Days 33 & 34. Getting to Yosemite National Park, CA

We left Sonoma and the Wine Country behind and took a rather convoluted route in an easterly direction to Angels Camp, CA. We wanted to avoid Sacramento and found a pleasant route to take us over to Route 49. Otherwise known as the Gold Chain Highway, this route passes through many of the historic gold mining communities of the 1849 Gold Rush. It was fun to pass through these communities and observe how they made the most of their heritage.

We arrived in the small town of Angels Camp named after Henry Angell, a native of Rhode Island,  who set up a tent store on the banks of the creek. The placers around his camp were productive but gave out after a few years, and the population began to dwindle until gold-bearing quartz veins were discovered in the town, which brought people back. As we approached town we kept seeing placards for "Frogtown" which evoked some curiosity as to why any town would name itself so. We then discovered, much to our amusement, that Angels Camp is otherwise known as "Frogtown"! This is because Mark Twain based his short story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" on a story he claimed he heard at the Angels Hotel in 1865. The event is commemorated with a Jumping Frog Jubilee each May at the Calaveras County Fairgrounds, just east of the city. 

Each year the winner and his frog get their names on a plaque in the pavement. Those frogs jump a long way!

Downtown certainly had an "Old West" feel to it.

We were lucky enough to find the most amazing Mexican Restaurant and had the best Mexican meal of our lives!! It seemed a lot further to walk back to our Hotel after dinner than before it.

We were up early the next day and headed to the Sierra Mountains. We have been anxiously monitoring the active fires and knew we would be passing fairly close to some major sites. Sure enough we soon headed into a very smoky area.

 Smoke from the Summit Complex of fires.

Thankfully, this was the worst we have encountered so far on this trip. Unfortunately, it wasn't very pleasant riding through this. We knew this area was going to be bad Yosemite itself has a lot of fire activity close by. Because of this we adjusted our plans again and will leave the Yosemite area a day early. But once past this area we started climbing higher and were eventually above the smoke.

We rode up and over Sonora Pass, elevation 9624', the second highest pass in Sierra Nevada. Views on the way down, Mono Lake in the background.

Then we sped south down Route 395 to Lee Vining, made a right turn and headed up Tioga Pass, the highest Sierra pass at 9943'. 

At the pass, we checked into the park.

And then continued up into the slightly snowy peaks. It was lovely and cool!

Once over the pass we began to see some of the Alpine Meadows this part of Yosemite is known for.

We stopped for lunch just below Lembert Dome - spectacular! We were lucky to have the sun come out as we snacked.

After lunch we had to get down to business and ride through the Park to get to our Hotel in nearby Mariposa before it got too late. We rode through the Toulumne Meadows which were beautiful and we were pleased that the park did not seem too busy or smoky. The cloud cover certainly did not detract from the beauty of this place.

Sadly this was the only photo we took as we rode the incredible Tioga road down to Big Oak Flat road and out of the park via El Portal Road. The rest of the park will have to wait until tomorrow.