Yosemite National Park
Yosemite, California
Thursday, June 28, 2018
Clear, 85°
“The far-famed valley came suddenly into view throughout almost its whole extent: the noble walls, sculptured into endless variety of domes and gables, spires and battlements and plain mural precipices, all a-tremble with the thunder tones of the falling water. The level bottom seemed to be dressed like a garden, sunny meadows here and there and groves of pine and oak, the river of Mercy sweeping in majesty through the midst of them and flashing back the sunbeams.” -- John Muir
Yosemite National Park Sign
Yosemite Valley has been one of those life changing places for me. As a young man I had the opportunity to fly a hang glider off the face of Half Dome and El Capitan. There were very few permits given back then and I was lucky to be granted two of them on successive years. You could not even get a permit to fly there for over 25 years so it was an honor and a privilege to see such a beautiful place from an aerial perspective as only 25 to 30 have done so.
El Capitan
Flying over the valley, around the rock formations and waterfalls was truly incredibly beautiful. The valley floor was post card-like with the high cathedrals of rock, the massive trees, and the beautiful meadows. While soaring, you could hear the sounds of the waterfalls in the distance.
Yosemite Valley View with Telephoto of Bridalveil Falls
It was not an easy place to fly and the NPS made you work for that early morning flight. You drove up an old logging road to where it stopped then hiked in with over 150 pounds of gear. You went up late afternoon the day before you were permitted to fly and spent the night up on the mountain, which was pretty incredible in itself.
The vistas from Half Dome and El Capitan inspired you to have a great flight. The steep cliff walls, the raging waterfalls you could hear from the kite over the soft sounds of the wind across the flying wires of the glider, the beautiful trees, the early morning sun’s rays dancing through the trees below gave all the pilots a feeling that this was a truly special place to fly. When we landed, Cook’s Meadow was covered with 10 colorful hang gliders.
Half Dome from Cook’s Meadow
We all took our time to breaking them down, instead telling stories of the flight and what we saw from the air. Those were great times with good friends experiencing something phenomenal and cherished to this day.
Yosemite Valley is located on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains, 150 miles due east of San Francisco. It stretches for 7.5 miles in a roughly east-west direction, with an average width of about 1 mile.
Yosemite Valley represents only one percent of the park area, but this is where most visitors arrive and stay. More than half a dozen creeks tumble from hanging valleys at the top of granite cliffs that can rise 3000–3500 feet above the valley floor, which itself is 4000 feet above sea level. These streams combine into the Merced River, which flows out from the western end of the valley, down the rest of its canyon to the San Joaquin Valley. The flat floor of Yosemite Valley holds both forest and large open meadows, which have views of the surrounding crests and waterfalls. (Wikipedia)
Driving from Suisun City on Hwy 12, we saw about fifty wind generators spinning in the almost constant breeze that blows in that part of California. There are rolling hills with crops of various kinds along the way to Stockton where you get on Hwy 120 for the rest of the drive into Yosemite National Park. There were several pretty little towns with interesting names like, Copperopolis, Chinese Camp, and Buck Meadows. We passed beautiful lake/reservoir Tulloch where we saw boaters on the lake and swimmers along the shore and beaches. The Don Pedro Reservoir’s road was a steep climb up six or seven miles of winding switchbacks, hairpin curves, and other vehicles going too fast to stay in their lane. Once on top of the mesa, the rest of the road into Yosemite was nice as we passed through a small pioneer town with several bars and eateries with rocking chairs on the front porch.
The West entrance gate into Yosemite gives you about a twenty mile drive through large forest stands of trees, fire damaged hillsides, and beautiful mountain vistas on either side of the road.
Yosemite Rock Formation
Today was not a hurried drive as it had been in other parks. Here, other vehicles seemed to slow down and stop to enjoy this beautiful scenery. There were several tunnels leading to the first view of Yosemite Valley. Hwy 120 is not the famous “tunnel view,” which is on Hwy 41 coming up from the South Park entrance, but it is pretty dang close.
Yosemite Valley Panorama
Stopping at the overlook, you have a wonderful view down the valley with Bridalveil Falls as the centerpiece. El Capitan is on the left side of the valley with Half Dome just out of view.
Half Dome
Driving down the mountain into the valley brought back so many memories of camping here, sitting with friends around a campfire, talking about past flights, places flown, and those lost along the way as hang gliding grew in popularity before many of the safety measures were initiated within the sport.
Bridalveil Falls Close Up View
Stopping at Cook’s Meadow we had a spectacular view of El Capitan, Half Dome, the Three Brothers Rock Formation and both of the waterfalls; Bridalveil and Yosemite Falls.
Yosemite Falls
This was the “landing meadow” from so many years ago. It was a beautiful setting as the sun went below the Three Brothers casting a long shadow across the valley floor. Not much has changed except trees are a little taller, a boardwalk cuts across the valley where we would land and people were walking across the meadow, along the paved walkways, and cars were driving by with a parade like frequency in the long circle of the valley road.
Bridalveil Falls
The main road through Yosemite splits at the valley and has a single lane for vehicles and a dedicated bus lane to move traffic around the loop road. It goes all the way up to the Upper and Lower Pines campground past Curry Village and the “working village” with the general store, US Courthouse, and Park Service buildings. This area was pretty crowded with people trying to get on the shuttles, go shopping, or visiting the lodges or campgrounds in the area.
It was wonderful until we realized that the campground reservations made for this day were not on site within the Park but were about 50 air miles away. On the map, it looked like the campground was still within the boundaries but in reality, it was just outside. No problem, that is, until after putting it into the GPS we saw with the road switchbacks and elevation changes it was going to take over three and a half hours to go that short distance. I did not want to drive over three hours and be offsite. We decided time would be better spent with family. So with almost the same drive time back to the house, it was a quick turn out of the park with the sun setting over the lakes. Night had fallen when we reached the windmills and the blinking red beacons indicated we were close to my daughter’s home. It was a long enjoyable day in one of this country’s most beautiful National Parks. I highly recommend a visit if you have the chance. It will not disappoint and give you several “Oh Wow!” moments along the way.
Traveling Life’s Highways - I’m starting to feel better and I have had a chance to catch up on some of my writing so hopefully you continue to follow this trek and enjoy.
