10/14 Yosemite Miwok Village

Long before the white man came to Yosemite Valley, the Miwok Indians lived there for centuries, harvesting acorns for meal and hunting deer and other animals.  Behind the visitor center, you will find a small museum and a reconstructed village which is supposed to look the way it looked in about 1870. 

If you want to enjoy a quiet area for a few minutes, this is the perfect place.  

This is a bark shelter that was probably used only during the day to get out of the sun or when traveling because it was easy to make. 

 

This describes the follow photo of a reconstructed chief's house. 

This describes a ceremonial roundhouse, shown in the next few photos. 

 

 

It's bigger inside than it looks from the outside because part of it is underground.  The room at the end of this entrance tunnel is at least 25' in diameter, but I could not get in to take photos as it is still used by the natives living in Yosemite. 

It was so quiet back here that a buck was looking for grass.

The next few photos were taken inside the small museum. 

These really big baskets were made for exhibition, not for use.  This one is almost 3' in diameter.  

Ditto for this one. If you filled it with something, you would never be able to carry it.   

 

Check out this trash monster in front of the visitor center.  I think it is supposed to be a bear, but if you look closely, you can see all kinds of things that have been left at Yosemite. 

I just can't stop taking pictures, but this is my last one.  I have to be out of my camping site by noon, so have to hurry.  

10/13 Yosemite Ahwahnee Hotel & EL Capitan

Today, I took the shuttle and headed off to see the Ahwahnee Hotel.  Except, it is no longer called the Ahwahnee, as a result of a contract dispute with the new hotel management company and the park service.  Somehow, the previous company managed to trademark the names Ahwahnee Hotel and Curry Village, and then tried to sell the names to the U.S. Park Service for $60 million, in spite of these both being historical names.  It even tried to trademark the name "Yosemite National Park" but was refused!!!  Anyway, the park service has petitioned the U.S. Patent Office for improperly granting the name trademarks.  

This article explains the situation: http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/How-Yosemite-lost-its-historic-names-and-may-6883006.php

Anyway, it is upsetting that a company was allowed to trademark a name that should belong to the National Park Service and the American public.  Here is an update on the dispute from March, 2017:  http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article170192292.html

Anyway, I hopped on the shuttle and got off a few stops later at the hotel.  This is the grand entrance.

I stopped at the old registration desk and asked how far in advance you had to make reservations.  The answer was "one year and one day" and the lady added that they were always full.  Rooms start at $600 per night. 

The grassy area in the back of the hotel is really prettier than the front.  I walked back there and noticed a dot of color on the rock, just to the right of the tree in the middle and about 2/3 of the way up the tree.

My terrific 30x telephoto lens showed the climbers pretty clearly. 


Back inside taking some photos of the public rooms.

I thought even this staircase was impressive.

There  has been a lot of construction going in in Yosemite this summer, and it has disrupted the shuttle routes occasionally.  The shuttle normally has two routes--a short one that loops around just the village area and a longer one that goes farther down to the area near El Capitan.  I was planning on taking the shorter shuttle route, but that was closed for the day, so ended up getting off at El Capitan to take some photos.  It certainly is impressive.

Pretty view of the river with a reflection of El Capitan. 

If you remember reading about the big rockfall a month ago, you can see it clearly in the photo below. 

The chunk that fell was the size of a large apartment building and one person and severely injured another.  And neither were even climbers.  The British man who was klled and his injured wife were just walking below the slide area. 

Took a photo of these climbers.  It is said to take 3-5 days to climb to the top, which must be difficult considering how cold the nights have been lately.

  

10/12 Yosemite Tour to Glacier Point

The last time I was in Yosemite was four years ago, and I got snowed out the morning after I arrived.  A heavy wet snow caused little streams to flow across the campground and it took very little time for every tent camper to leave.  Tents occupy about 85% of the campground sites--lots of young and old who like to hike.  Those of us in RVs had the place to ourselves but it was very cold and the snow caused the road to Glacier Point and the Mariposa Grove to close.  

For that reason, I really wanted to see Glacier Point this time, but I knew it was a very long and curving road up to the top, so I chose to sign up for a four-hour bus tour.  Much easier than wrestling my large beast of a motorhome up a scary road. 

We made a stop on the way up at the scenic pullover area near the tunnel on U.S. 120.  This gave us a great view of the valley and El Capitan on the left.  

The views in Yosemite are so fantastic that it is hard not to keep taking photos.  

This is looking west from the bridge towards the entrances to the park.  There are three entrances from the west:  120 or Big Oak Flat Road, 140 or El Portal Road, and 41 or Wawona Road.   The road below is El Portal Road, which follows the river directly west.  Just west of here, Big Oak Flat Road heads up and over the mountains to the north, and this is the route I took driving into Yosemite on Monday.  I will be taking the El Portal Road out on Saturday morning.  

The bus took the Wawona Road to Glacier Point.  It follows a ridge that provides an overlook at the Clark wildfire that is causing all the smoke in the valley.  They are not putting this fire out because it is not near any buildings and letting it burn will naturally reduce the vegetation on the forest floor and enable new trees to seed and grow.

I was surprised at how far the walk was to the viewing areas at Glacier Point, as shown by this map.


It gets cold very fast in Yosemite and since it was already 3:30 p.m. when we arrived, it was really getting chilly, as evidenced by the coats people are wearing.  I had on long sleeves, a sweatshirt, and a windbreaker, and felt chilly.  

Heading toward the view of Half-Dome.

You can see Half-Dome in the distance, but almost all the area you see here is complete wilderness.  Only the narrow valley is really occupied.  The views would have been a lot crisper if there had not been so much smoke.

You can see Bridalveil Falls in the center of this photo.  Usually by this time of year there is no water in the falls at all, but this past year was relatively wet.

A closeup of Bridalveil Falls.

We are almost as high as Half-Dome.  Interesting view of the rock patterns in this monolith.

A view of the valley towards where it ends, beyond the occupied tourist areas.

This is looking down into the valley. 

The large building in the middle is the Ahwanee Hotel, now called the Majestic Hotel.  The park changed hotel management companies, and apparently the old company owned the name and wanted $60 million, so the new company just changed the name, which is a shame since this is such an historic place.

Somewhere down here to the right are the campgrounds.  Notice the shade already covering it at about 4:00 p.m.  If I ever come here again, I will try for an earlier tour for a better view and a little more warmth.

Hazy closeup of one of the campgrounds--don't know which one.

 

It was 6:00 p.m. by the time we got back to the drop-off point and another hour on the shuttle to get back to my campground, so it was very dark by the time I got home.  I had to use my cell phone as a flashlight to walk.  Plus, it was REALLY cold by then--brrrrrr!

10/11 Yosemite National Park - First Day

OK, I know I should have posted this earlier so it would end up before the post on the Napa fires, but I have been out and about sightseeing, so not much time to post on blog!  

This is a great view entering the valley, but you can see how smoky it is.  There are wildfires burning here in Yosemite, but they are not putting them out because they are in areas where there are no buildings, so letting them burn is the natural way to handle them.   

 Something you need to know about Yosemite in October is that it is COLD!  The days are sunny and in the low 70s or upper 60s, but as soon as the sun goes behind a cliff, which is about 4 p.m. this time of year, the temps drop rapidly.  In addition, there are three huge campgrounds, but no electric or other kinds of hookups, so I have to run my furnaces instead of my little electric heater.  That also means burning through a lot of propane, but I came here with a full tank and lots of gas in my tank to run my generator.  Everything except the AC, television, and microwave run off of my 12 volt house batteries, which last quite a while.  My only problem on this trip is keeping my computers and other electronics charged so I can work or communicate with people.  

Lots of really big trees in the campground.  I ended up with a really tight spot so needed help backing in, but I made it.  I think I will be able to get out OK.  The tricky part is backing between the big trees next to my site.  This was made even harder because there is another big tree opposite my site, preventing me from turning my wheel sharply.

I am pretty sure this is a western grey squirrel, but it has a lot more white on it than I have seen on western grey squirrels. 

Like some other national parks, there is a shuttle system.  I used it to go to the visitor center this day and to get my bearings. 

During the summer when it is warmer, a lot of people float down this river.  Just the idea of doing that right now makes me cold.  

I have no idea what this is, but I will add the name when I look it up. 

This is a shuttle map for the valley.  Tomorrow I am going to take a tour bus up to Glacier Point, which I am looking forward to.  It is a long and very curvy drive, so much better to let someone else drive!