Oakhurst, Bass Lake and Mariposa Grove

Friday, May 8, 2015

After a leisurely breakfast, we packed a lunch and decided to drive around a little.  It rained on Thursday and was supposed to rain off and on this morning.  The weather reports told us there had been snow in the mountains.

This park is near the town of Coarsegold.  The next town is Oakhurst.  That is where most of the shopping is available.  We saw a sign for a foot bridge to a park, so decided to check it out. 

Well, here we are at the community park and foot bridge.

This foot bridge was very stable.  You can tell it is built from large boards.

Here is the creek it crossed.  On the other side of the bridge was a playground for children with various swings, slides etc.

At the local visitor's center we learned that the road in Yosemite was open in spite of the snow.  We decided to go see what we might see.

A short distance down the road we saw a sign for Bass Lake.  We had read that it was a great boating and fishing lake.  There is a resort there also.

This lake shows how bad the drought is here.  It reminds me of Lake Weatherford.

Just like Lake Weatherford, there are many houses whose docks are not even close to the water.
The main part of the lake near the resort still had plenty of water in it for fishing.

We left and continued towards Yosemite. We reached the south entrance to the park and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias was just a couple of miles into the park.  We decided to go see it.  

The closer we got, foggier it was.  Soon snow was on the side of the road.  The fog got so dense we could not see very far in front of us.  We arrived at the grove parking and it was 37 degrees per our car.  Time to walk in the clouds.

This sequoia was in the middle of the parking lot.  See how dense the fog is?

The snow was melting fast and slushy.  This trail led to several large sequoias to see.  The shortest distance was 1.1 miles one way.  We were not dressed appropriately for 37 degrees so opted out.  When we left home it was nearly 70 degrees.  Big temperature change.

This path led through the center of the parking lot.  At the other end of this path were restrooms.  If it had not been so foggy, I'm sure you would have been able to see the building.

The snow was still on tree branches and stacked on the fencing.  As you walked through the parking lot and on the above path, it was like people were throwing snowballs at you.  The snow was falling off the tree limbs and would hit you in the head.  It was pretty.  We sat in the car and had our picnic lunch.  Then we headed back.  We decided to wait a couple of days for the weather in Yosemite to clear.  We will come back on Monday.  More posts after that.

Enjoy life to its fullest !!!!