Before we leaving to next destination, we spent another few hours sightseeing around Yosemite Valley. We grabbed the map, hopped on the free shuttle bus to visitor centre and took one tour package- Valley Floor tour which claim to introduce most famous sightseeing points in Yosemite Valley. Well, it was not a wise choice because the route and the sightseeing places were exactly the same we went through yesterday.
Without much excitement from this tour, we decided to explore several short trails within Yosemite Valley. First be the Yosemite Lower Fall, which only walking distance of 15 min away from visitor centre. The trail path was clean and well-paved, and the streams from Lower Fall was so strong that we can hear the cracking and bashing sound of water even there is quite distance away.
We moved on to next trail to look for Mirror Lake but we mistakenly chosen the wrong trail – a trail with many fresh and stingy mule fences, that’s really not a pleasant smell. The 5 mile loop supposed bring us to mirror lake reached a dead end because of the rock fall. We returned and used another better trail to reach mirror lake. The lake isn’t big as we thought, but the calm water reflected a spectacular view of surrounding cliffs in Yosemite.
It was a pleasure to visit this park except the awful smell of mule fences. We then left the park on 4pm, and heading to next destination – the Mammoth Lakes. We’re supposed to go to Mammoth from Yosemite via Tioga pass and June lake loop which take only 2 hours driving. Unexpectedly, we’re told the road was closed due to snowing. Gosh, isn’t now the summer, how come there is snow in Caribbean seasoned California? We decided to use another route, but that will take us 8 hours to reach Mammoth.
It maybe not a good idea to drive for another 8 hours after a tiring trekking in Yosemite, but we decided to do so partly because we booked the room already. Initially, we chose to use Hwy 108 (Sonora Pass) because it’s the nearest route after Tioga Pass from Yosemite. Before Hwy 108, we went through Hwy 49 and reached Sonora, and it was a scenic but steeply route, and some even with turning curve of only 10 degree!
After 3 hours, we finally reached Sonora and about to enter Hwy 108. A shocking news from local folks, we were told that Hwy 108 was also closed due to winter season. Again!? We can’t use the GPS because it always guide us to use the shortest road, which is Tioga pass. Instead, we bought a map and that’s really a “back to old time” road trip, and search again the alternative route to reach Mammoth. We moved on, and this time we going to use Hwy 88 from Jackson.
It was already 10 PM when we arrived Jackson, a small town hiding in California’s Sierra Nevada Valley. Yet, we no idea how long it will take us to reach Mammoth from Jackson. We started worry whether our drivers (Dad and Sam) can continue driving even they said they can go ahead, but their exhausted look didn’t convince us. We gave up to continue today’s trip to Mammoth, and spent a night at Jackson’s Holiday Inn Express Hotel.
Conclusion of the day: An unexpected route change in today’s trip, we know that will be more surprise for next coming days. =)
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