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.