We moved from Twin Falls to Rye Patch, Nevada. It’s a reservoir outside of Lovelock, NV. It was a long drive for us, even with gaining the hour.
We only had the one night before heading to our next stop Lee Vining, California. A short drive in spite of having to wait along the side of the highway for about 40 minutes for an overside load to pass. (We drove that stretch of road this past Winter and we had to wait for an oversized load that day too.)
Got in and set-up. We drove over to the Mono Basin Visitor Center. They gave us some good information on the Mono Basin area and on Yosemite. We had the afternoon, so we took the scenic drive around Lake June. Beautiful spot, but it was a Saturday and very crowded. Then we decided to drive to Mono Lake and the South Tufa area. Tufa is a type of limestone that comes from mineral deposits usually from mineral springs. The islands in Mono Lake are also nesting grounds for gulls.
The next morning, we headed out early to check-out Yosemite National Park. We were coming into the park from the Tioga Pass entrance. Below is a compilation of some of our Yosemite drives.
We were dealing with a lot of haze from a forest fire near Fresno. So, driving in we decided to do the Pothole Dome hike to see if some of the smoke would burn off throughout the day. We saw some deer on the hike and climbed a bit on the granite dome.
We stopped at Tenaya Lake. It was very still that early in the morning and we got a great mirror effect on the lake.
We checked out Olmsted Point and couldn’t really see much.
We made it to Tuolumne Grove and did the hike to view some Giant Sequoias. These trees are massive and grow to an average height of 164-279 feet. We didn’t make it down to the section of the park that has the Grizzly Giant, but the ones we saw were still impressive.
We kept on driving checking out Tunnel View and Bridalveil Fall. Walking from the parking area to view the falls is only about a quarter mile. We were walking and Will spotted movement in the woods. It was a bear. Very surprised to see a bear in that crowded area in the middle of the day and of course our bear spray was in the car. Hopefully, the bear went back into the woods, we didn’t stick around to find out.
We then did Glacier Point Drive. The views are great. Most of the haze had burned off by then as well. Another long day of driving so, we started to head back to camp.
The next morning, we thought we were in the middle of a campfire. The air quality was horrible as the smoke had settled in the valley. We started off again back up Tioga Pass for another day in Yosemite. This time our little Angelica started acting up. We had only gone a few miles up the pass when we came back down to see about taking the bus. We couldn’t get tickets, so we decided maybe it was just smoke related, and we’d give it another try with our car. We took it easy and this time our car made it up just fine.
Today we were planning on checking out the Yosemite Valley area. We had been advised to find a parking spot in the valley and then just take the shuttle service around. We easily found parking at Yosemite Village and walked around there checking out the village area and then walking to the Lower Yosemite Fall trail.
We were again trying to wait for the haze to burn off a little. We got on the shuttle and headed for the Mist Trail. We ended up having the shuttle to ourselves and the bus driver was ahead of schedule. So, while she took a five-minute break, we got off and took in the views.
The Mist Trail was supposed to start off steep and then level out. Not sure when it levels out as there are snippets of flat, but a steep uphill grade up to Vernal fall. I made it to the Falls viewpoint and made my way back down the six hundred and some granite steps and the steep hike back down.
Met back up with Will and we jumped back on the shuttle to grab some lunch at Yosemite Village. Got out binoculars from the car and back on the shuttle to see if we could see anyone trying to climb El Capitan. We spotted a couple of climbers.
Back on the shuttle for our last stop of the day, the Mirror Lake hike. We knew it was a seasonal lake and that Summer and Fall the lake is dry, but the ranger talked us into it. We went more for the views, as you walk below half dome. Gives you a different prospective on that granite rock.
It had been another long day, but both the car and driver had a bit of a breather. Taking the shuttle was a great way to around the village area. Just know, that Lee Vining is 30 minutes from the park gate and a 2-hour drive to Yosemite Village.