Sep 21, 2014

Yosemite National Park- A Heritage Vacation- Day One

Several months ago I gave a Primary sharing time about family history and shared a trip that my grandparents made to Yosemite in 1912. That started a hankering in my soul that needed to be satisfied. I knew that at 62 I would finally qualify for my Senior America the Beautiful pass. So with those two pieces of information I cooked up a Yosemite trip with Rebekah (who lives an hour away from Yosemite). I just wanted to go back needed to make a heritage vacation with Bill and Elsie in mind.

They traveled by horse and wagon and it took them 4 days to make the trip from Fresno to Yosemite. They camped near where their great-granddaughter would one day live on the second night.


We traveled from Yosemite Lakes Park, where Bekah lives, in Elio and made the trip in about one hour. But that first glimpse of Yosemite Valley is still just as breathtakingly beautiful.


Since there isn't an easy way from Bek's house to Utah (every route is 13 hours!) they frequently cut through the Park and then head out across Nevada and Utah on Hwy 6. They are always in a hurry to leave or get home when they pass through Tuolumne Meadows and don't take time to stop. We decided that would be would be our first destination. On our way we stopped at Olmsted Point for our first hike.


My beautiful Bekah... she kindly hiked at my Grammie pace.


Our next stop was Tuolumne Meadows. We hiked around the meadows, not across, and back to the Tuolumne River. The river was unusually low due to the severe drought affecting California.


The temperature was much cooler here, for which we were grateful.

I'll be back in the next few days to post more about our adventures.

2 comments:

NanaSue said...

Joanie, i don't think you realize you are combining two trips they made into one story. The first trip was in 1911 shortly after they got married, the photo of the wagon. The second trip that you referenced in Primary (about planting seeds) occurred in 1912, and that's when they rode the mules. Glad you and Bek get to remember their adventures together.

glynrd said...

You are so fortunate to visit there. This is one of my favorite places. Reminds me that I need to get out more.