eeek,
In the early 2000's we made a visit to Yosemite and planned to eat at that previous resturant. We were coming out of the park and could not find it so stopped at the convenience store/gas station on the other side to ask what happened to it. We were also disoriented because none of that area looked familiar except the convenience store. The owner educated us on the '97 flood and how it virtually reshaped the area where the resturant used to be and how subsequently the new motel complex took its place.
When we lived in the Bay area we used to leave Friday afternoon over the Pacheco Pass route and make it 10 miles up the river from the bottom of the gorge north of Mariposa. There was a turnoff into a sand bar area that stuck out into the river where one could camp for free if one knew where it was. The next morning was always breakfast at the family resturant and then on to the valley. The flood wiped out the sand bar and it's just rocks now but the turn-out is still there exactly 10 miles above the lowest bridge on that route. That's back when I was in the Navy (Moffett Field) and poor and had to save on camping trips any way I could. The very first time we found that sand bar camping location was purley by accident. Another couple had preceded us and we were supposed to meet them the next day in the valley. We met them 1/10 th of a mile below the sand bar turn-out after dark with their MG on the side of road, both headlights plus hood all stove in by a deer strike. They followed us a short ways when we discovered the turn-out. I don't know where we would have gone otherwise since we did not know the lay of the land. Finding that spot was just beginner's luck.
Jim
