Upper Yosemite - North Dome - Valley Floor Loop

(By Nath)...

Of the 3.5 million people that visit Yosemite National Park each year, 3.45 million of them never leave the valley floor.

Escaping the crowd was the motivation behind taking on this golden 29-kilometre trail, starting with a heart pumping two-hour ascent up yosemite falls (about 1km altitude gain), leaving all the lard asses behind.

You wouldn't read about it, but when I got to the top, there was a tightrope stretched across the top of the thundering falls.

What did I do? Took off my boots, strapped on my cowboy hat, and gave it a go of course (see photo - I had some Italian dude take my picture).  

After that I continued along the northern rim of Yosemite to the mighty North Dome and for three hours didn't encounter another soul. A lot of the forested section of the trail was still covered in snow... I just powered through Rocky IV style, visualising the defeat of Ivan Drago. 

I totally underestimated the amount of water I would need, so I ate snow for the last half of the hike. A wise man once told me: 'don't eat yellow snow'... it's always good to have these survival tips on board.

I saw quite a few deer, and c.150 squirrels.  

Followed Indian Ridge for an hour, looking over at the mighty Half Dome. Only rock cairns to guide me over this glorious granite ridge. I didn't see any Indians though.

After seven hours I started the descent following Snow Creek looking up Tenaya Canyon... my knees/quads are made for descending... no sissy hiking poles here.  

8.5 hours round trip.  Chowed like a horse, drank 2L water and 5 x Budweiser when I got back to Bessie.

The boys took turns at knee dropping on me as I passed out into a deep sleep.

Yosemite encore

Is there any better indication that a place is awesome than the fact you want to visit it again and again? We've just left Yosemite for the second time and are now imagining the things we're going to do on our NEXT visit!

Let's back it up a little bit...

We drove into the park in the late afternoon and found the site we'd booked for 3 nights at the Lower Pines Campground on the Valley floor (one of the rare times we book anything - and it's lucky we did because it was the only site left!)

It was an awesome site too - 10 meters to the river and 20 meters to the shuttle stop with great bike riding/scooting space to boot.

Come morning, I downed a coffee before setting out on foot walking/jogging my way upstream along the Merced River to Happy Isles and then following the horse trail up Tenaya Creek to Mirror Lake and back home again (about 6.5km).

On the way out I was clapping and whooping every now and again to warn bears of my approach but soon stopped it on the mirror lake section when I realized how busy a trail it was. There's nothing cooler than yelling out and then rounding a bend to find a school group!

Later we caught the shuttle bus to check out the visitor centre and lower yosemite falls. Spectacular falls but a real circus (fantastic people-watching). 

That afternoon, knowing what Nath had planned for himself the next day, I set out to explore the Merced River heading west and ended up following trails for almost 11km. I stood very still watching deer extremely close up for some of the time which was nice.

But I was unfortunately way too far from Bessie and nowhere near shuttle stops when a freak hail storm pelted down on me and so I did a lot more sprinting than I'd intended!! But all's well that ends well (that is, me getting back safe and sound).

Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks

Before I tell you about our time in these National Parks, can I just take a moment to share how much I adore country and western music, which is all we've been able to pick up in the more remote areas we've been travelling through in this past week.

My absolute favs so far are:

- a love ballad by Brad Paisley which features the line "I'd like to check you for ticks"

- George Strait's Here For a Good Time where he requests "To hell with the red wine, pour me some moon shine"

- and the sure-to-be-a-classic by Jason Aldean who sings "And I can take you for a ride on my big green tractor". Song title in case you're wondering: Big Green Tractor.

Okay, so we have been skirting on the very edges of winter conditions and were lucky enough to have access roads open up with very nice timing for us to explore Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. 

What this means is while the roads have mostly been okay to drive (apart from the snow storms we've  had) we have been limited to where we could camp (most campgrounds are still covered in snow) and it has been COLD. 

Massive upsides of course are having the parks mostly to ourselves and the chance to see them at their most wintery wonderland best, with a fair bit of spring melt thrown in just to make the rivers ultra-impressive. A very good trade-off I think.

KINGS CANYON

We drove straight in on the 180 and found a campsite at Azalea Campground in the Grant Grove Village area of Kings Canyon. This was our base for 2 nights and the only campsite cleared and open in that national park (incidentally though, it was possible to free camp by parking on roadside pull-outs in the national forest controlled sections and some of those areas on the 180 were really nice beside Kings River).

On our first full day in the park, we drove the 180 down into Kings Canyon, checked out the Roaring River Falls and took a stroll around the Zumwalt Meadow loop. As we were hiking back to Bessie, the skies darkened and from that point onwards for the next 24 hours we had snow falling almost continuously. When we got back up out of the Canyon, we found the visitor centre and bought a book about tracks and scat (poo) - is there anything more interesting? - and took a short walk around General Grant, the world's third largest tree (by volume that is - there are ones out there that are taller or wider).

SEQUOIA

Waking up at our site, with everything draped in white was lovely (as unaccustomed as we Aussies are to it) and we set off down the 198 into Sequoia National Park where we found the world's largest tree. Yes, the very biggest one out there apparently. Although I tend to question whether people know about every single tree that exists in the entire world and wonder if, somewhere out there, there are bigger ones that aren't so look-at-moi.

Anyway, after we thoroughly spoiled the other tourists' experience of the General Sherman Tree, with our kids fighting with each other the whole time, we thought to go and unleash ourselves on the Lodgepole Campground. 

In the still-falling snow, Nath took a run up to the Tokopah Falls (5.5km return) while the boys and I listened to the Kaweah River flowing directly past Bessie.

With Nath raving about the trail, the following morning in welcome sunshine we all set off along the same track, now checking for tracks and scat with our new-found knowledge. Basically we are always on Poo Patrol now.

We saw some deer and porcupines and heard woodpeckers at work. No bears (fortunately) but given how much noise the boys make, I doubt we're going to surprise one on the trail.

The trail was indeed lovely and Nath was surprised by the views of high peaks around us that he'd missed in the falling snows of the previous day.

By lunchtime we were back at Bessie and hauled out back down the 198/180 and then north.

Santa Cruz and Roaring Camp

Driving into Santa Cruz we felt a bit like fish out of water. All these salt-washed surfers walking/riding around with their boards under their arms, no doubt eyeing our RV with displeasure and silently criticising our gas-guzzling, probably also hitting the waves with intentions of swearing at hapless novices... or just beating them up like poor Keanu in Point Break.

No, maybe that's a bit harsh. They're probably very nice people. But we did kind of feel that there was a big degree of eco-grunge suddenly in the mix and got a bit stressed out trying to squeeze through Cliff Drive's one way streets without running over some local surfing bad-asses.

When we found a parking spot big enough for our RV on a headland north of the Boardwalk and Wharf and close to Steamer Alley, we were astounded. Isn't it funny how you can suddenly start liking a place when you're less stressed out?!

So, with free parking and fantastic views directly outside, Nath and I took turns jogging down to the Wharf and out along it and both managed to see some big fat seals. Some were even sitting up on a Pontoon like they do on Pier 39 in San Fran.

We're really enjoying the chance to occasionally stretch out and do a bit of exercise in some of these places but can't really plan ahead - we just take the opportunities as they come.

Afterwards, we drove inland a few miles and found a campsite at Henry Cowell State Park in a magical little site far from any other campers surrounded by redwoods hundreds of years old.

There wasn't much sleep - not because of anything to do with the campsite - but because little Dash was so excited about his birthday and so very restless.

The next morning was all big-time fun birthday stuff - opening presents, banana pancakes with maple syrup, trying out the new scooter around the campsite, birthday cake and then, the big surprise of the day - a trip on the Roaring Camp Steam Train to Bear Mountain.

We sat in an open-air carriage (and now anyone who's ever ridden in a steam train might squint and frown at the thought, but there's none of the nasty coal soot flying back at you because old Californian locos are oil-fed just like the logging locos on Misty Island are for any Thomas the Tank Engine afficionados out there).

So yes, seated in an open-air carriage we chuff-chuffed our way through a redwood forest boasting trees up to 3000 years old. The oldest ones we saw were 2000 - but still, extremely impressive!

We adults loved looking straight up and seeing the beams of sunlight breaking through the forest canopy and watching little leaves unsettled by the steam of the engine fluttering down like light rain. Pretty enchanting stuff.

The kids loved the whistle of course and were doing the 'pull-the-whistle motion' the whole way.

After our return trip, we took a stroll through the Redwood Grove Trail, and learnt a lot of cool stuff about the way the trees are families sharing a root system, saw a hollowed-out cave inside a massive tree that an explorer apparently once slept in and were embarrassed... not for the first time and I'm sure not for the last.

A couple of artists had set up their easels in the grove and had been working at their canvases for some time. Indy comes up behind one of them and says "Mum, what's that?" and I reply "Honey, that's a painting" to which Indy counters "It just looks like a whole bunch of squiggles". Ah, the joys....

After some more birthday cake, we drove a couple of hours inland and are in an RV park tonight, halfway between nowhere and nowhere, but with somewhere very cool in our sights.

Monterey

Driving into Monterey, we thought we'd drive past Pebble Beach Golf Course for a little look-see. We were surprised by an entry fee ($9.75) and a brochure detailing a self-guided tour of the course and surrounds. So, having paid to do the 17-mile drive (as it's known) we thought we'd give it its due and check out all the sights.

We walked the boys down to the 17th hole of Pebble Beach and watched a couple of groups hit through.

Then we followed the coastline around looking at beautiful houses and cypress trees and rolling surf along with windswept grasses in the more exposed areas.

A harbour seal breeding area was closed off to give the mums and pups some breathing space, but further on there were more golf courses and fields of pink wildflowers so thick that they looked like someone had taken a neon marker to them.

We continued on through Monterey, in search of a campground or RV park and couldn't find a single one! Doh! It was getting late and so we pulled in to a Walmart just north of Monterey in Marina and enjoyed a free night's accommodation with convenient grocery shopping and birthday present hunting thrown in - score!!

The next morning, we headed straight to the Dennis the Menace Park in Monterey (which we'd spied the previous afternoon) and the boys had a field day in what is one of the most awesome playgrounds we've ever been to - so much fun!

Then we went and parked on the waterfront north of the Cannery/Aquarium tourist area and Nath and I took turns taking jogs back around the coastline to the start of the golf courses. We were both rewarded with seal sightings.

The kids had a play down on the beach below where we had parked and after showering off the sand, we set sail for an RV park in Watsonville to do some washing and charge some devices after four days straight of dry camping.