Reflections Of The Calnevari Roadtrip: Do Bears Shit in The Wood?

Monday June 20th 2011
Lake Tahoe - Bishop Via Yosemite National Park 325 Miles

The alarm was set for 7.30am Monday morning, as we wanted to be on the road early for the long drive to Bishop via The Yosemite National Park.

The motel’s owner advised us to take a trip there, saying that route 120 had only just reopened after the winter snow (this was June!)

The detour to the Yosemite National Park didn't look very far from Lake Mono when we looked on the map but it turned out to be a one hundred and fifty mile round trip by the time we got back to the US 395

Bridgeport, north of Lake Mono

It would take to long to describe the varying scenery we saw along the way, I wanted to stop the car every mile or so to take photos. We clocked up the first 1,000 miles in the Sebring after arriving in Yosemite. With the top down the panoramic views we got were fantastic, it was hard at times to look ahead at the road rather than above and to the sides! Sharon was thrilled to see her first waterfall soon after entering the park which was tiny compared to the Yosemite Falls which we would discover later on.

We possibly should have booked an overnight stop in the village, although I don't think camping was an option for Sharon especially after hearing stories of bears entering people's tents in the night and attacking them, along her experience of the public toilets there. On reflection I think that she’s more of a city break girl! The only disapointment of the day was that we didn’t actually see any bears.

The Merced River with the Yosemite Falls in the background

Yosemite Falls closer up

Park & Ride

Yosemite Falls from ground level

Heading back to the US 395

Gone fishing

The Tioga Pass Eastern entry point (or in our case exit)
for Yosemite National Park

Sharon took over the controls of the Seebring once we made it back to Lake Mono and drove the rest of the way to Bishop, finally arriving at our hotel, The Ramada at 8.30pm. Bishop is a small town in the middle of nowhere populated mainly it seemed by hundreds of HGV's and their drivers.