I detest the whole Day Light Savings time change thing. Here’s my motto:

So, I woke up the Sunday past a little grumpy.

But the sun was out after several days of rain and gloom, and after a little debate, Paul and I decided to take a hike along the Merced River Canyon at Briceberg. In the past, we’ve always turned left to drive to the trailhead that leads to the north fork tributary. This time, we went right—and we’re so glad we did. It was almost like stepping into history.

Between 1907 and 1945, the Yosemite Valley Railroad carried passengers over seventy-eight miles of track laid between Merced, in California’s Central Valley, and YVR’s railhead they called El Portal (The Gateway). From there, passengers were transported via wagon into Yosemite National Park.

As we walked this level, mostly narrow trail, we couldn’t help marveling at the amazing engineering feat the construction of this railroad must have been. And dangerous. I read that a least three men were killed in explosion accidents. When you’re standing beside a wall of rock, you can imagine how that might happen.

If you or someone you know is into trains and history, I highly recommend the book Railroads of the Yosemite Valley by Hank Johnston.

We knew we were somewhere special when we spotted this sign at the trailhead. Who doesn’t love newts? (Alas, I didn’t see any.)

Many times on this trail we stopped and discussed how the train actually made it through some of the really tight spots. The photo below is looking both directions at a particularly narrow area. Paul said, “I bet the engineer could put his hand out the window and touch the rock face.” I can’t even imagine what this would have been like for the passengers. Eek.

Given the ephemeral nature of our spring, I grabbed some wildflower shots for you.

It was a stunningly perfect spring day and just what I needed to get out of my head and into nature. Plus, we got our steps in and had fun imagining traveling in another era to our favorite National Park.

Another fun aspect of this excursion was re-visiting a setting that appears in my book THE RANCHER’S AND THE WIDOW’S FIRST CHRISTMAS. This is Book 2 in my Gold Country With Love series. Believe it or not, I still get a little choked up when I picture the scene where my hero, Sam, and heroine, Jenny, sprinkle her late husband’s ashes into the Merced River from the Briceberg Bridge.

If you haven’t read this book and would like to, here’s the Kindle link (It’s free to Kindle Unlimited readers.)

But if you’d like to read it AND you’re also boycotting Amazon, you can download it from Deb’s Bookstore here and save $$. It will be 25% OFF for one week (3/12-3/19)

Happy reading!

Deb

Next up: Beautiful! 3/27