2012/05 Western USA trip - Mariposa and Glacier Point |
|||||
Wednesday May 30th
My plan was to visit the great view from the top of Glacier Point and then go on to Wawona and the big trees of the Mariposa Grove. But, we were low on diesel. There are no gas stations in the park and our closest one in El Portal was being rebuilt. We were told that there was diesel at Wawona, so that fit our plans, but our gauge is always too optimistic on the last “half” of the tank. As we ground our way steadily uphill it became apparent that we couldn’t risk taking the side trip up to Glacier Point. We gasped our way into Wawona and gratefully filled up.
Having come that far we might as well visit the trees first, but when we reached the junction we found that the road had been closed as the parking lot up there was full. We would have to go back and pick up yet another shuttle back at the gas station! Eventually we piled out of the crowded shuttle at the Lower Grove and joined the crowds who’d come to see the trees. The grove is a stop for the tour buses too so we had crowds of people and a noisy mix of languages with tour guides screeching at higher volume.
The trees are very much worth the trip though. There are two kinds of American redwoods, the coastal redwoods, which are the tallest trees in the world, and the giant redwoods which are the biggest by total volume. The giant redwoods only grow naturally at places in the Sierra Nevada at about 
6000 feet, places like the Mariposa Grove. They make humans look very small.
We hadn’t intended hiking all the way up to the top of the Upper Grove but there was always one more interesting tree to go look at. And the further we walked from the bus stop, the fewer people and fences there were. So we got to look at the Fallen Monarch, the Grizzly Giant (on the left), the California Tunnel Tree, the Clothespin Tree, the Wawona Tunnel Tree, the Telescope Tree, and many others, mostly unnamed. John and Edna are in front of the Faithful Couple, a pair of trees that have merged into one lower trunk. In all we covered about six miles and hiked up and down about a thousand feet, a tough day for our visitors but they did very well.
The giant cone doesn’t come from a giant redwood; their cones are thumb-sized. Sandie is holding a cone from a sugar pine. We saw many 
snow plants too; parasitic plants that live off the fungi in the soil. They looked to be glowing in the soft light beneath the redwoods. I’d never seen so many in one place before
We’d hoped to eat out after all that exercise but the only place still open was the Wawona Hotel, which offered a Victorian dining experience. Needless to say, the price wasn’t right and we weren’t exactly dressed for the part, so I suggested we do the drive to Glacier Point and eat in the camper.
We ate our lunch at about 7pm at Washburn Point, which has an amazing view. Half Dome dominates on the left and we could also see Vernal Falls in the foreground and above that was Nevada Falls and a jumble of domes and other falls in the background.
We’d spotted a sickly looking coyote as we drove in and then a black bear and cub wandered onto the road while we were there and caused some excitement. Sandie got a glimpse before they disappeared back into the forest, but no photos.
We drove on to the end of the road at Glacier Point to watch the sun set over the valley. We could see even more of the valley from there, including all of 
Yosemite Falls. Glacier Point used to be the location of the “Yosemite Firefall”., where employees of the Glacier Point Hotel would push campfire embers off the cliff to make a waterfall of fire. Eventually the park service banned the firefall in the 1960s.
We crawled into camp that evening at 10pm after a very long day.