June 19-24, 2007 - We drove from Mammoth Lakes, California to
Yosemite National Park, entering the park from the east side. The
Toyota Tundra struggled up and over Tioga Pass pulling our 7,300
trailer. We maxed our speed at 28 mph and barely got going again
after stopping to take these pictures.
We camped for a while at Tuolomne Meadows
Campground at the east end of the park. This area is filled
with crystal clear streams and ponds and has wonderful
shear rock mountains.
We stayed up in the Tuolomne area for a few days and then took the
rig down to the campground at Crane Flat which sits at a lower
elevation just 12 miles from Yosemite Valley. This made it easier for
us to get in and out of the valley to see the sites. There was only one
campsite in the campground that would fit our rig, and we barely got
around the loop without scraping the trailer on a tree. However, once
we got situated it was a beautiful spot.
Yosemite Valley has a small system of bike paths and we happily
rode our bikes on those paths past the major sights.
There are several
beautiful waterfalls.
Yosemite Falls is very
high and narrow. Bridal
Veil Falls is misty and the
veil shifts with the wind
like a bride's chiffon veil.
We took a hike to see the
giant sequoias. There
aren't too many, but the few
that we saw are massive.
Years ago, to attract
tourists, a tunnel was carved
through a massive dead
trunk, big enough to drive a
car through. Word spread
far and wide about this tree
you could drive your car
through, and toursts came
to Yosemite to see it.
Late one afternoon as we
returned to our campsite
at Crane Flat we saw a crowd on a bridge looking into a meadow.
They were watching a bear munching on greenery. We joined the
throng to get some pictures and watch this happy bear. We were told it
was a mother
bear and the cub
was just out of
sight. She had
no concerns
about being the
center of
attention for a
very large
audience.
After enjoying all the beauty in Yosemite for a few days we continued our
journeys west to the northern California coast.