Day Six - Yosemite Valley & Mirror Lake

Loads of pictures in this one!

Our next stop was the Yosemite Village. We needed maps, lunch, and they have a visitor center. The parking lot is at the end of the village and the walk to the visitor center is about half a mile. It's treacherous due to people on bicycles! Yikes! It isn't like there is a bike lane and a people lane, so if you're walking, talking, and looking at things, you know, enjoying your time leisurely, they will zoom around you and others coming the opposite direction. Eek! We got to the visitor center alive though.

We didn't get a map at the entrance to the park because the line was long to pay the entry fee and we had a pass, so the ranger waved us around...but didn't give us a map. He probably assumed we didn't need one. I figured we'd just pick one up at the next visitor center but they didn't have any out anywhere. The line to talk to a ranger went all the way outside the building! No worries though. There was a nice lady walking around with a name tag, when she was done talking to two other people, I asked her for a map and she went and found one!

Here's Jake reading about animals and the "forest zones". Him and I always gravitate to the nature stuff and then fill in Tom and Dad. Jake really helped me understand a few things about glacier movement and the theory about how this canyon was formed. He's pretty stinkin' smart.

Tom and Dad are pulled to the history of the place. They read every sign and then catch up to Jake and I in the gift shop!

We watched a twenty minute movie about how terrible humans are for the environment and how the federal government needs to protect this sacred place from the onslaught of humanity and their wicked ways and decided to move on before we through ourselves of the next peak. (end rant)

We needed to see some nature! We drove to the next parking lot at Curry Village and saw the tent city they call "camping". The parking lot was already very full but luckily the bug can be parked just about anywhere! We pulled out our lunch box and made a picnic right there on a rock!

We parked under this huge rock! Wow! Little did we know that this is Glacier Point...from the bottom. There are people up there!

Woody joined us for lunch, but he didn't do his famous laugh. He was busy looking for bugs.

After our fabulous lunch of peanut butter and jelly and coke, we headed for the nearest trail. Jake found a sign!

Onward!

Approaching the bear trap on the trail.

At first we fell for it, believing that there was a bear in there. But there wasn't. I think he would have been pissed off about being in there and making some noise. Then we saw a few more of them and they look like no one has touched them in years, spider webs and such. They are a warning!

 So we kept walking along and found Happy Isles and a shuttle stop. We had the choice to go down to the falls on the John Muir Mist Trail, or up to Mirror Lake. Dan and Tom wanted the lake, so we went that way.

Crossing the bridge.

Tom amazed by the amount of water flowing.

So pretty. This was the point where we could have gone left or right. Hindsight tells us that the way to the left, the paved road, was the way everyone else went. We chose the trail and fewer people.

One mile! No problem!

Both the boys were helping these caterpillars across the trail to a safer place. Dan is wondering why I'm taking a picture of Tom's finger.

The trail was completely covered in horse manure. It stunk. Seriously. It's the trail the rent a horse ride place uses as well and I'm not exaggerating when I say there was no where to step that you weren't walking in horse crap. You can't bring a dog here and where you can you have to clean up after it, why don't the horses need to be cleaned up after. It was bad.

But we did find the lake!

We couldn't figure out why they call it "Mirror Lake". Maybe it was lower than usual?

Jake dipping his hat to cool off.

I think he's crazy, but then I did it too!

It's pretty. We weren't sure this was it though. There were no signs. So we decided to follow the trail and see what happened. There were people on the other side though, so there must be a way around.

Which way should we go?

We saw a snake swimming across the water here!

Not a trail...for people anyway.

Maybe the bridge got washed out? We were alone at this point and had been walking a couple hours. I asked some people on the other side of the river if there was a bridge and they said yes, they had just come from there, just a bit farther.

Evidence of beavers!

Is this really a trail? Looks like jungle.

Jake's not zipping his fly. He's batting away mosquitoes. They love him. By the time we got home, he had about 20 bites on each arm!

Maybe we can get across here.

Maybe not. These logs just went to marsh and then more river.

Tom's having fun.

Back across the log.

And another.

Let's take this trail!

We wound our way through the forest for awhile and realized that this was not a human trail, it was an animal trail.  You could see where deer hooves had jumped over fallen logs and bent grass where they had lain for the night. It was very pretty and secluded though.

We found our way out of the bushes to the real trail and found another person there too! We asked if he knew about a bridge and he'd heard the same rumor, that it was just ahead, but he seen and talked to many people that had given up and turned back. So we kept on walking!

We found it!

 We stood and rested at the bridge awhile and our friend caught up to us. He was just Sequoia and Joshua Tree. He was in Joshua Tree with his son who is working for the Unschool Camp! Crazy small world! Nice guy. He was alone, but his people were waiting for him. He was out a lot longer than he thought he would be, just like us.

We headed down the other side. I love hikes that are uphill first and then down, by the way. The last half, when I'm so tired, is much more enjoyable!

I haven't figured out what kind of tree this is, but it has very pretty flowers!

Taking a break at the rock slide. These rocks fell here about 500 years ago. Not sure how they judged that, but it was cool to see the the trees that were crushed under it still there and the ones that have obviously grew there since the slide.

I could just sit and look at these rocks all day.

THAT's why they call it Mirror Lake! It was very low and pretty swampy, but you could see the reflection well anyway. We were on the wrong side to see it at first!

I think there was a poltergeist at the ruins of the old boat house.

Lost or abandoned pants? We didn't wait around for the person to come back, but we did consider moving them just to scare him!

We kept walking past the lake, the bathrooms, the handicap parking, down the paved road to the second bridge we saw coming up. We found the other shuttle drop off and our friend had made it there, so he wasn't in any real trouble. We kept walking though, no sense in taking the shuttle now when we had come so far! Then we found this place just about to close...wait!

Nothing like some $18 ice cream and soda to end the five hour hike!

Same sign, different attitude! Poor Tom. I think his legs are going to fall off.

The traffic as we left the park. Holy cow there were a lot of people!

So we drove back to camp, had some canned beef stew and boat load of Hawaiian rolls, went swimming (Jake insisted that he needed to be cold and wet for a bit), played some Pinochle, and hit the hay. It was much cooler this afternoon, so we didn't need the AC as much as yesterday.

And then some much deserved Pinochle!

Day Five - Travel Day

We left early (for us anyway) at 8:30AM for the KOA in Midpines, California. The plan was to stop in Fresno and get groceries for the next few days. Our fridge and cupboard are much smaller than at home, so about three to four days of supplies is about all we carry. The fridge can only hold one gallon of milk! Meal planning is a different for me when we travel.

Goodbye awesome campground! I hope the next one is just as good. That's Tom unhooking the lines.

 On the way up the road, we started to see signs for "Bravo Farms" which stated that we just had to stop for cheese, nuts, and candy...so we did.

Easy parking for the RV and bug!

This rooster was ginormous!

We tried to get these two to talk to us, but they were busy eating.

I wanted to pet this guy but he was too far away.

They have a little cafe and bar.

I love this sign.

 There was lots to look at, but we weren't overly impressed with the selection of goods, mostly over priced antiques like you'd find on a "Pickers" show. And the food stuffs were disappointing considering that we are in the middle of all the farms, but we did pick up some cheese, salami, and bread. We also bought some chocolate (from a big place in Colorado) that we found to be the ultimate in deliciousness.

On to Fresno! We got off the freeway in Fresno, looking for a grocery store but found nothing we liked. I didn't want a Whole Foods or Win-co. The Walmart there was not a grocery store, so we shook the dust off our sandals from that place and headed up to Madera. We found a nice Food4Less, loaded up, got lunch at Taco Bell (one of our favorites), gassed up, and headed for the hills!

This is Jake's "I just totally ate my favorite burrito." look.

When we got to the KOA, it was hot, like 95 degrees. Yuck. We pulled into the first space they assigned us, but it didn't have sewer hook-up. We walked back to the office to see if we could change that and they were super nice about it. Our next spot was much nicer, near the trees and a bit shadier.

The boys worked on hooking us up and leveling out. They do a marvelous job!

This is the arcade. It was impressive because of the train car, but the games left something to be desired. The machines ate $2 worth of quarters and only one actually worked. The boys didn't go back after that.

The boys spent the afternoon swimming at the pool. I did the laundry, got a post card at the little store and mailed it. And Dan caught up on some snooze time. We had taco salad for dinner and then played Pinochle in our air conditioned RV! After the sun went down, it cooled off a lot though, so we didn't need to run it all night but it was nice to have something to help cool if off!

Day Four - A Day of Rest

There's been a heck of a lot of driving and walking the past few days and we intend to do more in the next couple days, so we decided to take today off. Yep. we stayed at camp...pretty much. Swimming, reading, sleeping, Pinochle playing, and eating. That was about it. It was good. It was a bit hot with a high of about 95, but between the swimming hole, our shady spot by the river, and the new A/C in our RV, we were fine!

A lot of time was spent here chasing fish and listening for birds. Tom likes to lay out on a rock and sun himself warm like a lizard. Jake likes to go to one end and peacefully float down to the other.

Pretty nice.

We talked to some of the neighbors. One man that lives here stopped with his very sweet beagle. He does tricks like "saying his prayers". It was adorable. Another man and his wife stopped to look at the bug. He used to live in LA, but moved to West Virginia. His new wife is from Ukraine. They are touring to show her places he used to go as a child. She showed us this tree next to our RV that has berries. She said you could eat them and that they were similar to a tree in Ukraine by her mother's house. The boys said they tasted like plant.

The look like red and blue raspberries, but it's a tree.

The people that were next to us live on a houseboat in Huntington Beach. They just bought the giant brand new rig and tow vehicle they were in and were thinking about retiring and touring the country. Sounds like fun to me!

There was a rope tided up high in a tree near us that all the kids kept coming over to swing on. It didn't go out into the water, just over the grass, but everyone seemed to have loads of fun on it.

I love RV parks and camp grounds. We have the most fun meeting people. It seems everyone is just more friendly when they are on a trip.

Our shady spot. Perfect for a chair, a book, and a big glass of ice tea.

The boys wanted to eat at the Pizza Factory that we saw on the way up to our camping spot. It was good! I was happy because it was very nice and cool inside. We spent a couple hours there playing video games and eating a lot of pizza. Then we decided to drive around the town and see if we could find a post card or something. Most of the shops are closed after 5pm though. We found one, but it didn't have much. I did find a "Three Rivers" postcard and a cute magnet that says "Home is where you hook up!"

We drove over this bridge on the way in and out of the park. It was so pretty and has a funny name so I tried to take a picture. There was no good place to stop though, so this is what I got.

It's ok though because this picture helped me remember it and I looked it up when I got home! Here's a better picture of the actual bridge. It links to the website where I got it.

 

We came home and made a camp fire and finished the evening off with a few roasted peeps. It was a very relaxing day for all of us and we're looking forward to tomorrow's adventure.

Day Three - Crystal Cave

We had to get up early for this one! Ha! Not really. We got to the Foothills Visitors Center at 9AM and got our tickets for an 11AM tour. It takes about an hour and half to get there. We got there a few minutes early, so we sat and snacked for awhile.

Here's the sign!

This is the entrance to the walkway down to the cave. The have a shoe washing station because they are trying to stop the moldy nose disease from the east coast from spreading. Someone should tell them to move this thing beyond the bookstore though. Most of the people on the tour, including myself, walked around the washer to the bookstore to look around while we waited for our tour. Then we washed out shoes and walked over the place we had already been with our dirty shoes. I don't think it's going to do any good.

Down the walkway! It's about a thirty minute walk down to the cave.

Approaching the cave entrance.

This is the only picture I took inside the cave because it had enough light on it. You can't use a flash. I had planned on getting a book of pictures of the cave, but the cave bookstore wasn't working, and none of the other bookstores had any.

We made it out alive! Last time I was very nervous inside the cave. It was my first one. This time, I was fine!

Dan took this picture of me taking a picture of the boys. It came out way better than mine!

Pretty waterfall on the path back up to the parking lot.

This climb wore me out, but at least we didn't have to carry anyone this time!

Me!

I was imagining zombies digging their way out of this wall as we walked past. Tom wasn't amused!

Afterwards, we had lunch and relaxed for a bit. Then we headed to Lodgepole to see their visitor center and the General Sherman tree.

Day Three - Part Two

And then on to the Lodgepole Visitor Center! We planned on hiking down to a waterfall that someone told us was a nice hike, but found it was a five mile round trip and we weren't up to it. We hiked a LOT for us yesterday and Crystal Cave was more walking. We also wanted to see the General Sherman tree and we know that is a long walk up hill as well. So, the water fall will have to wait until next time. We are thinking about doing a short tent camping trip up here over the summer. Maybe we will do it then!

Jake being an Information Exhibit!

The best part about the visitor center is a flush toilet, ice cream, and they had postage stamps! We stopped here because the map said there was a post office and I forgot to bring stamps for my postcards. National Parks don't have stamps at their bookstores...go figure. We found the post office and the sign said it was open, but no one was home. I asked the ranger at the Visitor Center about stamps and he directed me to the post office. I told him I was there and it was closed. He was confused. So we went over to the little store next door and they had all kinds of good things! We got a sticker for the RV, a pin for Jake, and a shot glass for Tom. We collect those things. And we got ice cream. Yay! Energized and ready for the walk to the General Sherman!

This isn't it, but it was cute.

 

The boys talking about burn scars and how the trees heal after a fire. Really.

There it is! They are a bit bigger than the last time we were here. Again, no one needed to be carried...except me.

Look up! I love that view!

Aren't we small?!

Very cool picture Dan took with his phone!

 And then back to camp and the "swimming hole"! The RV park we stayed at didn't have a pool but it had a river running along it and the perfect place to swim. The boys love river swimming the best. Pools are nice in a pinch. The ocean is fun but rough. But rivers are perfect! They spent a lot of time here. Jake jumps right in. Tom is a bit more timid, mostly because the water is cold. Luckily the air was VERY warm. It was 95 when we got back to camp!

That water is COLD!

Jake daring Tom to jump in. Jake found a from in this corner as well and spent a lot of time "talking" to it.

Jake found that he floats extremely well. This is his "Ophelia" impression.

Hamburgers for dinner and, of course, more Pinochle. Tom and I were winning for awhile there!