Ever since we moved to the Monterey, California area two years ago, we wanted to visit Yosemite National Park. But the timing was always off for us: it's closed in the winter; there are often fires in the summer; and the camp site is always fully booked by spring. In the beginning of this year, I said to myself that we had to go this summer no matter what. So, in April, I booked a KOA camp site in Coarsegold, about 40 minutes drive to the south entrance of Yosemite, for August 1-4 (3 nights). Sure enough, two weeks before our trip, a fire started to the northwest of Yosemite. Fortunately, it was relatively contained, and only the northwestern area of the Yosemite was closed.
Day 1, Friday, August 1st
We left home in the morning, took Hwy 101 and 152 to 99 to Madera. Then, from Madera, we picked up 145, then 41 all the way north to Coarsegold where the KOA campground is located. It took us less than 4 hours--not bad at all! This KOA camp ground was pretty nice and clean, full but not too crowded. We set up the tent and it was only around 3 pm. So we decided to visit a Yosemite information center in Oakhurst, only a 15 minute drive from our campground. We got some very useful information and a map from the center, and decided to go to the park then and there to walk around. So our first stop in the park on Day 1 was the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias.
There are only 3-4 places in Northern California now where these giant Sequoias grow. It takes many years for them to reach maturity. Once they become mature trees, they live for a long long time--hundreds, even thousands of years. Interestingly, they need to have natural fire in the forest for them to spread and grow!
We took a 4-mile walk, and visited the two most famous ones in the park: the Grizzly Giant and the Faithful Couple.
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| Grizzly Giant-Rubee |
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| Giant Grizzly-Charles |
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| Faithful Couple |
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| Charles under the Faithful Couple |
Day 2, Saturday, August 2nd
We spent a whole day in the park! We first drove about 35 miles from the South Entrance to the Yosemite Valley. Our first stop is a scenic spot overlooking the valley. If there was no smoke caused by the fire in the northeast, we would have seen all the famous Yosemite landmarks as indicated on the map, such as El Capitan, Half Dome and Cathedral Rocks.
What we saw that morning was:
Fortunately, we found a 地寶，therefore, I thought to myself I bet the weather would clear up this afternoon!
And, it did get cleared up in the afternoon around 2-3 pm. What a difference, right?!
We drove in to the valley, park the car, and decided to take the valley shuttle bus to visit various scenic spots in the Yosemite Village. We walked 4 miles on a trail from the Lower Yosemite Fall to the Ahwahnee Hotel, and had a very nice lunch in the hotel.
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| Lower Yosemite Fall |
After lunch, we took the shuttle bus and got off at the Nature Center at Happy Isles. Accidentally, we took the "for horse only" trail that is paralleled to the Mist Trail. The good thing about the horse trail was we were left alone to enjoy the beautiful landscape; but, the not-so-good thing was the "smell!"
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| Charles |
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| North Dome |
Around 5 pm, we drove to the Glacier Point where we saw some of the most amazing and beautiful parts of the Yosemite.
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| Charles and Rubee with the entire Yosemite Valley and the Half Dome on the background |
The scenery from the Glacier Point is absolutely the best. From there (7214 ft) you can see the entire Yosemite Valley with all the iconic landmarks.
Our favorite is Half Dome.
We were lucky that the smoke from the fire to the northeast by this time of the day did not affect the view on top. We could, however, see the exact location of the fire. Someone, who might be a park ranger, put up a kiosk explaining the fire.
Here is a video of the entire valley view from the Glacier Point.
Around 6-7 pm we started our way back feeling like we had a full and wonderful day in the park and Glacier Point was definitely our highlight today. Lo and behold, in between the Glacier Point turnout on HW41 and the park entrance, we saw a live BEAR. Of course, Charles had to risk his life to shoot a video.
We had a nice dinner at Todd's Barbeque in Oakhurst. When we arrived at the campground around 8-9 pm, we were greeted by the beautiful sunset. It was such a memorable day!
Day 3, Sunday, August 3rd
We got up late, and decided to take it easy today. We were told that another fire to the east of Yosemite, called the French Fire, started 2-3 days ago. (It was called the "French" fire because it was near a trail called, French Trail, not because it was caused by a French tourist.) We wanted to explore the Bass Lake area, but did not really know how close the lake was to the fire. When we arrived in the lake area around 10 am, it looked like this:
We walked around the lake, and found ourselves actually difficult to breath. It was hard to believe that people live in this area must endure not only threats of fire, but also smoky air caused by the fire every summer! After a short walk, we decided to go further southeast to find the location of the Exact Geographical Center of California near Redinger Lake. As we drove away from Bass Lake, around 12 noon, the smoky air up-lifted and we were able to see the lake much more clearer.
Unfortunately, we did not find any marking for the Exact Geographic Center of California even though we were pretty sure we were on the right spot. So, we decided to go on a scenic route, Minarests Road, to see where it would lead us. Oh, well, not very far! We were stopped by Highway patrol volunteers to turn around because of the spread of the French Fire. We headed back to Road 274 towards Bass Lake. Over there, we saw several helicopters taking turn to get water from the lake and carry it to spread over the fire affected area. It was my first time to see such fire rescue mission carried out by the helicopters--very interesting! Charles filmed it, and I have to get it from him and upload it to this blog.
In the early afternoon, we went back to the park and took the Meadow Loop (3.5 miles) near the Wawona Hotel.
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| Charles and Rubee in front of the Wawona Hotel |
We had a nice dinner at the Crab Cakes Restaurant in Oakhurst. We spent one more night at the campground and headed home next morning. We must come back to Yosemite again!
