National Parks, 2009

Saturday, August 8, Lee Vining/California

It’s a bit after twilight… the sky blue gray, camp is made… I have a fire going… The Coleman lamp is lit… (an old style two mantle white gas lantern…)
So far the trip has been good. I got away a bit early, just before noon, the drive seemed slower than normal, but I never encountered much traffic.

I did stop in Mantica to check out The Bass Pro Shop… This is much more than a fishing store… it’s a destination… they have a full size redwood tree, a 22,000 gallon bass tank, and a smaller stream with brown trout… native brown trout… I didn’t buy anything, but WOW….

As I headed east I passed though the almond orchards… here and there among the orchards was field corn, standing tall… I got held up following a tomato truck headed for riverbank or Oakdale… Agriculture is alive, and maybe even well in the great valley.

At Oakdale the scenery changes… you start to climb, and the land isn’t flat anymore… Just before Jim-town I turned South west thought Chinese camp, along Don Pedro reservoir and start the serious climb at Moccasin (a power plant and fish hatchery_
I took Old Priest Grade… a road which is 4 miles shorter, but nearly straight up the hill… second gear all the way…

Into Yosemite. It bothered me… too many people… We are loving it to death… I decided I would camp at the first camp site that had room… Tuolumne meadows was full, every camp ground along Lee Vining creek was full…

I checked in the visitor center in Lee Vining… they thought my only option was “dispersed camping” in the national forest, but no fires, not even stoves… I decided to check out the camps ground along the creek again, and found the “secret” camp site in lower Lee Vining creek campground… No 9, no 9, no 9, The post had rotted off or been knocked down, so the marker was high on a tree… I only found it because there was no No. 9… There was a No. 8, and a No. 10, between which was a site with picnic table and bear box, but no post… so now I sit, fire and lantern, steak ready for the grill….

A site found, I take some photos along the shore of Mono Lake… then return to my site, and make a fire, dinner, and enjoy life…

Sunday August 8

I get up, make a fire, make coffee, and break camp… off East…
I stop at the Lee Vining Mobil station for gas… I only need 5 gallons, but you don’t cross the middle of Nevada without a full tank…

East across the bottom of Mono Lake, to Benton Hot Springs, then North on Hwy 6 across Montgomery Pass, also known as Boundary Peak… I explore the ruins of the former motel/whore house at the pass, looking for a narrow gauge boxcar… I find it, but there is not much left… on to Tonopah, and a bit further on, turn on to the Extraterrestrial Highway. (I don’t see any)… then East to Arizona and finally Utah… As I leave Arizona I pass though the Virgin River Gorge. Its a boundary... on one side we are in the Las Vegas desert... on the other we are on the Utah plateau, the mesa and rim rock country. I arrive much earlier than expected, or predicted by Google… I find my hotel (its free, its points, they are nice…)

With an unexpected afternoon, things get really good… I am 23 miles from Zion National Park… after a quick shower (I probably stink… I am 24 hours on the road without a shower…) I head for the park… I have been here before, the first time about 1968, most recently in January 2006.

It’s about 3:00… you can’t drive into the center of the park, you have to park and take a shuttle… and generally the parking lots are full, but not at 3:00 pm… I drive in, show my park pass, park and take the shuttle to the far end of the park… The shuttle thing works… The crowds don’t overwhelm the park…

At the end of the park there is a trail (paved, wheel chair accessible, crowd accessible, but a good trail) along the Virgin River… at the end you meet the Narrows. There is no longer room for a trail, if you want to go further you walk in the stream. I do, carrying a digital camera, not water safe… a few yards in I meet a man with his baby on his back… a camera doesn’t equal a baby… so on I go… a couple of ladies returning give me their walking stick… now all is good in the world.
I make it in a half mile or so until the water gets really deep… I make it out fine… I leave the stick for another hiker…

Zion was not expected… It was spectacular… The trip is shaping up well…
Leaving the park, I find a Mexican restaurant, have dinner and now am sitting in my (free!) motel room writing this post…

More Tuesday

Randy