About an hour south of Coyote RV Park is Monterey Bay. We drove to Monterey on Saturday, visited the Aquarium, walked around the shops and ate at the Fish Hopper since the line for Bubba Gumps was over an hour wait. Unfortunately we did not see the Orkas or dolphins in the Bay that were shown on local news that evening. 

We ventured in to San Jose and visited the Historic Rose Garden (over 5 acres in the middle of the City.) We then went to Santana Row and walked the esplanade of high end shops and eateries.

This post is to complete the trip at Yosemite and our travel to Morgan Hill outside of San Jose. Bass Lake was one of our day trips while staying at High Sierra, Oakhurst. Everything there is based on tourism to Yosemite, year round. The drive to Coyote RV Park was amazing. The scenery of the hillsides was almost mystical with the green hillsides, grazing cattle and Spring bloom.

Monday, we ventured to the Giant Sequoias by hiking to and through the Mariposa Grove. We reached the Grizzly Giant, seen with us in front of it, below.

Yosemite National Park was first designated by Abraham Lincoln in 1864 (in the midst of the worst battles of the Civil War) as a Park to be kept for the public use in a land grant to the State of California. This was the start to our great National Park system as it became a National Park under the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. It comprises now, a total of 900,000 acres and 1500 sq miles of wilderness. We had the fortune to visit in what is considered "late winter" (still seeing snow). The roads were all clear (two main roads remain closed until April) where we ventured from the South Entrance to the park and traveled an hour through the park to the Valley Floor. On the route we were able to see El Capitan, Half Dome and the Lower Falls (all in one picture). Then walk to the Bridal Falls and see the chapel, more Falls and numerous vista points.

Hearst Castle was W.R. Hearst's major life project of 28 years. It is a reminder of European art and culture on a grand scale. Placed atop the hillside which the "Chief" had camped as a child, it is able to be seen from many miles around and the estate totals 68,500 s.f. and over 200,000 acres of surrounding land. It includes all of the land to the ocean, was a refuge for exotic animals and still is a working ranch for grass fed cattle, and many other animals.

 From the Hearst Castle, a few miles North, we visited the Elephant Seal rookery where the new pups (weaners) were growing and developing strength to enter the sea on their own. A male is approx. 15 ft. and female 12 ft. Very impressive!

As we headed to the CA coast we were able to see the beautiful views. Due to all the rain, the hills are an emerald green and the countryside amazing.

Morro Bay is a charming seaside town known by Morro Rock. We enjoyed walking along the dunes on the beach, visiting charming shops and eating fresh fish and local wine during our short stay.

We went to Lake Balboa and had a nice walk around the lake viewing the Swan boats and waterfall.

We were able to spend time with the boys and Merlin to give Jenn and Daniel a date night and help out when possible.

We ended our 4 + months visit Northridge near Burbank with fine dining at Castaways. We will greatly miss Jenn, Daniel, Scott and Luke; however we will not miss the LA traffic.