Road Trip - Day 2 - Bass Lake to Death Valley
Oakhurst to Death Valley, CA
Time of Departure 6 am. Temperature 48 degrees. Cold but bright. Our route today Highways 41 north, 120, 395,
136 and 190.
Today our road trip really starts. It’s dark when we leave and I’m writing this by flashlight. The only trouble about leaving this early is that I can’t see the scenery but Tom wants to get to Yosemite to catch the morning light.
The road is curvy and uphill through pine trees and we can smell them. Maybe I will see a bear today!
We are on the look out for somewhere to eat. We were today at the hotel of a place in Oakhurst but it wasn’t open. The first town we drive through, Fish Camp is small and very quiet and definitely nowhere is open.
At 6.30 we enter Yosemite but nobody is at the booth to collect fees. We have bought a National Park pass and are going to get maximum use out of it over the next two weeks.
It’s beginning to get light and we start to see the wonderful scenery of Yosemite. Through the trees can be glimpsed the occasional mountain peak and lots of valleys. There is no water in any of the creeks we cross over.
Going through Wowona, past the golf club, the frost light came on - 37 degrees - and Tom and I are both wearing shorts!!
It is a huge park and it’s 28 miles from the west entrance of the park to Yosemite Valley and though we drive very close the the village we will not be stopping there today.
We drive through the long tunnel. Tom pointed out the two port holes drilled through the rock walls and I got a brief glint of daylight. I wonder why they were put there? Immediately after exiting the tunnel we pull over for that wonderful view of the valley. We get out of the car to take photos but I don’t stay too long because it’s far too cold for me. Tom is more hardy and hopefully he has a couple of good shots.
(Tom here. Nope, no good shots of Yosemite. I was experimenting with bracketing and messed up. Oh well it’s digital so not to worry.)
As we entered the valley, El Capitan is sheer and majestic in the early morning light. The Merced River was very low.
We turn onto 120 at 7.55. Temperature now 43 degrees. It’s getting warmer and we are still hungry. We will just have to keep going until we reach Lee Vining. Tioga Pass is always a wonderful road to drive and we get a thrill each time we come. The only wrinkle today was three RVs driving in convoy in front of us who didn’t pull over for about 20 miles. They belched out noxious fumes and we stayed way back. We were able to get past when they pulled into the Olmstead Point viewing area.
We exited Yosemite at 9. As we waited at the booth to show our pass I noted that the elevation was 9,945′. The rest of the journey along Highway 120 to 395 was through the Inyo National forest with that spectacular dive down the side of the mountain and with the view of Mono Lake in the distance.
September 18 2007 | Further Afield | 4 Comments »
