Bob and I left our campsite at Mt. Lassen, uncharacteristically early so that we might have time to investigate Mono Lake after we arrived at our next campsite in the small town of Lee Vining, outside of Yosemite. It was a lovely day and the traffic was light that early, but between Reno and Carson City we had a blowout on the freeway. Fortunately it was a tire on the RV and we had a decent shoulder to pull off on. It took two hours for the tow truck to arrive and change the tire. We were unable to find a new one in Carson City on a Sunday, so we got a spot in a local RV park and had to wait until the tire stores opened on Monday morning.
On the way through Reno, before the tire POP, we had commented on a billboard that said that Kenny Loggins was in concert for that night ONLY. What a great way to spend the evening instead of being distressed about the tire and our delay. So we got tickets and went to the show, which was FANTASTIC!! Kenny, now 63, still has a perfect voice and tons of energy. He moved around the stage and the audience and did many old favorites. I once had tickets to see Kenny in San Francisco in 1986, but instead of going to the concert, I went to Yosemite with a friend from England. Now here I was on my way to Yosemite, and instead I went to see Kenny Loggins. Weird? Yes, but so exciting and serendipitous.
On Monday we got a new tire and landed at the RV park with enough time to visit Mono Lake. It’s quite an interesting place! Very salty water filled with brine shrimp and alkali flies. I did not enjoy the flies, but did see some interesting birds. Many migratory birds stop here to feed on the shrimp and flies during their long trip between the arctic and South America, and many California gulls from the coast nest here. The lake also has fantastic formations called tufas that build underwater where fresh water springs enter the salt water
Yosemite is truly spectacular. Tioga Pass is 9,945 feet and many of the upper park roads are above 8,000. We did some steep hikes at elevations up to and over10,000 feet and it is really tough for us sea-level folks. The Tuolumne meadows area is spectacular and filled with granite domes and steep cliffs. Bob and I loved the hike up Lembert Dome and we spent a few hours on the joint John Muir and Pacific Crest Trail where we came upon two deer who were eating mushrooms and were reluctant to leave their feast because two humans had entered the area.
Bob and I spent one day in upper Yosemite and one day in the valley. I have to admit that we didn’t like the valley as much. We hiked to Bridalveil Falls, Yosemite Falls and Vernal Falls, all of which were flowing like crazy. This is unusual in the fall, but we did have thunder and lightening storms yesterday. On our way into the park this morning we actually encountered snow on the road. There were lots of people in the valley and it was interesting to see that many were from Europe. We ran into a large group from the Czech Republic and several from the UK.
Next time we come to Yosemite, I think we’ll skip the valley and spend all of our time in Tuolumne Meadows and the upper park. We barely scratched the surface there.
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