Yo's Other Side

There was a wind in Lee Vining this morning (Yo East entrance) that was like the wind at the beginning of the Wizard of Oz: swirling, gusting, blowing hard and with force. It blew a jacket from the Porsche parked next to me at the El Mono, and sent it half way to Nevada. Yes, this is California, and there are Porsches even at $45 No Bug* hotels. In California, there are almost as many Porsches as there are jackets.

The helpful El Mono owner doubles as the barista at the Latte Da, since the whole café and hotel front-office operation fit in a 12 x 12 room. She whipped me up a great latte and a homemade pumpkin-spice breakfast cake that was wicked awesome. It was evident that she tests her baking recipes with repetition and diligence.

I drove through swirling snow up to Tioga Pass,
hoping that sunny skies would be celebrating on the west side of the pass. No dice. More snow, clouds, high winds, all the way down to Tuolumne Meadows. The rocks at 9,000’ had a couple inches of snow already, and my hiking route to Clouds Rest was a long, high, exposed granite ridge. Snow and granite are a bad mix, so this hike was a no-go. I’m getting better at turning around than I want to be. The pretty forest ranger suggested it was a good day for a walk in Tuolumne Meadow, but I don’t wanna take a walk in a snowy meadow.


Sunny and windy in Lee Vining, snowy and windy in Yo's mountains.




John Muir would be disappointed in me, but I put Yosemite in the rear view mirror, and headed east out of California. Oooh, in the scope of this trip, this is momentous, oui?