Return to a full working week gives little time for R&R. The first of our 2 - 3 days off is necessary to do catch up.... Sleeping, washing, reading, lounging by the pool and fitting in a few laps. AND of course grocery shopping... which is a least a 1 hour drive away. There is a store in Yosemite Village, but as may be expected items tend to be on the pricey side. Mariposa is a little further to the west and has some interesting features and a small supermarket, where as Oakhurst to the south is a larger settlement with more diverse options... well as with many US supermarkets, this means whole aisles dedicated to chips, others to cereals etc.
June Lake, where we visited Jack & Wendy August 1 - 3, is a quiet little vacation spot on the east of the Sierra's just north of Mammoth Lakes / Mountain. Tioga Pass road is open only in summer as it traverses the high Sierra wilderness area of the park. It is beautiful in a different way than the valley and much less busy. The elevation of the road is 6,000 to almost 10,000 feet, whereas the valley sits at 4,000feet. We stopped at a gorgeous vantage point Olmstead Point, a bold, barren area of granite offering stunning views for miles including across the valley. The true explorer heads for the high country to go backpacking and climbing. With more 800 miles of trails in the whole park, hikers have potential adventure for many a year..
Jack and Wendy, who live mostly in LA, Palos Verde, have a house in Russell just up the street from us and have a very attractive lifestyle moving between Britain, US & NZ. Another Russell couple were visiting from NZ, so we had many a pleasant hour sitting on the deck overlooking the lake with the sense that we were the only people there. We enjoyed chugging across the lake to enjoy a swim at the far end. They then returned to Yosemite with us to share lunch at the Ahwahnee hotel, built in 1927 for the 'high end' tourists of the day. We then offered a brief tour sharing our new found knowledge.
The last couple of days we explored in the opposite direction, traveling south to see the giant Sequoia trees of the Mariposa Grove near the south entrance of Wawona. More wonderful history and some great walks through trees which have been living for up to 2 thousand years and more the 200 feet tall. The early pioneers cut vast tunnels through some of the trees and in spite of having a shallow root system and being sensitive to trampling several continue to live today. Lucky for the Sequoia, their timber is not suitable for building as it is brittle with insufficient strength, so it was the Sugar Pine tree which was used. The Sugar Pine grows very tall and very straight.
After wandering the Wawona area and the Mariposa grove, we attended a BBQ put on by some locals, for other locals... nice to be afforded such status!
I have still to discover how to rectify the blocking of the photo's... will go back again to our IT / Web guru tomorrow with further questions.
