After my bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats (I brought them from home) and a Diet Coke I was finally coaxed into getting dressed and getting on my bike and setting off on an adventure: exploration.
Our first stop was Mirror Lake. It was tiny, smaller than Oregon’s Mirror Lake but just as pretty. Next to it, was a pile of rocks; actually, hundreds of piles of rocks. We called it The Zen Garden. It was really pretty. Of course, Toto and I each had to make our own pile of rocks.
Next, Toto wanted to show me the Ahwahnee Hotel. The cornerstone for this hotel was laid in 1926. It was designed by the same architect who designed the lodge at Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park and the Lodge on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon (where I had that amazing BBQ Salmon Panini). All the other hotels in Yosemite were prone to burning down, so when this hotel was designed, it was designed to be fireproof. Now, when our tour guide, Rebekah, told us this I was a little bit skeptical, I mean, it’s obviously made out of wood. Well, no, not obviously. The reason I thought that the place was wood is because it was built out of concrete using wood forms to put the pattern of the wood onto the concrete. Then it was stained an orange-brown color. So while it appears to be a wooden structure, there is actually very little wood in the structure (and it is a large structure). The biggest bit of wood used was in the entryway to the hotel. Originally the front door of the place was going to be what is now the back lawn. Most of the windows for guest rooms in the hotel face out onto this lawn. Ten days before the hotel’s grand opening, someone realized that having the cars pull up there would make a lot of dust go up into the windows (this is before paved streets). So they hastily built a wooden portico and walkway into the hotel. The boardwalk still squeaks because it was built so quickly. An interesting tid bit of trivia: Robert Redford used to work at the Ahwahnee Hotel. It has also has hosted the likes of Queen Elizabeth, President John F. Kennedy, Lucille Ball (who actually got kicked out of the main lounge for being too loud on the piano), Mel Gibson, and several (like a ton) more celebrities. Apparently, once it was added to the National Historic Places list, it wasn’t considered a luxury hotel anymore (it still is, just a different sort), so celebrities didn’t visit as often. It is packed with history. If you ever get down here to Yosemite, go and take the historic tour of the place (it’s free and very informative).
After we left the Ahwahnee, we went to the Ansel Adams gallery and over to the Yosemite Village Store. There are several villages and little areas in the Yosemite Valley. We are staying in Curry Village, which is towards the east end of the valley, Yosemite Village is in the middle, and Camp 4 is on the west end. The awesome thing about California is that the government isn’t involved in the sale of alcohol, so they sell it EVERYWHERE! We found it in a gas station about an hour and half outside of Yosemite on Highway 120, and we found it in the Yosemite Village Store for three dollars cheaper than at that gas station! We didn’t buy any though. We scouted some “I made it to the top of Half Dome” shirts, but you can’t buy one until you actually do it (or well at least you SHOULDN’T) and then we headed back to the tent cabin.
Many people have heard of the giant Redwoods on the Northern coast of California. What a lot of people don’t know is that those tree’s cousins, the Giant Sequoia’s live in Yosemite. They are similar trees, but the Redwoods get much taller where the Sequoia’s are shorter but rounder (diameter). We drove up to Mariposa Grove to take a look at these giant trees, but were only there for about 45 minutes. The reason for this is because the parking lot at the grove was full, so we had to park ten minutes down the highway and ride the free shuttle up. Well, we got there at 5ish, and by the time we got up to the grove on the shuttle it was 5:15ish. Then the shuttle driver kindly informs us that the last shuttle runs at six, and if we miss it, they will pick us up at about 9am the next day. So Toto and I hoofed it up the trail as fast as we could without killing ourselves and saw a few things. Then we high-tailed it back down to the parking lot to catch the shuttle.
The last stop on our list for the day was Glacier Point. This viewpoint is about 3000 feet directly above Curry Village. So it offers a wide view. We thought that we would for sure have cell phone signal and therefore internet signal on our Verizon Wireless WiFi card, so I carted my laptop up there. I got a lot of funny looks from other tourists when I plopped down on a rock and opened my laptop, and then started swearing at it for the serious lack of internet. We also had wanted to see the sun set from up there, but all the road construction on Highway 41 had delayed us quite a bit and we missed it. So we got back in the car and headed down the road, only to be delayed for another half an hour (at least) by the construction.
By the time we got back down to Curry Village, the only option for food we had was the Pizza Deck. So we got a pizza. We made friends with a group of guys (who were probably in their late 20’s) who had just done the Half Dome hike that day. They had enjoyed it, but had made the mistake of starting at Glacier Point. By starting there, you have to go downhill to te top of Nevada Falls, then go back uphill to the top of Half Dome. The problem with this is that that is a long and tiring hike, so by the time they hiked back down to Nevada Falls on the way back, they had run out of energy to hike back up to Glacier Point. They talked about the hike, and it made us a little less scared. Then Toto made friends with a couple who also did it that day. They had just gotten back to the village (and it was after 10pm at this point) because they had taken a wrong turn at some point and it had taken them a while to correct their error. We asked them how much training they had done for this hike and the answer we got was astounding: none. We told them we had been training pretty hard core for a month and they were really impressed. We all ate pizza together and then Toto and I went back to the lodge to see if we could get a little internet, but we couldn’t. While we were over there we chatted with a young couple (probably 18 or 19) that had done it that say as well. They had experienced some difficulties as well, in the form of dehydration. When we asked them how much training they had done all we got back was: training? It was good to know that all these people were up here doing this massive hike, and we were the only ones who had trained for it.
We went back to the tent cabin about 11pm. Toto made sandwiches with stolen condiments and I drugged myself (with melatonin) to try and ensure a better nights sleep than the one I had the night before. We went to bed hoping that we were tired enough from the previous night’s lack of sleep to allow us to get an adequate amount of rest for the massive hike the next day.
Playlist
Heart
Carrie Underwood
License Plates Seen
Michigan
Alabama
New York
Virginia
Pennsylvania
Nebraska
Alberta
Utah
Georgia
Maryland
Missouri
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