We’re back in Fairfield resting and recuperating after a
week in the outdoors. A little over a week ago we
picked up our son-in-law, Ryan, who flew in from Pennsylvania to escape the
rigors of planning/hosting baby showers (for Jess and Pete) and enjoy a week of
hiking with… “The Old Man”.
We camped the first two nights close to San Jose at the
Thousand Trails RV Park in Mountain Hill, CA. The park had one thing in its favor, location: it was
reasonably close to the planned hikes.
The office had assured us that it was full hook-up, but apparently their
interpretation of “full hook-up” is not the same as ours. The park was dusty, expensive, and the
hook-up didn’t include sewer. But
for two nights we said ok, and stayed – the location was handy!
During six days together, Heinz and Ryan made it to 5 trails
and covered a total of about 35-40 miles - while I tagged along on 2 trails, and
a bit of a third, for a total of way less than the ambitious ones.
On day 1, Heinz and Ryan tackled Berry Creek Falls Trail in Big Basin State Park – a 10.2-mile hike with a degree
of difficulty of “difficult”. I hitched
a ride and did my own thing at the park – a two-mile stroll through the woods,
stopping and taking photos at my leisure.
I followed that with a strenuous afternoon of moving my lawn chair from
shady spot to shady spot, as I munched on lunch and read a book, ending with a
nice nap as I waited for “the boys” to come back.
Beginning of Berry Creek Falls Trail in Big Basin State Park.
The "alligator tree" in Big Basin.
Ryan and Heinz at the first of the two waterfalls of the Berry Creek Falls Trail.
The second of the two falls.
On day two, Heinz and Ryan took
the motorcycle up to Mount Diablo to hike the
Grand Loop – a 6.2 mile hike around the mountain with a degree of difficulty of “moderate”. I headed into San Jose and did my
hiking at the Farmer’s Market with a degree of difficulty of “non-existent”,
unless you count the weights from the shopping bags. Turns out the moderate part of the Mt Diablo hike was the bike
ride to the top, followed by lots of uphill and downhill hiking – Heinz came
home exhausted. I on the other
hand came home fully rested, and loaded with all sorts of goodies including
cherries and Cara Cara oranges. That
haul made me the hero of the day, and everything was gone in short order.
Two of Ryan's sweeping panorama shots from the top of Mount Diablo.
The guys came home from Mt
Diablo after 4PM, and we packed up and drove east to Yosemite National Park. We didn’t proof the route the GPS gave
us before we left, and as a result drove a bunch more miles (and a touch more
hours) than we intended. I’m sure
the other campers didn’t appreciate us pulling in (and making all sorts of
racket getting set up) around midnight – but nobody complained! Indian Flat RV Park is a great
little park just outside the El Portal entrance to Yosemite – it was home for
the next few days.
For those that have never
been to Yosemite National Park, it was
established in 1864 and encompasses nearly 1,200 square miles of central
California. It is best known for its
waterfalls, but has giant sequoias, deep valleys, and vast meadows along with some
of the premier rock climbing cliffs in the west, including El Capitan and Half
Dome.
On our first morning Heinz
and Ryan drove over to the Visitors Center to get a rundown on the trails,
including what was open and what wasn’t.
They came back and picked me up and off we went to hike the Mirror Lake
Trail. We drove into the park,
stopping at several spots along the way to “ooh and aah” at the sights, including
the requisite stops to look at the river, Half Dome, El Capitan, and
waterfalls.
Heinz contemplating the Merced River.
Upper Yosemite Falls from Yosemite Valley floor. May and June during peak snowmelt are considered the best months to view the falls. By August some of the falls are completely dry.
Eagle Peak Meadows
Ryan breaking out his handy-dandy water filter to fill up our bottles.
The water from the Merced River was clear, crisp, and cold.
The water from the Merced River was clear, crisp, and cold.
The Mirror Lake Trail is an
easy 4 mile trail, with minimal elevation changes and is smooth along almost
the entire trail. To see the
reflections in the lake you need to visit during the time of maximum snowmelt,
early May through late June. Most
visitors, however, visit it later, when the “lake” is merely a wide stretch on
Tenaya Creek. You start out on a
virtually level bike path that travels 0.3 miles to Tenaya Creek Bridge. The signs state that if the creek is a
raging torrent descending toward you, Mirror Lake will be worth the visit, but
if there is only slow water or no water at all, you will be in for disappointment
when you get there.
We were in luck and the water
was raging, so off we went. The
hike to the lake traveled through some wonderful woodsy sections with dogwoods
in bloom everywhere.
One of MANY dogwoods in bloom.
Dogwood blossoms.
Oh look, a woodland elf...or maybe just a twit!
We made it to the head of the lake in about 2 ½ hours. Of course Heinz kept reminding Ryan and
me that the hike was supposed to be 2 hours roundtrip, but Ryan and I didn’t
really care – we’re both pretty camera happy and couldn’t resist the urge to
stop constantly to frame a shot.
Heinz swears that this was the only view he ever had of Ryan and me.
Mirror Lake
Tenaya Creek at the head of Mirror Lake.
On the way home we stopped in a meadow between Half Dome and
North Dome to check out the climbers on the cliff faces. Wow, that is NOT a sport for me. Many of these climbers were on a
multi-day climb, which entails sleeping while tied to the cliff.
Climbers on the face of North Dome (photographer--Ryan)
Heinz and me checking out the climbers. (photographer--Ryan)
The next day Heinz and Ryan took off to venture the Vernal
Fall/Nevada Fall Loop Trail – a 6.5 miles trail, with a 4,200-foot elevation
change, and a degree of difficulty of “Steep and strenuous”.
Approaching Vernal Falls from the distance - don't know what the big deal is!
Approaching Vernal Falls up close - steep, strenuous, and... wet.
The reward - top of Vernal Falls.
The boys ate lunch on the river at the top of the falls, and then took the Muir Trail to loop back to the trailhead. Appears foot traffic tapered off on the stretch between Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls, and again tapered off after Nevada Falls (while taking the loop back towards the trailhead) - funny how that works!
Approaching Nevada Falls
Nevada Falls from a distance
So, while the guys were getting a workout on the hike, I, on the other hand, stayed home and slaved over a book, tossed some laundry about, took a long walk with my camera along the river, and prepped a dinner
for their return - trust me, it's rough work being retired!
Merced River
Oleander along the river.
Firewheel (aka Indian Blanket) along the roadside.
Later that night the guys gave me a treat, eating heartily
while praising dinner, filling me in on all their adventures of the day, AND
doing the dishes!
It was like Christmas in May!
After the dishes were all put away we hopped back into the
car and headed up to Sentinel Dome to watch the sunset. Sigh, there wasn’t much of a sunset as
clouds were moving in, but the scenery was still quite majestic.
Half Dome across the Yosemite Valley from Sentinel Dome.
On Monday we slept in a bit, then it was off to hike the
Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias Trail.
The sequoias of Yosemite are not the oldest trees in existence, but some
still exceed 3,000 years in age - the oldest tree ever is a bristlecone pine
thought to be over 4,600 years in age.
They are also not the tallest around - the tallest sequoia is around 290
feet, while the coastal redwoods top out at around 310 feet. As wimpy as they might be among their
tree friends – they were still pretty spectacular to us.
Beginning of the Mariposa Grove Trail with majestic sequoias.
The Grizzly Giant, one of the largest trees in the Mariposa Grove,
estimated to be 1,800 years old.
The limb on the right side is almost seven feet in diameter.
There are few young sequoias in Yosemite. To germinate, sequoia seeds need three
things: some direct sunlight, adequate moisture, and bare mineral soil. Unfortunately fire suppression efforts
to protect the mature trees over the years caused more shade tolerant trees to
spread, reducing sunlight, competing for moisture and blanketing the bare mineral
soil with needles and debris. It
became impossible for sequoia seedlings to get started. In addition, the heat from fires dries
some of the mature trees’ green cones, causing a shower of fresh seeds to
fall. Fire suppression interrupts
this process. The National Park
Service now runs a program of “prescribed burns” during spring and fall in
order to decrease the abnormal fuel supply that has built up over years and
years of fire suppression. The
plan is to discontinue these burns eventually and allow the forest to resume
its cycle of lightning-caused fires every seven to twenty years.
Young sequoia coming up in the shadow of a fallen tree.
Heinz practicing his Opa “baby holding” skills with a "tiny" sequoia
cone.
Heinz and I along the trail. Photo courtesy of Ryan.
Many of the older trees show evidence of previous fires,
which have damaged, but not vanquished them. The trees are very resistant to fire, disease, insects, and
decay allowing them to live for centuries. The trees have very shallow root systems, usually 6 feet or
less deep, spreading up to 150 feet from the base of the tree. This gives them a stable base to
balance the massive trunk and enhances their ability to capture water in the
dry environment.
The Clothespin Tree has a natural tunnel caused by numerous
fires with an opening wider than a car.
Along the way we came across the small Mariposa Grove
Museum. The cabin occupies the
site where Galen Clark built a log cabin in 1864. Inside are exhibits on the ecology and history of giant
sequoias.
Mariposa Grove Museum, replica of 1864 cabin.
Looking up into the trees. Photo courtesy of Ryan.
There were plenty of plants to take photos of besides the
trees and Ryan and I took full advantage of the opportunity.
Snow plant, sub-species of the heath family, a parasitic
plant that gets its nutrients from fungi that attach to the roots of
trees. It is unable to
photosynthesize nutrients, but instead obtains mineral nutrients, water, and sugars from the tree via the fungi while in turn providing fixed carbons to the fungi.
By mid-afternoon it was drizzling off and on and the water
droplets were making for some wonderful photo ops. Heinz, on the other hand, was feeling like he was
herding cats...
Water “pearls” made for some fun competition between Ryan
and me to see who could pull off the best shot. (This is one of mine.)
Yes, children, it’s another plant, tree, flower, bird,
squirrel, fill in the blank...
Heinz, our guru of the map, figuring out the best route back
to the car. It was beginning to
turn cold and the drizzle wasn’t stopping.
But then, that drizzle turned to sleet, followed by the sleet
turning to small hail and we were still almost 3 miles from the car and the
temperature was continuing to drop.
So off we went at a brisker pace to get to the dry, warm car. Of course, that didn’t mean that Ryan
and I totally put away the cameras.
Hail on the path.
Forget those brief little 5-minute hailstorms you usually see. This one lasted the entire 3 miles back
to the car, luckily it stayed small in size.
All those pretty water drops were turning to ice.
Hail piling up around a tree base. If you blow this photo up, you’ll be able to see the streaks
of falling hail across the tree trunk.
After piling back into the car we decided to take our
chances on another sunset and headed up to Glacier Point. Along the way we saw a bit of
new-fallen snow, but kept on going.
Cold & wet, but determined to see the sunset, if there is one!
Along the drive up, we spotted a wolf on the side of the
road. He had the look of someone
who stakes out that area regularly to beg for snacks from passersby. He posed nicely for us, but seemed a
little miffed when no goodies were forthcoming.
Posing on the side of the road. Check out the snow on his back and head.
Photo courtesy of Ryan.
We made it up to Glacier Point in time for the clouds to roll
in - the temperature continued to drop.
It was 34 degrees when we got to the lookout point. In addition, it was still drizzly, but
turning to sleet and snow. But the
few good shots I got were worth the chill and the wet clothes and hair.
Snow moving in through the trees.
Half Dome with the sun struggling to get through.
3 minutes later, I had my camera in just the right position
for a great shot.
A minute later and the light was gone.
Driving home from Glacier Point was a bit tricky for
Heinz. By the time we left and
headed down the mountain, the snow had arrived in earnest and the road was
slick and the visibility next to nothing.
Of course, Heinz milking the last bit of tread out of the tires didn’t
help our traction one bit!
Sure was glad Heinz was doing the driving through the dark and snowy night...and not me!
Photo courtesy of Ryan.
The next day we packed up and headed back to Travis AFB and
left our outdoors adventures behind. There simply is no way to relate the beauty and grandeur of Yosemite N.P. - no amount of words and pictures would do it justice. It is simply one of those places you have to put on your "bucket list"! We spent Ryan’s last day in San Francisco and Berkeley, but I’ll wait
until my next entry to share those tales.
Here are our friends of the day, all from along our hikes:
Steller's Jay
Look before you unroll that toilet paper! Spotted in the bathroom at Big Basin
State Park.
Is it a dog or a tree branch in the center of the picture?
(Hint, it never moved.)
Ryan made these friends along the way:
What's up Doc?
I think I can, I think I can...
You looking at me?
Ah, bribe me well and I'll hang around forever.