Jun 23, 2008 - Yosemite Day 2

6-23-08 Yosemite Day 2 We get a an earlier start today. We’re heading back into Yosemite and it’s a long drive there, 40 minutes at least. The smoke from the fires is worse today. There is this haze over everything as far as you can see. (you can see it in the pics) It takes away all the color that would normally be there, not to mention it smells bad and burns your eyes. I know allot of you back home are dealing with the same thing. It’s a bummer. We try and make the best of it and go see as much as we can. Bummer #2 is it’s CROWDED!...

Jun 23, 2008 - 6/23-6/25 Yosemite

6/23 Finally a cool nights sleep it was great. Who cares if we have no electric hook up here we don’t need our AC. Bill went outside after coffee to check the tire and brake, no lug wrench so we ate took a bike ride to village to a mechanic shop and they let us borrow a four way lug wrench. Came back and Bill took the tire off. When he pulled off the brake drum pieces fell out that had broken loose. So we had been driving about 400 miles with only 1 brake working on our trailer. This shop didn’t have the piece we needed and Nappa was 40...

Jun 18, 2008 - What beauty really is.

Yosemite Saturday 6/14 Just a touch of the park at Meriposa groves was nohthing compared to the sights and aww of the rest of the park. yea the dive was forever long and the gas was $5. I felt so tiny and on top of the world. Snapping pictures everywhere, every cornr was something different and unique. Going up and down in elevaton but peaking that day at amost 10,000 ft above sea level. Tunel point as one of the first stops we made. the place was picture perfect and swarming with ameature photographers, and i was one of them. Water is a...

Jun 13, 2008 - Coarsegold, Ca. (near Yosemite Np)

We are now on a mission to drive less, stay longer at each destination and choose parks, such as those in the ESCAPEES RV Club system, that provide beautiful locations and very affordable prices. PARK SIERRA is located about half way between Fresno and the south entrance to Yosemite National Park on Highway 41 in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains at an altitude of 1800 ft., "above the fog and below the snow" (though snow has occasionally happened!). There are definitely four seasons with fall and spring being ideal and summers...

Jun 8, 2008 - Yosumite NP, day one

June 8, 2008 – Yosemite NP – Today was a test of the mechanical strength of our RV. We left Boulder Creek CG, which is at 2200 feet above sea level to travel to our first National Park; which to get to our destination would require a more than steady climb of many thousands of feet as we arrived at the Tioga Pass Entrance, which is at 9945 feet. Now that doesn’t sound like a lot except, when you see the Sierra Nevada Mountains, they tend to go vertical really quick. Our RV struggled up the inclines at a speed of 22 mph and we were thankful...

May 30, 2008 - yosemite national park

We finally made it to Yosemite, WOW what a beautiful park. The park is filled with wonderful waterfalls,one after another. Besides the waterfalls the landscape and historical buildings. We went to yosemite village to see the Ansel Adams gallery, amazing photos I love his work. Later we went on a few little hikes to more waterfalls, take pic's of El Captian and half dome. The next day we went through the southern part to the park to see the historic Wanowna Hotel and the marapossa grove the had a sequoia named the grizzly giant. We also took...

May 30, 2008 - Yosemite NP

It was rainy and cool the first several days but the weather finally turned nice! We stayed in the Indian Flat Campground outside of the park.alongside the Merced River. It was an interesting campground built on the side of a hill. We were packed in like sardines It would have definitely been more convenient to stay in the park but there were no first come first serve campgrounds. Day 1: The first day we checked out the valley, visitor center, nature center and then hiked around Mirror Lake as that would allegedly be the best place to see...

May 27, 2008 - Yosemite: The Rain Continues

So, after leaving San Francisco around noonish we made it to Yosemite National Park. My first (and second) reactions were as follows: Wow. This place is fracking amazing. Huge mountains, huge trees, tons of hiking paths, waterfalls... this park is certainly nature at its finest. We camped at the North Pines Campground, which is in the heart of the park in Yosemite Valley. It is -- ONCE AGAIN -- raining on the day that we are camping. Sad face. Sad face indeed. There isn't a lot that can make trips suckier than it raining when you're...

May 26, 2008 - Wet Yosemite

Hi everyone..well, well we made it into the park and I have to say the weather has not been very good. But it is a different Yosemite that we are seeing. The clouds and fog hang on the tops of the granite peaks, sliding down and laying on the rocks in whispers of softness...it is indescribable and so beautiful. Here where God has touched the ground, it doesn't matter if there is sun, rain or snow...each view is unique and unusual, creating a scene that is so incredible. To me, it feels like home. All is well and we are spending time just...

May 18, 2008 - Yosemite National Park California

This is our first stay in a national park. We are in Hodgdon Meadows at the edge of Yosemite. It's 25 miles into Yosemite Valley. There are no services here and the phones barely work. Sandy learns once again that she is not a pioneer. R is faring better although Sandy suspects that he misses his sports guys and political pundits on TV.

May 2, 2008 - Did you miss us? We're back in civilization!

I am writing this from Monterey, California. We left Yosemite yesterday with a heavy heart. Yosemite is such an amazing place - the natural beauty is majestic, spiritual and breathtaking. Yosemite apparently affects many people in this manner. Bob, a park naturalist, was the speaker at two lectures we attended. (The free park programs are very interesting.) He came to Yosemite with his father when he was 18 years old. He was back the next year working as a firefighter and has never been away from the park for more than two months in the...

May 1, 2008 - Yosemite National Park, CA

We spent the last couple days in Yosemite National Park in CA. Yosemite was the first area designated as a National Park. This was one of John Muir’s last legacies. Currently, Yosemite is the size of Rhode Island. Yosemite is one of the most visited National Parks with close to 3.4 million visitors annually. The area of the park with the most notable sights (Half Dome, El Capitan & Yosemite Falls) is the Yosemite Valley. This area of the park gets 14,000 visitors daily in the summer months. At this time of year, this is one of the few areas...