Monday, June 16, 2008

Yosemite's Relation to Transit

This weekend I was in Yosemite camping with my siblings. There always seems to be a transit twist with my trips and this one was no different, even in the wilderness where there was no cell phone reception or access to technology but there were buses.

On the first day we went to Yosemite Valley. If you haven't been I certainly recommend it. It's stunningly beautiful and made me wish that I could still run twenty miles at a time, specifically during this picture...

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After the meadow, we drove to a parking lot and left our car. We hopped on the bus and it took us to a trail head for mirror lake. It was amazing and we got a good view of the lake's reflection of the mountains.

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The next day we went to Hetch Hetchy, where San Francisco gets its water. Down stream that water gets turned into hydroelectric power for Muni Metro and trolleybuses. You'll have to turn your screen sideways for the video of Wampama falls.

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All in all it was a fun trip.

5 comments:

crzwdjk said...

I think the most relevant bit to transit is the fact that you drove there. Because it's difficult to impossible to get there by transit from the Bay Area: it'd take me 8 and a half hours from home to there via Amtrak (and Ambus). And that's the problem: it's hard to get to all the neat natural stuff in California other than by car.

Pantograph Trolleypole said...

Very true. I probably would have taken transit if I could. Although it would have been difficult with all the equipment we had for camping.

FLUBBER said...

www.yarts.com (Yosemite transit agency) the cool thing about yarts is that they'll pick you up from Merced, which happens to be a stop on the Amtrak San Joaquin route. Meaning that you can get there from oakland or sacramento (or bakersfield) without driving. Since the train has a bike rack, you can also bring your bike for getting around the park. However, due to a recent mud slide, YARTS is now running buses w/o bike racks, a situation which they say should be remedied in the next few months.

FLUBBER said...

@Arcady
why 8 hours? the san joaquin will get you from Oakland to Merced in just under 3 hours, and the connection with yarts will add on about another 2:45.
So, you can do it in under 6 assuming the connections work out well. Driving would take at least 4.

crzwdjk said...

I'm not in Oakland though. I'm counting the time from my local VTA station and the published Ambus connection from the San Joaquins. And even if I still lived in SF, 6 and a half hours compared to four is still a long time.