Yosemite- Day 4 (Sept 10th)

Well last night we scoped out the wonderful hotel area. It was on 4 acres, had 2 pools, and everything was made out of redwood. I was up until late working on the blog because I did not know the internet situation coming up the next few days. Looks like we got internet. Thank goodness because I think Derek was going to have a heart attack if he could not check his email on HIS laptop. It/He is unreal.

This morning we went for a wonderful breakfast (thank goodness because we didnt eat until almost 3pm). They had this great bear (with bass in his mouth) made out of one piece of small redwood and they also had a Statue of Liberty.

We drove the 20 miles back to Yosemite. We made one stop at a historic Railroad station for a logging train.

From there it was another hour up to Washburn Point and Glacier Point. It is the best view of Yosemite (Half Dome and the Valley). It was breath-taking. I actually am not sure there are words to explain the view. It was unobstructed and made for a picture perfect moment.

There are a total of 500 bears killed a year by cars in Yosemite. They have this slogan "Red Bear, Dead Bear." Everywhere you see these signs there has been a bear killed. In some weird way I thought the signs were funny- so I had to take a picture. However, I never did see a bear.

We headed back down for our last Yosemite stop- Mariposa Grove. It is the only real grove of Redwoods. By this time Mom and I were super hungry, but we could not pass up the opportunity to see what would be my first real redwood tree. Man was I amazed. How something could be so big, yet so fragile. Did you know that redwoods are one of the most fragile woods in nature? When they fall that break apart- making it an undesirable tree for loggers to go after. Because of their size logging these commonly results in unusable wood. So a natural fall is ideal.

Did you know the root system for redwoods in the Sierre Nevadas only go about 6 to 10 feet deep before hitting bedrock? For this reason you cannot walk around most of the trees as there is great risk of damaging the trees and reducing their life span. Think about it- a 150 to 200 ft tree that is over 15 to 20 feet in diameter (and this is likely small) with roots only 6 to 10 feet deep. Crazy.

About 1 mile into the Miraposa trails we reached Giant Grizzly. It is only about half the original height (reminds me of the tree in Winnie the Pooh). It is about 2700 years old and has limbs that are about 7 ft in diameter. Many times finding a tree in VA with the trunk 7 feet in diameter may be rare. What is even more crazy is trying to fit these things in a single frame. The best technique is to get a shot by looking up the tree.

50 yards past Giant Grizzly was the California Tunnel Tree. It was carved back in the 1890s for stagecoaches. It was not huge, but still amazing. We also saw the red sap (kinda looked like blood) dripping from the top of the tunnel.

After taking the 1 mile trip we headed back to the car. We needed to eat and get on the road to Sequoia National Park. Once on the road we hit the flat dusty dry land. Everywhere we saw trees of oranges, limes, avocados and grapes vines. There was some corn, but I think because the area is so dry it just is not doing as well. Even the aqueducts are low if they even have water.



We arrived in Three Rivers where there is virtually nothing. Most of the places close by 7. But we beat the rain and got settled into our room that is right on the river (which is quite low).

Tomorrow we head up to venture through the Sequoia National Park.