California, part 4, Yosemite

We made it to Yosemite! It took most of the day to drive from Lassen to Yosemite, and once we reached the entrance to the park we had 25 miles to get to Curry Village. Curry Village is in Yosemite Valley, and our lodging for 3 nights. Lodging choices in Yosemite should be made in advance, and they are pricey. Curry Village is the least expensive unless you bring your tent.

The first view of Yosemite Valley. OOOHH, AAAAHH!

I had been talking to Aaron on our way into Yosemite, told him we were getting close to Curry Village, and then as would often happen the signal dropped. Not long after that he tried to call me back...several times. I got a text from him, but it wouldn't open...no signal. I thought it was odd that he was calling so many times.

We were looking for a place to park the van at the visitor center near Curry, when Stephen (who was driving) got a call. He has AT & T, we have Verizon. 'Can you hear me' now doesn't always work in Yosemite! Stephen's call was from Aaron. Stephen was very quiet, with an "oh, I see" type responses. Then it was "thanks for the information Aaron." The information was in the form a message on our home answering machine saying that our reservation at Curry Village was unavailable as the conditions are unsafe. The message went on to say that they would refund our money or transfer our deposit to a future reservation.

We had just driven up many switchbacks, gained about 3000 feet in elevation, and we knew that lodging outside the park is at least 60 - 100 miles away. It was 5:30 in the afternoon, and what if we couldn't stay at Curry? We parked the van and went into the reservations office. We gave them our names, they gave us our keys. We sighed relief in a BIG way!!! Those tent cabins would be the best thing ever!

Apparently they had flooding in one of the other areas known as "housekeeping camp"...this is where you can cook at your cabin (well, it's not really a cabin). The flooding had made refugees out of those staying there and they were being shifted to Curry. Some people did lose their reservations at Curry, but we were safe. Hallelujah!

Home sweet home! A canvas tent, after the call from Aaron this was the PERFECT place!


Our tent accommodated 5 people. We had a double & 3 singles, 2 chairs, a shelf unit and a light bulb. The bath house/restrooms were located down the lane. The tents are VERY close together. You can hear your neighbors talk, laugh & snore. Quiet hours are from 10 pm - 6 am, and these are observed by most everyone.

There are bears in Yosemite, and you can't keep food in your cabin. There is a bear locker outside...it is bear proof. But, don't leave things on top of the bear locker and walk away or a crow will swoop in. We had a crow take a trail mix bar (dark chocolate & nut), still in the wrapper and fly off. We found the wrapper minus the bar a few minutes later!

After a stop at the visitor's center we took a short hike to see lower Yosemite falls. You get sprayed walking across the bridge. Today was our first day to wear shorts on the trip! The temps were in the 40's at night (no heat in tent cabin), and the 70's during the day.

The famous HALF DOME from the parking lot of Curry Village.

View of upper & lower Yosemite falls. This is the tallest waterfall ( 2645 feet!) in North America, but don't go in August & September because the falls dry up. This is because the falls are fed by snow melt.

We decided to hike up toward lower Yosemite falls to a place called Columbia Rock. There were over 60 switchbacks and the elevation gain was 1000 feet. Kate left her inhaler at the tent, so it was a slow go. Here is a view when we were close to our destination.

We had purchased sandwiches that morning and Columbia Rock was a nice place for lunch. We asked some other hikers to snap our picture...notice Half Dome behind me!

This guy was practicing his climbs with an outfitter in the Valley. They scale up about 80 - 100 feet and rappel back down. If they plan to attempt El Capitan, it will be much further!

El Capitan. With the help of binoculars and the zoom on the video camera we were able to watch numerous climbers. Most take 2 - 3 days to complete the climb. There are some sprint climbers who actually make it in several hours. I say they are all CRAZY!!!

Ahwahnee Hotel. Lovely place, but out of our price range! Breakfast buffet is $22.50 per person. A night's stay starts at $450!

We were in Yosemite for 2 full days and stayed in the valley except for one trip to Glacier Point. We hiked a trail to Sentinel Dome (elevation about 7500 feet) which wasn't very strenuous or far, but had a great view. Here is Half Dome from Sentinel Dome.

Snow on top of Sentinel Dome. Always a favorite for us southerners!

Dad and girls from the top of Sentinel Dome.

We encountered road construction inside the park and that meant that you often had to wait 30 minutes before you were allowed through. We followed the pilot car on several occasions. I'm sure the construction is necessary and will benefit future visitors.

Kate & I were walking to the pool at Curry Village after we returned from our hike to Sentinel Dome when we heard a commotion. We looked to our left & saw the park ranger yelling at two bears outside this tent. Apparently the occupants of this tent cabin had not properly stored their food and the bears came to claim it. There were many folks taking pictures and a couple of rangers trying to get the bears to leave the area. Alyssa and Carrie were planning to take a shower before dinner, but went on a bear hunt instead! They actually saw 3 bears.

Kate enjoyed the pool and I got a nice view while she swam!

Vernal Falls is a short but wide (80 feet) waterfall. We hiked to the footbridge for this view. Again this view is good during May, June & maybe early July....but slows to a trickle as the snow melts.

Here's a rainbow in the water rushing past Vernal Falls.

Our trip took us about 1700 miles, and the kids were good travelers in the van. They read, listened to their iPods, and played countless rounds of PHASE 10.

On our way back to San Francisco we stopped at In & Out for a late lunch. I grew up on this food in Florida, but had no idea there were franchises all over California. Yummy burgers, fries and shakes.

Our last night was in a Hyatt Place in Dublin California. The Williams room came with a bottle of wine. Here's Stephen enjoying a glass before going to bed.

This was written on numerous vehicles in the parking lot at Curry Village. If you are going to enjoy Yosemite you will need to seize the day & do it early. It's a big park and we only explored a smidgen of it. The next trip we want to see Wawona, Tioga Road and Hetch Hetchy.

I have one more post with a wrap up our trip, so stay tuned.

California, part 3B, Lassen National Park..the park!

When you think of National Parks, most people name Yellowstone, Yosemite & the Grand Canyon. Until we started planning our trip to Northern California I had never heard of Lassen Volcanic National Park. In fact many Californians have not heard of it either!

The park was first established as Cinder Cone and Lassen Peak National Monuments in 1907. Then Lassen Peak began erupting in 1914, with the peak being in 1915. In 1916 it was named a national park because of its significance as an active volcanic landscape. All four types of volcanoes in the world plus active hydrothermal areas are found in the parks 106,000 acres.

Lassen's elevation ranges from 5900 to 10,457 feet, which means they get a lot of snow. When we visited in early June, many of the park roads had not been cleared, so you could only go so far before you came to a gate. Being from Georgia we love to find snow in June, it's always a highlight of our trip.

Mt. Lassen...summit is over 10,000 feet in elevation

This is in the Devastated area, which means it was in the path of the 1914-15 eruption.

Alyssa is our trip videographer. It's hard to get a picture of her without camera in hand.

Snowball fights happened a lot, even when I was trying to snap a picture of the girls. Thanks Dad!

OK....so this one is a posed shot, but snowballs flew all morning!

We were at the north entrance to the park, Manzanita Lake.

Our lunch by the lake was windy and cold.

Manzanita flowers are abundant in the west, hence the name Manzanita Lake.

Alyssa helps Kate cross the log.

We took a hike around Manzanita Lake. We enjoyed the views of Mt. Lassen, and were rewarded with bald eagles soaring overhead.

The speck in the sky is a bald eagle. Alyssa took several shots of them sitting in the tree, but she hasn't sent them to me yet...check back later for those pictures.

When made our first trip out west in 2002 we encountered Ponderosa Pine. These trees are vanilla scented. The girls were excited to sniff pine trees again, and thought we had properly identified the Ponderosa. The park staff informed us that these pines were called Jeffrey Pines, therefore the girls like to smell Jeffrey! The rangers also told us that after smelling Jeffrey Pines, that Ponderosa's would smell more like pineapple. Who knew?

A few miles north of the park we found the Subway Caves, a lava tube. These caves were formed in the Hat Creek lava flow less than 20,000 years ago. We weren't prepared to go into the caves, because we didn't have flashlights. We tried taking cell phones & iPods to light the way...that didn't work. There was a visitor center just down the road and you could rent flashlights. Much better with flashlights!! Here we are going into the lava tube.

It is really dark inside the cave, especially when everyone turns off their light. There were signs to read that pointed out various features. It was a cool experience.

Apparently we were not the first Nobles family to travel this way. In 1852 some hardy Nobles trekked across this area, and the park road actually follows their trail.

We enjoyed our time in Lassen, but I would suggest visiting a little later in the summer when more of the roads are open. The last leg of our journey takes us south to Yosemite, a long drive in the silver van.

California, part 3A, Lassen National Park

We left Orick, California on the northern coast and began our trek inland. When we left the coast our elevation was 26, now we were on our way to over 5000 feet. The road to Viola, California is winding with many switchbacks. We stopped for lunch outside of Redding California at a place called French Gulch, just a wide spot in the road with a park on a creek.

Kate tried her hand at skipping rocks after lunch.

Our stop in Redding was at the Safeway for groceries & gas. Besides breakfast & lunch items we purchased pork chops to grill & ingredients for Baked Ziti. Of course, we needed slice & bake cookies for dessert. The house we were renting was off the main road, down a gravel road and across a bridge. There were a few other houses that we passed, but this is a remote area. I think Viola has a population of about 100, and we weren't in town! We found this house through an internet search. If you want more details on the house click here.

Looking up from the stream to the house.

The house has open spaces and skylights. The kitchen was well equipped and the owner, Rebecca, had bread baking in the bread machine & watermelon slices in the refrigerator. Rebecca lives up the lane, and soon arrived to go over the particulars of staying in the home. Rule #1 was posted on the door as you entered....no shoes inside the house!

Here is the den/great room. Note the wildlife mounted on the walls. The house also had numerous Buddhas to welcome us!

The upstairs had a pullout sofa, an air matress (seen below), and the master bedroom had a king size bed. There was also a full bath upstairs.

Carrie walking out of the master bedroom.

Stairway to the teen suite (that's what I called the upstairs)! There was wireless, that allowed for the important Facebook updates. The kids also read & played Phase 10 on our trip. Randy is seen in the hall leading to the downstairs bedrooms & bath.

Kitchen...all stainless steel appliances. There were chilled beer mugs in the freezer, though we didn't use them!

We grilled pork chops and then ate outside on the deck. There are two outside heaters to make it more comfortable. The temperature was typically in the 40's at night and upper 60's in the day. Here's the kids table - pork chops, baked potatoes, green beans, watermelon slices & fresh baked bread (though it wasn't ready in time for dinner, we enjoyed it a bit later).

This property has a campfire. Brandon built a fire while dinner was cooking. After dinner, we had smores! Randy & Stephen had taken a quick trip into the park and bought some expensive ingredients for smores, but it was a nice treat! The chairs were all set up by the campfire and stream. There was even wood ready for us.

Yummy & messy!

If you were missing Randy, Stephen or Brandon they could probably be found by the rushing stream!

This house had a washer & dryer that worked really well, so we were able to do some laundry. Perhaps the only complaint we had with this house were the beds. They were too soft, or lumpy...but we managed to sleep.

The house is only 10 minutes from the entrance to Lassen National Park, so if you are ever in the area and need lodging...check it out. It's a bargain, especially if you are travelling with another family. My next post will be about exploring Lassen Volcanic National Park.