Day 8 to Groveland

We left LeeVining this morning and headed over the Tioga Pass into Yosemite National Park.  The drive was pretty easy compared to some other roads we've done.  Yosemite seemed pretty crowded, but it is a holiday weekend. According to Marjorie, everything at Yosemite looks like a postcard.

The first place we stopped was Tolumne Meadows visitor center.  We went for a short hike to see Soda Springs.  It was so refreshing to have temperatures in the 60s instead of the 100s!  Rebecca wanted to put on a sweatshirt.  Along the way we saw some wildlife:

A herd of young bucks.

A ground-dwelling rodent.

Soda Spring was pretty cool - the water bubbles out of the ground and it's naturally carbonated.  According to the signs there, scientists don't know why it's bubbly.  John Muir and friends found it in the 1800s.  The meadows area also has a cabin and many other trails.  We saw a string of pack horses heading out to supply a camp somewhere.

This part of the spring is in a building.

And here's the rest of it.

The scenery here in the meadow area was just beautiful so we took our time on the 1-mile hike.

Lots of fish in this water!

After driving a little longer, we came upon Lake Tenaya so we had to stop again.

And Rebecca had to get in it!

The water was pretty cold, but really clear and beautiful.  There was one family swimming, but most people just stopped to admire the lake.

Time to get back in the car :(

Now we're doing laundry at Yosemite Pines RV Park in Groveland.  (The internet is stronger in the laundry room.) We got here too early to check in, and Jeff wanted to get an oil change for the van.  We ended up driving over the mountain to get to Sonora for an oil change at Wal-Mart.  That's all I'm going to say about that.  It was not a fun afternoon.  But when we got back to camp, we cooked our breakfast from Moab and had pancakes, eggs and bacon for dinner with grapes and juice.  Rebecca road her scooter a little and they both drew in their journals.  Now the girls are in the yurt and getting ready for bed.  And we're still enjoying having a little chill in the air.

I'll post pictures of the campground tomorrow.  Hopefully, we'll be joined by Jen Hlavin and family. They planned to come out today but their kids are sick.