Yosemite (Day 2)

Yosemite Day 2 

Started the terrifying drive on Tioga Pass, hway 120. In my mind I am conjuring up many horrible pictures of what this road will look like.  Narrow 2-lanes with little shoulder on the mountain side and even less on the sheer rock cliff side.  Hairpin turns every 50 feet and driving 5 miles an hour to get around each corner as I am following a 40 ft long RV driven by some yahoo who has never driven anything bigger than a Yugo.  I see falling rock and falling car.  See what a fearful mind can do!  BUT…The drive was easy peasy.  No problems.  No hairpin turns.  No falling rocks or falling cars.  It was hard to drive due to the views however! Wide sweeping mountains and valleys.

The ranger at the first visitor center suggested we go to Pothole Dome to get some energy out.  It was not to disappoint.  A HUGE granite rock that can be climbed.  Seth was able to race to the top with no problem.  Sullivan had a harder time as his lame, cheap Walmart shoes had worn thru and he had no traction – this was torture for him.  We did get to the top.

I think I have a kid up there somewhere.

  A note from the Yosemite hike web site:     Difficulty:  Mild. Pothole Dome may tower 8,760 feet above sea level, but you get to skip the first 8,500 feet. There's not an official trail all the way up the dome, but you can find routes that aren't Half-Dome steep, and it's easy to go this entire hike without ever feeling like a misstep would put you in danger of falling far enough that you'd have time to whip out your cell phone and call your mom before the big kersplat at the bottom. The park service had sound reasons for naming it Pothole Dome instead of "Pothole Needle" or "Pothole Spire of Death".

On the top we ran into a nice family who was walking down the back of the dome.  “MOM!!! We have to do that!!!!! Come on Mom!”  Well as long as we could see this family which included a grandma and grandpa I said we could go.  (Because in my head a grandma and grandpa wouldn't let their grandkids go into harms way and they wouldn't want or wouldn't be able to do anything too  dangerous).  We ran into the Tuolumne River at the bottom and waded thru it. At the other side of the river Seth found "GOLD"! Or at least that is what he thinks, we haven’t yet had it appraised.  Instead of calling it gold and to prevent the Yosemite Gold Rush of 2013 we called it Dramamine as we put the flecks in a tiny Dramamine bottle.  The heat of the sun and the lack of sun screen stopped our panning for the day.  Gold fever hit Seth and hit him hard. No one was around and we couldn’t see any cars, roads, power lines or cell phone towers.

Next we checked in to the tent. It was a small little thing but had everything we needed.  Beds.  We changed quickly, but didn’t put on socks, and walked the long way to the creek in Yosemite.  We didn't have the water shoes so walking on the rock at the bottom of the creek was a little tricky and slow going.  But, we were able to see Half Dome right behind us! How cool!    We walked to a Yosemite store to buy a raft…they don’t sell them.  Along the way Seth got a huge blister that will impact our next few days.

We went to a Ranger led Search and Rescue event, that cost money.  The guy selling the tickets said “Your boys will love it”.  Well, remember the 1980s videos Faces of Death?  Yeah, the first 10 minutes of this was a Ranger showing Faces of Death: Yosemite Style pictures and some video.  Nope, we don’t need to stick around. That made it to the comment card upon leaving the park...warn parents of younger kids.  It was just to real for them, Dawg.

Getting back to Curry Village (our home base) we found a much tamer Ranger led adventure about Wilderness.  Seth was pulled on stage with the Ranger to list 3 of the 7 Leave No Trace tenants.  He got a little brain freeze and was able to come up with two.