Half Dome
Half Dome at Yosemite NP
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Tag Archives: WRT2006
Day 11 – Yosemite NP
I drove from Mammoth Lakes up to the Tioga Pass entrance on the east side of Yosemite. Along the highway were great views of the mountains on the east side of the park. That side of the park is at an elevation of about 8000 feet and the peaks are not too much higher and still have some snow cover.
I drove through the park and stopped at Pothole Dome, just a little (compared to some others) lump of granite. I scrambled up to the top – maybe a couple hundred feet and snapped a few pictures of the meadow below.
From there I headed down to Yosemite Valley which is the center of the park and contains the primary points of interest in the park; El Capitan, Half Dome, Yosemite and Bridalveil Falls. It’s simply gorgeous. I got some good pictures – to be posted soon.<br /><br />By the time I watched the short film about the park at the visitor center, it was time to head to my campground. As I was unable to reserve a space in the park, I had to stay at a KOA outside the park. Unfortunately, the most direct route to the campground was closed due to a rockslide. So I had to take the long route, out the south end of the park and back around. It was about 2 and half hours from Yosemite Valley. The west side of the park is about 4000 feet below the east side. Where the east side was nice and cool yesterday, it was hot on the west side – back in the upper 90s. It’s cooling down nicely now that the sun has gone down though, so it’s not too bad.
No power, at my campsite, but this campground has a TV room – with AC. So that’s where I’m sitting and working on my website updates tonight.
Day 10 – Another driving day
Today was another planned driving day to get me from Ely, NV to Mammoth Lakes, CA. Mammoth Lakes is a small resort town about an hour from the East entrance to Yosemite. I wasn’t able to secure a campsite in the park so I’ll be staying at a campground on the west side of the park the next two days.
After driving all the way across Nevada, I didn’t want to have to deal with the potential traffic getting through Yosemite. It’s at least another 2 and a half hours to the other side of Yosemite and I had been driving about six hours already. In any case, the Devil’s Postpile National Monument is just a few miles from here, which is why I decided to overnight here.
I arrived and set up camp by about 4:30, finally grabbed a late lunch (there’s not a whole lot of civilization between Ely and here), and then hopped the shuttle to the Monument. It’s an intersting geological formation related to an ancient lava eruption. The history of the monument is also interesting; it was originally part of Yosemite but later removed from that park due to logging and mining interests. It was then threatened to be dynamited in order to form a dam on the river and finally President Taft set it aside as a separate National Monument in 1911. Glad they saved it.
The top of Devil’s Postpile National Monument
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The top of Devil’s Postpile
Small town happenings
After spending the day at Great Basin, I was beat and didn’t feel like cooking so after cleaning up I decided to try the local Chinese restaurant which was recommended by one of the campground staff.
For all you inquiring minds, I had the Kung Pao Combination with shrimp, chicken and beef. It was tasty!
Before heading back to the campground I decided to take a drive through Ely, just to see what kind of town it is. It’s a town of about 5,000 including the surrounding areas. As you can imagine, my drive through town took all of about 10 minutes.
As I was passing through downtown I noticed a big white truck with two guys playing music – one on guitar and the other on an electric fiddle. They were playing “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” so I decided to stop and listen. Turns out, it was a rally for Jack Carter for US Senate. If you’re wondering if there’s any relation to that other Carter, you’re right, he’s Jimmy Carter’s oldest son. There were only about 30-40 people there. His wife wanted to give me a “Vote for Jack” sticker, but I told here I was from out of state. Of course, she said they were going to be in Minnesota for a rally… He seems like a good guy though – even if he is a Democrat.
Anyway, getting back to the music, the guy on the fiddle was fantastic and the other guy was pretty good too. Jack even got up and played guitar on a couple of numbers. The fiddler is Barry Van Wie if anyone’s interested. http://www.barryvanwie.com/
I think they cut the music a bit short after Jack’s speech as it looked like some nasty weather was coming in. I headed back to camp and am now hunkered in my tent. The wind is blowing pretty good, but I don’t think we’re going to see any rain.
Wheeler Peak at Great Basin NP
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Wheeler Peak
Day 9 – Great Basin NP
I spent the day at Great Basin NP. This area, known as the Basin and Range, is really quite interesting and the Park is fantastic.
If you’re wondering what the name Great Basin refers to, its a geographic region which encompases nearly all of Nevada and parts of all the surrounding states. Basically it’s a region comprised of elevated mountains or mountain ranges with desert valleys separating them. What makes the basin area interesting is that all of the preciptiation that falls here, stays here, because of the mountain ranges. It doesn’t run ultimately to the ocean like everywhere else.
The elevation differences in Great Basin NP make for some prety dramatic views of the surrounding areas. There is something like an 8,000 ft difference from the summit of Wheeler Peak to the surrounding deserts. Pictures don’t do it justice, you really have to see it first hand.
As I was only spending the one day here, I wasn’t able to do the summit hike of Wheeler Peak as that’s an all day thing and you really have to be off the summit before noon in order to avoid the routine afternoon thunderstorm. Instead, I took the scenic drive up to the campground at 10,000 ft and took the Alpine Lakes hike. It was about a 3 mile hike which offered lots of great views of Wheeler peak and it’s neighbor, Jeff Davis Peak. Wheeler peak at 13,063 ft is the second highest in Nevada (sorry, but I don’t know the first). The lakes on this hike were really more like ponds, but it was still worth the effort.
After that, I went back down to the visitor center and took the tour of Lehman Cave. Lots of really cool cave stuff including the most “shields” of any cave in the world. Shields are a rare cave formation where water under pressure exits through a crack or weak point in the cave. Because the water is under pressure, the shields can form at all sorts of angles.
I’ll have to come back here someday and take the Wheeler summit hike, the view has got to be amazing. I’d stay in the park the next time – I drove through the campground at the trailhead to the summit hike and it’s really nice!
Driving through Nevada
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Desolation in Nevada
Day 8 – From Utah to Nevada
Today was slated as a driving day, and that’s what I did. I drove from Vernal, UT to Ely, NV which is a distance of 410 miles.
Driving west out of Vernal, the landscape slowly changes from the desolation of the scrub-land to the desolation of the the mountains. Actually the mountain views leading up to Salt Lake City are really nice, unfortunately there are no places to safely pull aside as it’s just a two lane highway, so I wasn’t able to take many pictures here. The only opportunity I had was to get a couple of shots of Wasatch Mountain near Daniels, UT.
After rolling through Park City, UT – where a lot of the 2002 Winter Olympic events were held the next stop was the Great Salt Lake. There’s actually not much to see from the road, but that’s OK.
My route took me close to the Bonneville Salt Flats and there is a rest stop conveniently located right along the southern edge. I stopped there and snapped a few more photos.
From there it was a short hop over the border into Nevada and then it really got desolate. Today’s picture of the day shows pretty much what the drive down US93 from Wendover to Ely is like. The views are actually pretty nice.
Lots of pictures to be posted soon.
Green River from Harper’s Corner
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The Green River as seen at Harper’s Corner.
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