It’s amazing what a good night’s sleep will do. After breakfast, I was even willing to get into that car again! We took CA-120 from Manteca to Yosemite’s Big Oak Flat entrance. After CA-120 split off from CA-49, the elevation started to climb and it became a lovely twisty turny mountain road with stunning views. There were also large areas where you could see the devastating effects of this summer’s fires. Many hiking trails were closed and road repair was going on in Stanislaus National Forest west of Yosemite.
We got into the valley around 11am and stopped by Bridalveil Fall for some pictures. Easy parking and not a horde of people. I don’t know whether it’s the time of year or the recent park closure. Not much water over the fall but there is some.
Bridalveil Fall and
El Capitan
We then headed up to Yosemite Village area and managed to find some food at Degnan’s Deli. We found it surprisingly confusing to find our way around, but I suppose it was because we were in a hurry to eat and get out again.
On our way out of the valley, we hiked (really casually walked) up to the Lower Yellowstone Fall but it was dry. A short but very lovely fall day hike.
And the obligatory Half Dome shot even though the angle of the sun made for a washed out picture.
And that was pretty much it for Yosemite Valley. While Ken was disappointed in the poor showing of the waterfalls, that wasn’t too surprising given the time of year. I thought we lucked out in such a beautiful fall day. The foliage had turned and, even though I didn’t take any pictures of it, was glowing yellow. And it was nice to be there without the usual hordes of people. I just didn’t really get to savor it.
We left the park going east via Tioga Road. I really wanted to stop by Mono Lake to see its weird formations and didn’t really want to make a mad dash for home via the expressway.
The drive over Tioga Road through Yosemite NP and Inyo NF was another pretty mountain drive. And Mono Lake lived up to its weirdness. Those white mounds that look like dirty ice are “tufa”. The lake is highly alkaline and the towers are calcium carbonate which formed around underwater springs. When the lake level was lowered (by diverting the inflow to Los Angeles, since curtailed), the tufa towers became exposed.
At this point we could have headed down US-395 toward Barstow and picked up I-40. Instead we opted to head over to US-95 in Nevada and spend the night in Las Vegas. Note: neither of us like to gamble so it was for sleep only! A side benefit of this decision was that we were able to experience the "roller coaster road”. This is a portion of the section of CA-120 between US-395 and US-6 that has a lot of those whoop-de-dos we loved as kids. And it’s pretty deserted, so…
Just over the NV border, the GPS (still set on shortest route) suggested we take NV-264/NV-266 to US-95 instead of going through Tonopah. I would have overridden the GPS, but Ken decided to follow it and see. It turned out to be an interesting drive through very empty spaces. Makes you wonder why in the world they needed a good paved road through there. Google Maps shows a bunch of irrigation circles on the NV-264 section, but otherwise nothing. I suppose there is/was mining in the area.
After we hit US-95, the interesting stuff was pretty much over. We stopped in Beatty for gas and supper then headed off toward Las Vegas to look for a room for the night. Some event(s) must have been going on. Granted it was a Friday night, but still… I thought Las Vegas was supposed to have been overbuilt! We tried three different places and they were all full. We finally headed for Boulder City thinking it was smaller and less likely to have events going on. Maybe. The first casino/hotel we stopped at there was also booked. We finally did find a spot in a real sleazy motel. Well, it was a place to sleep.
[written 11/14/13]
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