Hello All,
When we left you almost a week ago, we were lodged on the east side of the cascade mountains. On Monday June 17th we entered Yosemite NP from the east. Although lodging/camping was hard to come by in Yosemite we did find camping space available at the high Sierra campground at Tuoloumne Meadows (~9000 ft elevation). This area is not so crowded relatively speaking as the more popular Yosemite Valley, but it is a hikers paradise. The Pacific Crest Trail (western counterpart to the Appalachian Trail) passes through the campground. The Tuoloumne area is very pretty with streams from melting snow, alpine meadows, and wild flowers. There are too many pictures to include here, but the highlight was a hike to Elizabeth Lake. The lake is actually behind the trees in the picture below, but the entire meadow was crisscrossed with streams from the lake making it difficult to actually get to the lake. The scene of the alpine meadow with snow covered peaks in the back ground was beautiful.
The daytime temperatures at Tuoloumne were very pleasant at 70F, but the night time temperatures were very cool. Our second night camping had a predicted low of 27F. We do not know how cold it really got but it sure was cold in the morning. We decided to pack up and move on.
On the way out of Yosemite we stopped to see a grove of Giant Sequoia trees. This grove included a tree which had road cut through it in the late 1800’s. We remember seeing pictures of this tree in our elementary school geography books. However since our elementary school days the tree has died and was cut down just above the tunnel.
However the living giants were very impressive.
We finished our tour of Yosemite with a drive through Yosemite Valley. The views of the water falls from the high peaks surrounding the valley are impressive but the crowds and buses are too much to take. We headed west and finished the day in the San Joaquin Valley which is a major orchard and fruit growing area. The next day we recovered (warmed up) from the Yosemite trip and took a relaxing bike ride through the orchards with a very good ice cream stop in Escalon, CA.
On Friday we headed into San Francisco for guided bicycle tour of the city. This turned out to be a great tour. The guide has lived in San Fran all his life and was very knowledgeable of the city history. The tour lead us through many of the city neighborhoods and avoided the typical touristy spots such as Fisherman’s Wharf. You might think that riding in San Fran would be difficult with all the hills. Well not so for the locals who know a route which goes around the hills. This route makes many twists and turns and is known locally as the “wiggle”. The city also has many murals which were included on the tour. Marsha took many pictures from the back seat of the tandem on the tour and here is a small sampling.
The “Painted Ladies”
Bicycle mural
The “wiggle”
Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of Hippie fame
Mural in Haight-Ashbury reminiscent of the Hippie days
First city park in San Fran
The Golden Gate Bridge
Giants Stadium
Today we went back into San Fran and met up for lunch with Manny’s niece Jessica and her boyfriend Eric. We had a great visit with Jessica and Eric and it was good to catch up with Jessica since we do not have many such opportunities living an continent apart.
After lunch we rode our bike across the Golden Gate bridge to the town of Sausalito. The pedestrian lanes on the bridge were crowded with bicycles as this is a very popular ride – the bicycle rental business in San Fran is big. It was windy on the bridge but the views were great.
The road to Sausalito.
The town of Sausalito was very nice and similar to an upscale beach town. The road along the bay is flat but everything else is up a very steep hill. We decided to go to Mass at St Mary’s of the Sea here in Sausalito which meant an up hill ride. It was a very pretty church with a great view of the bay.
After Mass we had a small diner and ice cream and then caught the last ferry of the evening back to San Fran and our car. The ferry ride took us past Angle Island and Alcatraz. The rising full moon over Angle Island made a good picture.
A long day but a good visit to San Fran.
God Bless,
Manny and Marsha