Day VI--Leaving Yosemite, an exercise in contrasts

July 7, 2006 from Gray's Meadow Campground, CA. "Camp 4" proved to be a peaceful enough place to rest despite the crowds, and I even got to steal over to the main lodge to use the wireless internet access there. There are some perks to the high level of development. We also found out that after the sun goes down, Camp 4 fills with rogue campers who just sneak in, use up the "camp 4 only" parking spots (meaning I had to park far away and walk back to camp), and pitch their tents wherever they want. We got two extra tents in our site after dark, but both had packed up and sneaked off by morning. We had planned to spend 2 nights in Yosemite Valley, but we'd pretty much seen the sites, and with Ella, we weren't going to do any extended hikes into the other parts of the valley, so on we drove. At the start of the trip, Yosemite Valley was one of the expected highlights. In the end, it turned out to be mostly stressful sightseeing and waiting in lines--be they lines of cars,campers or gawkers. I guess that's why we travel, see if reality is the same as our expectations... Anyway, driving west out of the valley we saw some pretty amazing things that most people who visit the valley never bother with. There were some interesting rock formations along the road: and beautiful vistas, of mountains and alpine lakes: After about an hour, we arrived in the sub-alpine Toloumne Meadows. We had missed the wildflowers, but the views were still pretty amazing. We hiked around for a while, and found a few mosquitos, but it was worth it. Even Ella was enchanted by the reflection of Lembert dome in a crystal-clear pool. We lunched under Lembert Dome--chicken salad peppered with sliced grapes and more boiled eggs, and seasoned with Balti seasoning (we brought the last remains of the Indian spices my brother,Ian, gave us for Christmas a few years ago. Mmmmm Balti). The mosquitoes were pesky, but it was a nice restful lunch, and there were no crowds. Driving on, we climbed over Tioga Pass at 9945 feet, then descended along a scenic valley (you can just make out the road on the left wall of the valley in the photo), with views of yet more waterfalls. The terrain eventually opened up to flat scrub with a backdrop of layered hills and mountains: We drove past more lakes dotted with resorts and vacation homes, and Ella slept as we enjoyed the scenery from the road. We woke Ella up for pizza at Pizza Factory in Bishop, California. Their moto is "We toss em, they're awesome". It was certainly tasty, if not awesome, and Ella enjoyed terrorizing the other diners. We finally managed to seat her, and filled her up with green peas from the salad bar. After dinner, we kept pushing southward. There weren't many campgrounds that we could find, so were considering getting a motel room. Then we passed the town of Independence, with a sign down a long road to nowhere but three campsites from 2 to 13 miles off in the wrong direction. We gave it a shot. The first campground was basically a few gravel pads about 10 feet from the main road, and about 5 feet from eachother. We weren't expecting much at this point, but we decided to check out the next campground--another 5 miles--thinking that it couldn't be any worse. Here's the sign that greeted us: Much to our surprise, the campground was perfect. There was a nice stretch of open area between the campsites and the road, offering views of the scrubby hills and mountains: and behind us was a pretty little stream that produced enough white noise that you couldn't hear any of the other campers. When we did walk past the other camp sites, everyone was incredibly pleasant--a number of older Native Americans with their camper-trailers, and in the site beside us a middle-aged couple feasting on lamb chops and drinking wine under the light of their 3 gas-powered lanterns. They offered one of the lanterns to us, but we were happily doing our thing with our little headlamps. I set up the tent while Ella posed and played with a blue ballpoint pen. Then I wandered around taking photos of the scenery as the moon rose above the mountains, and the sky grew dark. It was the perfect end to a perfect day. Nice scenery, tasty food, friendly people, and a great little campground in the middle of nowhere that we'd found by pure happenstance. To top it off were the sounds of the stream to lull us to sleep... All this from a day where we'd espected nothing--only to put some miles behind us after our visit to Yosemite Valley.