Shauna in Tree Doorway

I felt like I was in Winnie the Pooh or leaving the Keebler Tree House.

Half Dome

Yose Mite

Y’know, they actually have shirts in the gift shops that separate Yosemite into Yose Mite. For those of you who have listened to Tom say this mispronunciation so often that you almost start to believe it’s normal, I thought you might be amused by that little fact.

“It’s like a MetroPark, but with better scenery.”
Tom, commenting on the crowds at Yosemite.

There are so many great quotes out there (Ansel Adams, John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt) that I could have used, but at this point in the trip, Tom’s really captures the essence of it.

We left San Francisco in the early afternoon yesterday, thinking that we would have plenty of time to beat the rush to Yosemite. Based on traffic yesterday, we did pretty good. However, once we got here and started asking about campground availability, things suddenly seemed a lot more crowded in the park. At our arrival, there were only two campgrounds that might have had anything open. We also asked about hikes with the ranger, but they were not nearly as helpful as their Yellowstone/Glacier counterparts. Their response was “They’re all good.” That’s not very helpful, especially when we find out later that Lower Falls and Bridalveil Falls are all but dried up. That’s the kind of information they should give you when you say you just have a couple of days and would like their recommendation for good hikes. But anyway, I digress…

So anyway, we get here yesterday and things are filling up fast so we beeline to the nearest campground that might have openings. After driving around a bit, we take one of the last two spots. It was a pretty nice location too, good flat ground, on the edge of the trees. All in all, we got pretty lucky with it. It was a little sad watching people drive by who arrived after us; I don’t know what they did if they couldn’t find a spot (backcountry permits get raffled off in early December for most of June/July). One of these unfortunate souls stopped Tom when we was coming back from the restroom (pit toilet, can’t expect much for $10/night) and asked if we knew of any openings or sites that might be big enough to accommodate an extra tent. He said if they didn’t find anything, to come back to ours and we’d see what we could do. And that is how we ended up hanging out with Philippe (he’s French) and Art (a native San Franciscan) who live in Berkley and work making clocks.

Now, it’s great that all of California visits this National Park in their own backyard and uses its trails and picnic areas and every conceivable parking space. Really, that’s great for them; it was created pretty explicitly for that purpose and served as a model for national and state parks to follow. It just sucks a bit for the rest of us that would like a little bit of space! Our campground was so loud at night we thought we were camping on the river in Sterling! It just gives the park a different kind of feel when it gets this much use from people who come here so frequently. Even the people though can’t take away from the scenery of El Cap and Half Dome. It really is unique how these sheer granite faces rise from the trees seemingly out of no where. Standing below El Capitan, you almost get the feeling like it’s the blob or a giant tidal wave that’s coming to engulf you. It definitely qualifies for an adjective like looming. Viewing Half Dome at the same time as El Cap gives you the impression that someone stuck a giant rectangular shaped cookie cutter down the middle of the valley and removed a block-sized piece from the middle. Not sure if the pictures will do them justice (they usually don’t, unless you are Ansel Adams) but hopefully you will get some idea for what I mean.

Today we had planned to take a bus to Glacier Point and hike back to Yosemite Valley along the Panorama Trail but we missed the early bus and the next one wasn’t going until 1:30 so we decided to do Vernal Falls instead. It was a pretty cool view, but for some reason I was just dragging today so we didn’t go as far as we had planned. We decided to use our extra time to head down to Mariposa Grove to see the giant sequoias here. They were big, and their bark was a very bright red, but I really thought they were going to be bigger (wider) since the guy at Redwoods had said as much.

Now we are heading back to the camp and I’m hoping that this typing will distract me from the carsickness that is getting worse and worse. Things aren’t real secure right now in the van so every corner means that the cooler is sliding back and forth. I thing Tom could go a little slower, but hey, I’m not driving so it’s mostly up to him how fast we go (until I spew). With that lovely little thought, I’ll leave you all until next time. Tomorrow we are heading out of Yosemite through the Meadows and driving through Nevada and Utah until we’re tired and it’s time to camp. Highway 6 through Nevada only has 3 towns…for the entire width of the state…so that should be fun. At least the road is straight!!!

Seals on the Beach

Street of San Francisco

Alcatraz

A San Francisco Treat

Good Morning All! (Well, for those of you in EST, Good Afternoon!) The days seem a little less exciting when I don’t have bear stories to share with you, but there will be wildlife in this one, so read on. Yesterday we left Eureka for our little jaunt down the Pacific Coast. It really is a gorgeous drive if you ever have the time (or the stomach) for it. For much of the way you can see the coastline and waves breaking over the offshore rocks. That was probably the coolest thing for me. It’s sort of surreal because while you watch the waves rise and fall, they look rather calm, especially from a distance. However, when one of these “calm” forces meets a rock, it’s like a collision of energy and they spray water up in the air and even away from the beach, you can imagine the magnificent sound that they create.

The other pretty amazing thing is what a great ocean view the cows in pasture have in California. So much of the land on the north coast is undeveloped but I didn’t really comprehend what that means. Apparently it means that cow pastures go right up to the edge of the sea. We did see quite a few bits of land for sale, so get out your pocketbook if you’d like to claim your own oceanfront property. The drive to get to the coast from the 101 was very, very, very curvy. Did I mention it was curvy? You have to cross the coastal mountains that lay between 101 and 1 and the resulting road is a test for drivers’ nerves and passengers’ stomachs. My stomach barely passed. The long stretches where I could see the beach once we were on 1 wasn’t too bad, but Tom really seemed to push it to the limit at the end as we neared the city. At one point we actually had to pull over. So before you buy up that aforementioned property, I’d check out the commute once or twice.

And now, as promised, the wildlife portion of today’s program: Pelicans and Sea Lions (or Seals, we’re not sure which.) As we drove down the 1 we pulled out to see what little critters lay on the beach below and boy were we in for a surprise. The entire finger of beach that stretched across between the ocean and some little inlet was covered in animals. They were very orderly in who got what space. The seals (we’ll just call them that for now) ringed the outer edge to be closest to the water. Every now and then we’d see one shimmy down off of the beach and the transformation from a lumbering beast to a graceful something (words are escaping me for an appropriate opposite to “beast”) in the water was amazing. On the inner layer of the circle were the pelicans and further down the beach, where the “C” of animals ended were the lowly sea gulls. Once again, we get to check another animal off of the list of things to see, even if we’re not sure if they were sea lions or seals.

We drove over the Golden Gate in San Francisco and were lucky that as of our arrival the fog hadn’t rolled in yet (that happened about 10 minutes later) so we had a clear view of the city and bridge. We stopped by Fisherman’s Wharf (wanted to see the touristy stuff, plus there were views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate across the water) and then headed up to Holly’s house. We’d been craving some pasta so we went out to a little place called Val’s. The pasta was good but we opted to not stick around for karaoke at the lounge next door. The best part about Holly’s place (other than the kick-ass view over the city)? The dogs!! She’s got two black lab mixes and it was a welcome sight to not only see a face from home but a couple of furry, four-legged faces as well.

Today we’re off to Yosemite for a few days. It’s unfortunate how the timing worked out because it’s Friday and the park will be absolutely packed with people. Hopefully the crowd won’t diminish too much from our experience.

PS-Almost forgot, we got a chance (inadvertently while leaving Fisherman’s Wharf) to drive down a couple of those very steep streets that you think of when you think San Francisco. Crazy!
PPS-We had an earthquake this morning! It was a 4.2 across the bay in Oakland early this morning. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to feel it (or maybe that’s fortunate), either way I can say that we also experience an earthquake on our trip!

Tom with a Tall Redwood

Wizard Island, Crater Lake

Nothing Says July Like 45 Degrees

The sea was angry that day; like an old man trying to return his soup at the deli.

-Tom (borrowing from Seinfeld which was borrowing from Hemingway)

So last night we probably pushed the driving thing too far as we didn’t get to our campsite until 10:30 or so. We had thought about getting a hotel, but we didn’t. By the time we started setting up the tent, I think we both wish we would have just got the hotel! Then it rained in the night. It’s nice and dry in the tent (rain fly does its job, don’t even have to worry about touching the edge of the tent) but it makes it a bit of a mess to put away. We had breakfast at a little place on the way to Crater Lake this morning.

Which brings us to our first big adventure of the day: Crater Lake. We had all kinds of plans and options. Well, really just two: do we hike down to the water or hike up an old volcano to get a bird’s eye view of everything. We finally settle on the later, with Tom vaguely recalling that somebody had suggested that hike to him before we left. The drive to the park was very reminiscent of a Smoky Mountain vista: the road we were on paralleled a river that alternating from calm to bubbling over rocks and (very) small waterfalls while all around us were thick forests of pine trees draped in moss and fog alike. This is not a stationary fog, it’s one that seems to grow and shrink like it had a breath of its own.

Well, if the fog was born from anywhere, it must have been Crater Lake. As we drew nearer our visibility lessened and the temperature dropped. For people who have spent the better part of the last few weeks with temperatures around 100, 45 degrees is QUITE the shock to the system. I had to get out my blanket when we got back in the car! The unfortunate side effect of the weather is that it hampered our view of Crater Lake. The deep blue color for which it is famous only seemed evident on the edges; the middle was too busy reflecting the silver-white of the low hanging cloud that dominated our view. Though ours may not have been the traditional view of Crater Lake, we were privy to the appearance and disappearance of Wizard Island as the fog bank would alternate between covering the whole vista and pulling back for a peek-a-boo moment of wonder.

Where Olympic’s rainforest failed to live up to expectations, California’s Redwoods definitely live up to the hype. It is absolutely awe-inspiring to stand in a grove of 200-300 feet tall trees as they tower over you. I found myself walking with my head all the way back for much of the visit (which, if you know my propensity for clumsiness while doing ordinary things like walking, was a dangerous position to be in!). The trees also had a solidness that it seemed like even the biggest of the giants in the rainforest was lacking. There are wider trees in California, but the tallest are in this area. Hopefully we'll see some more monsters in Yosemite. All in all, I’d recommend it if you ever get the chance.

We stayed in a hotel tonight in Eureka, CA and tomorrow we’re going to continue down the coast to San Francisco. So far the coastal drive in California has been WAY better than Oregon…you can actually see the coast here, not just glimpses of it through buildings.