Yosemite 2007 June 5 - Merced Grove & Tioga Road

Today we wanted to take an easier day of sight seeing and decided to visit the Merced Grove of Giant Sequoas only six miles from our camp and take a long drive down Tioga Road.
We had a visitor as we were packing up to leave.


The Merced Grove has 20 sequoas in it and is a three mile round trip hike to the grove. Since this is a smaller grove and you have to hike in to see it - people tend to be scarce and we had time by ourselves with the trees. The day was overcast with a rolling fog. I had made fun of Jenny wearing her pajamma pants but as the day went on and got cooler she was the one laughing at us for wearing shorts.






























After we left the Merced Grove we went to the gas station at Crane Flat before we headed up the Tioga Road. A worker at the gas station saw a bear in the meadow and told us it was a 3 year old teenager. Bob grabed the camera.








We then headed down Tioga Road to drive through the Sierra Nevadas. The scenery was great - we could see granite domes and valleys below. There were wild flowers blooming by the side of the road and clear mountain lakes. We stopped by Tenaya Lake and had lunch - in the car. As we had gone up in altitude the weather got much colder. It was snowing and sleeting and we were freezing in our shorts. So I don't have many pictures to show of this area as we didn't get out of the car much except for a few occations when the snow and sleet stopped.










Back at camp we warmed up by changing into pants, roasting hotdogs and drinking hot chocolate by the fire.




Here is a glimps at our modern camping. At night all the pictures are entered into the computer (John was the official uploader for the trip). Then if we had time we would have a slideshow of the day's pictures.

Yosemite 2007 - June 4 Upper Yosemite Falls

Today we decided to hike up to the brink of Upper Yosemite Falls. The trail's difficulty level is rated strenuous. It is 7.2 miles round trip with a elevation gain of 2,700'. Yosemite Falls 2,425' is the highest waterfall in the USA and the 6th in the world. The first mile is mostly all switchbacks that takes you 1,000' up to Columbia Rock lookout. Bob and the kids left Becky and I in their dust right at the start of the trail. We had out Talk About Radios so we could stay in communication with each other.

Views from Columbia Rock.














They had about a half hour to rest up before Becky and I finally caught up to them.




Then rest time was over and off they went again.


After some steep sandy switchbacks the trail actually went down for a while and then went up again at a more reasonable level. Then you round a turn in the trail and are greeted with the sight of the falls. Gorgeous!














Becky and I spent a lot of time in this area, taking in the view of the falls and also my favorite rock of the day Half Dome.


By now Bob and the kids were long gone and going up steep switch backs to get to the brink of the falls. Bob called us on the radio several times and advised we didn't go on any further as the trail was becoming brutal. We talked to many hikers who were turning back saying the trail was extremely hard and there were no views of the falls anymore until you got to the top. Becky and I went up a little further and finally decided to head back down. We actually went back to view the falls for another half hour and got the call from Bob that the kids were at the brink. Someone let us borrow their binoculars and I could make out 5 people up there but couldn't see the whites of their eyes to distinguish one from another.

Here is the falls when John & Jenny were at the top.


Here are some pictures Bob took from the top of the falls.














This deer was back at the trail head.


Everyone was tired and sweaty after this adventure. We had no shower facilities at our campground so we took one at Housekeeping Camp in the Valley. Bob & John both blew out a knee on the down portion of the trail and were hobbling around. When we got back in camp we ate supper and hit the sack like a ton of bricks.