Yosemite - YES

The first day was pretty brutal, we drove almost 600 miles, the first 6 hours in temperatures up to 110F.  

The LD Comfort cool gear we used was fine when it was wet, but it dries out more often than we wanted to stop.

We made it to San Bernadino, where we were able to escape the heat by taking a scenic route up into the mountains past Silverwood Lake.








Twisties and cooler temps... we needed that!  We finished up the day by driving to Bakersfield.

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The second day was a run from Bakersfield up through Sequoia National Park and on to Fresno.
We stopped to visit my nephew on the way into the park and then drove some great twisties.






The trees are amazing.

We even got to drive through a tree!

Adjectives fail me... I think Yosemite is the most amazing places on earth.

We rode 2 hours from Fresno to catch this first glimpse of Yosemite Valley just before we went through the tunnel.





Everywhere you look, it's AMAZING!  This video is from the meadow at the entrance. There was a crowd of people watching El Capitan climbers through telescopes and binoculars.



My nephew joined us for the ride into Yosemite, here we are standing in front of Bridal Veil Falls. Not much water this time of year, but still a beautiful place!




After checking into our cabin tent and a meal, we decided to go up to Glacier Point to watch the sunset and full moon rise.




Sunset is spectacular, bathing the stone with first a yellow light, then a pink light. You can just barely see the moon rising in the notch to the right of Half Dome in the second picture.

We left Yosemite yesterday afternoon and drove all the way down to Bakersfield (200+ miles) to set ourselves up for CA-2, the Angeles Crest Scenic Highway. We left Bakersfield and drove to La Canada Flintridge, where we got gas for the trip. We then started up the most beautifully paved road I have ever been on. It's flawless pavement, light traffic, and lots of twisties with great scenery.




We had lunch at Newcombs Ranch Restaurant and Bar, a hangout for bikers and sports car enthusiasts.




There were a couple areas with rocks on the road, so caution should be exercised. When you emerge from the tunnel, more beautiful vistas await. My sports camera does not do it justice.




We spent so much time enjoying Highway 2 it was now time to get some miles on. Our goal was to make Blythe (about 200 miles) so we would have a short run home. We got there about 9pm, then decided to just push for home to get across I-10 before the sun came up. This made for a 540 mile last day ending at 1:30am. The next day we met at our favorite restaurant to celebrate a great ride.

1650 miles in 5 days. These SilverWings are amazing!

Nice report and photos. I have always wanted to go to Yosemite. I have been up the coast highway from south of San Diego all the way to the Oregon border in a car. I would love to go on the Swing including Yosemite and other interior parts of California. It's getting enough time off to be able to do it justice. We may have to fly out and rent bikes.

Nice pictures and it it nice place. My daughter is there now for her 8th grade outdoor ed for a week.  We were told today that if the don't pass the budget that Yosemite will close on we'd pm.

How is your swing doing on this long ride?

JeffR_ wrote:

Nice pictures and it it nice place. My daughter is there now for her 8th grade outdoor ed for a week.  We were told today that if the don't pass the budget that Yosemite will close on we'd pm.

How is your swing doing on this long ride?

Lucky girl. I'm jealous.

Just used my google map. I am only 2000 miles from Yosemite. Just have to figure how long I can get off work and when. Oh and then there is the financial part of the equation. I guess I can ponder this over the winter months.  

The trip was almost mechanically flawless. I had new tires and had just changed my oil.

I did, however, have one embarrassing failure. I used my parking brake at the Yosemite entrance so I could fish out some money, and the stupid thing STUCK! The lever released just fine, but I couldn't move the bike. I managed to get out of the entrance by burning off some of my belt.

It turns out that the spring located at the rear brake end kinked and jammed against the brake. Popping it out by hand worked just fine.

Other than that, the bikes (2 SilverWings and a Kawasaki Vulcan) performed well.

Nice report and photos! Glad YOU got into Yosemite this year.  

Great pictures there bud