Plans Don't Always Work Out

By Mary

OK....today started out being a trip to Yosemite National Park.....but......15.5 miles from the camper a sign said Route 120 was CLOSED. Since that was the road we were taking into the park our plans now have turned to shit. The only good thing I can say about this is....good thing the sign was only 15.5 miles away instead of 100 miles down the road.

OK on to plan B, courtesy of Rex. Now we are going to Donner Pass.. Think fast...think history class...what is Donner Pass? Yup the cannibal expedition. And after seeing it I am sure I would have been one of the ones that did not survive. There is a monument there that has a base 22 FEET tall and then the sculpture of the Donner family. The 22 feet represents the depth of the snow that winter. Yuck, Yuck, and Yuck again!! Another point is that this monument was erected in 1918...that was a surprise to us!! The state of California runs the Donner Museum there as part of their state park system. Although it doesn't cost anything to go through the museum, it does cost $6 to park in their parking lot!! I must say it was the first time I had seen snowshoes made for horses and a picture of them being worn. Pretty interesting.

There is also a nature trail there which we decided to go on since we always have our trekking polls in the trunk and ready. As we asking a few questions of the ranger regarding the trail, she mentioned that on Friday, May 12 a bear and her cub were sighted on the trail...that certainly got our attention! We did go on the trail until we got to the section that was underwater, and decided to just walk around the park. Thankfully, we didn't personally have a bear sighting.