Yosemite National Park!

"Yosemite is by far the grandest of all the special temples of Nature

I was ever permitted to enter." --John Muir

When I was trying to decide where to go for a birthday trip, I knew I wanted to see Redwoods but I also thought it would be great to experience Yosemite again.  The last time we were there was October of 2021.

This would be a driving trip.  I looked two months out for housing in the park.  

No luck.  Every room and camping site is grabbed a year or more out.

Because my search involved the message: No stairs if possible, VRBO came up with a home that looked too good to be true and it was available for our dates! 

 It is in a housing development within the park or at least right on the edge of the boundaries.  I never knew about it.  You have to enter the park through one of five entry gates to get to the development. 

 The renters required a minimum 5 night stay, but there were three nights in between two groups with 5 nights and they allowed us to rent.  It worked out great and was close to everything, and we were able to save some

 money and time on gas because of the location

 and money and time on food because of the kitchen.

Here are typical houses in the area.  

Do you think they have enough stairs?

Here is where we stayed!

We have been to Yosemite multiple times

 so this post will feature the unique things about this particular trip

 which included staying at the above home

For starters it was raining when we arrived through the park gate.

As the rain stopped there were low clouds like puffs of cotton.

The very next morning we went here:

This area has been closed for quite a few years so we were anxious to see it. It contains over 500 mature Sequoias.  With my handicap placard we were able to drive on some roads that others could only reach by shuttle bus stops.  

It was very helpful for me!

In fact some of the walks were even accessible for me:

The grove is famous for the Grizzly Giant, 

one of the oldest and largest Sequoias

 and estimated to be 2,700 years old!

Dan was able to walk further and see more:

I never knew about this connection Abraham Lincoln had to Yosemite:

More intesting things to learn:

We also drove to Glacier Point which gives an unmatched

 view of Yosemite Valley

There was another accessible path for me...

...and Dan got even closer for his photos. 

Another popular spot is Tunnel View.  

We stopped there at least twice each day and sometimes more.

This was the first day after the rain.

There are always lots of people there!

This was just about sunset.

One day we took a selfie and then someone offered to take one for us:

One of our favorites is El Capitan.  In the spring and fall you can watch climbers through binoculars but in the heat of summer there was no one to be seen.  Just this beautiful granite which is 3,000 feet high from base to summit!

A new thing we did since we were car-bound

 was drive to an entrance we had never been through.

Each of the five entrances involves a longish ride

 to get to the valley and includes different scenery.

We enjoyed our ride to the El Portal entrance and back.

There was a lot of this white rock.

We have done the hike to Mirror Lake before

 but this time with our handicap placard we were able

 to drive on a road right to the lake.  

It was a blessing for me.  

The lake is almost empty in the summer.

Here is where we were able to park:

  Dan was able to get a few shots that show why it has the name Mirror Lake!

Another great part of Yosemite are the waterfalls.

Usually by late August the falls are dried up, but we were lucky

to see several and Dan did hikes to two of them.

Lower Yosemite Falls hike:

He took this photo because all of these people have crossed the barrier

 that says do not go beyond this barrier for your safety!

Bridelveil Falls Hike

The wind constantly blows these falls to one side.

Meanwhile I was in the parking lot amidst this beautiful scenery

 and checking out license plates.

We got 45 states in Yosemite!

(See separate blog post)

 Just sitting in the car with my phone camera,

 how about a selfie?!

We enjoyed this amazing sunset on our way back to the house on our last day!

I will look forward to going to Yosemite again.

We never get tired of it!

Redwood National Park!

 We had some goals for our trip to the Coastal Redwoods.

They included:

1. Drive the Avenue of the Giants

2. See Roosevelt elk

(In the fall the males have huge antlers

 and the last time we saw them was in the Spring)

3. Drive the Newton B. Drury Parkway     

(It was closed the last time we were in the area.) 

4. Have a bowl of clam chowder in Trinidad.

5. Find license plates from all 50 states.

(Separate blog post)

6. Enjoy the cooler weather and have fun together!

We did a pretty good job on the goals!

We got to drive the Avenue of the Giants twice--both going and coming home.

It is a 30 mile road that parallels Highway 101 in southern Humboldt County.

It is spectacular!  We have done some of the many hikes along the way but this time most of our views were from the car and at short stops.

We spent all day on Friday the 22nd searching for the elk herds with no luck.

Then we spotted some bucks on Saturday morning but nothing the rest of the day.

Finally the next day we found a herd and we watched them two different times.

The Roosevelt elk are the largest subspecies of elk by mass in North America.

Roosevelt elk bulls generally weight between 700 and 1,100 pounds while cows weigh between 575 and 625 pounds.  They can be 6 to 10 feet in length and stand 2.5 to 5.6 feet tall.

They were named in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt whose conservation efforts helped save them from the brink of extinction.

In 1925 it was determined that there were only 15 elk left in California.

There are now over 1,000!

We were able to drive the Newton B. Drury Parkway multiple times!

The scenic Parkway is 10 miles long in the heart of Prairie Creek State Park.

The road takes you past thousands of acres of old growth redwoods.

Old growth redwoods make up only 5% of the redwoods today.

The Parkway is named for a man who spent 40 years of his life preserving these kinds of forests.

(Avenue of the Giants is also old growth redwoods.)

Lunch spot one day:

We did get to have our bowl of clam chowder in Trinidad!

Trinidad Bay Eatery

We found license plates from 40 different states!

This was surprising to me because this National Park 

is on the upper coast and not easy to get to.

We even found Alaska and Hawaii!

(More in a separate blog post)

We enjoyed the cooler weather with highs in the 60's and we had a lot of fun!

According to our audio tour, if we took a certain exit

 and followed the road for several miles

 we would be greeted with a spectaular view of the ocean.

Here is what we saw:

They forgot to mention that it is foggy most of the day!

We also had fun going through multiple parking lots looking for license plates:

Grandpa went on a couple of hikes while I rested.

On one he found this burl that looks like an animal!

And on another hike he arrived at Trillium Falls:

Another fun thing was trying to find the Redwood Peanut in the town of Orick.

On our audio tour we heard this story:

The Orick Peanut was roughly hewn from a Redwood log in 1977.  It weighed 9 tons and was 10 feet long  and 6 feet tall. It was loaded onto a flatbed and driven to the White House, where members of the lumber industry tried to give it as a mock gift to President Jimmy Carter, a former peanut farmer.  Accompanied by a sign that read, "It may be peanuts to you, but it's jobs for us!," the peanut was a protest against Carter's planned expansion of Redwood National Park, which loggers viewed as a threat to their livelihoods.

Chopping an old growth Redwood tree into a peanut was not a smart way to win favor with the conservation-minded White House, and the peanut was rejected.  It was driven all the way back to Orick, where the Chamber of Commerce president agreed to display it.

  It was irreparably destroyed in a car accident in June 2023.

Shortly thereafter the local tribe, Yurok, carved another peanut to be on display and it took us some looking to finally find it!

We had a great time in Redwood National Park!