Into Yosemite: April 1

April 1
I hadn’t ridden in a wrecker in a long, long time, so I guess April Fool’s Day was as good a time as any to try it again.

Actually, it was sort of my fault. When Tom lost his Bluetooth, I insisted he get another one before we started out again. I knew we had twisty mountain roads to travel, and I thought he needed a hands-free phone system.

We finally found an AT&T store. It was conveniently next door to a Starbuck’s, so we had a coffee while Tom synced the new Bluetooth, and we gaily started out for Yosemite.

As Tom was getting ready to make the left hand turn to get on the entrance ramp to the freeway, a typical California driver taking his lane out of the half of his and half of our lane, forced Tom to the left. The left tires went up on the median, and Tom knew at once we had a flat. He managed to do a U-turn, and not end up on the interstate, and went into a nearby hotel parking lot. On examining the damage, we found we had two flats on the left side, not just one, and bent hubcaps. (What looks like a dent in the side is a reflection from the car next to it.)

We wondered if we might have to call Steve and Marie to pick us up. We assumed that Steve might have the day free if he had carried out his plans.

But it all worked out better than we had hoped.

Unbelievably, Hertz had a wrecker to the site, picked up the car and us, and had us in another vehicle in two hours. We got a larger car because that was the only out of state car they had (we are returning the rental in Seattle). So we are now driving a candy apple red Camry. There must have been an easier way to get an upgrade.

At this point I was seriously wondering if we should just skip the Yosemite trip and head elsewhere. The omens did not seem auspicious.

But we started out again, now several hours behind schedule. I knew that meant no side trips—I was once again trapped in the car for the duration. The schedule-Nazi is keeping us on track if we have a schedule planned. We have not missed a single reservation due to a change of plans.( I think we may start planning for only a day or two at a time from here on.)

The rest of the day did go much better except for the tire chain episode. Hertz does not rent chains, and in fact will not allow chains on their rentals. They say to turn in the car and get a four wheel drive in case of snow. Both the state of California and the National Park Service require chains in the car if you travel into the park in winter—they often check as you enter the park and will deny entrance if you cannot show them you have chains with you, four wheel drive doesn’t count. We stopped a couple of towns before Yosemite and they did not have any to fit the car, but another of their stores down the road a piece did—we could not miss it as it was next to a drive-in.

We drove for miles and could find no drive-in. We back tracked, and glimpsed the store behind another one on a side street. The drive-in we had been looking for was not a drive-in theater as we had assumed, but a food place called “Snow White Drive-In”. Of course! Why hadn’t we thought of that? So we got our chains—non returnable, naturally, so that we could enter Yosemite.

The road to Yosemite is unbelievable. Those of us who are terrified by switchback steep highways with sheer drop offs and no guide rails do not enjoy these trips from beneath the dash board. Tom really does a wonderful job of driving them considering the whimpering he has to endure.

Our first sight of the mountains took our breath away. We wanted to get pictures of every new view. Ironically, once we had seen Yosemite, those first mountain vistas on the way in were kind of “ho hum”. Of course we couldn’t stop specifically to take any pictures, as we had to make up lost time and agreed to stop on the way out the next day.

We did have a few stops for construction hold ups. The river decided to wash out the road in a few places and the mountains collaborated by dropping huge boulders along the way. They have a huge mess to build back up and repair, expected to take well over a year. There is one-way traffic in spots, which allows photo opportunities, planned or not. Everyone gets out of their cars and stretches and takes pictures. It is kind of laid back more than a nuisance.

Tom had been to Yosemite about 30 years ago and had wanted to return and show the park to me. He could not believe how much more awesome it was than he remembered. The first sight of the park’s granite peaks takes your breath away. Pictures cannot do justice to the mountains. They are unbelievably majestic, so immense they seem unreal.

We caught a far away glimpse of Bridal Veil Falls on the way in, at first far off in the distance,

then a wonderful close up view. (Picture will be in tomorrow's post.) An interesting story we heard later was that the Native Americans who lived in Yosemite Park, considered what the white people called Bridal Veil Falls to be an eerie, spooky place. They said the voices of people who drowned could be heard in the falling waters.

In the park you see a view that is so wonderful you can hardly believe it, then turn around and it is even better behind you, and beside you. We hit at the best season for the waterfalls as they are swollen with melting snow and gorgeous. Some of the falls can only be seen in Spring as they dry up in Summer and the small amount of moisture in Winter freezes.

We stayed in a multi-building lodge at the base of Yosemite Falls.

We could hear the roar of the falling water from our room. Yosemite Falls has an upper and a lower falls with a total drop of over 2000 feet—kind of impressive. The upper falls tumble from a huge pool of snow melt and fall over the cliff into the air, free falling in a wonderful spray that blows in the wind and forms ever changing patterns. It falls into a basin, then over another lip to form the lower falls which fall into a beautiful crystal clear rushing creek.

We took a ride in the free shuttle to see where the different stops were so that we could plan out our sightseeing for the next day. The shuttles stop at over 20 different points in Yosemite Valley. They are all non-gasoline burning vehicles of different ecologically sensitive types. Only limited car traffic is allowed, which makes it much nicer.

We secured all food and cosmetics and detergents in our room. The bears have been known to tear open car trunks if they smell something interesting, and do recognize coolers and shopping bags and will enter a car to find goodies in them. There is a $5000.00 fine if you leave bear bait in your car and get caught.

On our bus ride we did see someone camping in a tent with coolers scattered around his campsite. Tom felt it was probably unwise of them to leave out hors d’oeuvres with a main course inside the tent. If you are tent camping, you can rent bear boxes to store foodstuffs.

We never entered our car again once we had parked it in front of our room until we were ready to head out of the park. We walked or took the shuttle wherever we wanted to go.

We were pleasantly surprised to find somewhere we could eat safely within walking distance. We had thought it would be a “peanut butter sandwich in the room” night. We turned in early so that we could make the most of the next day. I didn’t see or hear any bears.