Cali Wandering

Last week I ambled up to the Sierra to meet some friends and tour Yosemite.  On the way up I encountered threatening skies over the San Joaquin valley...no rain though.

The rain came in Yosemite, where the falls were rolling.  However, at this time of year...mid May...the falls are usually a lot stronger than this.  The valley was green, with flowers and streams flowing nicely in an orderly fashion.  In a normal year the streams are, however, rather disorderly, raging all over the place, inundating meadows, racing through the woods over the trails.  It's a dry year in 2014.

The Lizards hanging out at the Merced River near Happy Isles.

Vernal Falls.  We hiked up the Mist trail as far as the bridge, but were too lazy (old, fat, outta shape, didn't want to get wet?) to go any farther.

The Ahwanee from inside...

And out.  Only issue I have is that you need to wear a tie to dinner.  So, I don't do dinner at the Ahwanee.

The notorious Devils Slide section of highway 1 between San Francisco and Half Moon Bay has finally been bypassed by a tunnel.  Now the highway bed has been transformed into a hiking/biking trail and you can stroll far above the sea and past old World War II defensive installations like this one.

The road was frequently washed out over the decades.  When the bike trail was built the hillside was retrofitted.  These are bolts driven into the slope to stabilize it.  How well they work will be determined by the next really wet winter...if we ever get one!