Day 11 • Hollister

Day 11: Tuesday, August 4—

The breakfast fare at the Vagabond consisted of sweet rolls and some coffee. I grabbed a couple of the rolls for later, and we headed to the Denny’s restaurant right next door.

While enjoying our big breakfast, a California Highway Patrol Officer sat down at the booth next to ours. This thrilled Travis, for apparently, his morning television fare during the trip included the show CHIPS, and as a result he’d taken a shine to California’s finest. And now a real-life CHIP was sitting a few feet away. I thought about asking the officer if he’d mind if I introduced Travis, but before I had time to consider the idea, a woman walked up with her two sons and told the officer what great fans her boys were of the show CHIPS. I didn’t want to stand in line (and be more of a bother to the fellow), and I doubted Travis did either.

After breakfast, we were back on U.S. Route 395 northbound. The next town and our next stop, about 60 miles up the road, was the hamlet of Lee Vining. Besides its unusual name, the hamlet could boast of having a house on a back street with a lovely view of Mono Lake and a side yard full of dilapidated farm equipment, as well as a couple of gift shops. The first shop didn’t have much of interest, but the other had a Davy Crockett coon skin cap made of real fur, most likely rabbit, for about $10. We were about to buy it, but Eric’s fussiness compelled us to move on.

Moving on took us higher and higher into the Sierra Nevada Mountains and across Tioga Pass toward nearby Yosemite National Park. We stopped for a looksie and photo of Travis by the Ellery Lake Lookout. The lake and mountains beyond offered a splendid backdrop to the cherubic youngster. Soon after we reached the Yosemite Tioga Pass park entrance. At $20, the park’s admission fee was the highest we’d encountered, and the entrance itself was at the highest elevation of the trip at 9,943 feet. Once inside the park, the road gradually descended. Our first stop was at another mountain lake called Tenaya Lake. One end had a beach, and several people were in the water. We decided to let the boys join them. While doing so, they found a child’s raft, which presumably had been abandoned, and had fun with it. On the other side of the road from the lake were a couple of granite domes, as I believe they’re called. They consisted of bare rock rising, nearly vertical, several hundred feet. They were interesting to look at, but I didn’t give them much thought until I spotted some moving specks. I dug out my telephoto camera lens, and it revealed that those moving specks were mountain climbers. What the lens couldn’t discern was whether they were the gutsiest people on the planet or the craziest.

Our next stop in this amazing park was a very brief one at the White Wolf campground. It had a restaurant, but it wasn’t open at the time. So we continued on to Tuolumne Grove, parked, and hiked 1.25 miles down a wide footpath into the valley. At the end were the biggest trees I ever saw. They were Giant Sequoias, and they were not only the tallest and widest trees I ever saw, but they were also the noblest. Then we hiked up that wide 1.25-mile footpath. Most of the way, I had one of the boys on my shoulders. It was a quite a workout.

The Valley Visitor Center was our next stop, which we reached in good time. I point out that we made it in good time because I’d read an article in USA Today about the huge traffic jams in the major national parks, and Yosemite in particular. Fortunately, traffic wasn’t bad during our visit, probably owing in large part to it being a weekday. We bought some food at the visitor’s center with the intent of having a picnic dinner. Then we looked for a good spot near the Pohono Bridge and a point called Valley View to have that picnic. The first place I tried was far from perfect—just a few feet off the road, an obstructed view of El Capitan, and no good area to spread out the food. The second place was perfection—a clear view of El Capitan a little to our left, Bridalveil Falls a shade to our right, the Merced River right in front, and beauty all around. I took several photos at this idyllic spot, and they’re all splendid, but the one of Sharon, Travis, and Eric unaware of the camera while they are engaged with something in the river is as good of a photograph as I’ve taken. And all I did was point and shoot. Nature and my family did the rest.

After our picnic dinner, we had what seemed to be conflicting objections. We wanted to get out of the mountains before night fell, but we also wanted to soak in the rest of park at a leisurely pace. We managed to do both. The last stretch through the park and for a good many miles thereafter followed the Merced River via California Route 140. This was beautiful country and all the more so in the waning hours of daylight on a gorgeous summer day. We left the hills behind as dusk fell upon the land and soon after reached the town of Mariposa, which looked inviting with its Old West trappings, yet we kept on going. Forty miles further on we reached Merced, where we loaded up on gas and beer. Merced was not inviting, so we kept on moving, only now on California 59 and then California 152.

By this point it was getting late, so our objective was to find a place to spend the night. Before we found one, however, there were a couple more sights to behold. We skirted the huge San Luis Reservoir, which shimmered in the moonlight. Then we wound through the golden-grass covered Santa Clara hills, which even at this late hour were awash in golden moonlit hues. It was about midnight by the time we pulled into Hollister. Given the hour, we couldn’t be and weren’t fussy about accommodations. We stayed at the Hollister Inn. Were it not for the Anasazi Inn, this place would have won the award as the biggest dive of the trip. Sharon helped unpack and then went right to sleep. I had a ciggie in the parking lot, drank a few beers, studied the map, and watched some TV before joining her.