Day 26 ~ Yosemite Day 3 ~ Stopped by the Ranger

Day 26 ~ Yosemite Day 3 ~ Stopped by the Ranger

Last day at Yosemite.  We won’t be sad to move on from this campground because it is filthy, and the water is white and yucky.  However, if we are going to see everything Yosemite has to offer, then we are going to have to get a lot done today.  I packed lunch and dinner, so we would be able to stay longer at the park as the campground is a good 40 minutes away.  Too far to go back and forth to the park. 

Today was a gorgeous day filled with a million breathtaking vistas, much better than yesterday.  So first on the agenda was traveling to Glacier Point.  Everything in this park is far away from the center point of the Yosemite Valley, added to the 40 min. drive to get to the park, makes this a time consuming park.  An early start ensured less people and cooler weather to start the day off.  We stopped at this turnout before the tunnel through the mountain.  The sun on the mountains looked like this:

This was a long drive, but we stopped at this lookout and took breathtaking pictures of the view.

I wish he wouldn't do that.  That is a straight down drop off the mountain.

Morning Sun on El Capitan and Half Done

 

The Same Photo Spot Taken Later in the Day

Then another lookout Vista Point:

Waterfall between Harrison and Natalie

This was so far away that I couldn't get a good pictures, but it is so huge, we could hear it roaring from miles away.

Half Dome

Then on to Glacier Point.  There aren’t any glaciers here anymore.  Which reminds me, I forgot to announce that if you want to see a real live glacier at Glacier National Park in Montana, you have to get there within the next 15 years or else they will be gone forever.  At any rate, great views here, though. 

Deep Drop

Mule Deer

Literally On Top of the World

Lupines

 

Yosemite National Park is a lovely park, but we have found the map to be a pain.  It doesn’t match the roads exactly, the roads are not efficiently laid out, and the restrooms are almost all pit toilets that are not maintained…..at all. You can usually smell there are toilets nearby before you see the sign. That is a problem for everyone in the family but Mike.  He finds the map more of a problem. 

So anyway, we ate our lunch in the car on the way to Wawona.  This is a lovely little part of Yosemite that celebrates the pioneer days of Yosemite.  There are a couple of period hotels that are just like the Fountain Park Hotel.  We used the restroom here, and honestly, I didn’t want to leave!  Best restroom in over 4 days!  Loved the flower boxes too.  It looked like some wildflowers in the boxes.  I might have to lobby Michael for some of these….



Old Fashioned Wicker Planters with Pansies

There was also a village of original log cabins that you could peek into, a blacksmith, horse stables, telegraph and stagecoach station, etc.  The original covered bridge was passed over by every visitor who came to Yosemite in the early days by stagecoach.  I think this is fascinating to think about. I can’t imagine hiking the trails with tiny tight shoes and tight dresses.  Honestly, I had a hard enough time getting up the mountain from the Sequoia Grove in my sneakers and jean shorts!

Mike talked to a lady at the visitor’s center, who encouraged us to take a 3 hour drive up the mountain to Tuolumne Meadows, which she said was beautiful. (This is pronounced:  Twallow Me……Rhymes with Follow Me …….to  Tuolumne!) So we headed off, knowing we had dinner in the cooler and a full tank of gas this time. 

The scenery changed as we went along.  It became very rocky and much cooler at the top of the mountain, which is a relief.  We stopped at Olmstead Point for some more grand views. 

Mossy Trees

Left By A Glacier



 

 

 

 

 

Finally we reached the Alpine Meadow.  Again, the scenery didn’t disappoint! 


 

 

 

This is a marmot.  They live in alpine areas where it is cold. 

Mule Riders on the Trail

 

We had a picnic on a rock after we looked at the exhibits in the nature center.

Apparently, they can’t decide if this is a visitor Center ……or not.  ????  Ha ha.

The lady at the Wawona Visitor’s Center had suggested hiking to Soda Springs.  I figured this would be a lovely place, where we would kick off our shoes and socks and put our feet into the clear, bubbly waters.  This is what it looked like:

We left our shoes on.  Seriously, some people were drinking it....Carbonated Mud..????

Also, we had to hike a mile of the Pacific Crest Trail to get to Soda Springs.  Woot. Woot.  We are serious hikers, now!

The next few things that unfolded were a series of unfortunate events……You could call it a crapbag…LOL.  Harrison had to go to the bathroom when we got to the high point of the trail.  There was a pit toilet there….alas…..no toilet paper…..and he needed toilet paper.  (See outhouse in the picture!)

So we pretty much walked/ran as fast as we could back to the car about a mile and a half.  So Mike was trying to hurry us back to the nature center…….Apparently, he was going 35 miles an hour in a 25 miles an hour zone.  Honestly, he didn’t even really know what the speed limit was in this area.  Wouldn’t it just figure that a ranger came up behind us and whoop.  Whooped….us over.  We weren’t even 50 feet from the nature center.  Mike explained the situation to the ranger.  The ranger let Harrison and I run up to the restrooms….(I never miss a chance to go to the bathroom.) Evidently, because Mike has a good driving record, he didn’t give him a ticket.  This was full of irony to me.  Mike has broken just about every other driving law to get here, yet he gets pulled over for going 35 in a 25.  Mike thought that was hoot too.  And when you really need to get to the bathroom, the ranger stops you……

We didn’t see the Mariposa Sequoia Grove here, but we went to every other place here.  We did see some Sequoias here, and we will see more at Sequoia National Park. 

We had a nice drive back to the campground, saying good-bye to Yosemite.  Mike is eager to move on to another place, where the roads are straighter. 

Sunset at Yosemite

 

Tomorrow:  We will be moving campgrounds to Sequoia National Park