Yosemite: Back Through Tioga Pass

(Continued from Yosemite: Well, Latte Da!)

Featured Photo: “Tioga Lake and Mount Dana”  Yosemite National Park, California—2023

Leaving the Latte Da Coffee Café, we followed US-395 south from Lee Vining and turned right at the sign pointing the way back to Yosemite’s Tioga Pass Entrance. Traffic was light as we started our climb to return to the high country, and fifteen minutes later, I pulled off at one of the scenic vistas we had passed previously on the way down.

We were looking at Tioga Lake, complete with a small boulder/erratic in its midst, and another view of Mount Dana beyond—the same Mount Dana we had seen before (and not recognized) shortly after leaving Tuolumne Meadows, before we had exited the park earlier that day. I took a picture (today’s Featured Photo), then zoomed in for a closer shot of the mountain…

…intrigued and amused that the hard, cold granite jutting out from the side slope reminded me of a huge, comfortable armchair…

…or perhaps the soft, welcoming arms of a friendly McDonald’s Grimace plush toy…

…or maybe a warm embrace from the not-so-scary Sully from Disney’s Monsters Inc.

Driving a few more minutes on the twisty-turny road, we stopped again at a tree-filled meadowland with a different view of Mount Dana.

Walking a short distance beside the road, I reached a spot with a nearly front-on view of the armchair-Grimace-Sully-like formation. I didn’t learn until later that the slightly-brownish-colored, razor-like peak to the right of the Sully protrusion is actually the summit of Mount Dana (or at least I think it is).

We still had not yet reached the gate where we would re-enter Yosemite and didn’t know what to expect regarding the traffic we had seen before. Less than a minute back on the road, we were disappointed—but not surprised—as we slowed down to take our place in the line of cars waiting to gain admittance. At least the line seemed shorter than before.

After crawling along—one car-length at a time—for another minute or so, we saw the small Ranger Station where the entrance fee would be collected, and noticed the road widened to two lanes. My sister and I were discussing which lane to choose (I always seem to pick the slow one) when we saw a Park Ranger walking toward us. She stopped at each driver’s window along the way and about half the time, the car pulled into the left lane to proceed more quickly.

As it dawned on me what that meant, my sister was already fishing around for her Senior Lifetime National Park Pass with its specially designed hangtag, which she had stowed in the glove compartment after our very first entry into Yosemite at the Arch Rock Entrance two days prior (even though there had not been a Ranger on duty that morning). She hung our “get-out-of-line-free” tag from the rear-view mirror and when the Ranger reached our car, she glanced at the Pass and waved us into the left lane.

Delighted, we zipped past the line of cars at a healthy clip of about seven miles per hour, but there was no need to stop again as we flew by the Ranger Station, and found ourselves safely back inside Yosemite on Tioga Road, ready to retrace the route we had taken earlier in the day.

Just beyond the Tioga Pass gate, I pulled off the road once again, remembering a lovely lake I had seen before. When I got out of the car, I realized it was actually two separate lakes, both small and unnamed (as far as I can tell). The first photo I took was looking eastward, back in the direction of Lee Vining where we had just been. The lake—or perhaps it was just a pond—was beautiful and calm, and rising beyond it, past the trees was (you guessed it) our constant companion, “Mount Grimace”.

Walking near the lake’s edge, I turned my camera a bit more northerly, capturing the interesting shape of the water’s boundaries…

…and farther along, another vista with Mount Dana beyond the lake.

The lake view to the south was also spectacular…

…with snow-capped peaks in the distance.

I’d only been walking five minutes when I headed back to the car, snapping one last shot of Mount Dana, this time through a frame of evergreens and a fallen tree that was weather-worn and gnarled.

Driving another half hour, we turned once again into the parking area for Olmsted Point and were greeted by another raven…

…as we had seen the day before at Yosemite Village, after we’d spoken with the little biker’s mom, while the girl worked her way through a bowl of ice cream. But in this case—as in the dark poem by Edgar Allan Poe—the black bird was a harbinger of gloom. In the distance, past the stone wall with the raven atop, beyond the bank of trees, you can make out the haze from the still-smoldering fire in Yosemite Valley, dashing my hope—as I foreshadowed in an earlier post—to get another picture from Olmsted Point of Half Dome in the afternoon glow. I found my way back down the steps to the path I had walked before, and took just one photo of the smoky view of Half Dome…

…which stood in stark contrast to our view of the same landscape from six hours—and 300 photos—earlier.

Disappointed by the shrouded vista, we left Olmsted Point, headed back to Big Oak Flat Road, then down from the high country toward Yosemite Valley. The itinerary I prepared had us eating again at the Base Camp Eatery, but we now knew their dinner menu was not to our taste. Approaching the intersection with El Portal Road—which would carry us to the valley in one direction or back to our hotel in the other—I suggested we dine again at the River View Restaurant. My sister turned to me and replied with elation, “Oh, that would be great! We can both order the trout this time. I didn’t get enough on Friday night when we shared that delicious meal.” In total agreement, we turned right onto El Portal Road, went out through Yosemite’s Arch Rock gate, and were soon back in our hotel room, relishing the view from our balcony.

We were tired from our day of exploration, so we relaxed in our room, waiting about an hour until a fashionable dinner time of 6:00, then took one more look at the late afternoon scenery from our balcony.

Earlier, knowing how popular the river-side dining was, we’d called ahead—at a moment when we had cell coverage—and made a reservation for the deck. We now walked the short distance from our hotel room to the restaurant and after just a minute, we were asked to follow the host outside to a perfectly placed table along the deck railing, with a grand view of the Merced River.

As we waited for our waiter to appear (wait…who’s waiting?), I looked at the cool, clear water beside us and imagined the trout swimming in the current, right then and there.

Arriving with menus and two glasses of water, our server asked if we would care for something else to drink. My sister said she would like a Coke; as for me—like our previous visit to this restaurant on Friday night—I asked what draft beer they had. He ran through the list again, but when he mentioned “…Sierra Nevada Pale Ale,” I interrupted him.

The very popular Sierra Nevada Brewing Company out of Chico, California—about 250 miles north of El Portal—has achieved wide distribution of their beer across the United States and their flagship Pale Ale is readily available even in my home state of Pennsylvania. Still, I told the waiter, “I’ll have the Sierra Nevada,” then added, “and we already know what we want for dinner. We’ll both have the trout.” My sister nodded as I spoke.

The waiter collected our unopened menus and said he would be right back with our drinks. As he retreated from the table, I explained to my sister, “I love to get local beers whenever I travel. It wasn’t until he repeated it tonight that I realized here, in Yosemite, with the Sierra Nevada Mountains all around, the Pale Ale I ordered was indeed a fresh, local brew.” She nodded again, probably only half-understanding my predilection for beer. And again, the beer did not disappoint—a nice appetizer and complement to my dinner.

Twenty minutes later, our server placed two plates before us with perfectly grilled trout, covered in a light garlic, chive, and dill cream sauce, with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables on the side. My sister and I tucked into the tender trout and we both smiled, then closed our eyes savoring the delightful flavor. Food often does that to us. The sun had already set as we cleaned the last bites from our plates. I can’t recall whether we had dessert after dinner; if we did, it was probably good, but now forgotten. However, we both still remember the delicious trout.

Back in our hotel room, we did not stay up late since we were tired from our day’s adventures. The next day was Monday, October 16, 2023, our last chance to see the sights in Yosemite, and we wanted to get an early start for our trip to another remote part of the park: Hetch Hetchy. We also had reservations to dine at the swanky Ahwahnee Hotel, which would keep us out late into the evening. And I remembered the Major League Baseball playoffs resumed on Monday: my Philadelphia Phillies would play their first game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League Championship Series, with the winner advancing to the World Series. How were we going to fit it all in?

(To be continued…)