Day 38 - Drove around Visalia, CA most of the day.

No pictures today just a day driving around the city of Visalia. Tomorrow we head to Bakesfield, The western home of Buck Owens of "HEE HAW" fame from the 60's

Day 37 - Kings Canyon National Park, Sequoia National Forest, Sequoia National Monument and Sequoia National Park, all in one spectacular day.

We left Yosemite early in the morning and headed to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, about 90 miles south on the CA-41. After eating breakfast at Denny's about an hour out of Yosemite, we continued on to Kings Canyon. Like Yosemite, Kings Canyon is a glacial valley. The difference is the shear walls, rocky river bottom  and narrow gorge in a canyon verses a wider soil filled bottom in a valley. It took an hour after entering into the park before we arrived at Kings Canyon. The shear cliffs and granite walls were awesome. We had to drive back through the road to the Canyon to get to Sequoia National Park and realized that we has passed through the Sequoia National Forest and by the Sequoia National Monument on our way there. After leaving the Sequoia Groves in the park we drove down the mountains on the most winding, sharp curved and steepest road I have ever been on. I had the dash cam on the whole way and when I get a chance to view and edit the video I'll post it on this page but for now here are some stills and 1 video of our day.

Kings Canyon

From 5 miles away

Looking up the walls of the canyon

At the entrance to the canyon

the peaks at the canyon

The road into the canyon only takes you about a quarter of the way through the park. You have to hike the rest of the way in. We didn't!

Sequoia

Video below of part of our drive through Sequoia NP.
A drive between 2 giants

Day 36 - Views from Glacier Point and the largest trees on this planet

Spent the best day viewing spectacular settings and Giant Sequoias. By far these two spots in Yosemite are worth the 6,000 miles it took to get here. We spent most of the day at Glacier Point then drove the road to the Mariposa Grove. We camped in the park for the first time at the Wawona Campground. Tomorrow we head for Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks and overnight in Visalia.

Half Dome in the distance

This is the famous rock from pictures in the 20s.

And now the Giants

Day 35 - A drive through Yosemite Valley

Today we drove through Yosemite Valley. Generally The Valley is for hikers and rock climbers. Most of the waterfalls were dry although we did get a few pictures of a weak Bridal Veil Falls.  So far the best views of the scenery have been from roads leading into The Valley. We did not see any wildlife at all. It was a relatively short day and we returned to camp about 1:30PM.

Video of El Capitan from the picnic area below it.
El Capitan

Pictures from Yosemite Valley

Bridal Veil Falls

El Capitan

Sentinel Dome

Day 34 - Road through Yosemite to Mono Lake and through Tioga Pass

Today we drove the longest road in the Park. We drove from the north entrance through Tioga Pass to Mono Lake (About 70 miles each way). It took us 2 ½ hours each way and was worth every second. At one overlook we looked back at Yosemite Valley with Half-Dome.  The view of the Granite Mountains and domes was breathtaking. Mono Lake is an alkaline lake with a salinity of about 10%, 3 times that of the ocean

Half Dome from the east.

  

Tioga Pass

Mono Lake

Mono Lake Panorama

Day 33 - Hetch Hetchy and our first view of Yosemite

We drove about 40 miles into the park to the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. This was a sister valey to Yosemite until it was converted to a giant reservoir for San Fransisco after the devastating earth quake of 1906.

Video of the reservoir
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir


Pictures of the reservoir

After Hetch Hetchy we drove to the tunnel view of Yosemite Valley. Needless to say it was one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen.

Pictures of the valley from outside the tunnel on  CA-140 heading north to Yosemite.

Day 32 - The road to Yosemite NP

We left Lodi at around 11:00 AM and drove south to Modesto. From there we drove the CA-120 to Yosemite Lakes just outside the national park. We have reservations there for 6 nights.. Took a video of the Old Priest Road which is a mountain climb shortcut. Kind on exciting and Jackie was biting her nails all the way. The video is at the link below as is some pictures of the trip on the way. Tomorrow it is Yosemite National Park. I'm excited because this has been a goal of mine since I saw the Ken Burns documentary on The National Parks.

Link to YouTube (Safe to open)
http://youtu.be/oMtKRziqBpg

Below are pictures of the fire from last fall along the road to Yosemite. The campground where we stayed was closed to the public and turned into a base camp for the fire fighters for a month. The entire north side of the park and the road to Hetch Hetchy were destroyed.