Yosemite

Thursday, October 15 ~~ We had planned on going to Yosemite all day Thursday. We just didn't expect it to literally be ALL DAY. Looking at the map we had, we figured it would take about 3 hours to drive one way from Lake Tahoe, spend 2-3 hours looking around and taking photos, then another 3 hours back to Tahoe. We left about 9:30 and headed towards Carson City, NV - mainly because gas was way cheaper there. We were surprised to go through a checkpoint just south of there. Lucky that we did because we were informed that due to a snowstorm two days previous (the same storm that dumped rain on us in San Francisco), the pass we were planning on taking through Yosemite was closed.

We had to go another way and we had 2 options. We chose what we thought would be the more scenic route. It was, BUT is was also very winding, narrow roads for pretty much the entire distance with lots of climbing. On the way, we went through several small mining towns. For those of you reading this that have ever seen "The Love Bug", in the final road race of the movie, they get gas in a place called "Chinese Camp". Well, one of the little towns was called Chinese Camp! I could just imagine Herbie driving the same roads.

We expected to be in the park by 1:00. FINALLY, at 4:30, we came to the entrance and paid the $20 fee to go in. Must admit, it was breath-taking where we got there. We stayed about 90 minutes because we knew we had a long drive back. Again, we thought it would be about a 3 hour drive. Silly me!!!! I was faithfully following the signs on the road north to Placerville that I needed to stay on. As I approached a fork in the road, there were no visible signs indicating which way to go. Because the road I was on continued straight, I foolishly figured that was the way to go. About 10 miles later, the road ended in a T and there was no mention of Placerville being in either direction!! So I turned around and headed back south to the fork. Sure enough, there was a sign showing the right fork headed to Placerville BUT there was no such sign on the northbound side. How is a tourist suppose to know to turn. By that time I was so turned around I didn't know where I was. I finally found a sign telling me how to get to Sacramento so I headed there. This story could be longer but to cut it shorter, I headed for that city because I KNEW I could get back to Tahoe from there. And I did. We ended up driving close to 600 miles round trip when it should have only been about 400 and taking 15 hours instead of the projected 9 hours. We are SO sick or pine trees and narrow, claustrophobic, winding mountain roads. Give us the wide open spaces of the Arizona desert any time.