We arrived at Sonora, CA to find that the hotel reservation Misty had made earlier was not recorded and at the moment we were lodge less. Misty was a bit irate with both the booking service and the hotel and after quite a bit of frustration handed the phone to me at which point I told the lady from the booking service to figure it out, we’d be back in a few hours and had already paid for a room. Even when people mess up, sometimes you just need to give them a second to do their job. We decided to pick up a quick late lunch and head to the park. I would encourage anyone going to Yosemite to book in advance and get the closest lodging you can afford. We weren’t exactly keen on two $500 night stays at the Awahnee (Internet proclaimed Ritz of Yosemite) but had we known it would have taken so long to get to Sonora, I think we would have at the very least sprung for something in Groveland. It takes a full two hours at least in daylight (read: moderate traffic) and at least an hour and a half at night when no one is around and you can careen yourself down the roads back toward Sonora (read: don’t slow to 5mph RV speeds around every bend). The evening we made it to Yosemite we managed to make it to Bridal Veil Falls and Glacier Point, both spectacular drives and views. Neither required much if any hiking, both flip flop walkable. On the way out the first evening, even though we made great time back to Sonora, we did manage to go a little too far west in the park but we did manage to see the rock arch entrance that I have seen on the maps, pretty cool and made the goof up not so bad. Our next day in Yosemite we packed up and drove into Yosemite Valley to hike to Vernal Falls. The hike up to the footbridge was not so bad, however, once we saw the screening ranger we knew things might get a little worse. Let me just take quick second to let you know what a screening ranger does. A screening ranger is a strategically placed park ranger to filter out the unsuitable and unprepared hikers from going past a certain point on a trail. They will not go as far as detaining you, but they will, at the very least, discourage the Coke can, flip flop wearing crowd from going past a certain point. We met these rangers at both the Grand Canyon and just after the foot bridge at Vernal Falls. You know things are going to go from “uphill walk” to “strenuous” when you see one of these fellows. I was very excited to hear this ranger greet us and say we looked “Prepared” to ascend toward the top of the falls, although, I think she was probably giving us a bit too much credit. From this point there are, I have been told, approx. 700 stairs ranging from about 6 in to 2ft in height that twist their way towards the top of the falls. All within carelessness of the Merced River. Supposedly the Mist trail is one of the most dangerous trails in Yosemite based on deaths, but I think this is mainly because it is so crowded and people do not realize that they are in a National Park, not a McDonalds Playland. The drop is real and there are no nets or second tries. I’m not saying it’s anything like climbing half dome, but the risk is there at least? The hike up was difficult with both my out of shape self and a tripod over my shoulder, but the views from the top made it worth every step. I’m sure all post all the pics when I get home, but just the views were breathtaking.
After we made our way down we decided to make our way to Tioga pass towards the east side of the park. I would also suggest this drive and the stops along the way as they are every bit as spectacular and much less crowded. You will want to take some bug spray though, I thing I got attacked by no less than 30 Mosquitoes when I went to take a couple photos in Tuolumne Meadows. The rest of the drive out of Tioga Pass was spectacular. The lakes were straight out of a corporate advertisement and the roads were, in many places, just as great as PCH.
Now here is where our fun begins. We had decided to spend the night a bit away from the park in a little town called Tonopah, NV. There are no gas stops after sundown from the park to Tonopah, 200 mi away. This is quite Barren country. There is nothing. I think we went for at least an hour without seeing another soul. The highway was very desolate and I think I now know why anyone out here has time to make up stories about little green men. We did manage to Pass the “Extra Terrestrial” highway today, but the sign from HW 6 just said 375. No fun, or I would have stopped to take a picture. Even today, much of the way we traveled was alone and with much of nothing, I know that the loneliest road in America is a bit north of where we traveled, but I think the roads we too must have come in a close second. We did make it to Tonopah, with probably enough gas to go another 20-30 miles, but I’m glad we didn’t have to find out how far we might have made it. We spent the night at another Best Western (haven’t we earned something free yet?) and headed out the next morning toward where we are now, Salt Lake City.
We made a stop at the Bonneville Salt Flats this afternoon on our way in to catch the end of the Bonneville Nationals Land Speed Record runs this afternoon. Unfortunately, most everyone was already gone this late in the week with only a hundred or so racers left in the pits. It really is quite a spectacle to see just this many people all gatherered to run across the salt, I can only imagine what it must have been like earlier in the week. The fastest MPH so far had been 430 something MPH which is much faster than I have seen in person, so it was a bit of a disappointment not to see any really record breaking cars run today, but it looked as though a few 200mph + cars and bikes were running. It is quite odd to see miles and miles of salt flats, so much so that you can see a 6 ft person standing from 5-10 miles away. They do look like a twig in the salt, but still, try to do that in Oklahoma. They say you can actually see the curvature of the earth here, I think I could see it, but maybe I just wanted to see it. All in all it was exciting to be there and drive across the salt to make it to the pits down the ferry road to see all of the hot rods and streamliners.
After a few photos and a bit of him hawing around we pushed on to Salt Lake City, bikers haven of the world. I honestly think this could be Amsterdam’s sister city. I think there must be more bicycles here than cars. There is a Ferrari / Maserati dealership we saw on the way in, but I think all you need here is a brightly colored fixed gear. We head out in the morning toward Misty’s cousin’s house in Colorado Spring in the morning, we may also see the house that Joseph built on our way out.
See you soon,
-Matt
