Farewell, Yosemite
Today was a travel day, so we packed everything up, made 20 trips to our Explorer with all our gear, and checked out of the Lodge. Since we only had a 3-hour drive to Tulare, we took one last pass around the Valley. Our first stop was to shoot El Capitan over the Merced River--without the skinny dippers this time.
The Park Service finished the prescribed burn, so they opened up several of the closed parking areas--including the one for shooting the Three Brothers. We've only shot there in the snow previously, so we got a whole new perspective on the area.
 |
 |
After we completed the Valley loop, we drove up to Tunnel View for one last look. Then it was through the tunnel and south on Highway 41 to Oakhurst and Coarsegold. We had planned to eat lunch in Oakhurst, but we didn't want fast food. We finally found a mom & pop-type restaurant and were ready to go in when we saw the sign on the door. The owner was complaining about his freedoms being violated and that he didn't believe in masks to prevent Covid-19. We weren't going to support that kind of thinking, so we drove on toward Coarsegold. Somehow...we missed Coarsegold. It was much smaller than I remembered, and we drove right through it without realizing it was there. We finally had lunch an hour later in Selma. We were very disappointed with The Habit.
It was brutally hot when we reached Tulare. All we wanted to do was get the gear out of the Explorer, turn on the A/C in the room full blast, and crash.
Previous Day
Return to Trip Page