Everyone in the States seems to know about the Tioga Road. It is one of the few routes through the Sierra Nevadas , is closed by snow for 2/3 of the year and is stunningly beautiful. We were lucky that this is a low snow year and the pass opened a few days before we crossed. Imagine – pine forests, frozen lakes, deer, cascading mountain streams full of snow melt. The top of the pass is at 9,945 ft. (Mt Taranaki is 8,260 ft). Even then, the peaks around us were at 14,000 feet.
The Tioga Road leads to the Yosemite Valley. It is difficult to do justice to this marvel of nature. Towering granite cliffs, giant sequoias, thundering waterfalls and green valley floors. Despite the million of visitors that this valley has to cope with in a year, it is still possible to find remote paths to wander. There are several campgrounds in the valley which are reserved months in advance, however there is a ‘sell off’ of unclaimed sites at 3.00 pm each day. This way we managed to score three nights among the pine trees. Again, we hiked and biked . After a 3 mile climb to a waterfall and 2 mile descent, we discovered that the camera had been left at the top! So poor Dave had to do the climb all over again. Fortunately the camera was still sitting on the rock where it had been left!
We were sorry to leave Yosemite, but we will be back again in a week or so after we have attended a music festival on the outskirts of the park at the end of May.
In the meantime .. we are bound for Monterey (Steinbeck country) and San Fransisco.
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| Ma and Pa Kettle |
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| Tenaya Lake, Tioga Pass |
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| Li'l old us |
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| Sometimes we had to share the trail |
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| Time for reflection! |
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| Can't see the wood for the trees |
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| This is where the camera was left! |
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| Got very, very wet here! |
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| Two half domes!! |
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