Another Walk in the Park: May 2024

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite deserves an installment all of its own. The park is located in the Central California Sierra Nevada Mountains east of San Francisco/Oakland and southeast of Sacramento, The hordes of tourists are joined by enthusiastic visitors from these cities totaling about four million a years. That's a lot of people squeezed mostly in the valley that measures 7.5 miles by one mile. The park is about the size of Rhode Island but the majority of visitors are concentrated in the valley because they have seen and heard about El Capitan, Half Dome, Yosemite Fall and Bridalveil Fall.

Like the trees in nearby Sequoia NP, size matters. The cracked block of granite called Half Dome rises 4,733 feet above the valley. El Capitan is 3,593 ft., Yosemite Fall is the tallest in North America at 2,425 ft.--when it is running. Yosemite Creek dries up in August. Bridalveil is 620 ft., Nevada Fall 594 ft. and Vernal Fall is 317 ft. For perspective, Niagara Falls is truly impressive but at 177 ft. can not compete in the height category.

Shirley and I enjoyed our stay up in the much quieter Tuolumne Meadows. "Much quieter" is a relative term but the meadow area really does offer opportunities to get far from the madding crowd by taking one of the hiking trails to see wildlife, wildflowers, and a different perspective on the mountains. From up there, for example, you get to see the back side of Half Dome. We entered via Tioga Pass on the east side of the park because we were coming from Lake Tahoe just north of there. Stayed at Tuolumne Meadows Campground and also had reservations at Crane Flats for closer, easier access to the valley. Got a notice from the park service shortly after we arrived that a "controlled burn" had gotten a little out of control and burned down the campground. Our fees were graciously refunded but we were forced to find other accommodations outside the park and made daily commutes to the valley. Perhaps the photos will show why this was a disappointment but not a disaster.

Tuolumne Meadows

Yellow-bellied marmot

Mergansers. Or as the kids say, M R ducks. C M P N?

Half Dome from the back side up in the Meadows.

Yosemite Valley

El Capitan

Bridalveil

Yosemite Fall. Or would have been if the creek hadn't dried up in August.

Half Dome from the Valley side.

The profile view from up at Glacier Point.

Sheer cliffs and snow melt produce numerous waterfalls.

From Yosemite I had considered continuing on to Death Valley as long as we were in California anyway. It was mid-September but fellow campers said, "You don't want to do that. It's still 110 down there." So we saved that for our winter trip to Arizona. Instead we went to Las Vegas. Well, not actually. Went to Costco and Trader Joe's. Have returned to Las Vegas a couple more times but still have never spent a minute in any of the places people insist you have to go when there. It was only in the 90s but it was that famous "dry heat." Camped at Lake Mead near Hoover Dam for a night where only six of the 157 sites were taken. Nobody believes that "dry heat" isn't real heat. From there we continued to Grand Canyon and the five national parks in Utah. We'll pick up there in future installments.

Crater Lake, Lassen Volcanic and Sequoia

From Redwoods National Park we turned east into Oregon to visit Crater Lake and Lassen Volcanic National Parks before heading down into northcentral California to Sequoia and Yosemite. As soon as we turned east, we were technically headed towards home. Technically. But there was a lot more to see. That's why this was the Great Western Tour.

Crater Lake National Park

The Pacific Northwest lies within the string of volcanoes called the Ring of Fire. Mt. St. Helens that exploded with great force in 1980 is probably the most dramatic example. Crater Lake is a water-filled volcanic caldera. Nearby Hillman Peak is another volcano that was active about 70,000 years ago. Lassen Volcanic NP, up next in this installment, is geothermally similar to Yellowstone but on a much smaller scale.

Crater Lake National Park is in southwestern Oregon near Redwoods NP in the far corner of California. The caldera lies within Mt. Mazama that erupted in about 5700 BC. Abundant rainfall and snow have accumulated to form the lake. Rim Drive is the 33-mile road around the perimeter that has 25 view points from which to appreciate the amazing deep blue of the lake and the geologically interesting surrounding topography. At its highest, the rim is 1,975 feet above the water. Take the drive slowly and don't try to look while you are driving. First, the road is narrow and twisty-turny with no shoulders. Of equal importance is its popularity with bicyclists who travel in packs and are often not following each other single-file. Rounding a blind curve when distracted by the view may endanger other visitors.

The deep, bright blue of the lake is attributed to its its purity and great depth. At 1,943 feet it is the deepest in the US, Though it is constantly accumulating rain and snowmelt, the depth is stable because evaporation balances it almost perfectly.

Wizard Island, said to resemble a sorcerer's hat, is a cinder cone that

as acquired a forest on the 764 feet that are above water.

Spires like this are hardened volcanic ash.

The Phantom Ship looks small from a distance but it rises 160 ft, above the water.

You could do Crater Lake in a half day by driving Rim Road but there are

other attractions such as trails to waterfalls and meadows of wildflowers.

Lassen Volcanic National Park

This is one of those national parks you have probably never heard of. It has the mountain streams and other attractions of western parks as well as the geothermal features we associate with Yellowstone because it is located in the Ring of Fire. In 1914, three men hiked to the rim of the caldera at Lassen Peak. A sudden eruption nearly killed them. The major geothermal area in the park, Bumpass Hell, is named for the first known white man to visit there. He did the hard way. In 1865 he broke through the thin crust covering a hot spring and lost a leg. Today there are boardwalks at the end of the three-mile roundtrip trail. If you have visited Yellowstone, you know that tourists sometimes ignore the cautionary signs and go where they should not and pay an even higher price.

Steller's jays are as common in the West as blue jays in the East.

Lassen Peak

Bumpass Hell

Sequoia National Park

Like Redwoods NP, Sequoia is dedicated to the preservation of huge trees. The chief difference is that redwoods are taller but sequoias are more massive. The some branches on sequoias are larger than entire mature oaks. The challenge for visitors trying to get photos is to find a place to stand where it is possible to include the entire tree. Speaking of photos, you may have seen historic pictures showing an automobile driving through the trunk of a sequoia. The park service now frowns on such foolishness.