​The Bennett Juniper is the oldest and largest known juniper of its species. Twelve and a half miles of forest service roads will put you at the doorstep of this protected 80’ tall behemoth that is estimated to be over 4000 years old! Two minutes of walking on a well-graded trail will put you in the shade of one of the most magnificently gnarled trees you’ll ever see. 
Once you visit the juniper, return to the spur road and turn left instead of returning to the main 5N01 road.  Take the small spur north about a half mile to its cul-de-sac end and enjoy a lunch while taking-in the glorious views of the Dardanelles and the Stanislaus River canyon. This lunch spot sits on a volcanic mudflow deposit that bulldozed some trees as it covered this area 10.5 million years ago. As a consequence there are many small pieces of very white petrified wood scattered about the hillside. There are worse ways to spend 30 minutes than perusing a hill for ancient forest bits. Please only take photos, though.

For specific directions and more info on the tree, visit the SAVE THE REDWOODS site.
 

Our first visit to Yosemite during the time of COVID. We were able to score one of the 1500 limited park entry passes online. This was an exceptionally long day-trip that left Turlock at 7:30am and returned home at 9:45pm. My dad and I were able to reach the fishing hole I wanted to share with him, but encroaching lightning limited us to 10 casts and several missed strikes.  We ate a TO GO order from the Whoa Nellie Deli on the Mono Lake bluff and headed home over Sonora Pass where the temperatures were 50 degrees cooler than Turlock!

A quick trip to a mostly snow-less Yosemite Valley a few days after the start of the New Year.  Highlight of the day was seeing a large buck mosey along a trail.  Close second was seeing Grandma attempt to eat an entire plate of Ahwahnee Hotel pulled-pork nachos. 

Zephyr learned a great lesson about why we should always take the road less-traveled in natural areas today (safety permitting, of course).  Instead of taking the short trail to the Sousa Marsh viewing platform, I convinced him to take the trail along the irrigation ditch that supplies that make the wetlands wet.  (Sadly, the ditch likely has more water flowing through it than the San Joaquin River that meanders just several hundred meters away). 

As we walked along the maintenance road/trail we heard a very large splash coming from a stand of fennel.  We immediately looked for a clear view to see what fell in the water.  It turned out to be a friendly beaver.  My immediate reaction was trying to analyze its swimming technique and to scrutinize its nose & tail to make sure it wasn't a nutria. Luckily for everyone, the beaver was a beaver and we were very happy!

Other cool sightings today were two deer and a great snowy egret that we got to watch spear and eat a fish!

Here are the photos from our absolutely perfect Labor Day weekend camping trip to Lee Vining.  With Motel 6 going for $160/night we opted to camp at the Mono RV Park group tent site for $28/night and eat breakfast at Nicely's and dinner at the Whoa Nellie Deli.  I had not anticipated all of the Burning Man traffic on 395. A huge chunk of the Burners were from SoCal, I guess.  Although Z had a rough first night sleeping, we all managed to hike the extremely steep trail to Gardisky Lake on Sunday with smiles and a sense of awe.  

​We were rewarded with immaculate views from both sides of the lake as well as an abundance of sierra tree frogs hopping out of the meadows.   After dinner we headed down to the South Tufa parking area to watch the stars for a few minutes.