Yosemite Falls

Wanna go see the highest measured waterfalls in North America? Who wouldn't?! So we did! Total feet: 2,425 high, three levels--upper, middle cascades and lower....a spectacular falls! They say it's the 6th highest waterfall in the world....Yosemite Creek flows out of the lower falls and then into the Merced River, which is one of the rivers you can go whitewater rafting on. We've got a brochure for THAT, but Eldy says nada, no way for now...After following the Merced River along highway 140, a different way to get back to Coarsegold, I would agree with him. The river was raging....

There's a strenuous hike to the Upper Yosemite Falls, but today we took the lower loop....an easy short walk to see the falls. It's actually a one mile loop. If you decided to hike the more difficult hike to the top, it's about 6-8 miles and they say allow all day for it.

Me at the base of Yosemite Falls

We had fun climbing around the rocks and just looking at the beautiful scenery...we went on and looked at what we think were the Nevada Falls. There were waterfalls everywhere, some didn't even have a name. Rivers and creeks rushing and finding their own paths down the mountain, everywhere you look there is rushing water and little mini waterfalls and cascades in the forests. An absolutely beautiful day..weather has been sunny every day, temperatures in the 80's in Park Sierra, and then in the 60's and 70's in Yosemite. We're lovin' it!

It looks dull in the photo on the left because a heavy mist is raining down on all of us, soaking us to the skin! As soon as Eldy took the photo, I ran back out of the "rain" to get to the side of the falls.

It was a wonderful day today...every day is a wonderful day when you are retired and in good health! See you tomorrow...

WARNING! Bear in the Woods!

You've got four different ecological areas you can explore in Yosemite National Park. You've got the high Sierra mountains, granite cliffs, sequoia tree groves and the valley...With over 795,000 acres, I don't think you could ever get tired of exploring this wonderful park. It's got the greatest concentration of granite domes in the world, and the greatest single exposed monolith (extremely large upstanding single rock) in the world. There are THREE groves of Sequoia trees, the largest grove being Mariposa Grove with over 500 of the giant Sequoia trees. So far, we've been exploring the fabulous waterfalls, which are at their peak power in spring, like late May, early June....We've seen the Bridal Veil Falls, today we went to see Yosemite Falls in the valley...but FIRST, the "BAHR"!

50 yds away

While we were in the valley today, about 25 miles from the south park entrance, checking out the incredibly beautiful Yosemite Falls, we saw a young brown BEAR within about 50 yards of us, scrounging for bugs and insects. He got up on his hind legs (he still looked small) and tore off, no, make that RIPPED off a huge hunk of bark off a small tree and proceeded to make a lunch out of what he found. He was located between a road and a path that hikers and joggers use. Several joggers ran by, oblivious to the bear.  Not until about six or seven cars stopped and people started snapping photos like crazy did he sense trouble and then hunkered down onto the ground to wait us out. We left before he did......I wanted to get just a little bit closer, but Eldy yanked me back. I know, I know, that was stupid, but he was very busy eating, and two joggers ran by and some walkers and they didn't even see him, and they were much closer! Oh, well....got my "bar" photo or two, very exciting!

On to the waterfalls! We'll see you at Yosemite Falls tomorrow!  Bye.....

Coarsegold, CA

Delight-ful Treasures antique shop in Coarsegold

If you blink, you might pass Coarsegold's little shopping area on your way to Yosemite National Park. We didn't blink, so we stopped to see what was in town.  Some great little shops to see...a beautiful antique store called Delight-ful Treasures, (the owner's name was Delight Dugovic),  there were little clothing boutiques, a drive through coffee shop, a little ice cream sandwich shop, a small market and just some interesting little places to see. There was a little flea market going as well, but everybody had a very relaxed attitude about selling anything, as about half the little flea market shops were closed. If you want a little more excitement, you could go to the casino called Chukchansi on your way into town. That's an interesting looking casino. They have shrouds of netting over the entire casino at the top floors due to problems with swarming swallows building their mud nests in the eaves and nooks and crannies everywhere you look. The birds are a protected species, so they are making themselves at home at the casino. Despite their best efforts to discourage the nesting, the owners are losing the battle with the birds!

The proprietor taking a nap, no customers!

Spring is really here in Coarsegold. All the trees are blossoming, the bushes are budding and blooming. It's a beautiful drive from the SKP park to town...the day we went to town, more than half the stores were closed but we still enjoyed the wisteria vines that grew over archways, the cute sign by a little shop that expressed a little attitude, and the smallest floral shop I've ever seen.....There was a neat little thrift shop I stopped in to see and ended up buying a little woolen cap to use for felting for fifty cents.

Back to Yosemite tomorrow to see some more falls and maybe bike around a bit, we'll see....Thanks for all of you who enjoy the blog enough to follow us and thanks for the compliments we get sometimes for our photos and blog. We'd also like to thank those of you who may not be followers but read us from time to time and send us interesting comments and occasional advice! Thanks for being part of the blogging community in one way or another. We really appreciate everybody's interest...Sparky and Eldo

Cool App for RVers

Well, we didn't make it to Coarsegold  just yet. We got sidetracked! Eldo, the  master researcher, has found a new app for the iphone and Android. It's called, "Oh, Ranger! Park Finder".  You can find your favorite parks based on the kinds of activities you like to do.  It's a comprehensive database of every national, state park and federal public land in America. Depending on what you like to do in the way of hiking, biking, water sports, nature, birding, you can find a park that offers those activities.  You can get this app in the Apple App Store and it's available for iphone, ipad, and Android.


There's so much information in this app, it's amazing! Here's a list:
• Park Overview for Every National Park, State Park and Federal Public Land in America
• Activities Descriptions
• Maps & Directions
• Important Phone Numbers
• Seasonality/Weather
• Lodging & Concession Information
• Non-Profit Partners
• Links to Events and Related Websites
• Related Articles
• Nearby Attractions
Here are the activities you can search for:
• Auto Touring
• Bicycling
• Bird Watching
• Boating
• Camping
• Caving
• Climbing
• Fishing
• Golfing
• Hiking
• Historic & Cultural Touring
• Horseback Riding
• Hunting
• Off Highway (OHV) Use
• Picnicking
• RVing
• Tennis
• Water Sports
• Wildlife Watching
• Winter Sports


And it's FREE in the Apple app store..have fun checking this out!  It's so cool!

We stayed home today to take care of some things around the campsite...like the tall grassy weeds that were hiding ticks (maybe).  Eldy worked hard on cleaning up our site.Then he hurt his back trying to weedwhack the slippery slope on our site that was really overgrown...This is a park that depends on volunteers to keep up with the weeds and grasses and they are more than just a little behind. So we borrowed a weedwhacker.  Then Eldy lost his footing on the VERY long slippery grass and landed very hard on his keyster....ouch! He was really hurting. Nurse Sparky promptly took the weedwhacker away and said that's enough activity for today!  He had gotten a lot done, so I finished it up.....it's been a long time since I've had to do yard work. I kinda enjoyed it!  I was ready to whack half the park. Maybe they'd give us a free week if I went at it!?  Tomorrow, Coarsegold, check it out!

Yay Yosemite!

Bridal Veil Falls at Yosemite

As I mentioned yesterday, Eldy found a great website to plan our outing to Yosemite today...It's put out by the National Park Service and gives all kinds of information about the park. When you visit the park in the spring, you have to worry about snow in the high elevations of the park. We were limited in where we could go in the park today, so we headed to some waterfalls, where the roads were still open and in Yosemite Valley. I will say that we think spring is probably the BEST time to visit the park, as the snow melt makes for great waterfall shows and rushing streams. MOST of the waterfalls and streams dry up by late July and August, so we were in for a real treat today...we saw LOTS of waterfalls and several major ones, one of them Bridal Veil Falls and another one,Yosemite Falls.

This was a COOL (as in temperature) short hike to see the Bridal Veil falls up close. It was in the fifties because we were up so high in elevation. The falls were rushing and falling so hard over the edge that you literally were rained on as you walked up close to it because of the wind rushing around the canyon and the heavy mist coming down. People coming back down the path were soaking wet. Most did not have rain gear or a jacket, not knowing it was very cool and wet right at the falls. We didn't know either. I turned to Eldy as we started up and said, "It looks like we're gonna get wet!" Two little girls coming back down stopped in front of me and said, "YEAH! We got soaked! Feel our skin!" And they both stuck out their arms for me to compare how wet they were. We went up anyway, not wanting to miss this spectacular falls....It was THUNDERING over the cliff! And we got VERY wet!

We stopped at overlook after overlook after turnout after turnout to stand in awe of the beautiful scenery in front of us...there were quite a few people in the park visiting the meadows, staying at the local inns, stopping at the waterfalls and taking photos. It was good to see that even though the price of gas is so high, people are still coming to our national parks. We saw two mule deer in two different locations in the park....

I got to see LOTS of snow, even made a snow angel at Avalanche Creek..hm-m-m-m, wonder if that was one of the 26 avalanche zones the park service was talking about on their web site?

We probably will spend many days exploring this natural treasure. It's HUGE! And it's AMAZING! And it's GORGEOUS!  See you tomorrow in the little town of Coarsegold, CA, where the Park Sierra RV park is located. We're going to explore the little shops there....

Planning a Visit to a National Park

In the old days, back before the internet, people used to write to places they wanted to spend some vacation time at to request some brochures. Then you'd sit down and get out the paper maps and start planning when and how and where to go. My dad used to use the Chicago Motorclub Association or  AAA to get trip maps and routes planned out for our family vacations. He would be amazed to see how we do it now! But you know, sometimes the darn GPS is not always right or we really don't like the way it routes us! So we will still look use good old fashioned maps as a backup. That, and the internet....

Eldy found a great website to plan a trip to Yosemite. The major part of the trip is already done as we are within 26 miles of the south park entrance! (Park Sierra Escapees Park). The website is the National Park Service "Plan Your Visit for Yosemite National Park". We found out lots of things today in preparation for going tomorrow....Some bits and pieces of information that we found out ahead of time:

Tioga Road-10 feet of snow still cover it! (NPS photo) 

There are 12 miles of paved bike trails in Yosemite Valley. The main high elevation pass/road that crosses Yosemite National Park-- Tioga Road-- is closed indefinitely due to record snowfall levels and difficulties clearing trees that have fallen across roads in the park and are buried in the snow. There has been a 178% increase over the average amount of snow that normally falls in the park! They apply charcoal over the snow to help with the melting and sometimes they have to blast the snow because it's so deep and so heavy in order to get the dozers in. There are 26 avalanche zones in the park that the park is making certain are safe and passable before opening the roads for travel. You might need tire chains in the spring season and they can be required if the snow is still there....AND--the peak run off for water and snow melt in the streams and waterfalls is in May and June....which is why the best time to view the park's incredible waterfalls is in the spring...

We'll see you in Yosemite National Park tomorrow for an exploratory visit! In the meantime, enjoy some photos from around the Park Sierra where we are staying....

Some pretty bushes by the clubhouse.  A million bees were on the one with all the pink blossoms. Spring is in full swing here in the park.

Here is another pretty blossoming bush at twilight...

And you know, there are a TON of acorn woodpeckers here in the park. They are a real problem for the residents, because they like to squirrel away the acorns for a snowy day...like in the residents' sheds, or in the telephone poles! Here's an interesting fact on this bird from National Geographic:

These groups maintain and protect impressive granaries in which thousands of acorns are stored in holes drilled in tree trunks or utility poles for future consumption; in a study a single tree contained more than 50,000 acorn-storage holes. 

I believe it after seeing this telephone pole in the park here. There are two males at the top of the telephone pole....and here's a closeup of what they do with the acorns. The holes are full all the way from the bottom to the top of the telephone pole..amazing!

Tomorrow, Yosemite!

Coarsegold, CA-25 Miles from Yosemite!

Snow on the mountains in the Sierra Nevadas in the distance

We had a relatively easy drive today from Bakersfield to Coarsegold, CA. California 58 to California 99 to California 41, and the only thing difficult about it was some of the highway was in extremely rough condition...I hate that...When you stop, you have to SLO-O-O-OWLY open the fridge as everything has tumbled around inside and fallen everywhere but where it's supposed to be. I've resisted getting baskets to hold things--and the extension bars we used to use in the old RV don't fit the extremely wide double door residential fridge we have now. But I just may have to get something to hold things more securely!

our site at Park of the Sierras

We are staying at the Escapees (SKP) Park in Coarsegold, CA., Park of the Sierras. It is 26 miles from the south entrance of Yosemite National Park. We are staying for a weekly rate of $96.00. WOW! Can't beat that unless you are boondocking somewhere. The SKP park is beautiful...rustic, natural, not as landscaped as the last Escapees Park in Aguanga...very hilly, but we didn't have any trouble getting into our site. It's beautiful here--spring is in full swing, all the trees are fresh with new leaves, the honeysuckle is in full bloom and it is all over the park. The trees are mature and huge. There are a ton of beautiful birds here as well. I might be doing some bird watching!

We're looking forward to spending some time here. We haven't had a chance to explore the town of Coarsegold, yet, but it looks interesting from a trip we took to the grocery store....next two days we will be checking out literature, doing research about the park, and deciding what plans to make.

dusk in the park

Eldy has already found out that some of Yosemite is closed off to visitors because of snow, and that you are required to have chains to be in some areas of the park. Chains? I haven't heard of those since my dad used to put them on our cars for Chicago area winters in the 50's! I guess out west they are a necessity still!

That's it for today...weather is supposed to be great this week...no rain, temps gradually climbing from the seventies to the high eighties. Perfect for hiking and exploring a great national park! See you tomorrow....