Up late and reached Yosemite about 12.30pm. It was raining when we left Oakhurst and now the weather wasn’t so good. It was snowing but we were after all 3,000 or so feet up in the mountains so maybe that’s normal for this time of year. At the entrance to the park we were given an information pack that included a large yellow poster with the words:
“WARNING – YOU ARE ENTERING ACTIVE BEAR AND MOUNTAIN LION COUNTRY”
Bloody hell, bloody hell!
After driving a short distance into the park we stopped at a General Store & Post Office stuck in the middle of nowhere to buy snacks and drinks for the rest of the day. Pauline asked the man in the store if she could buy some stamps and he said, “No, you have to go next door to the Post Office for stamps.” She went out and walked into the Post Office. Suddenly a hatch opened and it was the same man. “Hello,” he said, “I guess you met my brother next door did you? What can I get ya?”
A little backswood humour there.
We needed to drive east across and through Yosemite which would take us up across the Sierra Nevada and out the other side so we could then drive through Death Valley and finally on to Las Vegas. The only road that went that way was Highway 120 which crossed the park from west to east. Before we came we knew that this road was quite often closed in winter so as we’d entered the park we made a special point of checking the notices that were posted at the entrance, among them was one that said ‘Highway 120 – Open’. We drove up through the mountains between 3,000 and 5,000 feet above sea level on steep winding roads and through swirling snow when after about two hours of driving we couldn’t seem to find the turnoff to the 120 east road. We knew from the map where it should be but we couldn’t see any sign of it at all. We kept driving and eventually decided that we must have missed it so I turned round and we headed back the way we’d just come. Still no sign of it so we thought we’d just made a mistake and perhaps we hadn’t driven along far enough the first time before we turned round, so turning round again we carried on past where we turned round the first time but still didn’t come across any signs for the 120. The weather was worsening by now and we were getting slightly worried. In desperation we pulled into a lay-by behind a park ranger’s truck and Pauline got out to ask for directions. She came back saying that the only person in the truck was a Japanese woman who was sitting in it waiting for her husband after their car had had an accident further along the road. She’d said the ranger would be back soon so we sat and waited.
Sure enough a few minutes later, a figure materialised out of the swirling snow, now falling harder than ever, and walked towards our car. “We’re looking for the turnoff to the 120 east,” said Pauline, “we thought it was back there but we can’t seem to find it.”
It was a lady warden and she said, “It is back there but it’s closed. There should have been a sign as you entered the park The 120 west is open but the 120 east is closed. The reason you didn’t see any road signs for it is because we’ve taken ‘em down.”
“All it said was 120 open,” said Pauline, “if we’d known the 120 east was closed we wouldn’t have driven through the park for two hours to find it. We would have stayed on the highway and bypassed the park altogether.” The quickest way out of this was to turn round, go back for two hours along the road we’d came in on, exit the park and carry on. There was no point in driving onwards along this road because it just took us out of the park in a westerly direction, totally the wrong way.
We told the ranger we’d turn round and go back when she looked at the tyres and said, “I cain’t let you drive back the way you just come cos you don’ have any chains and the weather’s worsenin’. Carryin’ on is your only option, the road up ahead is still passable and not likely to deteriorate in the near future.”
Silly us, I thought, first we forget to pack our anoraks and gloves for Santa Barbara, now we’ve forgotten to put snow chains in our cases. Will we ever learn?
So we had to continue going north and then west, exiting the park further up miles and miles out of our way and putting our carefully prepared plans all over the place. Once out of the park it would be another five hours or more of driving to get ourselves back to the same position we were in this morning when we left Oakhurst and we still then had to drive through Death Valley and on to Las Vegas by tomorrow night. It was looking more and more like we wouldn’t have time to detour through Death Valley and reach Las Vegas on time. We headed for Fresno for the night and looked forward to a further day of driving and nothing else.
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