Yosemite – September 26

Olmstead Point and Tuolumne Meadows

Today our destination is Mono Lake. It is another beautiful day, and the road is fairly free of other cars going this way. Today we make a right on 120 instead of a left and are now into some new territory. On the way Scott and Jeff read aloud from The Works of John Muir – The Yosemite. It was exciting to hear John Muir’s descriptions of the places in the valley that we had just seen and the places we were going to hit today. His descriptions are so poetic and full of detail. It was nice to relive some of the locations through his words.

We stopped at a few overlooks along the way and at Olmstead Point got another view of Half Dome. I think at this point we have seen it from all sides. There is a .2 mile hike to an overlook from the Olmstead parking lot. Well worth wandering out there. You can see Tenaya Lake from here and a little more of the valley than you can see from the parking lot. We also saw a few lizards up there.

There is a sign that points to a trail that will take you into the Yosemite Valley. We are at about 8000 feet here. There is no way that I would want to do a round trip or uphill hike, but if we could get dropped off up here and walk down into Yosemite Valley that would be an awesome day. We plan on looking into that for next time. (We later looked it up in the book and it is a 17 hour hike and sounds rather rigorous – think we will have to plan on that being a backpack!)

Between here and Tuolumne Meadows we see every pullout full of cars, but no trailheads. We finally notice that these spots are at the base of vertical faces and start to spot climbers up on the rocks. I’m sure the view must be incredible from up there, but you aren’t going to find me trying that out!

We stopped at the Tuolumne Meadows Visitor Center. They had a great display, with drawings and descriptions of all the plants and animals in the area. This was a good spot to top off our water bottles. It is hotter today, and at this altitude we are drinking a lot of water.

We backtracked about ½ mile to Pothole Dome and had lunch in the shade of the trees at its base. This dome has a rougher surface than the other rock formations we have walked on. You can also see the glacial polish really well in places on this dome and the surrounding mountains. The view is 360° up here. We smell some smoke. We think that the rangers are doing controlled burns in the distance, but don’t know for sure.

The shiny spots on the mountain, in the photo on the left (and the video above), are glacial polish. There are spots like this all over the area where you can see where the glaciers slide over the rocks and mountains. Some areas have long scratches or gouges. Some have rock debris left behind. I think the most interesting are the big boulders left on the mountain tops that are clearly from other areas. These rocks are called errant boulders, and they are usually a different rock from the surrounding rock.

After Pothole Dome we pass through Tioga Pass. We are at 9945 feet here. There are several small lakes and campgrounds along the road here. The woods are fairly dense. This road is closed in winter (November to May) because of the heavy snow. It must be weird to live or work up here and be cut off from the other side for months at a time.

We aren’t far from Lee Vining and Mono Lake. We catch a glimpse of it coming down the mountain. The elevation drops back to about 3000 feet here. We check into our hotel, the Yosemite Gateway Motel. It is perched on the side of a cliff overlooking the lake.

Mono Lake

After we get our luggage unloaded we drive down to look at the Tufas on the lake. We are at South Tufa and the formations are really amazing. The lake has a salt content three times that of the Pacific Ocean. The level of the lake used to be a lot higher, and these formations were formed of calcium carbonate by fresh-water springs bubbling up in the lake. The calcium carbonate formed tunnels around the fresh water flow. This created some incredibly detailed “sand castles”. These towers are hard, like concrete, and have been exposed as the water level lowered.

The lake doesn’t have any fish in it because of the high salinity, but it has brine shrimp and brine flies. The flies don’t bite and their larva were a food source for the  local Indians. They used to collect the larva and dry them. They look like rice and are supposed to taste like bacon bits (we’ll just take their word for that).

We spent about an hour looking around at the formations. Every one is unique and they have become home to birds, lizards and rodents. Most are over our heads in height. While they are hard like concrete they are fragile. They are hollow, and you shouldn’t touch or climb on the tufa. Once the water level has dropped, the chemical process is stopped and they don’t grow any more.

We head back to the hotel to get cleaned up for drinks and dinner. Lee Vining is a small town, and the guidebook says we should go to Whoa Nelli Deli for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It gives it high marks for all three! As it turns out we tried all three and agree!

Now the Whoa Neli Deli doesn’t look like much – it is located in the Mobil station at the intersection of 120 and 395. From the road you just see a sign that say restaurant below the Mobil logo. We are a little doubtful that this is going to be any good, but the book says it is really good. So far the guide book has been spot on, so we go for it. They have a nice grassy area outside with large picnic tables where you can sit and watch the sun set over the mountains while you eat. The food was excellent and the biggest surprise – while the service is kind of like take out, the food is served on real plates with real flat ware. Each couple ordered a serving  of World Famous Fish Tacos — one with ginger coleslaw, one with mango/pineapple/plum salsa, served with Brazilian black beans, and the Legendary Lobster Taquitos — three taquitos served on a bed of Brazilian black beans topped with tomatillo pineapple salsa and fresh salsa. We also shared a pitcher of mango margaritas. We are in food heaven! This is really as good as the book said it was.

We are totally in love with this place! They have almost everything you would need here– souvenirs, camping supplies, trail maps, trail guidebooks, food and gas!

Go back to September 25 — Go forward to September 27