Yosemite Day 2

We spent the morning taking care of laundry and the car.  After some 4000 miles we figured it was time for an oil change, tire rotation, and a general check up.  Luckily everything with the car checked out. While I waited with the car, Aileen took care of the laundry.  Of course, everything worked out with that also.

Because of the long winding road from the Village to the hotel the night before we decided to focus on the south part of the park, the Mariposa Grove.  The Mariposa Grove contains several groves of sequoias, some as larger as 25 feet in diameter.  Still hard to fathom a tree this large; and these trees live upwards of 3000 years.

We planned a 6 mile hike through the grove up to Wawona Point.  Little did we know the hike was 3 miles up to the point.  This hike turned out to be as difficult as the 12 mile hike within the Grand Tetons.  Not sure why exactly, but we think this was due to the lack of steps within the grove.  The upwards hike was on a dirt sloped trail where the hike in the Tetons was along a rocky trail with numerous small rock steps. Oh well, still fun.

 The first part of the trail takes you past very specific trees, the Great Grizzly, the Fallen Tree, The Tunnel Tree, etc.  The second uphill part takes you through open groves, past a little museum, and ultimately to Wawona Point.

We made it to the top and enjoyed the great view of the Wawona Valley.  We could see the Wawona Hotel and one of the golf course holes from the point.  We also met a young woman, Jen, currently living in Tahoe but originally a native of Bass Lake, a small town outside the south entrance to the park.  The three of us sat there for almost an hour and talked about the park and life in general.  She gave us some tips for local restaurants and for places to play volleyball if we made it to Santa Barbara. 

We said goodbye and headed down.  Much easier of a walk down; and quieter because we took a different route. 

We checked out the Wawona Visitor Center and picked up some supplies at the store. 

We left the park and had dinner at a place called El Cid’s.  Pretty good Mexican food and surprisingly we are still not tired of Mexican food.  We hit the bar right next door to our hotel - The Dirty Donkey.  The women’s room had the text “Dirty Jenny” on the door.  Of course, had to send a pic to my sister Jen.  We met a few interesting characters and had somewhat of a late night.  Thanks for the entertaining night Ken & Tish Pupka and Kara Raynor.  Hope you get to read this.  The three of you made our night!