Gloria Rauber Birthday Party - Yosemite

Many months ago, our friend, Ed Rauber, from Seaside, invited us to come this past weekend to celebrate Gloria's 60th birthday in Yosemite.  He had arranged for a discount to let all the guest to stay at the Cedar Lodge in El Portal, on Hwy 140, just outside the Park.  The party was to be at a place called the Hunter House, which is just down the road from the Lodge.

As many of you may know, there is a fire that was started by an RV fire right by the Cedar Lodge on Thursday!  When the Raubers tried to drive up on Thursday night, they were told that Hwy 140 had been closed and were rerouted back down and up Hwy 41. Three hours later, they arrived to discover that the Cedar Lodge had been evacuated!  They managed to get rooms in the Yosemite View Lodge, a little further up the road.

We had made plans to go hiking with friends in Yosemite before the party Saturday night, but with the fire and the uncertainty of whether we would have a place to stay, we decided to postpone our departure until Saturday morning.  At that point, we were hoping that the fire would have, at least, moved far enough away that the party could go on as planned. We left home about 8am Saturday and called Ed from Oakdale.  He said that the party would go ahead as planned, except it was going to be at the Yosemite View Lodge, and that could get rooms there as well.  After calling the Lodge and getting a room, Nancy and I headed on up to Yosemite, planning to hike to Chilualna Falls, by Wawona.  After a 1/2 hour wait to get into the Park and a couple of wrong turns, we found the trailhead.  We headed out at 1pm, knowing that the 3 hours we had was not enough to get the 8+ miles to the falls and back.  Of course, by the time we got to our turn around time, the falls were just up one last hill...  After a quick stop at the top of the falls, we headed back down, getting to the car at 4:35 - 35 minutes late.  The party was to start at 5:00 but I figured that dinner probably wouldn't be served until 5:30 or 6:00.  As we drove down into Yosemite Valley and back to the Hwy 120 / 140 junction, we were thinking we might make it.  As we approached the junction, we could see that they had the gate for Hwy 140 partially closed and had a couple of people stationed there.  This was not unexpected, as Hwy 140 was still closed to through traffic.  As we drove through, the elderly couple, with NPS Parking Staff vests, flagged us down and said that the area was being evacuated!  We told them we had reservations at the Yosemite View Lodge.  They said it had been given evacuation notice 30 minutes before and unless we need to go retrieve our belongings, we needed to turn around!  We ended driving down to Groveland for dinner and then on home. On Sunday morning, we checked the status of the fire and saw no mention of the Yosemite View being evacuated.  I called their hotline and was told that there were some other evacuation on Saturday but the Lodge had not been evacuated and was open for business.... 

We did have a nice hike and we hope they had a nice party!

 The fire was down and around to the right.

 The falls are just to the right of the tree behind Nancy.

 These cascades are about 1/2 mile up from the trailhead.  We wish now that we had taken more time to explore and enjoy.

 This is the trail just before the top of the falls.

 Over that edge be a long way down...

There are pools just above the falls and then another smaller fall above there. Was very nice. And the trail goes on.....