In and Out

 DESTINATION: Bakersfield, CA

Today was pretty much a driving day to get halfway to San Diego to spend five days at Del Coronado Hotel.  We decided to try the popular In N Out Burger so we found one in Bakersfield where we are staying for the night.  We came away feeling that they are somewhat better than McDonald’s.  

Carl got the Double Double on the left and I got the Hamburger.  Their menu is extremely simple and the only thing you have a option on for your sandwich is whether you want a fresh onion or a grilled onion.  There are no pickles.  I felt the veggies were nice and fresh, the onion and pile of lettuce were nice and  crunchy and the thick slice of tomato actually was tasty.  The burger seemed fresh like a restaurant burger…each sandwich was made while you waited.  In my opinion, the fries were not as good as McDonald’s and they gave you a boatload of them.  The place was very busy at 7:00pm and the drive thru line was handled like Chick-fil-A. The restaurant itself was very clean.  This chain was created in 1948 and has maintained their simple menu (hamburger, cheeseburger, Double Double).  Fries are one size.  Fresh, never frozen meat and veggies.

Now we know!

Bakersfield, CA

Leaving Yosemite, certainly a line item on anyone's bucket list, we stopped at the Mariposa Grove.  I was excited to see this, the largest grove of Giant Sequoia trees in Yosemite.  We saw the grove, but it was tough.  First because of COVID the park service is not running the shuttle buses and they still will not let anyone drive to the grove itself.  So the only way to get to it is to hike uphill the 2.3 miles to the grove over the road on which the buses usually run.  Next there was a wind storm in 2021 (100 miles per hour) that has created havoc with the grove.  All the paths through the grove are closed but there are some service roads open to allow us to get a look at them.  The park service is working to reopen this area but there seems to be a lot of work yet to do.

Sandy pointing out the woodpecker holes in this sequoia.

This is the largest sequoia that we got close to.  The Grisly Sequoia which we did not work our way back to is not that much taller, but much, much wider.

We are spending the night in Bakersfield.  Many years ago when we lived in Wisconsin, I was on a business trip to Los Angeles.  It was the middle of the winter and Sandy was back in Fond Du Lac, shoveling snow.  I had come over the mountains to take care of some matters in Bakersfield.  That evening a freak snow storm hit the Tehachapi Mountains, the California Highway Patrol closed down the expressway through the pass, effectively snowing me into Bakersfield.  When I called Sandy and told her I would be getting home a few days late, because of being snowed into Bakersfield, she was not at all understanding.  She could see that it was 70 degrees in Bakersfield and 70 degrees in Los Angeles, and that she was going to have to shovel snow for two more days without my help.  This little incident has been a part of our story for some forty odd years, I'm hoping our little stopover here will finally clear my good reputation.   

  

 

Yosemite National Park (3)

The geology of the Sierra Nevadas, and it is in these mountains that the Yosemite Valley sits, is a huge block of the Earth’s crust that has broken free on the east along a fault system and been uplifted and tilted westward as a result of the Pacific tectonic plate subjecting under the North American tectonic plate.  This process which is still going on today.  

Unlike the Grand Canyon where all rocks were sedimentary deposits almost entirely sandstone and limestone with a few layers of volcanic ash.  Yosemite’s rocks are almost exclusively granite which is formed deep within  the Earth as molten rocks cooled very slowly.  This as a opposed to the basaltic rocks we saw in the deserts of Arizona and California which is form by molten rock rising quickly to the surface and cooling quickly.  

The uplift of this granite started about 25 million years ago.  As the world grew colder about 2 million years ago the Sierras began hosting glaciers and ice fields.  As these cooling events came and went the advancing a receding glaciers carved out this remarkable valley.  

Today we went out and looked at all this Geology.

Views of Yosemite Falls, the water fall we see from our window

Half Dome and the Cathedral.  

El Capitan, zoom in on the last picture; rock climbers, many take at least two days to get to the top.

Bridal Vail Falls and views down the Merced River.  (The river that is still forming the shape of the valley.

The People of the "Big Gaping Mouth" This is the mouth.

 STILL IN YOSEMITE 

We enjoyed a leisurely morning and then we decided it was sunny enough to keep us warm enough in 45 degrees to hike a trail outside of our hotel.  We chose the Mirror Lake Trail which should have been about 3.2 miles.  Well…we had a very nice hike on a very nice trail (for the most part). The scenery was just indescribable and I couldn’t stop taking photos.

Here are just a few…started from the hotel, nice and flat. 

It got rocky and some uphill slopes…still pretty…

Lots of huge boulders that had rolled down from the cliffs…

And some trees that had fallen as well…

A couple hikers were interested in watching climbers on El Capitan, the dog, not so much.

By 3:00, we agreed that we head back due to the early sunset and that we didn’t really relish the idea of being out on the trail at dusk or dark.  We started backtracking.

But then we got quite a surprise!  We came around a turn and about 30-35 yards in front of us was a bear 🐻 drinking from a puddle that we had passed.  We looked at each other and I asked Carl what we should do.  He told me to quietly head back where we had just come from and he would try to scare the bear away if he came toward us.  I said no, I won’t leave you.  So we skee daddled back up the trail as quietly and as quickly as possible.  My thoughts were racing!   I thought of the protein bar in my bag that I could throw at the bear to distract it, then I thought maybe it would be better to throw my whole bag at it.  Then the thought was to Google how to escape a bear in the middle of nowhere when no one else was around.  We got to a clearing and decided to wait five minutes to see if the bear was following us.  Then we started back down the trail and the bear was not to be seen (he was probably above us somewhere laughing his head off.)  Hearts still pounding, we hiked the rest of the way back to the hotel in pretty good time.

Back in our room, I googled to see what kind of bear it had been and what to do.  It was a black bear but its coat was actually a rusty brown (which is the most common color).  Google said that you should not get closer than 50 yards from a black bear (we only spotted him when we were 30-35 yards away) and if you are around other people to gather in a group to appear to be a bigger threat and more intimidating to the bear (no one else was around).  What we had done by quietly getting more distance between was Google’s best advice.  My only regret was that I didn’t get a picture, being so focused on “skedaddling”.

Yosemite National Park (2)

The Ahwahnee was built because of the efforts of Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park Service.  Other parks had their lodges and hotels but it was in Yosemite, Mather's favorite park that he planned to "build a first-class hotel that would be open year round to attract people of influence and wealth".  The Ahwahnee opened in 1927, eleven years after the establishment of the National Park Service and certainly lives up to its initial mission.  I have stayed at several National Park Lodges, including the Wawona here in Yosemite and while all have their charm this hotel is a cut above.  The interior of the building feels very much like the mountain lodge that it is, the rooms are almost 100 years old, the architectural style is by no means modern (Gilbert Underwood who also designed the lodges at Zion and Brice Canyon National Parks was the Architect), but, everything works and is elegant and beautiful even in the 21st century.  Of course it is location, location, location, and in this location most any building would be awe inspiring.  We've known of The Ahwahnee for years and I think we were wise to include it in this journey.

The Ahwahnee, a strange name.  It refers to the peoples inhabiting the Yosemite valley when the Spanish and later Americans arrived, the Ahwahneechee people.  This translates to "the place of the large gaping mouth", not particularly romantic, but a pretty good description, and good information to know.

The great dining hall is Underwood's most emphatic statement.  It is the largest room in the lodge and an absolute pleasure to be in.  Makes me want to just stay there and eat all day.

The view from our room was incredible.

  

 DESTINATION: Yosemite National Park, ÇA

Like Carl said…a strange and serious weather pattern hit the west coast and we got the milder end of it …just lots of rain…but ALL day rain.  Which turned out good at Yosemite because earlier this month no one got to see the beautiful Bridal Veil Falls.

But as we were leaving Santa Monica, I took some pics of some nearby homes in Brentwood, OJ Simpson’s old neighborhood. 

 

As we drove by thousands of acres of vineyards and orchards of some sort…I finally discovered the birthplace of  our favorite winter time snack…Halos!

Most of the drive to Yosemite was fairly mundane but as we got into the Sierra National forest I took many shots.  Then we entered Yosemite Valley and I took some more.  Then we entered Yosemite National Park itself and I had to take more…little did I know that we still had to drive another hour plus to our hotel within the park! 

I tried to take some shots Carl couldn’t fully enjoy as he was trying to keep the car from slipping off into no man’s land.  

Then we hit the mother load!  Through the tunnel and voila!