One of the benefits of staying in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Central California was the close proximity to Yosemite National Park. And although I didn’t personally make it to the park during my January stay in this beautiful location, I did find some pretty cool mountain biking, including along the Merced River just below Yosemite. As can be seen, the views were fantastic, and it was almost like getting the best of both worlds - Yosemite style views with the ability to also bike with my dog (as dogs are prohibited in national parks).
The Merced River flows through Yosemite down into the foothills and valley below, from its source high in the Sierra Nevadas at an elevation over 13,000 feet on the south side of Mt. Lyell all the way down to Lake McClure which sits at just 867 feet above sea level.
The mountain biking itself was really mellow as the trail was relatively flat, making for fast and easy travel in both directions, but without the super slow climbs and fun extended really fast downhills that typify the sport. There also weren’t any gnarly steep sections necessitating walking the bike up and down, so although it wasn’t world class mountain biking I was able to stay on the bike at a steady speed the whole ride. The conditions were great for covering a lot of ground in a short period of time, and I opted to go upriver first so as to have a slightly quicker ride on the way down. The trail followed the river in both directions for miles, and had I continued up I would have eventually made it to Yosemite!
Being late in the afternoon, I was even able to get some really cool shadow pics documenting my bike presence, the experimentation with shadow photography also being a first for me...
Like always, Dakota loved the run, and could have easily gone another 3 miles uphill, if not all the way to Yosemite, but daylight was short so no crazy mountain bike expedition on this ride.
Due to the timing I was treated with wonderful sunset views the entire ride back down to my car.
So while I didn’t visit Yosemite this time around, I did find some really fun and scenic mountain biking, including right above the small town of Mariposa, where a network of trails meander through a small nature preserve featuring a nice little reservoir, and amazing views of the surrounding hills on the way in.
Dakota loved taking a quick drink and swim in the reservoir, before we would continue to the trail’s end at the other side of the preserve, before enjoying the quick 2-mile ride back down to the car.
Another beautiful Central California sunset:
Dakota posing for a photograph along the trail:
And another beautiful view to finish up with:
All in all I had a wonderful time exploring the area and making the best of my time there, before it was time to head on, this time south to Arizona where more beautiful views and mountain biking opportunities would await me. But that journey, including pictures of the rapidly changing scenery along the way, will just have to be the subject for another post. Until then, I hope you enjoyed reading my blog and all the photos that accompanied it :)
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