Day10 Thurs Aug21

I could just say big mountains and big trees, and that would be enough to describe this day. But here comes the long version!

We woke up early in Curry Village in Yosemite Valley to catch the first shuttle for the day to Stop 8, Yosemite Lodge so we could get our tickets for the all-day bus tour.

We got our tickets and then had a great breakfast at the lodge. Blueberry Pancakes, eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, the works!

The bus was ready for us at 8:30, and we headed out at 8:45. Most of the people on the full bus tour were from New Jersey. The couple beside us were from Texas, and are full-time RV-ingl

Herb the bus driver / tour guide was excellent, with lots of stories and facts to share from his 18 years of experience. He lives in the lower valley with his wife. He hikes and skis and photographs.

Among our numerous stops,the most impressive were Glacier Point, Mariposa Grove, and the Tunnel View.

Glacier Point provided most awesome views of the valley and the famous points, Half Dome, El Capitain, Cathedral Spires and Bridal Veil Falls. There is a telescope up there and we could see rock climbers on top of Half Dome and hiker at the top of the fall through it.

 

This is looking down at the valley and Curry Village.

We had a nice relaxing lunch at the historic Wawona Lodge. We ate at tables of six, so we were with the Texas couple and a young couple from Southern California.

After lunch we went to Mariposa Grove, one of the few remaining groves of Giant Sequoias. I was glad to learn that the redwoods are just another type of sequoia, since we won't have time for the Redwood Forest. We got out and rode in a tram, with our same driver/guide. A few months ago, the Department of Interior decided that to better preserve the big trees, the tram road, gift shop and other building should be taken out. There will be a boardwalk installed and visitors will have to walk to see the grove. The trees have roots that only go down 4-6 ft but go out up to to 200 ft, so their roots are being compressed. Those trees are hearty, though. They hardly ever die unless the fall! Great Sequoias are not considered mature until they are about 800 years old. Most of the larger ones we saw were 1700-2000 years old! We saw them in all stages, from sapling to immature, to mature, to fallen and dead. No telling how old the fallen and dead are, becaus they don't decay. They are resistant to bugs and bacteria. Maybe because of the mke-up of their tannin. Their sap is water based rather than oi based, so they don't die from fires. Their insides can even be hollow and they don't die! The sequoias have little baseball-sized cones. The sugar pines have cones that are sometimes more than a foot long! And the Jeffrey Pines have medium-sized cones. The Jeffrey Pine we saw at Mt. Rushmore smelled like vanilla, but these smelled more like butterscotch. I wish we could grow one in our yard!

 

Our last stop was Tunnel View. We had stopped there yesterday on our way in, so we spent most of our time chatting with Herb. He's even been to Craters of the Moon in Idaho! First person we've ever met who's even heard of it.

On the shuttle on the way back to Curry Village, I saw a bear! It was crossing a creek, and just around the bend there were dozens of unsuspecting park visitors frolicking in the creek!

 

We were exhausted after the long day, so a quick bite from the grill and we're done! Blog time, map time and then we'll be out. Tomorrow will be a very long day of driving.

 

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