Water & Granite

Half Dome in the distance.
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Tuesday, August 8

The next morning we began our 4+ hour drive to Yosemite. With 140 still closed due to a landslide, we took the windy 120 with hairpin turns high above a valley into the park.

We pulled over at a couple of scenic overlooks and did the short hike to the base of Bridalveil Falls. The wind swirls around the cliff, lifting and blowing the water from side to side in a delicate free-fall.

Mom made reservations at the Ahwahnee Hotel about a year ago. It’s definitely not cheap, but it is a very nice place to stay. No tents or porta potties for us!

Happy Isles to Vernal Falls hike.
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After checking in and making sure we left absolutely nothing in the car that might tempt a black bear, including bottled water, we jumped on the free shuttle bus and went to the Lower Yosemite Falls stop for another easy short hike to the base of a waterfall. The place was a mob scene, but the view was spectacular. You can see both the lower and upper falls of this 2,425-foot waterfall, the tallest in North America, from the path. Since we had a very wet spring, there was still a lot of water coming down in August, which apparently is rare.

On the Mist Trail.
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On our way back to the Ahwahnee we stopped off at the Deli at the Visitor Center for food for a picnic dinner. We enjoyed our sandwiches along with the Trefethen Cabernet Franc outside poolside where the squirrels were very aggressive.

Wednesday, August 9

The next morning Kim and I headed off for our one strenuous hiking adventure while mom had a buffet breakfast at the Ahwahnee and then took a 2 hour ranger guided open bus tour of the Valley Loop where she got great pics of El Capitan.

Hiking up to Nevada Falls
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Kim and I took the shuttle to the Happy Isles stop with the intention of hiking the Mist Trail to the top of Vernal Falls. It was a beautiful wet hike up 700 steep steps along side the falls. The original plan was to hang out at the top for a while, lounging on the granite like a pair of marmots, and then hike back down the same way we came. However, I was afraid to hike down the steep slippery steps (feelings of vertigo along with crowds of people made that undesirable to me) so I convinced my sister to keep hiking up to the top of Nevada Falls where I heard that we could take an easier mule trail back down. Well after about 1000 more steps and a 1900 foot gain we reached the top where we felt like we were truly on the top of the world. The only thing higher was Half Dome off to our left. The mule trail was a much easier, albeit longer, decent. On the way down we passed the trail off to the top of Vernal Falls, so apparently we could have descended this trail from there without hiking all the way to the top of Nevada Falls, but I’m glad we didn’t know that. The hike to the top of Nevada Falls was definitely worth it. We came down as fast as possible, because we didn’t want to be late for our 1:30 meet up with our mother, who would surely worry and call the rangers if we were very late.

The so-called Mirror 'Lake'
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After a quick lunch of left-over cheese and bread, we all boarded the shuttle again for Mirror Lake. On the easy one-mile hike we saw a rattlesnake! The ‘Lake’ was a bit of a disappointment however. It is gradually evolving into a meadow and is completely dry by summer’s end. We easily waded across to the other side in the refreshingly cold water.

Later that evening we dressed up and treated ourselves to an exquisite dinner at the Awhahnee. The maitre de seated us at one of the best tables in the place, in a nook at the end of the room with a view of Yosemite Falls. Mom had the filet, Kim had the salmon and I had the sea bass.

Scenery from the bus tour.
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Thursday, August 10

On Thursday morning we packed up the Subaru again and headed back down the valley to Tioga Road. After purchasing $3.99/gallon gas, we drove into the parking lot for Tuolumne Grove with the intention of doing a 2 mile hike to a grove of giant sequoias. Unfortunately the sign warning of the strenuous elevation scared my mother, so we hopped back in the car for the next easy hike on our list, Lukens Lake. We never found the trailhead. We did find Olmsted Point, were we got out of the car to admire the view of Half Dome and Cloud’s Rest and shoot some photos.

Lyell Fork
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We definitely pulled over at Tenaya Lake, an absolutely beautiful setting right along side the road.

The next easy hike on our list was Lyell Fork and I’m really glad we didn’t miss this one. The scene at the 2 bridges must be one of the most sublime in Yosemite. Where the rivers meet at the bridges, the water rushes over granite rocks, swirling in beautiful patterns that hallow out shallow bowls, before tumbling into clear pools.

We exited the park and headed to Mono Lake to see the unique tufa formations. Unfortunately, we look a left instead of a right, and missed the best place to view the tufa towers on the south shore. We did find a great park with a walkway down to the lake where we could view the lake’s vast salt flats and unusual formations of tufa – freeform pillars of calcium carbonate, originally created underwater where calcium-rich fresh spring water flowed into the salty lake. The 200- to 900-year old bone white spires are now exposed to view, due to the thirst for new water sources. Since 1941, the water level has dropped more than 45 feet. There is a plan to gradually raise the water levels again and restore the wildlife habitat and hide the unique formations once again.

Tufa formations at Mono Lake
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Following a 13 mile narrow road (the last 3 of which are unpaved) we came upon Bodie, a one-time gold-mining ghost town which is preserved in a state of arrested decay; the 170 remaining buildings will not be restored, but they will not be allowed to deteriorate further either. Bodie was one of the wildest and most lawless towns in the West, with a population of over 10,000 at its 1880s heyday when the town sported 65 saloons. One young girl wrote in her diary, “Goodbye God, I’m going to Bodie.’ You can peer into the windows of the buildings that remain and see what was left behind - beds, newspapers, toys, couches, etc. The mine/mill is off-limits, deemed a hazardous area.