing Monday morning. We then retired to the van to do some work, and take a nap. During the night on Sunday night we thought we heard rain and, sure enough, it did rain, even though it wasn't predicted. This now worried us about Tioga Pass, because rain in Lee Vining at this time of year typically means snow on Tioga Pass. Carol looked it up on the Caltrans website and sure enough, it said Tioga Pass was closed due to snow and high winds! Fooey!!

We took the van over to the garage and the guy there hooked the little computer up to it. The error code said "Misfire on cylinder 7." But the van was not showing any further symptoms at all. The mechanic said the manufacturer did say it was OK to drive with the steady engine light on, so we decided to go ahead and drive into Yosemite if and when Tioga Pass opened back up. (We'd rely on good ol' AAA if trouble ensued!) We then headed back over to the Mono Lake Visitor Center because we figured they would have the latest info about the road conditions. While we were there, one of the rangers called the Yosemite road conditions number and it said that Tioga Pass had opened back up. Yippee! So we quickly got back on the road and headed toward Yosemite National Park.

As soon as we turned onto Route 120, we saw HUGE mountains covered with snow looming ahead of us. It was a little intimidating! But very beautiful--the scenery got more and more impressive the higher we drove. Had to stop for several photos. In just about 12 miles of constant climbing through steep alpine scenes, we reached the gate into Yosemite. It was a thrill to finally be here at one of the most famous of our national parks! And it's always a thrill to hand over our Senior Pass and get in free (the sign said $30 per car--Yesss!). The scenery kept getting more and more spectacular as we drove deeper into the Park. (Even though we were inside Yosemite, we still had about an hour and a half to drive to get to Yosemite Valley, where our campground is.)

On Highway 120, heading for Tioga Pass.

Incredible mountain scenery going through Tioga Pass.

We make it to the top of Tioga Pass. Snow is everywhere, but the Park entrance is open.

It became clear very quickly that what we were going to see inside Yosemite was not like other scenery. It's weird, with giant polished domes and sheets and cliffs of granite, huge boulders all around, snow-covered peaks, alpine meadows with lovely creeks flowing through, giant trees--it just doesn't look like any other place that we've ever been. As we were to learn, glaciers carved most of this otherworldly landscape.

Our first distant view of Yosemite Valley.

We finally reached an overlook where we could see the Yosemite Valley, or at least a portion of it, and it was breathtaking. Just one heart-stopping view after another--and that's pretty much how our whole stay in this Park went. We had to drive through the entire Valley to reach our campground, so we stopped to photograph many of the most familiar landmarks along the way: Bridalveil Falls delicately blowing in the breeze; El Capitan (where we were fascinated to watch the tiny figures of brave (or foolhardy) rock climbers WAY up there, through our binoculars); and Yosemite Falls, the tallest waterfall in North America. We TOTALLY lucked out on the waterfall, because there was no water in Yosemite Falls a couple of days before, which is typical this time of year--but our unexpected rainstorm dropped a lot of moisture at the higher elevations and Yosemite Falls was falling again, just for us! The weather had turned back to clear, sunny and not too chilly. Just beautiful fall weather.

Bridalveil Falls, a delicate lacy waterfall that blows in the wind.

El Capitan. (Even through 10x power binoculars, the rock climbers look like ants.)

The rains brought us luck and we got to see a raging Yosemite Falls.

We hiked the trail to Lower Yosemite Falls--this waterfall has three parts to it.

We were starry-eyed by the time we got to our campsite. The only negative about visiting Yosemite this time of year is that this is the time when they do a lot of their repairs and they have some of the roads pretty well torn up, with lots of detours, so the roads don't match the maps. We got lost once or twice, but finally figured out how to get to our campground, which was near the famous landmark of Half Dome.

So, what can I say? Once we parked at our campsite, we didn't move the van again the whole time--Yosemite has a great shuttle system and it was a short walk to the nearest shuttle stop at Happy Isles, a lovely spot where the Merced River has several little islands in it that are connected by rustic bridges and walking trails. You could see a lot from the shuttle, which we rode a couple of times every day. The next day we went to the Visitor Center to see the movies--they have a wonderful new movie made and narrated by Ken Burns. We learned a lot about our new hero, John Muir, the naturalist who was instrumental in preserving this place for posterity. Jack took a photo of his statue in the Visitor Center.

John Muir, the man who saved Yosemite from looking like downtown Los Angeles (perhaps a slight exaggeration, but unfortunately he could not prevent a dam/reservoir being built in Hetch-Hetchy Valley within the Park).

Water from heaven? Jack timed this photo just right!

We walked the Cook's Meadow loop for great shots of Half Dome at near-sunset. An older lady had her easel set up in the meadow and was painting--it looked pretty good. Every scene we saw was like a painting anyway. It just doesn't look quite real!

Half Dome with artist painting this landmark.

Some mule deer in the meadow. They're almost as tame as our deer at home!

And on the other side of the meadow, the majestic Yosemite Falls again. (Note cars parked at base.)

The day before we left Yosemite, we took the shuttle to their fancy hotel for breakfast (we splurged on Eggs Benedict, one of our favorites--yum!). The hotel was built in 1927 and up until this year was called The Ahwahnee (which is the name of one of the American Indian tribes who used to live in this Valley). Due to a crazy legal oversight by the Park Service, one of the park vendors (who lost their contract last year and is obviously angry about it) had trademarked the hotel name, and several of the other historic Park names of buildings and sites, and sued the Park Service saying that they had to stop using those names because they were legally trademarked to that vendor, instead of the Park Service! So now they're calling the hotel The Majestic Yosemite Hotel. Ridiculous, huh? Anyway, it's a gorgeous building, a neat combo of rustic and elegant.

The Ahwahnee Hotel, now renamed the Majestic. How goofy.

Ahwahnee hotel dining room, where we had Eggs Benedict.

One of  the Ahwahnee's many large windows with spectacular views. (Note that we're refusing to call it The Majestic...)

We have so many photos that we're just going to overwhelm you with them in this blog, because we don't want to forget any of it! On the drive out of the Park on Thursday, we stopped to see the famous Tunnel View, an iconic view of the Valley landmarks. Doesn't look real, does it? Then we drove up the steep and twisting road to Glacier Point, high above the Valley. In the Ken Burns movie and in lots of other places in the park, we'd seen a very old photo of two ladies balanced on the hanging rock at Glacier Point, high above the Valley, kicking up their heels together. We were hoping to recreate that, but that hanging rock is blocked off nowadays, with good reason. I (Carol) did climb up on a rock there to get one of my "daredevil" poses, but climbing out on that particular hanging rock would definitely have been way beyond my comfort zone!

The famous Tunnel View.

Carol and Jack posing at the Tunnel View.

At the end of the steep road up to Glacier Point was another high overlook, Washburn Point, with fabulous views of Half Dome and two other waterfalls that you don't see from the Valley floor. Finally it started to rain, and that was our signal to leave. We had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the van -- a very mundane lunch for such a transcendent place -- and then said our farewells to Yosemite. It will live in our memories.

The falls in this view are about 3000 feet below where we are standing.

Half Dome side view.

Looking down on the Valley and Half Dome from Glacier Point. It was hard to stop taking photos!

The famous Glacier Point rock, that we weren't allowed to climb on. Thank goodness.

Is that Carol and Jack on Glacier Point?

Carol in her lightning Bolt pose on Glacier Point.

Love Lake Tahoe!

We took the scenic route from Humboldt County across the state to Lake Tahoe, on the border with Nevada--a beautiful drive! We passed several other lakes on the way, with cute vintage cabins on the lake shores--and we found gas for only $2.35, which we thought was relatively unbelievable for California! (We also found some delicious root beer floats at reasonable prices, one of our trademark treats during this Epic Journey.) We camped in Truckee, arriving just at dark but after the RV park office was closed, so I (Carol) had to go knock on the door of another RV and ask them for the code to get into the bathrooms. But other than that, it was a very quiet and clean campground and we had a good night's sleep.

Other than seeing Lake Tahoe for the first time, we didn't have much of a plan for the next couple of days, and our expectations weren't that high. Since it's a big ski resort area, we were a little afraid that it would be filled with "yuppies," high-priced restaurants and trendy upscale stores--the type of place that we generally don't like. It was only about a half hour's drive from Truckee down to the lake, or Big Blue as they call it here. Our first glimpse was favorable. It's a huge, gorgeous lake surrounded by impressive mountain peaks, many with snow on them already. Although most of the trees here are big evergreens, there are also some deciduous trees and the fall colors were eyepopping next to the blue of the lake. It's a good time for us to be here, right between their busiest seasons of summer and the winter ski season.

Lake Tahoe with snow-covered mountains in the back ground.

Beautiful fall colors at Lake Tahoe.

We stopped at the Visitor's Center in Tahoe City to get maps and information, and the man behind the counter was very helpful. We had decided we wanted to drive around the lake, which is about 70+ miles, so he gave us tips about good places to stop for the view and photos. He also said that Tahoe City had a nice promenade along the shore and that we should go down there for a walk before setting out on our long drive. He also told us which campgrounds were still open (not many!). Tahoe City was not too big a town and, while it did have its share of trendy restaurants and shops, they were pretty cute and we actually liked the place. We did go down and walk along their lovely promenade and took a bunch of pics. Then we went to one of the trendy restaurants and had pancakes on their outdoor porch. Very nice.

View from the promenade.

Another view from the promenade.

Next we drove about 8 miles along the lakeshore to grab a campsite at Sugarpine Point State Park, the nearest open campground. The park and campground seemed deserted as we drove in and we were afraid it wasn't really open, but it turned out that they keep one section of campsites open. Lots of sites were available, with only a couple of tent campers there. Nice peaceful place with huge pine trees all around. We left a tablecloth on the table to claim our spot, and then headed out to begin our drive around the lake, starting in the southerly direction from our campground on the west shore.

Jack showing the size of the huge sugar pines trees in the campground. 

Their pine cones, shown on the ground, are the size of footballs. 

The traffic wasn't bad at all--another good thing about being here at this time--but almost immediately we ran into road construction delays, which was a little frustrating. But we got to see all the views we wanted, eventually. The first stop that the Visitor Center guy had recommended was a nice park area with fall colored bushes and great lake views, so we took a bunch of photos there. The area is so pretty that you just want to keep snapping photographs of everything. Around every curve is another marvelous view.

View of Lake Tahoe from west side.

Another view of Lake Tahoe from the west side.

The road began to climb up a steep mountain and then the views got really breathtaking! At one point we were driving over a skinny one-lane road with steep cliffs dropping down to the water several hundred feet on both sides! That took our breath away for sure! It would have been better without all the construction stops, but nevertheless this is some of the most gorgeous scenery in the world. It definitely exceeded our expectations!

Emerald Bay and Fannette Island, the only island in Lake Tahoe.

And of course, with Jack along, there have to be fish in the story. The kokanee salmon are born in the mountain streams and move out into the lake to live, coming back into the streams where they were born to spawn, just like the oceangoing salmon. We just happened to be here during spawning season and our helpful guy had told us we should stop at Taylor Creek to see the kokanee--a great suggestion. We stood on a bridge and watched the big schools of red kokanee being chased by the mergansers, a type of redheaded duck that eats fish. One merganser was very determined, chasing the fish both on the surface and under the water. The stream was so clear that we could see everything as it played out. The duck chased and chased, and obviously got frustrated. But then he finally caught a fish and gobbled it down. It looked too big to fit into his small throat, but he managed!

The merganser (in blue water) is chasing the salmon (red fish in lower right).

Then we walked the nature trail by the stream and discovered a really neat building--a science encounter center where they've diverted part of the stream into the building, which has big glass walls that allow you to watch the kokanee and other stream life. The male kokanees turn red when they get ready to spawn and their jaws get very hooked. After they spawn, they die and provide food for other creatures. This was a really interesting place and we spent a lot of time here.

Up close with a male kokanee salmon. Note the big hooked jaw.

In fact, between the fish-watching and the construction delays, we realized that we weren't going to make it around the lake before dark, so we backtracked to our campground, taking lots of photos along the way. At one point we passed Emerald Bay, which has the only island in Lake Tahoe--we got some good pics of that, since the sun was starting to go down.

Another view of Emerald Bay with Fannette Island.

There is a beautiful Scandinavian chalet (former summer home) on the top of the island.

We had a good night's sleep--no bears visited--and got an early start the next morning. We'd decided to start driving in the other direction, north, and check out some more stops that our helpful guy had suggested. We crossed over the Nevada state line and ended up at a high summit, at about 8500 ft, which offered some great panoramas of the lake below. A nice fellow offered to take a photo of us both. Jack got more and more artsy with his photos!

Jack and Carol with Lake Tahoe far below.

Lake Tahoe from Nevada side.

Finally we felt that we had enough photos of this gorgeous place, and we decided at that point to leave the lake and head on over toward Yosemite, since our camping reservation in Yosemite Valley started on Sunday, Oct 23. We had to climb some big mountains to get there, since we wanted to enter Yosemite through Tioga Pass on the eastern side, which sometimes closes due to snow in October. More to come on that part of the journey.

Eureka, Redwoods, and Pot

It's been a week since our last blog! Yikes! When we left you last time, we were hunkered down in a bad storm on the Oregon coast. Fortunately no trees blew down on us, but it blew the paint right off our RoadTrek! Some areas had tornados just after we passed through. Can you believe this? We're definitely due for a major paint job when we get back. (New windshield still looks good though!)

Paint damage due to high winds and lashing rain. Poor RoadTrek!

Although it was still raining when we left the campground on Friday to complete our Oregon coastal drive, it wasn't blowing nearly as bad as it was on Thursday. We still had the southern portion of the coast to drive, and it was just as spectacular as the rest of it. We stopped at several view spots to grab pics of the other-worldly rocky structures in the ocean, being lashed by rain, wind and waves. We can understand how these natural sculptures are formed! One spot had a huge rock arch with waves surging through the arch. We got tired of saying "Wow!" all the time.

Large shark fin?

Trees grow on rocks in ocean. How about that?

There's a big hole in that rock.

We finally said goodbye to Oregon, and crossed over into northern California. We were headed to Eureka to visit some good friends of ours who we hadn't seen in a bunch of years. To get there, we drove through part of Redwoods National Park (actually it's a national park that cooperates with several California state parks to form one big beautiful park). We drove for miles through one section of beautiful redwoods along highway 101. Unfortunately due to the rain and taking our time driving, we didn't have time to stop and take photos, as we needed to get to Eureka well before dark. But we promised ourselves we'd definitely see more redwoods and take photos later while in the area.

Our friend Norm has lived and had his solar business in Eureka for over 40 years. (Both of us used to work with Norm many years ago.)  We pulled into his driveway around 5 pm, and he met us riding on a Segway! Carol got VERY excited because she's had a longstanding desire to ride a Segway but has never had the opportunity. Norm gave her a quick lesson and she executed a few maneuvers in his driveway. Carol: AWESOME! I WANT ONE!

Carol riding Norm's Segway--on Carol's wish list. 

Jack getting advice from Norm about off-grid solar power.

After oohing and aahing over the Segway (Norm had to show us how well he can maneuver it--the thing is uncanny!), we sat and yakked for awhile, catching up on the last 10 years or so--lot of water over the dam. We made plans to get together the next day for brunch. Then we headed on to the next town down, Del Rio, to Norm's RV park which is managed by his ex-wife Sharon, also a dear friend of ours. The RV park is right on the Eel River--Sharon met us as we drove in and escorted us to our site, right beside her RV. It's exciting to see her after so long. We also met her friend Lee, and Huckleberry, a huge, friendly (and always hungry) Labrador. (Lee had assembled dinner for us all--meatloaf and mashed potatoes--what a guy!)

Carol and good buddy Sharon.

Lee (with guitar) and Huckleberry (the dog).

We spent a pleasant night there, and had coffee with Sharon in the morning, and then went to meet Norm the next day for brunch/lunch, and then went to see his solar business, Six Rivers Solar. He's won a lot of awards for his business and it was exciting to finally see the place. He is definitely a solar power pioneer! Seems that there's nothing he doesn't know about that business.

Sharon makes a great cup of coffee.

We took Sharon out for dinner that night at a historic restaurant/inn in Scotia, an interesting nearby town, with a long logging history. The food was fabulous! (In fact, we've been eating very well ever since we got here.) It was wonderful hanging out with old buddies again. Sharon has taken up the ukelele and she and Carol spent an afternoon picking and singing duets--lots of fun! Great visit!

Hated to leave, but the redwoods were calling us. First we needed to get the oil changed in the van, and we found a nice place nearby to get that done. (We saw an interesting phenomenon while waiting on the van--a rainbow that went across a wooded hill, rather than being in the sky. Weird.) The van was certified A-OK and we headed south, toward The Avenue of the Giants, a 32-mile-long scenic byway south of Eureka that is in the largest remaining old-growth coastal redwood forest.

We didn't expect to be as gobsmacked as we were by the redwoods. These trees are just breathtakingly magnificent. We've both seen a few redwoods before, but not in this quantity. They're huge, the tallest living creatures, and very, very old. Some are thousands of years old. The Avenue of the Giants turned out to be an interesting combo of pristine, primeval redwood forest and kitschy, vintage (circa 1950s) touristy stuff. We ogled the trees (the sun came out for this drive!), and stopped at most of the touristy stops too. Like the cute little houses made from a single redwood log, or the 20-foot room built under the stump of a dead redwood, or the drive-through tree. Our van couldn't fit through this drive-through tree, but we watched (and photographed) a car drive through it, and then we got a passerby to photograph us strolling through it. Too much fun!

Carol with a majestic giant.

Jack with a double-trunked redwood (starts out as one big trunk at the bottom and then separates into two).

Roadtrek doesn't fit but Jack and Carol do.

This Toyota fits...barely

Carol in the treehouse she always wanted, made from one log.

We finally had to stop at a campground when it got dark (big trees in the campground too). We planned to get most of the way to Lake Tahoe, our next destination, the next day, but that was not in the cards. We drove south on Highway 101 for about an hour and then came upon a line of cars stopped dead. We sat there for a while, thinking it was yet another "road work" stop, but then we saw people getting out of their cars and wandering down the road out of sight. Some of them eventually came back and we asked them what was going on. It turned out that an oil tanker had just turned over about a half mile up the road from us and had spilled oil all over the world. We wouldn't be moving for 4 to 5 hours! This is one of those times when we're really glad to be in our RoadTrek! We turned on the generator and worked on our laptops, had a frig full of snacks and sodas, and our own bathroom. So no worries! We chatted with some of the other folks in line with us. And finally the CHP vehicle came through with his loudspeaker saying to get ready, that we'd be moving shortly. It was about 4 or 5 hours, sure enough.

We were stuck in this line of traffic for about 5 hours, while Hazmat team cleaned up spilled oil off the road. 101 was closed for a long time.

We stopped for gas in the little town of Garberville and were amazed to see the streets filled with "hippies"--or that's what we would call them--a flashback to the 1960s. Unkempt, unwashed people with unusual, not very clean clothing, lots of rasta hair, and with a very spaced out look in their eyes. Also many unusual vehicles, like painted-up old schoolbuses. And LOTS of young hitchhikers. They were EVERYWHERE in this town, filling up the minimart where we got our gas, lining the sidewalks, and hitchhiking on every road. Carol did a little research and found that this is due to this place being the world capital of pot growing (i.e., marijuana, mary jane, hemp, weed, ganja... whatever you like to call it). In this county, Humboldt, growing pot is the main industry and it is very lucrative. The marijuana grown here is supposed to be the best in the world, and brings a premium price. These flower children come here from all over the world to live in the redwood forest and smoke the fabulous (to them) weed. We photographed one of the strangely decorated buses at a motel where we stayed for the next two nights. (Carol got loaded up with book editing so we did some down time at a motel for her to catch up.) No pot smoking for us...

Quite the van, right out of the sixties. But the occupants looked like they were in their twenties.

In the next installment, we visit Lake Tahoe--yet another incredibly beautiful part of our country!