Yosemite National Park

Wow it feels like forever since I have been to my blog page, almost forgot about it.  Since my last post, I did two good rides.  This post is about my experience at Yosemite National Park.  The ride started at 0800 hours from my house taking the 120 all the way there.  Hwy 120 starts to get real nice once you start the climb into the hills.  Of course I had to stop at Don Pedro for a smoke break and enjoy the view at the vista point.

There were lots of people enjoying the waters at Don Pedro but the ride on my motorcycle was much more appealing in my book.  If you have never been to Yosemite and decide one day you want to go and take Hwy 120, Don Pedro is definitely a nice place to stop and take a breather.  After finishing my cigarette, I continued on my trek for Yosemite National Park.  During the ride up the hill, I saw a minivan broke down so I stopped to see if they needed help, this took all of 10 minutes if that.  I figured that would be my good deed for the day.

So many cars were stopped here (picture to the right) it was actually impeding traffic.  Luckily I was on a bike, and could park just about anywhere I wanted and able to squeeze through the idiots parked on the road, causing cars to stop and wait for them to move.  But could you really blame the people for stopping, seriously the view was amazing. The view from here on was pretty much all amazing.  Once I made it to the entrance gate to the Park, I had to pay $10 a small price to pay to enjoy a day in Yosemite.  Just keep in mind its $10 if your on a bike and $20 if your in a car.  The ride just got better and better as I made it further into the Park.

 The roads are just windy enough to make the ride fun but not so much that you can't let go of your handlebars to take pictures.  I stopped at Bridalveil Falls and attempted to take pictures, but for some reason my camera decided it no longer like the memory card I had in it.  So my quick thinking ... after 20 minutes of trying to figure out what was wrong with my camera, I rode to Yosemite Village and purchased another memory card.  I was trying not to spend the extra cash, I wanted to make this a rather cheap trip just to be able to say I spent a whole day in Yosemite for less the $20, but that darn memory card cost me $40 so there goes that plan.

After fixing the whole camera problem, since I had my bike parked in a safe location, I decided to have lunch before taking the bus around Yosemite.  The bus takes you to all the sites you would be able to get to in your own vehicle so it was nice because I was actually able to enjoy the view without having to worry if I was going to run into someone's vehicle. One of the stops I made was at Lower Yosemite Fall, where as soon as I got off the bus I saw the Half Dome through a picturesque of tree branches.  It was perfect, like a painting with an all natural frame around it.

After a short hike on a trail through the trees, I could feel remnance of mist from the Yosemite National Fall.  It felt really good, during the hot day.  Especially because I wearing jeans and my leather vest.  There were so many people in their swim attire walking there way almost directly under the water fall, making me wish I also had my swim trunks.  I stood there enjoying the mist and being away from the heat for awhile, then realized I needed to hurry and see some other places before the sun starts to set.  I got back on the bus, next stop was at the chapel, this chapel was incorporated in 1877. I walked inside to see that it was a very modest little chapel with 8 rows of seats on either side.   I could only imagine what it would have been like to attend a service at this chapel and living in the valley..

Not only are the views from the Valley amazing but the waterfalls and the streams that race through there create a very peaceful aura.  With the hectic life in a city, its nice to come to a place such as this and enjoy the calm for at least a day, and take in everything nature has to offer.

After making my way to my bike, I sat on a log smoking a cigarette and this gigantic ant started crawling up my leg.  You can't tell from this picture but, he was probably a 1/4 inch in length.  I jumped up and started doing the patting dance ( patting yourself rediculously, while jumping up and down ) because I wasn't sure if he had friends with him.  After patting him off me and realizing not only how stupid I looked, but that there were no other ants on me, I decided to take a picture of this gigantic sneaky ant.

The ride down the hill back into reality was nice.  The sun was just starting to set, so the heat was dying down for when I got back into the Valley and the sky was lit reddish in color. When I got just below Jamestown about to make my left turn onto Hwy 120, I noticed yet another car that was broke down.  The car was sitting in front of the stop sign and people were just driving around, not even attempting to help.  So I jumped off my bike and went to the car to help, when the driver got out, I was like wow she is beautiful...guess I wasn't the only one that thought so because less than a second after she got out of the car there were four other guys there wanting to help.  It was classic like in the movies where the hot girl comes out and everyone is staring so hard that they crash their cars and people are falling off the roof tops.  While waiting for a ride so the girls could get to the Grey hound bus station, a guy stopped asking for directions to Copperopolis.   I gave him the directions, but he saw the car broke down and the girls sitting there waiting....so he seriously tells the girls "hey I got a place you guys can come stay the night if you'd like"  I was like is this guy for real.  Thinking to myself, self I hope the girls have heard of Charles Ingh and says no.  Well they were smart and told the guy no, so I told the guy I'm gonna make sure they get home tonight so not to worry and the dude was on his way.  Not only was this trip a good way to spend a day, I made a friend that day as well.