Yosemite Photo Journal

A long weekend to ride! How about Yosemite? Let’s go!

Map route

Great partly-cloudy day to ride up to Yosemite

Curve in road

First view of Half Dome

Distant Yosemite valley

The road ahead

Curvy road

The road across the valley

First waterfall

Waterfall in distance
Yosemite Valley

Another waterfall

Waterfall above bridge

And on the path back

Path

What should I see…?

Painter in distance

Pleine aire painter. Can I bring him home with me?

Gentleman painting

Yet another waterfall

Waterfall

Uncompromising

El Capitan

Scales of time

Tree, mountain, cloud

Looking across the Merced River

Merced River

No matter how big the rocks, the clouds are bigger. No matter how big the clouds, the sky has capacity.

Mountains and clouds

Delicious scallop dinner in Mariposa

Scallop dinner

Saturday

Back through Yosemite on Saturday to cross the pass.

Map image

Time to get my feet wet

By the way, there’s another waterfall

Ready to leave the valley

Nice place to stop for gas in the national park

Heading over the pass

Yup, just kick back and relax (as long as you’ve got lotsa layers!)

Tormented tree

Oooh, what’s that ahead?

Lake Tenaya 8150’

And out to bad ol’ Bodie, a notorious mining town that’s now a ghost town. (elevation 8379’)

One church to 65 saloons

The weather vane on this barn creaked back and forth in the wind… perfect

The town is now a state part maintained in a style called “arrested decay” where they put in glass and roofs and put back things that fall down now, but don’t try to restore it to it’s younger days. I wondered where I could sign up for that program.

The hillside is pockmarked with gold and silver holes.

It was active in 1915-20. Gas pumps

Truck

With WWII, mining of “non-essential metals” was forbidden and the town closed down.

Even then, the Altar of Coffee

Outhouse for three

Outhouse for Saturday night

Abandoned town, ghost child, forgotten toy

Fires were the major danger to the town itself. All that’s left here is the chimney wall and the bed frame

A chunk o’ metal

My favorite find

The historian told us how difficult life was for the prostitutes. Bed springs and barbed wire says it all!

A very small building with a very important door

Doorways to the past

Fun traveling with someone who knows about iron works. “This was worked in a smith.” Fine, then I’ll take a picture of it.

Roof over the sheriff’s horse stall

What’s that?

The garage!

Of course…

Heart shaped rock

The moon continues to keep watch

Fire truck

And nozzles

In this area that spent a good part of the winter under 6’ (feet) of snow, a sled

Gears from the processing facility

Heading back out of the park… I rode the dirt easily! Yea for Rich Oliver’s Mystery School training!

Bridgeport Court House. Notice the nests under the window eaves.

Fun little town

Sunday

Time to head back over the mountains. Sonora Pass 9623’ – time to get over and down again!

Sunday ride map

Stanislas River

A full size tree bobbing lightly in the flow

At each stop…

From Sonora to Mariposa, highway 49 is just turn after twist after turn. A new milestone ~ I scraped a peg!

The whole route, 539 miles:

Monday

Back into town with work to do on Monday

Of course, not the WHOLE day!
Shaver Lake

Espresso chip. With sprinkles.

And more riding
Huntington Lake

Kewlio fence on the road back down

And back into town just in time to tuck the Tiger into its locker and catch a taxi to the airport… until next time…

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