Archive for May 3rd, 2007

Big Trip – Day 3 – Yosemite National Park

Thursday, May 3rd, 2007

Placerville KOA, Shingle Springs, CA. Tachometer – 395 miles

Update: Click here for pictures

Mirror Lake, Yosemite, CA

It was a cold night but our heater did a good job and none of us froze. Ron had to pee in the middle of the night but other than that it was quiet. No bears came around either. We got up to a nice and sunny day.

After getting ourselves together we set off for a hike to Mirror Lake. The great part was that the hike starts from our campground. It is an easy 2.5 mile back and forth along a paved road, so we took the double stroller with us. Ten minutes into the trail we spotted a group of deer (“bambis” in kiddie language) and of course everyone was ecstatic. The trail is beautiful. We walked along Tenaya creek, upstream, surrounded by tall pine trees and an occasional redwood. There was a fresh, just rained here, smell to the forest. Mirror lake is seasonal, which means it will dry up soon. When we got there, the kids had fun running around trying to chase birds, climbing on rocks and trees and trying to get to the water before we catch them.

On the way back Shir and Orr fell asleep in the stroller. When we got back to the RV, it was warming up so I stayed outside with them while Paola prepared a tasty lunch for us. We had lunch on the picnic table at the campground for the first time. So much easier for cleanup than inside the RV!

Later we debated staying another night at Yosemite or pushing on to our next destinations. Since some of the park is still closed due to winter conditions, we felt it would be wiser to get ahead with our long drive. On the way out of the park, we did drive to Hetch Hetchy though, but were turned back by the ranger because ourRV is over the 8 feet maximum width limit. We spent most of the late afternoon driving along route 49 at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. We are now camping not too far from Sacramento. Our plan is to cross Nevada as fast as possible to get to Utah’s canyon parks. There is one park in Nevada that we hope to see along the way, but we have another 500 miles to go before we get there.

Going to bed now, a lot of driving tomorrow…

Hemi

PS – pictures will come soon, once we have a fast Internet connection

Big Trip – Day 2 – Yosemite National Park

Thursday, May 3rd, 2007

Yosemite Valley – Upper Pines Campground, Site 35 – Tachometer 245 miles

We woke up to a cloudy day that promised to be cooler and wetter than we would like. After getting ourselves organized we set off from the campground to Yosemite, about an hour drive. It started to rain as we left, and rained on and off for most of the day. We did the Yosemite valley loop several times stopping at interesting viewpoints along the way, praying for a break in the rain. The most we managed was 10 minutes at Bridalvail Falls. In the afternoon we headed to Discovery Viewpoint and played with the kids in the RV. We then prepared supper as I set my camera on a tripod outside to try and catch some good light. The pictures came out nice but the clouds are hiding halfdome.

We drove to our campground for tonight which is in Yosemite Valley. Shir and Orr fell asleep before we even got here. As usual in national parks, no hookups. We hope the battery will last the whole night heating the RV…

Sweet dreams

Hemi