Volume Overview: I always lay out a proposed route for each journey before leaving my home base in Billings, Montana. Part of the fun is the months of research and planning prior to departure! This spring’s trip is a bit abbreviated, but the plan is to dash west from Billings to Portland, Oregon, for some business; head down the west side of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada to Yosemite National Park in California; cross the mountains heading east to Reno/Sparks, Nevada; trek through the northern deserts of Nevada up to Twin Falls, Idaho; explore the Jackson Hole area of Wyoming; and then head back to Billings through Yellowstone National Park and Cody, Wyoming. Let’s get rolling!
Columbia, CA to Yosemite National Park (Hwy 49 to Hwy 120 to Yosemite)
The road from Columbia to Yosemite is relatively easy as long as I stay on Hwy 49 but as soon as I turned onto Hwy 120 it’s a whole different situation. The road is still pretty good, but the climb up into the mountains is steep, full of tight curves, and tough going for the Lunch Box (however, I do have to say that the Ford 450 takes these steep inclines pretty well, generally only slowing to about 50 mph except that there are so many tight curves that we probably averaged around 25-30 mph.) I’m glad that I’m here in late April, not the summer, as I’ll bet traffic is bumper to bumper and clustered behind slow-moving trucks and large motorhomes. I have to warn you in advance that this post might take a while to load as it is chock full of pictures and not much verbage. I have never been to Yosemite National Park and I have to say that it did not disappoint, not even from the first glance as the road turned a corner high above the Merced River canyon about ten miles from the actual entrance to Yosemite Canyon.
While world-renowned “Half-Dome” reigns in the distance, to the right are the depths of the Merced River canyon as the river heads west out of Yosemite towards the great central valley. You might be curious as to how I took these pictures high in the sky – there was road construction and as I sat for about a half hour I jumped out of the Lunch Box and snapped a few!
Yosemite National Park encompasses over a million square miles spread across the central Sierra Nevada and is named after the centerpiece of the park, Yosemite Valley. Here the Merced River descends from the heights of granite peaks and carves a majestic valley that pierces east into the mountain chain. Native Americans inhabited the floor of the canyon for thousands of years but the tribes in the region were decimated by disease in the early 1700’s and the area was virtually deserted when the first Europeans, a group of explorers headed by John Rutherford Walker, entered the canyon in 1833. Word of the grandeur Of Yosemite Valley and the neighboring (and equally awe-inspiring Hetch Hetchy Canyon, which is now underwater as the result of dam built in the early 1900’s to provide water to San Francisco) spread throughout the area as the gold mines north of Yosemite drew more people into the mountains. James Hutchins and Thomas Ayres visited the area in 1855 and Hutchins wrote about it in San Francisco newspapers, articles accompanied by Ayres’ artwork. Prominent Californians petitioned the federal government for some kind of protection for the valley and in 1864 President Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant, the first time the federal government had set aside tracts of land for preservation and public use. The land was later deeded over to the state of California. The Yosemite Grant was used in 1872 as precedent when Congress created the first national park, Yellowstone. Yosemite did not become a national park until 1890, though as part of a compromise the state of California retained ownership of the Yosemite Valley floor until 1903 when the park was unified under federal control.
My photographs are organized into two sections, views from the valley floor reached off of Hwy 120, and views looking down to the valley from the heights above, reached by Glacier Peak Road. The valley floor is the most visited section of the park and is so heavily used that traffic control measures have been created. During peak summer months, access to part of the valley can only be reached by shuttle bus due to the volume of traffic. Visitors enter the valley driving east off of Hwy 120 on to a two-lane, one-way highway that reaches east into the valley on the south side of the Merced River and near the foot of Half Dome crosses over the river and turns back west, running along the north side of the river. The pictures are posted in sequence so you can visually drive in and out of the canyon. Bridalveil Falls drops from the Cathedral Rocks near the southern entrance to the valley.
Peaceful and serene, the Merced River meanders across the valley floor.
Half Dome rises 4,737 feet from the valley floor to a full height of 8,694 feet. The distincitive mountain was sliced in half by the glacier that carved the valley.
Yosemite Falls, one of the iconic images of the valley, falls 2,425 feet down the north wall of the canyon.
El Capitan dominates the northern horizon near the entrance to the valley floor.
And, finally, the view looking west as we exit the valley and prepare to turn south to climb up our of the valley to reach Glacier Peak Road.
Glacier Peak Road climbs about 15 miles along the top of the southern canyon wall and, especially towards the end, offers incredible views. The fact that the road was even open is another testimony to the Calfornia drought. Normally this time of year the road would be under feet of snow and not accessible. As you can see from the pictures, there wasn’t any… The road was easily the worst yet, narrow and in places no shoulders, full of sharp curves and lots of pot holes! It is also closed to vehicles over 30 feet long, but at 25 feet I thought I was good. I was, but not without some close calls. The road ends at a viewpoint parking lot, which even at the end of April in the middle of the week was nearly full. The view east from above exposes something that is not easily seen from the valley floor. Half Dome actually sits at the junction of two canyons. The larger branch, to the south, contains the main Merced River watershed; the smaller one, angling down to the valley floor from the northeast, contains Tenaya Creek, which enters the Merced near the base of Half Dome. Standing at the Glacier Peak view point, I first take a picture to the left of Half Dome, then a picture to the right of Half Dome. Put them together for the full view!
We’re gazing across the roof of the world! The two waterfalls in the canyon to the right of Half Dome on the Merced River are Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls. Here’s a close-up of the falls.
Walking to the left side of the view point I can now see directly north down to the valley floor, where the Merced River is winding its’ way across the valley and you can see both Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls crashing down the north side of the canyon.
My parting shot of the area is a closer view of Yosemite Falls…, truly spectacular!
Next up: The Other Side…
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