Groveland, California to Portland, Oregon.

On the evening of our visit to Yosemite Valley the heavens opened (the gods had answered all the prayers) and it rained like there was going to be no tomorrow. Listening to all this rain falling we decided it was probably not a good idea to drive down the mountain, so we spent another day at Yosemite Pines and wait on the rain to stop.

Thursday morning dry and a bit of sun, off we go through Groveland and down into the Central Valley.

 

Going down Priest Grade

 First sight of Don Pedro Lake at the bottom of the grade.

Weather good all day and after about 6 hours of driving we arrived at Rolling Hills RV Resort and Casino in Corning California. 390 kilometres. Quite like this RV stop, $28 less The Good Sam discount and the wifi works which is something. Not impressed with the famous buffet, we stopped here on the way down and had the buffet and didn't think much of it, but we tried again on this visit and it was better especially as it was seniors half price day but we wouldn't pay $16. for it.

Thursday morning still dry but very windy.

 We planned to turn off the i5 at Weed and go up Highway 97 through Oregon and Washington State to the Okinagan Valley and Oliver where we will spend a few weeks before heading east back across Canada, but the best laid plans and all that - - because of the high winds no RVs or high sided vehicules on 97.  Carried on the i5, this pic taken at a rest stop just after Weed looking across to where the 97 should be (I think) you can see the dust storm just below the hills.  Shortly after it started to rain, all the way up the Siskiyou Pass and all the other passes to Canyonville, a very unpleasant drive, really glad to arrive at The Seven Feathers Casino.  The RV Park here is superb, everything that is except the wifi, good signal but they cut you off after 4 hours  and thats not 4 hours use, 4 hours after you first clock in.  Really penny pinching at $40 a night that shouldn't happen. Todays distant 438 kilometres.

 We are now at Fairview RV park in Portland after another horrible days drive.  The interstates are not good in heavy rain mind you the rain today has been very heavy.  Stopped as we pulled into the park so got set up in the dry, nothing worse than doing it in the rain. Todays distance 349 kilometres.

Spotted this camper, reminds me off my youth when everybody wanted a VWcamper painted just like this- flower power- this is a little bigger I think.

Yosemite Valley

                                                                                   

Continuing our drive down into the Yosemite Valley, at the bottom we reach the Merced River, the road along the valley goes on the south side of the river to Yosemite Village and the north side on the return journey. I found these trees with their roots exposed quite fascinating, how do they stay standing, they must have a long tap root. 

Bridal Vale Falls, showing the vale affect of the falling water

The water from the falls continuing down the hill to the river

A little further along the road we catch our first sight of the Upper Yosemite Falls, we are looking across the river to the north side. These are double falls one above the other, we can only see the upper half here. 

Royal Arches on the north side of the river  opposite Half Dome Mountain on the south side.

Sentinel Rock on the south side opposite the Yosemite Falls

Another view of the falls taken from the Visiter Centre

 This photo taken from I think the only place you can see both falls from a distance, not a very good pic. This place was very busy, people with big cameras and tripods and all sorts of important looking stuff, not much room for me and my little Fuji, in the end I just pointed and pressed the button and hoped for the best.

At the head of the footpath you can see both falls together the Upper and the Lower.

 Another tumbling stream caught this on our up the mountain on the way out.

It was very busy visiting and this is only March, what it must be like in the high season I can't imagine. 

Groveland into Yosemite

 We left Three Rivers on Sunday morning and had a leisurely drive through the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, passing by orange groves to rival Valencia Spain, and nut and fruit trees of every description, eventually arriving at a small town called Chowchilla where we unhitched at a small RV Park for the night.  Monday morning we took highway 108/120 east heading for Groveland and Yosemite National Park, we choose this way into the park because we liked the sound of the camping here in Groveland, The Yosemite Pines.  What we didn't know was what would happen to the road after Chinese Camp and Don Pedro Lake and boy did it change, this road rivals Mont Ventoux in France or some of the passes in Austria and Switzerland, If the organizing committee of the Tour de France know about this road its a wonder they haven't thought about having a stage run on it. No pics I'm afraid Ruth was to busy hanging on with both hands.  A big problem we have coming up when we leave here, the only way out is down the way we came up!

 Yosemite Pines RV Park, there are only three RVs here, we have it to ourselves. 

Western Scrub-Jay, hanging about the park with us.

On our way into Yosemite along Highway 120, we arrive at the scene of a big wildfire, from August of last year

 What devastation, look at the cost of putting it out.

 

Being led through the work making the sides of the road safe after the fire, all the burnt trees close to the road have to be taken out in case they fall onto the road.

 On top before we drop down into Yosemite Valley.  The wild fire here was a few years ago, things a just starting to grow again.

 This little cascade on the way down, we drop down about 2000ft to the valley floor.

Our first sight of the Half Dome rock, the one on the left is El Capitan.

 Looking down on the valley with the Merced River, you can just see the Bridal Vale Falls towards the head of the valley.

More to follow in my next blog.

Relaxing by The Kaweah River

A lazy day today, relaxing and wandering up and down the river here at the campground at Three Rivers.  The Kaweah River looking upstream towards the Sequoias National Park.

This little fella just out side our trailer door, the Robins don't seam to be afraid of humans, I think he's waiting for a few crumbs, all the other birds take off if you move, not the Robins.

These two photos taken from the overlook of the river at The Hospital Rock picnic area, strange strata patterns in the rock. 

Brown Headed Cowbird.

This is the part of the campground given over for tenting, they have the best part.

At first we thought this is a House Finch, but the more we look the less sure we are,  maybe we are looking at a Cassin's Finch which is on the endangered list ! ?

Swallowtail butterfly stretched out on the muddy bank of the river.

A happy birdwatcher sitting by the river.  A very restful day.

Sequoia National Park.

 Today we are visiting The Sequoia National Park to seek out the big trees.  This is the sight you see as you drive into the park just after the visiter centre, we are going to climb to around 6000 ft.   Reading the history of this park and how it has evolved over its 120+years makes for interesting reading, especially the mistakes of man and his exploitation of the area, first for the wood and water then tourism. The park people have now got every thing working properly and all the rental cabins and restaurants have been removed and the trees are living in peace once more.

This is The General Sherman Tree, the biggest tree in the world, there are trees taller and thicker but none have the overall mass of this one.

The Sentinel, they think this tree is about 2200

years old, the same age as The General Sherman but a lot smaller.

Damaged by fire, as time goes on  the bark will grow back over the burnt scar and in time it will be hidden from view, must remember to come back in a couple of hundred years and check that out.

From desert to mountain-green grass & trees.

We are now in Three Rivers, California we left Pahrump Monday morning a short drive to Shoshone, Tuesday we carried on to Bakersfield, staying at the Orange Grove RV Park, two nights there spent mostly in catching up with emails and shopping. This morning drove up highway 65 to Exeter and then on to Three Rivers we will be here for two maybe three days visiting The Sequoia National Park.  We have very slow wifi again, uploading photos is very slow, will go easy on the pics. replace them with lots of waffle.

First impressions of this area is very good, its wonderful to see green grass and trees again, really looking forward to visiting the big trees in the park tomorrow. We have seen the coastal Redwoods a couple of years ago, they are big but we understand the ones down the road are bigger.

Death Valley - Furness Creek to Shoshone.

After having our picnic lunch under the palm trees at Furness Creek we drove south on the Badwater Road, I think this is highway 178, just a few kilometres to Golden Canyon where we went for a short walk, we didn't do the full walk, perhaps a kilometre in and then back, the temperature was 33c when we left the truck, in the canyon it was a lot hotter.

Two more photos of the canyon.

 We then moved on a little further down the road to drive the Artists Palette drive, which is a one way loop off the main road about 15 km round with some amazing coloured rocks

 The sky in this photo really sets off the coloured rocks.

Leaving the loop road.

Down at the bottom of Death Valley.

Probably the most photographed spot in Death Valley, you had to get in line to take your photo.

Interesting colours evan here.

 leaving the valley, just a few kilomtres from Shoshone.

Today trip from Pahrump through Death Valley and back to Pahrump a total of 33 kilomtres, quite a drive.