San Francisco Christmas

Christmas, San Francisco style!!!!!

Kendra and Ryan have arrived for Christmas and so we are San Francisco tourists for a week. Our first stop was a tour of The Rock- Alcatraz! It was first a fort, the third defensive to San Francisco Bay, the first two being either side of the Golden Gate Bridge. The lighthouse was built first, during the Gold Rush days in 1847, to protect the harbour and the increased ship traffic and population. In two years, San Francisco ceased to be a "sleepy outpost of 300" to a "bawdy, glittering home to 20 000". When Civil War broke out in 1861, Alcatraz had 111 smoothbore cannons, rows of open gun emplacements carved out of the island's slopes and a fortification gateway or sally port, protecting the brick citadel that crowned the island's highest point. Military technology advanced too quickly and Alcatraz's defenses became obsolete and so the army formally decomissioned Alcatraz as a fortification in 1907.

However, during the Civil war, soldiers requiring punishment for such offenses as theft, desertion, rape, murder treason etc were confined in a dungeon of sorts in a windowless basement below the sally port. Within a year of the decomissioning, a cellhouse was constructed as the " United States Disciplinary Barracks, Pacific Branch" for objectors of WW1; during the Great Depression, the newly created Bureau of Prisons became interested in the island as a place for a high profile and maximum security facility. In 1934, Alcatraz reopened for the worst of the worst...Al Capone, "Doc" Barker, "Creepy" Karpis, "Machine Gun" Kelly and Robert Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz", all notorious convicts with escape risks and behaviours. Many stories of "escape attempts" have remained with Alcatraz, but to this day, it is believed hat no one ever succeeded. Being isolated with restricted visitations and surrounded by water with strong, cold currents made it difficult for the 14 attempts. In 1963, the prison closed due to increased operating and maintenance costs and inmates were transferred to other institutions.

For a five year period following its closing, Native Americans occupied Alcatraz, but by 1971 it became increasingly more difficult to supply food and water to this isolated community and so they were forced to leave. Thus, in 1972, Congress created the Golden Gate National Recreation Area of which Alcatraz became a part, which is now administered by the National Parks Service.
It is estimated that about one and a half million people visit Alcatraz per year of which we were four. It was a sunny, but cold and windy day today and so we were very happy to end our day with a sourdough bowl of delicious clam chowder from the famous Boudin Sourdough Bakery at Fisherman's Wharf! Do we look a little chilly??????
Merry Christmas from our house to yours! B&B

Sunny California?????

Even in California, where the sun usually shines and the skies are bright blue, we can have snow!!!!!! Monday was a Winter Wonderland! However, by Tuesday morning the snow was totally gone, even though it was still cold. Higher elevations had feet of snow; Oakhurst, the closest town to Yosemite, twelve miles from where we are staying, had a "Chains Required" flashing sign, warning us to install chains for use beyond town. We do not have chains and don't plan to purchase any either! We are NOT supposed to be in snow!!! Even today, chains are required to travel anywhere in the Sierra Nevada Mountains where Coarsegold and Yosemite and many other small towns are located. Of course, Muskoka has much more snow (four feet in two days) than we have seen. This just gives us a "taste" of what we are missing! NOT!!!!!
The citrus farmers were very worried about their crops, a billion dollar business in the San Joachim Valley, and so, irrigated and operated wind turbines to keep the warmer air circulating in sub zero temps, lasting more than six hours. Black ice and snow squalls causing visibility problems closed the nearby Interstate for two days; further south, the "Grapevine" as it is called, over the Tehachapi Mountains, a treacherous section of I-5, is often and was closed because of snowy and windy conditions.
Today, we are back to sunshine and 60 F with reported warming trends...what a welcome treat!

Yosemite Valley

Friday, Dec 2nd, we travelled through Yosemite National Park to Yosemite Village, a 27 mile but one hour drive because of twists and turns and switchbacks. Already many of the roads within the park are closed to traffic and warnings to carry chains are posted.

From Tunnel Vista , these stunning rock formations rise above the Yosemite Village floor 4-6000 feet. El Capitan on the left of Pic 1, described as a "massive granite monolith" measures 3593 feet from base to summit. Rock climbers from all over the globe come to scale this rock face.

Cathedral Rock appears further away but the most famous and distinctive monument is Half Dome, the curved rock on the right of this picture, a strenuous 4733 foot upward climb, not for "the faint of heart". Even pioneer women, although remaining in the family background, hiked this with the advent of bloomers in the late 18oo's.

The year round Bridal Veil Falls, plunges over this precipitous cliff. Winds swirling about the cliff lift and blow the falling water in a delicate free-fall. Although this can easily be seen by car, the best viewpoint is a short hike to its base. Yosemite Falls can also be seen from the valley floor. Yosemite Village includes several businesses...the Welcome Centre, a lodge, a museum and cemetery of pioneers, a medical facility, and the Ansel Adam's gallery of photography and other art exhibits. April - June is reported to be the best time for a visit as waterfalls rage and wildflowers abound. By July, many of the water features are dried up and will only recharge from rain or later, snow accumulation. Because we had an hour's return trip, we had to forgo any hikes in the valley, with a promise to return soon, perhaps earlier in the Fall, a benefit of travelling fulltime.

Yosemite National Park

Not only have we driven among the Giants, we have also walked among them...the majestic Sequoias of the Mariposa Grove number 500 in Yosemite National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Sequoias are none other than California Redwoods with redder bark or tannin, unbelievable in size...diameter, circumference and height. They develop from very humble beginnings, seeds, the size of a flake of oatmeal numbering 2-300, from cones that are about 2 1/2 inches(egg-sized) in length, quite incredible, given the size of these stately trees; in fact, the ponderosa pine cones, are huge by comparison. Bill stands before the root of a fallen tree, just to give size and also to indicate the shallow root system for this giant. We enjoyed a three hour, four mile hike under beautiful, sunny skies, strenuous at times given the elevation, yet exhilerating. Temperatures are cool at the 5000 foot elevation, with some icy sections on the curves of the road. Some of the roads in the park are already closed to traffic in preparation for snowfall expected Monday, Dec. 6th. and will not reopen until late April or May. Thursday, we had driven to Yosemite Village in the Valley, about 25 miles from the gate, a drive that took a good hour because of the twists and turns in the road. At Tunnel Vista, we stopped for the view of the enormous rock formations that protect the Valley.

This is the tree to beat all trees, well named,the Grizzly Giant, 2800 years old. It stands 293 feet tall, 28 feet in diameter with an 88 foot circumference. Its lower limb is a tree in itself, measuring 7 feet in diameter, bigger than any tree in proximity. The "bark" appears spongy, but is very hard and tough at 18 inches thick, protecting the tree from insect infestations, the pileated woodpecker and fire. Control burns occurin the park that clear out the underbrush, allowing new trees to root. Many of these trees stand together as in the Bachelor and Three Graces, which had to share the space and compete for water and nourishment, yet grew to be enormous. Trees of note were named by John Muir and other pioneers of Yosemite in the late 1800's.

The sequoia is fire-resistent and many are scarred by forest fires due to lightning strikes. This California Tunnel Tree, carved out in 1895, is the second; the first, the famous Wawona, carved out in 1881, fell in 1968/69 due to wet and soggy soil conditions, erosion, high winds and the weakening tunnelling itself, and can still be found along the hike. A huge fire scar can be seen above this tunnel and is gradually healing itself as it grows inward over its wound.







An interesting tree formation known as the Clothespin, below, greeted us at the far end of our hike loop. It does remind me of the wooden clothes pegs I used for crafts with children and the ones my grandmother used for hanging laundry on the line. On our way back, we found a sequoia, at
whose base was an inscribed wooden placard, a monument to a Yosemite pioneer, Samual Mather 1867-1930. We look forward to another such hike, if not again this trip, certainly one in the future. Glacier Point, Mirror Lake and a trail to the base of Half Dome are top on the list. There are over 800 miles of hiking trails within Yosemite. Of course, nothing could be better than to eat the calories that we had just burned. We opted for bacon and cheese Angus burgers with zucchini fries from Pete's Place in nearby Oakhurst, enough for leftovers. Simply delicious!










For more pics, take a look at: (copy and paste into address bar)

http://picasaweb.google.ca/brenda.southwood/YosemiteNaptionalParkPt2?authkey=Gv1sRgCLyXwsDoobO88wE#