Driving our rental car east from San Francisco we crossed the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River in Manteca, stopped at a fruit stand in the San Joaquin Valley, bought groceries in Groveland, and then headed up into the mountains of Yosemite National Park. Our first stop was Olmsted Point where we were greeted with views of Clouds Rest and Half Dome (my Dad and I reminisced about walking up both those years ago).
Sadly that (above) was the last photo I took with phone on this trip. I dropped it over this cliff (see the same tree?),
but amazingly we found it, and with a new screen it’s still working!
We also made quick stops at Tanaya Lake, Lembert Dome (Ferda and I reminisced about climbing that seven years ago), and Tioga Pass on our way to Mammoth Lakes.
I had to scramble around a bit to get into our airbnb condo because all the information had been on my (now broken screen) phone.
The next day we enjoyed a short walk around Convict Lake. Perhaps none of us had been here before.
On a river trip in New Mexico Briana showed me that the Jeffrey pines smell like butterscotch. Or maybe Baileys (Seda) or maybe vanilla (Defne) or maybe caramel (Irmak)?
Pretty spot.
That afternoon five (of seven) of us were lucky to see a small black bear just near the condo. It walked right through here,
but I guess no one got a photo.
Irmak learned to tell the difference between chipmunks which we don’t have in Turkey and squirrels which we see rarely in Turkey and counted them on our hike in Devils Postpile National Monument the following day. Here’s a logistic tip which we worked when we were there: if you enter the monument before 7am, you can drive your own car saving both time and the bus fare ($89 for our group).
Here’s Ferda enjoying a coffee in the morning chill at 6:57 near where we parked and ate breakfast.
From there it’s a very short walk to the famous columnar basalt.
We extended our walk to Rainbow Falls on the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River (heading down to Manteca!). My Dad had hiked to this same waterfall 70 years earlier with his good friend, Richard.
The John Muir trail runs through here. Interestingly (at least for us) Ferda and I had passed the turnoff for John Muir’s birthplace on the bus from Edinburgh to London less than a month earlier. Then of course we visited Muir Woods, and the day before at Convict Lake we came to the John Muir Wilderness. Can’t get away from this guy!
At both Convict Lake and here in Devils Postpile, the road network is such that we were able to shorten our return walk by going to a different road where part of our mixed-age group (from 6 to 85) waited while a couple more energetic hikers fetched the car. It worked out quite well. Because of this I have a later photo, and you can see how the light’s different on the columns four hours after our morning visit.
Our short tour was coming to an end. On the way back to SoCal we made a brief stop at Manzanar for some grim US history and longer stop at Alabama Hills where everyone enjoyed the boulders.
Don’t worry, this isn’t my last trip to the eastern Sierra this year.
