Yosemite National Park

We decided to take an August trip to the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountains to see some places that were still snowed in when we last tried to visit 7 years ago in May.  We camped at New Shady Rest campground near Mammoth Lakes, visited Devils Postpile NM and Ancient Bristlecone Pine National Forest, and then we camped at Toulumne Meadows on the nights that were the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower.  What better place than the top of the Sierra to get clear skies?

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We drove from Mammoth Lakes at 7800 feet through the Tioga Pass at 9945 feet to Tuolumne Meadows campground at 8600 feet.  The extra elevation made a difference.  It got down to 45 degrees at night in Mammoth Lakes, and 32 degrees in Tuolumne Meadows.  I was glad our trailer has a good propane furnace.  It was very clear and dark so the skies were loaded with thousands of stars.  But not many meteors the night we tried to view.  We only saw one spectacular one, and half a dozen others in the hours we viewed.  We will have to learn more about how to see them better, as we did years ago in Porcupine Mountains in Michigan's upper peninsula.

The Tuolumne Meadows campground was great.  It was much nicer than I expected although it was very crowded and busy with 304 full campsites.  Half of the sites are reservable and half are first come, first served, and all were in use.  Our reservation got us a nice site 43A on a small hill shared with 2 other trailers.
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We walked around Tuolumne Meadows after we arrived, then drive the next day to Yosemite Valley.  We were very curious what the difference would be in water volume compared to four years ago.  You can see some of the comparisons in the photos.

Campsite 43A at Tuolumne Meadows

Tuolumne Meadows

Tuolumne River

Yosemite Falls

Yosemite Falls 4 years ago

A fawn near Lower Yosemite Falls this year

Merced River near Nature Center

Merced River 4 years ago

Bridalveil Fall

Swinging Bridge

Merced River 4 years ago near Swinging Bridge

Bridalveil Fall

El Capitan

Tunnel View

Tunnel View 4 years ago, note Bridalveil Fall

Half Dome

We left Tuolumne Meadows at 8600 feet and drove home to 237 feet at home.

We were able to get two bars of Verizon voice and 1X data coverage at Tuolumne Meadow.  There is a dump station just down the road from the campground so we didn't have to drive home with full tanks.
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Our solar panel on the roof of the trailer kept our batteries charged up even though we were in partial shade at our campsite.