Yosemite, part ......who cares

With much anticipation we rolled out of the Peninsula early Saturday afternoon for a much needed break from the hectic pace of the Bay Area. I honestly cannot to wait say that for the last time. Taking our time and enjoying the sights along the way I, well I really wondered why I driving so damn slow. If you have ever driven south on highway 99 sucks. Unless you get an erection from farm equipment and the smell of cow shit you know why both 5 and 99 are best traveled at high rates of speed. Now as a family we have done some traveling before. Last summer as you may have read in previous posts, we logged 3,000 miles on a trip to Yellowstone. I for one was worried about how my 4 yr old son would handle so much seat time only to be pleasantly surprised by his ability to travel well. Fast forward to this trip. Not that he could no longer handle hours of looking through the window, quite the contrary, he entered what I call his N.E.W. era. NEW as in "Never Enough Why's." I have always loved explaining everything "I" could explain to them, if I didn't know I would tell them "let's find out." This trip began an era of never being able to fully explain anything to him. With myself, my "Oh so patient" wife and my daughter all doing our best it always seemed to end with "WHY." It was around this time I seriously began to question WHY I quit drinking in 1988 because I was needing a drink.
We rolled through the town of Oakhurst and headed South to the enclave of Bass Lake which would be base camp for the next week. We unloaded our gear and settled in to unwind. Those were the shortest 4 minutes, my daughter promptly asked if they could start coloring Easter eggs. Vacation or not we have to maintain the constant flow of commercially pushed "holiday" sugar...and eggs. So we went about about coloring eggs, my son by wanting to dump every egg into every cup of colorant, my daughter being ever so articulate and artistic, me being fucking cranky with a company aptly named Dudley for putting a shit product out and my lovely wife doing damage control. Happy Easter!

Day 2 consisted of an Easter egg hunt for the kids, A sugar infused breakfast and lunch for them, then relaxing the rest of the day. Monday morning we made our pilgrimage to "The Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad." My son loves Thomas the Tank Engine, so putting him a on real steam engine was like Christmas all over again.
The hour long train ride was fun, the real joy was watching the look on my sons face. We followed an old section of track down into the valley where there was still upwards of 5 feet of snow AND about 30 degrees colder than up at the station.









After the train ride we headed into Yosemite. We have been in the park before on several occasions but never been to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoia Trees. Was pleasantly surprised to find 5-6 feet of snow and some of the biggest trees I have ever seen. If you have yet to see them, GO!  Below you can find my little devil making snow angels just off the trail















  We spent a day fishing at Bass Lake with negative results....we caught no fish, which may be directly linked to my son running in the water and screaming how much fun he was having, throwing rocks in the water, rolling in the mud and sand and generally acting as the worlds best "non-pepper based" bear repellent. What can I say, he likes dirt, water rocks and trains.

We toured the valley floor the following day. Hit the waterfalls, had lunch and generally enjoyed the afternoon. It still being early in the season the population of 2-legged idiots was low. We enjoyed a day of free roaming and just took a lot of pictures.



The Cobalt skies of the Sierra Nevada make for good photojournalism, and can make a hack like me look like a good Photographer. If the pics are really good, well then those pics were taken by my lovely wife. We both love taking pictures, she gets the more contrasting shots with multiple layers where I tend towards the dramatic shots.


The following day we headed back to the lake for a little more fishing. With no luck on day two, it being colder and windier I took the opportunity for a family camp fire. We gathered up some tinder and small branches and I pulled a flint and steel and "WE" started a fire without a match. I really wanted my oldest child to know how if she ever found herself in a situation where she needed to start a fire. I have 3 of these firestarters, one each in our backpacks.

We quickly extinguished our fire as it was getting late and it was a long 22 minute drive back to our base camp.





Friday found us back in Yosemite valley. Ended up in the back end of the valley at a place called Happy Isles that we have not visited about 7 years and came across a tree where we took a picture of our daughter at previously.

The Happy Isles area of Yosemite was hit by a rockfall in 1996 that led to nearly 1000 trees being blown over by the ensuing airblast. Here are a few them that span the Merced River













It is truly amazing to see the devastation created by a rockfall from 2000 feet above and the associated wind blast.












For the first time we traveled into the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Fun little side trip on the way home.








All in all it was a great trip, got the hell away from the bay area for not long enough, saw lots of wildlife including a big bear, bald eagles and this grouse on the way into Hetch Hetchy reovoir, sitting on the side of the road. I stopped and backed up to have look and this thing starts chattering away and following us, running in front of the truck or along side as we rolled. It must be lonely being a Grouse in these parts.

This one was about the size of a big chicken!

Time for me to bail out and start thinking about what's next. Just gotta have adventure!