Yosemite National Park — Day 3

Tuesday (July 25) was another early morning. We left our campsite about 0720 and drove up to Glacier Point, which took almost an hour and a half. Near the top, we stopped at a viewpoint not far from the Point. Despite being hazy out, the view was spectacular. This was a great shot of the hike that Eric, Greg and Heath did yesterday – Vernal Falls is the lower waterfall, Nevada Falls was the higher one, and Half-Dome was on top. 

After a quick photo, we piled in the car and drove the final short stretch of road to the peak. The Glacier Point parking lot led to a paved, gently sloping trail. This photo was taken near the beginning of the trail, looking east, and was the same set of waterfalls/Half-Dome as pictured above.

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Yosemite National Park – Day 1

We left San Diego on Saturday, July 22 and made the 7.5 hour drive northeast to an AirBnB in Raymond, CA. We met up with our friends, Greg and Heath, there.

On Sunday, we were up at dawn and out the door by 0700. We skipped breakfast, deciding to eat in the park. It took about an hour to get from the AirBnB to the south entrance (on route 41) of Yosemite National Park. We had to waiting in line a little over a half hour, and we were inside the park by 0830. 

Our first stop was Mariposa Grove, where there was a cluster of redwood trees (AKA Sequoia trees). The parking lot for Mariposa Grove was just beyond the park entrance. From the parking lot, a shuttle bus took visitors up to the hiking trails around the redwood trees. The trail we chose had a noticeable incline, but the trail was graded well, so it wasn’t particularly steep.

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Baja California Summary/Highlights/Lowlights

On July 6, 2022, Kosmos set off on a Sea of Cortez adventure! We stopped in Ensenada to check into Mexico. From there, we did an 828 nautical mile (nm), 5-day non-stop passage to the La Paz area. We spent almost 8-months in the Sea of Cortez. We broke up the trip back to Ensenada into three legs, each 2 days.

Fiesta de Dia de Los Muertos on October 28, 2022

People usually ask us the same questions in the same order, so we’ll answer them in order:

Q: What was the scariest thing that happened? A: We were in a hurricane (though it was downgraded to a tropical storm as it was literally over us).

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Keith’s Thoughts on Baja/Réflexions de Keith sur Baja

Overall, I like Baja California, Mexico It has it’s good parts and it’s bad parts. It has beautiful scenery (mostly rock formations… most plants we found were cactus or dead). 

Isla Coronados, August 4, 2022

Dans l’ensemble, j’ai aimé Baja California. Mexico a des bons cotés et des moins bons cotés. Il y a de très beaux paysages (plutôt des formations rocheuses…. La plupart des plantes qu’on a trouvé étaient des cactus ou étaient mortes). 

San Francisquito, August 26, 2022

As for civilization, La Paz is nice with good food and a beautiful malecon. Loreto is a good town, not too big and too small. Bahia  de Los Angeles is super small, but it is a good town nonetheless. But my favorite town is Santa Rosalia. It has good food, especially pastries, and is cute and small.  

Santa Rosalia’s waterfront on south end of town, October 10, 2022
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