Yosemite or Butterfly Festival in Mariposa?

At Mariposa Fairgrounds, Mariposa CA

   

So, we had our choice of “events” today….drive the 95 mile round trip to Yosemite and back, —OR— stay in Mariposa for the Mariposa Butterfly Festival, and if you ‘also’ did not know as I did not know, Mariposa means Butterfly in Spanish.  Well, we forwent the first day of the two day festival, and went on to Yosemite.  The 95 mile round trip included stops at Bridalveil Fall, Glacier Point, Yosemite’s east side of the valley, and back to Mariposa.  We left at 10, got back at 5:30, and took over 175 pictures…of which you have now committed to see each and every one of them!  Ok, I will try and shorten it up to around a dozen…maybe two dozen.

    

Marcia had never been through the main gate, which is on Highway 140.  In April of 2006, (YES, 12 YEARS AGO) the Ferguson Landslide closed Highway 140 for four months until two temporary bridges could be built to divert traffic to the other side of the river onto a one-way road, with no vehicles over 25 feet.  Eventually larger bridges were constructed, so now motorhomes up to 45 feet can cross, but no buses.  Traffic is controlled by stop lights, we experienced about a 5 minute delay both ways.

    

Work is said to be on-going to open the original road with a “Rock Shed” to protect the road from futures slides….that work is suppose to be done in 2020…my guess, it will be much longer than that.

Finally entered the park…I have not been this way for a long, long time, but in my youth, this was “the way” to come into the park from Sacramento.

    

And then Marcia starts taking photos of every waterfall she sees.  Don’t know the name of the one on the left, it is on the south side of the Merced River…but the one on the right is Cascade Falls taken from the parking lot.

Our first stop was at Bridalveil Fall for a bladder break, and I took a short walk to get a picture of the fall.  Of course, I KNEW this fall would be better captured from the Tunnel View of Yosemite Valley…and the mist was very heavy today with the amount of water coming over the fall.  The picture to the right is from the Tunnel View, and it does show the waterfall in its fullest.  Tunnel View is where everyone seems to stop to get that iconic picture of Bridalveil, El Capitan and in the far distance, Half Dome.  That picture is the first picture of this blog today…click on it and you can see a much larger picture of this great view.  Also from Tunnel View you can see Silver Strand Falls to the south.  Later in the year this will turn into a trickle, and then stop by mid-June.  Bridalveil, on the other hand, runs all year round, although the amount of water coming over the edge will diminish during the summer and early fall.  Now, just to be clear, there are Waterfalls and a Waterfall.  The latter descends over a cliff and lands into a pool, while a waterfalls is one which cascades down a mountain.  Bridalveil is a waterfall…Silver Strand is a waterfalls.

Next we traveled up to Glacier Point, where you can get a picture of Half Dome, and Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall…Nevada Fall is above Vernal Fall.  My youngest son hiked up Half Dome with his Uncle when we was around 12 years old.  What an adventure, which took all day, and nearly into the night…getting back just after dusk.

    

To the left is Skruffy on the wall back in 2012…to the right is Skruffy up on the same wall, just a little different spot on the wall, today.  Of course, today’s camera is way better than the one we had in 2012…

    

There are at least three more waterfalls you can easily see from the Glacier Point Area.  Upper left picture is the top portion of Illilouette Falls, which is located to the far right of Nevada and Vernal falls.  Upper right picture is of Pywiack Cascade in the Tenya Canyon, just to the left and beyond Half Dome, and the bottom picture is the majestic Yosemite Falls, which is really three waterfalls….the upper fall, the middle falls, and the lower fall.  The middle falls is more of a cascade, and cannot be seen very well from Glacier Point.

Back down in the valley we get to see Ribbon Fall and El Capitan, right from our ADA parking space.  Although Yosemite was crowded today, we found ADA parking places everyone except at Tunnel View.  A car, which was right in front of us, pulled into the only ADA space available…and NO, there was no ADA placard or license plate…but there was a young man who had Cerebral Palsy get out, along with at least one senior citizen who looked like they could not walk very well…so we did not say anything, and we found a parking place just across the street just fine…one which had a better view for Marcia who did not even have to get out of the car!

And another, different view of Yosemite Falls, mainly just the upper fall…what a beautiful waterfall that upper fall is.

And one last shot of Bridalveil Fall as we start to head out of the park for the day.  This is the third time Marcia has been to Yosemite, it was probably somewhere between 20 and 30 times for me.  I have camped in the park, hiked in the park, slept in a cabin in late November for two nights back in the ‘80’s, and have driven through much like we did today many times.  Definitely one of my favorite National Parks…let alone, favorite place to visit.  All in twenty pictures plus one thrown in from 2012 of Skruffy!  Now what to do with the other 150+ pictures????

A Grovey Day

I guess that title should read, “A Day in the Grove” …. Mariposa Grove on the south-west side of Yosemite.  But to get there….

  

….we had to travel through last year’s “Rim Fire” which burned 400 square miles of forest.  Thank goodness the area around this RV Park, I mean “Resort” was spared from the fire…but we saw lots and lots of trees which were green two years ago when we were visiting Yosemite, and now they are either brown and dead, or just plain sticks popping up out of the ground.

    

And, of course, we just “had” to stop at the famous “Tunnel View” where one can see El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridal Vale Fall (which, as I will show later, was nearly dried up this time of year).  Of course, as you can see, there was a ton of people, most in tour buses, there too.

They shut off the groves to car traffic years ago, so you have to ride the tram (green thing in the bottom right of the above picture), or walk, or….if you have a handicap placard, you can follow a tram in your own car…which is what we did.  You have the option of listening to the recorded tour being played on the tram, for $12.50 per person, or for free if you don’t.  We decided to listen to the tour, and it was worth the price, in our opinion.  The device plugged right into the car radio, so we did not have to wear headphones like those on the tram.  This is the first stop, an old fallen Sequoia they named “Fallen Monarch”.  It takes many decades for a Sequoia to decay.

   

I can show lots of tree pictures….but these three here will do.  To the left is the only remaining tree which still stands that had a hole cut into it so that buggies, and later cars, could drive through it….now only people can go through it. In the middle is a tree that looks like a old clothes pin was cut out of it.  This happened from fires, and the tree is as healthy as can be.  To the right is the tallest Sequoia in the Grove.

El Capitan

Half Dome

Bridalveil Fall….not much water there

Dried up Yosemite Falls

Half Dome near base at Mirror Lake

On the way back to the motorhome we drove through the valley where we could see the lack of water coming over the magnificent cliffs.  Late April through mid-May is the best time to visit…the crowds are not bad, and the waterfalls are in full glory.  But you may not be able to get to all areas of the park due to the snow removal in the higher elevations.  We were here two years ago in early May, and Glacier Point was open, but Tioga Pass was not.  Tomorrow we move the motorhome on up and over Tioga Pass to Mono Lake….and on Thursday we might just take another day trip with the car back into Yosemite’s high country.