Our USA Adventure - Days 29 to 35 - Willow Springs, Mariposa, Yosemite

The amazing Tufas at Mono Lake. Originally formed underwater by calcium rich water bubbling up through the salty lake, they now show the original height of the water before LA started diverting it's feeder rivers

Nearly a week since the last blog and I’m going to struggle to remember everything.

We found a swarm of these little alkali flies but, unlike most flies that will swarm over you, these are afraid of anything that moves as they get eaten. Moving close and they all flew away

Mono Lake was the reason for stopping at Virginia Settlement (well that and the Tioga pass) so off we went, it’s the saltiest lake in the world as it has no outlet, although LA has been stealing’s its water they are trying to stop this. It’s saltier than the Dead Sea. The only things that live in it are brine shrimp, and alkali flies, but it is a huge stopping off point for birds. The tufa, used to be underwater, but is still growing at the waters surface, making amazing structures. From a distance we managed to get some pictures of a coyote, just ambling along, minding his own business. Had a great “welcome to California” from a lady as I signed the visitors book (see our hike round the Mono Lake tufas with more photos: click here).

The very salty water doesn't mean it's dead. This little chap was quite happy floating about looking for brine shrimps to eat. It's the reason thousands of birds fly here every year and also the reason DWP (Department of Water Protection) reduced the water LA could take from the feeder rivers. Originally they took water from four of the six rivers, but now only two. The lake water has failed to recover as hoped however and still has a surface area of less than half 1941 levels when water diverting started

From the lake we went to the Panam Crater, a very recent volcano, about 600 years recent (see our walk round the rim, with more photos: click here). Small enough to walk round the caldera, we got a few steps in to up our count. I was very good, there was so much beautiful obsidian, just lying around, but collecting was forbidden, so we didn’t!

Managed to capture this Coyote at full camera zoom distance. We think he managed to catch something for his dinner as he looked later as though he was carrying something away

We decided to have lunch, rather than dinner, as out at Virginia Settlement we were tied to their restaurant, which had been ok, but certainly nothing special. So we went to the Mobil station. Yup, a gas (petrol) station just at the beginning of the Tioga Pass! Well it had been recommended to us by Maggie before we left Albuquerque so.... Ordered our burgers (which were good) as the lady from the lake appeared “Are you following us?” I asked. I invited her to join us, but she declined, citing being behind on her book club reading. It was lovely when she reappeared a short while later, explaining that friends had told her she should be more open to chatting. And so we did, she recommended lots of things to us, and we recommended lots of things to her, lovely Lisa on her first solo trip away.

The tufas are amazing. They are calcium carbonate, a type of limestone and once exposed like this they stop growing. New tufas are forming underwater as the calcium rich water bubbling up beneath the surface bonds to carbonates in the lake water gradually forming a tower

We didn’t see the cat on our return, though she’d been in for breakfast. Mud as I’d been told by the lad in the restaurant, though as it turns out, that was her brother, her name was Jackie! But we did manage to catch Iron Man, one of the recent movies filmed in part at Alabama Hills. And yes, we did recognise it (even though it was supposed to be Afghanistan)!

We walked on to Panum Crater, just by the lake.. Not an extinct volcano, but one that could re-erupt at any time, last active 600 years ago. It's not alone either, there are many others close by caused by the gradual slip and movement of two huge tectonic plates that created the Sierra Nevada mountain range that is still growing

Wednesday was the long awaited trip over the Tioga Pass. The book says it can be closed any time from the end of October, so our whole journey up till now has been focused on getting down before the end of October. Happily it was open, though it had been closed, briefly on the weekend, the snow hadn’t lasted so we could take this scenic route into Yosemite, avoiding the 4 hour detour otherwise required! We stopped on the way in to do part of a hike to Shell Lake that had been recommended to us, by the girl in the tourist information, who had told us everything about the lake, and the volcano, and had coincidentally recommended the Mobil fuel station/restaurant to Lisa (you can see our hike to Shell Lake with more photos: click here). We hiked up to Bennettville, an old goldrush settlement, where a couple of buildings have been reconstructed, and on, to some very pretty Lakes, where we saw, much closer to, another couple of coyotes and got some great photos.

We took a walk round the rim and this is a view of the central plug of the crater, last to solidify as the eruption came to an end

On into Yosemite National Park then, a lovely drive, stopping en route to bimble up Pothole Dome, just because we could and to stop at lots of lookouts to take pictures. Out the other side and on, by another hour to Mariposa where we had 5 nights (yes, 5 whole nights) booked. Staying in the park is either camping, or expensive or booking well in advance, so Mariposa has seemed like the best option, and indeed it is lovely, with a good range of restaurants, but suddenly we are back on UK roads, narrow and winding, not wide straight US roads. Not the easy drive to and from the park we’d been hoping, not least because we were always driving into the sun!

From the rim we could see back down to Mono Lake and the Tufa section we hiked through

Thursday we went into the park proper, into the Valley, which is a village with buses that will drive you round, once you have parked up (not that we had a problem, but they were expecting huge crowds on the last busy weekend of October). We walked, quite a lot of short walks. Up to the lower waterfall (which isn’t at this time of year) past the climb that Joe in Joshua Tree has recommended. It looked a bit hard, and did I mention it was freezing? It probably made it into the low teens around lunchtime, if you were in the sun, and we are fair weather climbers! We then walked a couple of miles to the bridge where they have telescopes up so you can look at the face of El Capitan. We could clearly see the 8 year old boy and his father as they attempt the youngest climber record. The boy and his father have successfully made it to the top, but it would appear that neither of them actually climbed it, but jumared up ropes put up for them by some ‘unsanctioned’ guides (see our walk through the valley with more photos: click here). A bus ride to the end of the Valley and another shortish walk up the Mist trail, as far as it was open.

Over there is another crater of a similar age to this one and, in fact, those hills to the right are even more craters. In fact this whole basin is one volcanic field: click here 

Friday we went into the park from another entrance, so a different route, to the Mariposa grove, area of giant sequoias and redwoods. Very pretty, and some amazing trees. We gently walked through the grove, saving ourselves for tomorrow when we have a hike planned (see our walk through Mariposa Grove with more photos: click here). I did get a lesson on squirrels though, so see the pictures for all the different sorts! Big grey N American squirrels, medium spotty ground squirrels little chickarees (or Douglas Squirrels ) and cutie little chipmunks. We thought we’d get back in time to plan our onward travel and blog. We managed the former but not the latter!

There were many obsidian rocks just lying around, but taking any rocks is forbidden, so these were placed back where we found them (even though there's huge numbers of them)

Saturday we were up early to drive an hour and three quarters part way up the Tioga Pass to Porcupine Creek where we could do a 4.5 mile hike in to North Dome, which has a great view of Half Dome at the end. A good walk, though predominantly gently down for most of it, made the walk out not how we expect. The final section on to the Dome was some interesting down and up, bits in and out! We are pleased, a good walk and 5 hours for the 17km (10 mile) trip including snack time, lunch and a detour to Indian Arch. (It was a good walk Tim, but we didn’t do it from the Valley floor, when there would probably have been 4 miles up, rather than 4 miles with 547m - 1794 feet of ascent. Does that make you feel better?). See our North Dome hike with more photos: click here

She didn't mention the upside down house in Lee Vining. Built in 1956 by Nellie Bly O'Bryan taking inspiration from the children's tale Upside Down Land. It's closed for the winter now, although I'm not sure if  there's much to see inside

Out for a pizza in the evening we stopped at an open shop, Lone Wolf Designs and had a great chat with the owners, celebrating 2 years of being open. They are sisters, one of whom makes the jewellery, so I’ve bought my holiday ring, silver and mystic topaz. Today we spent In Mariposa, and have thoroughly enjoyed it, a huge breakfast, a great chat in the climbing museum, a gentle bimble round the town, so much information on the town in the town's history museum, the ‘49 ers and the gold rush, just to blog now then! Dinner will be in, and chicken, we stopped to buy a couple of drumsticks for lunch, and a couple for the hike. The lad almost refused to just sell us 4 drumsticks as their Friday special was 4 drumsticks and 4 large wings for $2 less than the drumsticks. If you have a Vons loyalty card. We don’t, but apparently if you type in 4, 10 times you can get all the loyalty member prices. So thanks to two very helpful members of staff!

Off we went on our drive through the Tioga Pass, the scenery is stunning

Our walk up to Shell Lake was below freezing at nearly 3000m (10,000 feet), but beautiful

And to a stunning, but frozen lake

On a little bit further and we came across these two Coyote. Fortunately there were on the other side of the (much smaller) lake

And they had seen us!

But then he looked quite cute! Good job Jackie wasn't any nearer, she'd have tried to stroke him!

The trout were quite safe from them beneath the ice on the lake

These are the recreated houses of Bennettville, a small gold mining settlement  in the hills that was abandoned after a half mile mine had been dug and no gold found. Their backers pulled out. Imagine what this valley would look like if they had found gold

Pothole Dome at the top end of Yosemite. A beautifully rounded granite hill formed when a huge glacier covered the whole valley during the last ice age. It was crying out to be climbed...

So we did

To the very top. Those boulders littered about were carried there within the massive glacier and dropped there as it melted. The lighter areas are highly polished granite, originally over the whole of this dome, caused by the huge weight of ice sliding slowly over 

Our first view of Half Dome, way down there in the valley

And another view further down the amazingly scenic valley 

The next day we went into Yosemite Valley proper and this is a view of the famous Yosemite Falls. Except the fall is a trickle. See that slight discolouration? That's the falls, currently just a trickle. Fabulous scenery though

This climb had been recommended to us. You can just see someone in red belaying his leader above. Higher up on the right is another tree that is pitch 2 belay. There's a third pitch that goes up higher. Getting down is by abseil (rappel) and various descriptions suggested about 5 abseils to get down, some suggesting 70m ropes would be required. We only have a 60m. Couple that with cold temperatures we decided it wasn't for us

The lower falls from the viewpoint. Apparently in season, expect to get wet here!

We walked on down the valley to El Capitan, the ultimate prize for all those big wall climbers. 2900 feet of solid granite, usually climbed in as many as 7 days, sleeping on a portaledge at night, hanging in free space on a vertical face (the most well known route, The Nose as done by our friends Phil and Helen a few years back, while we housesat for their cat Maggie in Solihull!). Since it's first ascent it has been free climbed (no ropes - can you believe it!) and speed climbed in 12 hours!!

And today there were loads of people on it as my 40:1 zoom lens picked out. Two groups here...

Another group climbing this huge block (they have their portaledge on the top if you look)

And the one that was getting all the publicity, the 8 year old trying to be the youngest person to summit. There he is with his father close behind, being filmed by the chap on the right also hauling up all their gear. He made it, but there is some controversy over it, the leaders were not 'official' guides and, rather than climb it, all they did was to ascend on ropes. That's no small thing in itself, but anyone fit and strong enough can ascend a rope, but you also have to cope with the exposure...

It'd be easy to dismiss it, but look at this photo. They were just below that dark patch about two thirds of the way up. To handle that kind of exposure with nothing below your feet, hanging on a rope needs nerves of steel (let alone these people that climbed it with no ropes!)

Leaving them to it we caught the bus to the other end of the valley and walked up the Mist Trail. A good steep grade, we pushed it out. However, the falls at the end were equally disappointing

We did see some wildlife though, this is a ground squirrel. He's quite cute!

I had one go at this, in a flash he was gone so it's not the best photo. We identified him as a Stelller's Jay

Next day we went to a different section of the park, This is Mariposa Grove and home to the giant sequoia trees, amongst the biggest trees in the world

This one, the Grizzly Giant, is taller than the Statue of Liberty is said to be 2800 years old

The big branch pointing outwards and then upwards is more than 2m (7 feet) in diameter and is bigger in diameter than many trees around it

This is the Californian Tunnel Tree. Whoever thought it was a good idea to carve a huge hole through a tree needs their head examined! However, it's been done, it's still alive, so we had to have our photo taken inside it

This is the Faithful Couple tree. It's actually two trees that fused together at the base

The clothespin tree

And this was as far as we got, the Mariposa Tree (means butterfly tree in English)

We saw some wildlife on the way. This is a Lodgepole Chipmunk and they were incredibly difficult to photograph as they were so fast. We often saw them crossing the path at high speed with their little tails high up in the air. Very funny!

This little chap is a Chickaree, another very difficult animal to photograph, always moving so fast

Here's another great photo of a Ground Squirrel. No idea what he has in his mouth

This is a Pileated Woodpecker, head back ready to batter the tree. It was pointed out to us by a keen British bird spotter who told us the cartoon Woody Woodpecker was based on it. It's the largest Woodpecker in North America. It seems to be using it's tail feathers as support, but perhaps it's just the camera angle

Jackie demonstrating just how big these trees are. This one has some fire damage, which occurs every five or ten years, but they manage to survive and, in fact need fire to help them germinate

Another day and another outing. This was our longer walk (10 miles) to North Dome. The view of Half Dome and Yosemite Valley from the top we heard was stunning, so it had to be done. It was a cold day, so we wrapped up warm and headed off through the forest on a well marked trail from Porcupine Creek

The views gradually opened out

And  this was our first view of North Dome. It's downhill, as much of the walk was. But that means the return was mainly uphill!

Heading downhill, the Dome is ahead

Ascending the Dome itself - last bit!

And finally we're on the top with the magnificent Half Dome behind us

And the other way looking down into Yosemite Valley towards El Capitan (not quite in view). Do you like my hat?

On the way back down we deviated to Indian Arch, which actually took us to our highest point on the walk and a lovely delicate arch. How it remains standing is anyone's guess, it looks so fragile

We got back into Mariposa, went for something to eat and, on the way back to our hotel, walked past the jewellery shop on the High Street called Lone Wolf Designs, who were having an open night with wine and nibbles and lots of people. Jackie bought her holiday ring (she always likes to buy a ring when we go away) and we had to have a photo of the two sisters who own the shop. The lady on the right made the ring that Jackie bought and is showing here and it's got a Mystic Topaz stone that was sourced within the US. Lovely people and a great atmosphere in there

Breakfast this morning. We went for a healthy option, pancakes with blueberries and chopped fruit. We ordered 1 pancake each, but little did we know that one serving was three pancakes. We ate half!

This bee moved in afterwards to mop up some of the syrup. We let it have a feast!

Then we had a walk round Mariposa which turned out to be a delightful place. This is the historic courthouse with an English built clock and an improbably green lawn 

Here in the town is another memorial to the 9/11 Twin Towers attack, like the one we saw at Gila Bend a few weeks back. These are pieces of girders from the towers arranged in a definite pattern that signify pertinent facts about the towers and those who died in the twin towers, the Pentagon and the downed plane headed for the White House

No photographs in the fabulous Climbing Museum as they weren't allowed, but I took this in the nearby History Museum as I thought it quite amusing (another great museum in a lovely town)