Yosemite and the surrounding areas

All great fun but towards the last couple of days the dreaded “Hitch Itch” started to kick in and we were both counting down the hours before we were due to leave!

Lake Isabella

Our next stop was the Kern River Valley and the very warm, welcoming Kern Valley Elks Lodge who have about 12 camping spots with partial hookups and a dump station right in the middle of Wofford Heights right above Lake Isabella.

As usual the Elks welcomed us with open arms and we were soon on first name terms with everyone, getting invited to Taco Tuesday and told about all the best places to see and do..

My attempt at painting the lake.

The scenery was tremendous around the area and Kernville just up the road was very interesting with it's history of mining and oil exploration. If you visit don't miss the Kernville Historic Association Museum. Prepare for a long visit as the docents are both very friendly and very knowledgeable!

I took a couple of hours out for some painting, then we explored parts of the Kern River which is famous for its white water rafting. After several days of rain the water was rushing thru the narrow rocky canyon and Lake Isabella was more than 10' higher than it had been for some years.

That same rain had made us decide to move on after 4 days. Our black tank fills in only 4 days so we would have to unhook, go to the dump station across the road and hook up again. There was rain forecast for the next few days and one of our windshield wipers was falling off (Somebody had put the wrong blades on). So we decided to move further north to an Escapees Park in Coarsegold CA called “Park of the Sierra's”.

The road from the Kern River Valley to Bakersfield is steep and winding. Some corners are marked 15 mph! The Monaco took it in it's stride and the engine brake kept the downhill speeds well under control without having to ride the brakes or downshift. We didn't have a line of cars behind us and whenever there seemed to be a couple there was a turnout handy for us to pull in and let them by.

The whole trip was good, we found that Rt 99 towards Fresno was 4 lanes and the traffic wasn't too bad. Then we found the cheapest diesel we've seen in CA at $3.77 a gallon so we had to fill up and have lunch while we were stopped. 

The road up to the Escapees "Park of the Sierra's" was very nice and our welcome at check in was great. Then to top it all we found out it was Darts Night in the games room and the players were all as warm and welcoming as our friends in Casa Grande. It was 9 pm before we finally left.

Our new Darts Buddies

Good roads didn't continue. We were on CA 49 near Bear Lake when suddenly road signs appeared saying CA 49 closed ½ mile ahead. 

There was no diversion sign just a sign for a flagman. We came around a corner and there were barrels across the road and a worker waving us down. We absolutely had not seen a diversion. We had to unhook the car and turn the rig round, asking the flagman all the time where the signs for the diversion where and how we could get to Coulterville. “Take J 16  a half mile back” was all she said, and there began a 60 mile diversion around 20 miles of rt 49! 

It as so rough that the bike rack bent, the basket on Barbara's trike was thrown off and bounced off the Miata on the way, and my folding bike was flipped completely upside down but luckily it was  held on by the one bungee cord that didn't snap (3 did). Thanks Cal Trans!!

We ended the day at the Thousand Trails Yosemite Lakes park. I can't say we were particularly impressed at our first look. Gravel roads, dirt sites and several sites with “Site Closed” notices. One of our new neighbors said the site next to them had a broken sewer line and the smell was bad.

Rt 120 just inside Yosemite NP

We wanted to see Yosemite again but didn't reckon with snow going into the park. One road up to Glacier Point was completely closed. Despite that the park was packed with few places to park. We took some photos and left early. We don't like crowds anymore and the drivers in National Parks seem to leave their brains at home.

Waterfalls where we'd never seen them before

Gorgeous reflections

Breathtaking

Hetchy Hatchy had 6 falls going.

The whole area is where the Gold Rush was and we set out to explore the small mining towns in the mountains. I don't think Barbara was too impressed with me throwing the Miata around on all the hairpin turns, but I was having fun!!

We found a nice place for lunch in Sonora and walked the main street for a couple of hours, quite a delightful place. We stopped and made reservations for the train ride in Jamestown. 

Sonora

The train only runs at weekends and the upcoming weekend is Memorial Day, a long weekend or “Bank Holiday” as we would call it in the UK. The train ride was very disappointing. Advertised as a 45 minute steam train ride it was actually pulled by a diesel shunting engine. The 45 minute “ride” was a 15 minute ride out, followed by 15 minutes where they moved the engine from one end of the train to the other and the same 15 minute ride back to where you started. 

The museum was good at Jamestown nut not the train t\ride.

No scenery worth talking about and little in the way of commentary

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As much as we hadn't expected snow going over the top into Yosemite we were astonished to wake up on Sunday morning and watch snow falling on the campground! 

12 hours of snow in late May!

With no phone signal and no internet we didn't get any bad weather warnings. And it snowed all day. It never got any deeper than an inch but never the less we watched it coat the trees, campers and grass . We didn't get out of our PJ's all day, just watched DVD's and snowflakes. So when it turned to 80's on Thursday we didn't know what to think!!!

We have some new maintenance items too. The electric step at the door broke and we still need to find some windshield wipers that won't fall off when you try to use them.