June 2, 2007

June 2, 2007

We could easily spend more time in Yosemite but there is still a lot of country to see. We have Yosemite high on our list of places to come back to. Aimee is even thinking she would like to do a one-month volunteer stint here. They told us August is open.

This morning we head out east on the Tioga Pass Road. This is one of the few roads that cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It’s mostly an uphill route thru the pine forest until we hit the 9000-foot elevation where the trees thin out almost completely leaving a bare granite surface. We stop first at Olmsted Point where we can see another side of Half-Dome. With binoculars we can make out the cables that hikers use to complete their journey to the top. In every direction here is solid granite, most of which has been polished smooth by the glaciers that once slid across here.

A little farther down we stop at Tuolumne Meadow. We make a brief stop at their small Visitor Center before heading to the Lembert Dome trailhead. It’s a short hike to the top of this small granite dome but at 9000-feet we are gasping for air. The last several hundred yards is a scramble atop bare granite. I guess it is a taste of what we should expect if we get the opportunity to climb Half Dome.

Back in the RV we climb over Tioga Pass and then straight down the backside of the Sierras. The terrain here is steep, dry and barren. I am feeling a little depressed. I am thinking why bother with the rest of our travel. After Yosemite everything else is going to look weak.

At the bottom of the road is the town of Lee Vining on the shore of roundish Mono Lake. We stop for the day at an RV park here. On the way to the grocery store we stop at the Tourist Center and learn that Mono Lake, like the Great Salt Lake, has no exit flows and is 3-times saltier than the ocean.