4th August 2016 - Yosemite NP - Kms to date 9,336

Kms today 326

We got going early and had brekkie with Rafe and Dianne before she had to leave for work. Joe rang up and we had a short chat. He told us there were acres of old american iron at Reno’s Hot August Night car show.
We drove into Nevada to get some cheaper petrol but what a palaver to pay. They only took debit cards but not mine even though I took out US$300 cash from the ATM in the gas station using the same card! We drove on up the East side of the Sierras to Mono lake. This was the lake featured in Pasolini’s “Chinatown” when LA commandeered the inflow streams and diverted them down into the central California valley for agriculture.
There was a 20 minute wait to get into Yosemite NP. We stopped at Soda Springs as Rafe suggested, but couldn’t find a parking space so we went on to the John Muir trail. This goes from Tolumne Meadows all the way down to Yosemite Valley. We only did 2 miles of it to get a look at Cathedral Peak a jagged rock pyramid.

Cathedral Peak.

We drove into Yosemite Valley and there was a new viewing point that gave us a great view of the whole area.

We planned to get to Tolumne Grove to see some Sequoias and to see the play about John Muir at Yosemite Valley, so we didn’t have time for anymore. We stopped at Olmstead Point to take in a view of Half Dome, the sliced off mountain Yosemite is famous for. At Tolumne Grove the sign warned of a 400ft drop in altitude down to the Sequoias and a mile hike, but we were up for it. The road was the old stage coach route into Yosemite. There were only about 25 giant Sequoias in the Grove, but there were some huge ones.

A giant Sequoia.

The control of wildfires had robbed the trees if their natural advantage - fire resistance. One dead tree had an archway cut out of it’s butt so stagecoaches could drive through.

Alan posing in the Sequoia tunnel.

The walk back up to the car was quite an effort because of the climb.

Our camp had been renamed Half Dome Village from the old traditional Curry Village. The old concessionaires, Delaware North, had spat the dummy when they lost the contract to Xanterra and taken copyright on all the old names. Our tent was way out the back. We had some dinner and when we went to see the John Muir presentation I had got the time wrong and so we missed out.
 The tent was very hot inside and I cut my shin on a big rock when I went to have a shower as it was dark when I came out. Not a very comfortable night, but I knew what I was getting into when I made the booking.