Day 34 Yosemite and Stanislaus

I left my campsite and drove back up the Pacific Coast Highway to Monterey again and then headed east towards Yosemite. On that drive I passed through Castroville, CA, the self-proclaimed “Artichoke Center of the World,” as the area produces most of the artichokes in the U.S. You might recall my earlier blog when I poked fun at odd festivals in Hallmark movies. Well, Castroville hosts an Annual Artichoke Festival!

I also passed many lakes and reservoirs, and posted a photo of the Don Pedro Lake, from the Sierra Nevada Foothills, due east of Modesto, California. It is a reservoir and a major recreation area, with 160 miles of shoreline.

I made it to Yosemite National Park mid-afternoon. I originally wanted to camp there for the night, but all campsites were booked months in advance. I entered into the Hetch Hetchy entrance in the northern part of the park and drove along 15 miles of curvy, narrow roads again (sigh) to get to the Hetch Hetchy Valley and Reservoir. In 1923, the O’Shaughnessy Dam was completed on the Tuolumne River, flooding the entire valley under the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Over the past few decades, there has been an ongoing debate about whether to remove the dam and return the valley to its original state.

I left Yosemite and drove north to the Stanislaus National Forest, and its Pinecrest Campground for the night. The mountains, forests, and lakes throughout the drive were again magnificent. I posted pictures of the Don Pedro Reservoir, the O’Shaughnessy Dam, and more scenery, including the large San Luis Reservoir outside of Yosemite.