We were faced with yet another journey along the SR-41 and its associated extensive roadwork in the morning. We had discovered overnight that friends of ours from Texas, Randy and Barb Walters had arrived just outside Yosemite in their camping trailer, so we had a lunch date in the park.
Our first stop of the the day, however, was Mariposa Grove, between Fish Camp and Wawona. We turned off the main road and headed a couple of miles up a side road to a car park in a grove of giant sequoia or redwood trees. Like their cousins in the New Zealand, the Kauri, these trees are massive. We had seen lots of very large pines in our travels, but the sequoias totally dwarfed them.
There was a trail up to one particularly large tree, named 'Grizzly Giant', so I set off up to it. The trail wound its way amongst other large trees, including one that had collapsed. Further on I saw a pair of white-headed woodpeckers that posed for photographs. 'Grizzly Giant' was suitably huge. Like the Kauri, it proved impossible to get a photo of a tree, it's possible to take a picture of the top or the bottom, but a conventional camera struggles to capture the whole massive thing. Having people in the picture at the foot of the tree helps give it some scale. The tree is generally agreed to be about 1800 years old.
Not far beyone 'Grizzly Giant' was another particularly large sequoia, the 'California Tunnel' tree. This tree had a tunnel cut through it in the 1895 so that horse-drawn carriages could pass through it! Once again, having people passing through helps to give a scale.
Back on the main road, we endured several sets of road-works before making it into Yosemite Valley and parking in the 'Village'. We quickly found Randy and Barb and had a very pleasant lunch sitting outside. We managed to catch up with all their news and after a couple of hours said goodbye and headed in opposite directions. They were slowly heading back to San Antonio via the Balloon Festival in Albequeque, New Mexico.
We headed out of Yosemite Valley for the last time and took our favourite road back south the SR-41, but this time after about 10 miles took Glacier Point Road heading east. This road slowly wound its way through pine forests from 6000 ft up to 7500 feet. After about 25 miles, we came to the car park and walk out to the viewpoint. From here, Yosemite Valley is 3000 feet vertically below and is probably gives the best view of Half Dome. Also from here, both the Vernal and Nevada falls are easily visible. It is certainly one of the most spectacular viewpoints I've ever visited.
From here, we returned the 25 miles back to the main road and then back to Oakhurst, fortunately the roadworks had finished for the day! In the evening, we found a chinese restaurant for dinner. We had quite a long wait for our food, but it was good when it came.
Hotel - Days Inn, Oakhurst
Weather - Clear skies and sunny. Warm to hot all day
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