Mariposa Grove and Glacier Point Road

The next morning we drove down to Mariposa Grove. We stopped at the Tunnel View Overlook, which is said to be one of the most photographed vistas in the world. It was early morning so there was a mist to the Valley and it was just gorgeous. Arriving in Mariposa Grove, the parking lot was a welcome attraction as it was filled with many of the giant sequoias that make this section of the park so famous. We hiked out on a short trail to see:

Fallen tree:

Grizzly Giant: Most of the limbs on this thing are bigger than the majority of normal trees!!

Bachelor and 3 Sisters:

Tunnel Tree:It's so hard to take pictures of these trees because their scale is so immense and that's hard to capture in a picture. Here's us kids showing that the 4 of us only go about half way around the base!I thought this was such a unique section to the park and really showcased its diversity. It reminded me of Yellowstone where there’s a huge attraction of the thermal activity but there’s also Yellowstone Lake and Yellowstone Canyon with 2 waterfalls. This is why I love National Parks!

Driving back from Mariposa Grove we took the Glacier Point road out to a spectacular overlook. Glacier Point sits right above Curry Village and 3600 feet down from the viewpoint was our tents! You can basically look Half Dome in the eye and get a fantastic view of Yosemite Falls. It was my favorite viewing area in the park.

Yosemite National Park!

Continuing on this awesome summer of travel I just got back from a trip to Yosemite National Park in California. This trip was definitely out of the norm for me. For a long time Jess has been telling me about her Dad wanting to climb the Half Dome and finally this past January their family committed to doing it and kindly invited me along for the ride. Usually I plan my trips to the hilt but basically all I had to do for this trip was show up in California on a plane. I honestly had no clue what to expect which was both thrilling and terrifying. My flights out were on time and I arrived in Sacramento with just enough time to grab lunch before the Smith’s arrived. As soon as they did we headed over to pick up our awesome Dodge Caravan and were on our way. Since Yosemite is about 4 hours from the airport we stopped in Lathrop, CA for the night.

View of Lake Tahoe from the planeAfter a good night’s sleep we were up bright and early on our way to the park and went through various scenery and elevation changes. Sacramento was flatter than piss on a platter. Highway 120 out of Lathrop was lined with groves of almond trees and grape vines. We continued on into some barren foothills full of pasture land. Then we started our elevation climb and quickly found ourselves in the mountains. Finally we emerged into Yosemite! This park is so huge that it takes an hour to get from the entrance station to the Valley (the hub of the park). We drove through thick forests with sheets of snow still on the ground and then saw vast acres that had been burned. Our first pull off was of Cascade Falls which was roaring! There was also a great view of the valley. We then descended to the Valley floor and stopped at Bridalveil Falls. There was a short hike to the falls and as we got closer there was a fine mist in the air. It quickly turned into a full on shower as the final section of the trail was underwater! I love this picture.Making our way back to the car we stopped to air dry and tried to catch sight of some climbers on El Capitan. El Capitan is a 3,000-foot vertical rock formation. Once considered impossible to climb, El Capitan is now the standard for big-wall climbing. It was first climbed in 1958 over 18 months with a total of 47 climbing days. In 1960 it was done in 7 continuous days. Nowadays speed climbing is done on El Cap and the current record is just over 2.5 hours!Further up the road another attraction is the Swinging Bridge which has a great view of Yosemite Falls. We made our way to our home base for the next few days, Curry Village. After eating lunch and checking in to our awesome tent cabins we set out to hike Mirror Lake. It is meant to be a loop trail but due to a recent rockslide it is now just out and back. It mostly followed the river up to the lake which seemed more like a pond. Because we flout all rules we went beyond the posted closed sign to catch a glimpse of the rock slide. It’s amazing the damage these things do. It looked like a tornado had gone through. The trail quickly became impassable to we turned around and strolled back.I had just enough time before dinner to hop on the shuttle bus to the Ahwahnee Hotel. I have been reading a series of novels by Nevada Barr about a woman park ranger named Anna Pigeon and the most recent one I read took place in Yosemite at the Ahwahnee. I love the books because I’ve been to many of the parks she writes about and it’s so cool to actually be in the setting of a story.
Plus the setting is absolutely stunning. FYI the entire hotel is fireproof. What looks like redwood is actually cement that was poured into wood molds and then painted to look like wood. I never would have guessed!
The night’s ranger program at the amphitheater told us all about Half Dome and Yosemite Falls which was awesome because these are the main attractions we were there to see. And the amphitheater sat right in the shadow of Half Dome.

Delaware Water Gap and Grey Towers

Despite my dislike of family campgrounds, I slept pretty well. At 5:00am there was a pretty intense thunderstorm but by daybreak it was sunny again. I decided to drive back through the Delaware Water Gap Recreation Area. It was mostly a scenic drive but I came across some waterfalls at the end of the drive that were really nice.

Silver Thread FallsI love how I finally got a good picture of a waterfall where the water is all blurred together. I put my shutter on the slowest speed to get the pic.Dingmans Falls

I love this pic! I kept the green of the leaves and turned everything else black and white.

Raymondskill Falls

Driving out of the gap I saw a sign for Grey Towers Historic Site that I debated visiting. I’m so glad I decided to stop because it was stunning! It is the home of Gifford Pinchot who was the first Chief of the United States Forest Service and the 28th Governor of Pennsylvania. Pinchot is known for reforming the management and development of forests in the United States and for advocating the conservation of the nation's reserves by planned use and renewal.

I didn’t get there in time for a tour but I did get to walk around the gardens. I was just in awe of this place. Everything was just gorgeous. My absolute favorite part was the Finger Bowl. It is an outdoor dining area consisting of a raised pool surrounded by a flat ledge. Chairs were pulled up to the ledge and food was served from bowls floating on the water. It was sheltered by a wisteria-covered arbor supported by 12 stone piers. How cool is that!? If ever I am rich, I want to build me one of those.

After that it was time for the long drive home. I really enjoyed my trip to New Jersey. It was great to explore a state with so many negative connotations. There really is a lot of preserved land and sites of historical significance. One word of warning however is to beware the toll system. Sometimes its 35 cents, sometimes 50 cents and sometimes $1. Sometimes you pay when you get on, sometimes you pay while you’re driving and again when you exit. I don’t have an EZpass and I kept scrambling to find change because sometimes there are no toll collectors so you’re expected to pay exact change. At one point I threw in a $1 coin for a 35 cent toll since I couldn’t find change. I figured that covered me for the next 100 miles,lol

Fort Mott State Park

My last stop of the day was Fort Mott State Park. What I love about all of New Jersey’s state parks is that they don't cost anything Most have some really great features and preserve some great historical sites and they are all free to enjoy!Fort Mott was part of a coastal defense system designed for the Delaware River in the late 1800s. The fortifications seen today at Fort Mott were erected in 1896 in anticipation of the Spanish-American War.There’s a really great walking tour of the Fort. It’s comprised mostly of several gun batteries that were designed to “disappear” into the earth when not being fired. It was very unique and you can explore most of the batteries. There’s a great view across the water as well. You can also visit the bathrooms of Fort Mott. When soldiers used the latrine, the waste went into the moat where it was carried out with the tide. This proved an extra defense as no one wanted to breach the moat by swimming through waste!

Nearby was Finn’s Point cemetery. Originally purchased by the federal government to build a battery to protect the port of Philadelphia, the land became a cemetery by 1863 for Confederate prisoners of war who died while in captivity at Fort Delaware.

Also nearby was the Finn’s Point Range Light. I saw many lighthouses on this trip but this was unique in several ways. First, it is a skeletal cast iron prefabricated lighthouse. Second it was used as a range light which I had never heard of. These range lights are a pair of light beacons, used in navigation to indicate a safe passage for vessels entering a shallow or dangerous channel; and may also be used for position fixing. At night, the lights are a form of leading line that can be used for safe navigation. The beacons consist of two lights that are separated in distance and elevation, so that when they are aligned, with one above the other, they provide a bearing. Range lights are often illuminated day and night.

I then headed to the campground to set up for the night. The people were really nice and I’m glad I got a spot but I’m not a big fan of family campgrounds. To me, I don’t like places that have WiFi, pools, rec halls, playgrounds, stores, etc. I prefer state or national parks where the only amenity is a toilet. The people in the site across from mine were playing beer pong for crying out loud! I don’t even think that’s legal.

Greenwich and Hancock House

Next up turned out to be my favorite part of the trip. Previously I had been driving through beachside towns and along the Garden State Parkway. However, the Delaware Bay area of New Jersey is gorgeous. I drove along through quiet country roads with rarely another vehicle in site. While not on the coast, there is still a marshy smell in the air. It was just so peaceful that I really enjoyed it. I stopped at the Stow Creek viewing platform to see some bald eagles but, judging by the overgrown trail, it’s not a popular spot. I did see this creepy dog crate randomly left in the woods. I pulled into the town of Greenwich, NJ to see their tea burning monument. Greenwich is much the same today as it was three hundred years ago, when the British flag flew high over it. Today there's a wide street, which they still call "Ye Greate Street." It was laid out in 1684 and its course has never been changed. It’s so quaint that when you drive into town there’s a sign that points out where “Tom and Mable’s Deli” is. The Boston Tea Party inspired the residents to have their own after a shipment of tea came into town. On the evening of Thursday, December 22, 1774, a company of about forty young Whigs, disguised as Indians, entered a cellar of a local Tory and took possession of the whole cargo. They conveyed the tea chests from the cellar into an adjoining field, and piling them together, burnt them in one general conflagration.

Down the road in another quaint little town is the Hancock House Historic Site. It was the site of the 1778 Hancock's Bridge massacre. Loyalist troops from John Graves Simcoe's Queen's Rangers, frustrated by rebel resistance, crossed Alloway Creek in the early morning of March 21, 1778. They entered the house and surprised members of the local militia stationed there; between 20 and 30 people were killed. Simcoe's orders were to "spare no one"; unknown to the attackers, Hancock had returned home, and was among the slain. It’s a really pretty house and I absolutely loved the brickwork. Apparently these stylized bricks were quite popular back in the day.