Friday, April 19, 2002

San Francisco to Sydney Snapshots - Yosemite Valley

The Yosemite Valley is one of our favourite places and we were not leaving California without visiting it again. We last visited in September 1999 at the end of a long, dry Summer. This time we were visiting in early Spring after one of the heaviest Winter snowfalls.

We travelled to the Yosemite Valley via Amtrak, the national passenger rail carrier. We arrived at the San Francisco Ferry Building terminal just as the sun was rising over the Bay Bridge.
Contrary to what we expected, we took a bus rather than a ferry to the Amtrak station at Emeryville, on the east side of the Bay. From Emeryville we boarded a train for Merced.

The train followed the Bay shoreline north-east and then headed south across the Central Valley. The Central Valley is a desert region but through extensive irrigation has become the source of much of the USA's produce. During the journey we saw many irrigation canals and pipes carrying water to the coastal cities ...

And field upon field all the way to the distant mountains.
At Merced we boarded another bus for the Yosemite Valley. The bus broke down and we waited an hour in the town of Mariposa for a replacement.

Some of the people on the bus were on the "Yosemite In A Day" tour. This tour comprises:

  • A train trip from Emeryville to Merced
  • A guided bus tour from Merced to Yosemite Valley
  • A tour of the Valley Floor
  • A bus transfer back to Merced station to catch the evening train

The hour's delay meant that they had missed their Valley Floor Tour so our bus driver took us on an impromptu tour, stopping at this lookout for a view of the valley.

The most noticeable difference from our previous visit was the amount of water in the valley. This photo shows Basket Dome reflected in Mirror Lake. Mirror Lake was dry when we were last in the Yosemite Valley.
This is the Yosemite Falls - the highest falls in North America. It comprises the Upper Falls, the Middle Cascades and the Lower Falls.

What a change from our last visit! Then, the Upper Falls was just bare, dry rock and the Lower Falls was a trickle.

Some animals seems to have become accustomed to people. This mule deer didn't even move away when we came in sight.
This squirrel was on a ramp leading to the Front Office of the Yosemite Lodge. Squirrels run amongst people throughout main food areas.

From the visitor shuttle we saw a coyote, happily trotting down the side of the road, oblivious to passing cars.

The day before we left it snowed. We were staying in a cabin at Curry Village.
Luckily our cabin was heated. Not sure that I would have been so thrilled with the snow if we were staying in one of these canvas tents.
Lots of families were out enjoying the snow - throwing snowballs, making snowmen, catching snowflakes on their tongues. I ended up in someone else's home video when the man caught me peeking out from the cabin to watch the snow fall. So I borrowed a couple of neighbouring kids for our home photo album.
Snow just makes everything look so clean and magical.
This photo of the Merced River was taken from the same spot as the previous day. Mist clung to the valley walls ...
... and obscured the peaks. We called this scene "No Dome"rather than Half Dome.
Ice and snow surrounded the Upper Yosemite Falls.
Yosemite Creek is the run-off from Yosemite Falls. This photo shows the packed ice on the bank and ice flowing on the water after the snow.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments for posts older than 14 days will not be immediately displayed. We review these comments before publishing them for public display.