California! Yosemite National Park

September 4, 2026: It was 41 degrees last night in the desert outside of Bodie! Brrrrr...My sinuses and lungs hurt from the dust. I got up in the middle of the night and turned on my air purifier which helped a lot.

I couldn't decide where to go first. I didn't want to do Yosemite on the weekend for fear of heavy traffic, but I didn't want to drive two hours out of my way to see something else then come all the way back...so I went to Yosemite! 

So beautiful! Gorgeous drive! This might be my favorite national park! For a Friday morning, there was no traffic entering the east side and driving through on Highway 120. I had seen some videos of bumper to bumper traffic, but I think waiting until September helped. Some of the trailhead parking lots were full early in the morning.

Tenaya Lake in Yosemite

I love the big white rocks all over.
Nice contrast with green trees.

I drove to Yosemite Valley. The valley has huge rock cliffs, green trees, and a river running down the middle. It was so gorgeous!

And then there was El Capitan! I've read about and seen videos on this rock climbing challenge. I always wished when I was younger I would have gotten into rock climbing. (I dated a rock climber once. Short lived.) Maybe I would have never had the energy. I don't now! It was hard enough to hike to the base (only .4 miles), let alone have the energy to climb a rock mountain! I can't imagine the stamina needed to scale the wall. A friend of mine told me thirty people have died trying. I sat on a log staring at it for a while. I could hear clicking or tapping, but couldn't see where it was coming from so did not see climbers on the face.

El Capitan

I left and opted to drive Highway 140 to Merced, but there were lots of warnings on a wildfire in my path called The Colorado Fire. I asked at a local store and they said the highway is open and shouldn't be a problem. I was nervous!  I imagined the wind blowing the raging fire right onto my van, surrounding me with no way of escape as it chokes the life out of me! Why do I always imagine the worst scenario?? The drive through the river canyon was gorgeous although there were two sections of single lane "Prepare to Stop. Flagger Ahead" signs. Most of the fire was up on a mountain top, but I passed one section that was still smoldering down by the highway. No problem though! It's an adventure!

Merced seems very organized, clean and spread out with all kinds of amenities. The four-way stop signs nearly drove me insane, but they are ALL OVER California! The highway was 65 mph and every mile was a four-way stop! WHY? I'm guessing California doesn't like traffic lights, but on a highway??

In Merced, I shopped at Sprouts. I don't like Sprouts so I didn't buy enough, much to my dismay later. I bought some new solar rat blinkers at Harbor Freight and took the van into Discount Tires (called America's Tires in California) for a free tire rotation. I thought they did oil changes. No. What a waste of time. I could have gotten a free tire rotation with an oil change in a lot places. Oh well. Live and learn! I'll have to go some place else for the oil change.

Since I dropped in and didn't want to stay overnight in Merced for an appointment the next day, they couldn't get me in until 5pm. I should have left. I thought about it. I selected an overnight spot on Highway 180 on the way to Kings Canyon National Park in Google Maps, left around 5pm, but by the time I was getting close to it, it was 8:30pm and pitch black. I couldn't see the side of the highway to find the spot. I found something that might have been someone's driveway entrance. I didn't care. It was too dark. This is the first time all summer I got stuck driving in the dark. Never again! I hate driving in an unknown location in the dark!!