Yosemite and Death Valley

We arrived at Yosemite on Thursday around 5pm.  Entering from the northwest entrance, it doesn't look all that impressive at first (although we did see a coyote right next to the road a couple miles in).  It's way different than Yellowstone, where after a few hundred yards you run by a herd of elk or buffalo (the first 20 of about 600 you'll see in your visit), and everybody is stopped and photographing them.  I mean, it's scenic, but there's not a ton of wildlife, and nothing really impressive... that is, until you emerge from the first tunnel.  There you get your first view of Yosemite Valley, from about 3000 feet above it.  Thousand-foot cliffs, 500-foot waterfalls, and a gorgeous little meandering river way down below.  Very impressive, although somehow we didn't take any photos, so you'll have to take my word for it.

We drove down the valley and up to Glacier Point.  This view made the other one seem like nothing.  Glacier Point looks straight at Half Dome (elevation 8836 ft), with big waterfalls in the background on both sides of it.  We were a bit disappointed at first because the top of Glacier Point was clouded over, but fortunately it cleared out just a few minutes after we got there.  We stayed there admiring the view for about a half hour, but could've stayed much longer. 

Driving back from Glacier Point (about 7pm) we went about 2 miles before we came upon some cars stopped in the middle of the road.  We know from our Yellowstone trips that this means one thing: wildlife.  We were surprised because we hadn't experienced this yet in Yosemite, so we thought it would be just a deer or something.  But no, it was... a bear!  Only about 20 yards away from the road, munching on grass.  In the photo, it looks like a grizzly bear with the light brown fur and big shoulder hump, but according to the Yosemite website, there are no grizzlies in California and black bears can sometimes be brown, so i guess it is a black bear.

As I mentioned before, we have purposefully not planned this trip very thoroughly.  This means that we haven't made reservations at any campgrounds or hotels in advance of arriving anywhere.  As it turns out, it's not such a good idea to visit Yosemite in the middle of July without having some place locked down to spend the night.  The campgrounds in the park get filled up around February, so we knew that was out of the question already.  Instead we drove out the southwest entrance, to Fish Camp (no vacancies), then Bass Lake (all campgrounds full), then finally to Oakhurst, about 16 miles from the park.  Got there about 10pm, and found a Shilo Inn.  After bogarting their internet to look for open places and finding none, Rachel finally went inside and asked if they had any rooms available.  Turns out they did, and we spent Night 2 in a nice comfy bed.  It seemed a little early to be hotelling-it-up, but we rationalized it by remembering that we had slept on the floor the last 2 nights in Eugene (b/c our bed was one of the first things on the trailer), so it had been 3 nights since we had slept in a bed. 

The next morning we lollygagged around til about 10am before finally heading into the park.  There were TONS of people, and we had to wait in traffic for about 40 minutes before we finally made it inside the park.  The valley is very pretty, but was insanely crowded on a Friday in July, so we didn't stay long.  We did a little "hike" to the bottom of Bridal Veil Falls, and Rachel visited the visitor center while Charlie and Daisy napped under a pine tree in the parking lot.  Then we drove back up the north side of the valley (toward our original entrance into the park), then across and out the east entrance. 

The northeast side of the park is quite impressive.  It doesn't have the great views of the valley, but you just keep driving up and up and up, and it gets rockier and less wooded, until you actually make it above the treeline.  Finally, you hit the pass, which is an amazing 9949 feet above sea level!  That's taller than most mountains in Oregon!  Then down you go, down the Sierra Nevadas, until you hit Highway 395. 

The eastern side of the Sierra Nevadas is similar to central Oregon -- high and dry, with big lakes.  When we stopped for gas the temperature was 76... so mellow and comfy I could've put down stakes right there!  But we had to go on, and so we did. Further south on 395, til we turned left for Death Valley.  Across the desert.  Joshua trees started appearing.  Very odd looking trees (see below). 

We got to Death Valley NP around 7pm, and got to the campground soon after.  (Rachel saw a kit fox on the way in).  This is by far the earliest we've gotten to camp so far.  It was nice to relax for a while, although it was a bit windy and a little hot (about 85 F).  The night before had been a full moon, so right after sunset the moon came up over the hills and the whole place was illuminated.  I love walking around outside under a bright moon, although it did mean that the stargazing wasn't so good.

We woke up about 6am the next morning (THIS morning), hoping to get through Death Valley before the heat set in.  The average high in July (yes, I said AVERAGE) is 115 F!  Made it to Badwater (the lowest point in the western hemisphere, -292 feet) by about 7:30, visitor center around 8:15, and up and outta there by 9.  The temperature in the valley was about 90 when we left, and cooled as we headed uphill toward Vegas...

(oh, and we also saw a roadrunner run across the highway... Meep Meep!)