Today we are at Yosemite National Park - our last stop before San Francisco. We added this trip 350 mile round trip onto our route right at at end, meaning we had to squeeze some of our other stays and travel a but further some days. The result has been several long driving days of cursing Yosemite when we could have stopped off a couple of hours earlier. So, no pressure for Yosemite to be worth it and luckily it is - hurrah!
We had a funny nights sleep again. We're in another hotel with big old fashioned air conditioning units. They are noisy and have no temperature control so they are on or off. Neither of us could sleep so we turned the unit off at about 11.30 because of the noise and then woke up boiling at 5.00, turned the air con on again to wake up freezing again at 7.30. It was on of those nights! Luckily it is cloudier today and about 25 degrees cooler - a pleasant 85 as opposed to 108 yesterday.
We went for breakfast in the hotel and then headed off into Yosemite Park, through an arch in the rocks. First stop was tunnel view - a stunning view of the Yosemite Valley which we are now exploring. At this point we decided the trip was definitely worth it! The valley is green, with giant pine trees, the biggest I've ever seen, the river running through and meadows either side. The mountains and huge and have dramatic granite cliffs, and there are waterfalls everywhere, feeding the river as the snow melts. It actually really resembles Jurassic park, which both excited and worried us a little! We took some photos but it was busy with coach trip so soon moved on a mile up the road to our first waterfall. A quick ten minute walk and we were at bridal falls. We climbed part way up the rocks to get a better view but didn't venture as far up as some people! We are wearing Toms and Converse, which aren't really designed for rock climbing!!
A quick stop off at the long drops / toilets and we headed back to the car and drove on to Sentinel Bridge. Here the river was calm and still and crystal clear. We crossed the bridge and paddled through the water, ankle deep, to some rocks and just sat at watched the waterfalls for a while. It was beautiful and really peaceful. We decided to move on and I had an idea to continue on through the river and across to the other side. We were near enough half way already. Unfortunately the water was deceptively deep and faster than it looked and about half way across, thigh deep, we had to turn around and go back! Still, it was an adventure and Claire had the wet shorts to show it!
A couple of miles further up and we parked up in Curry Village, secured the food in the boot (black bears are known to break into cars to steal food here) and set off on a hike (as the Americans call it) up to the top of the Vernal Fall (5044 feet). We passed the campsites en route. I'm not sure what I think about camping here! It would be an adventure but I think the risk of being joined bears / lions / coyotes / wolves / snakes (dinosaurs?) would worry me a little!
The first part of our hike was gentle, through flat woodland, to Happy Isles. From here we climbed up to the bridge at the bottom of Vernal Falls, gradually getting steeper. After the bridge the track got really steep as we approached the top of the falls, with steps carved into the cliff face. Spray from the falls made the path wet and slippery for a while. Eventually we got to the top and could look down over the falls and see how far we had walked and how high we had climbed! After a couple of photos, we found a spot at the top of the falls and had a sit down for a snack and a rest. Claire is reading her book and I just wrote this entry. More to follow later...
Descending the falls was harder than climbing in places, especially when it was steep and slippery, but we made it down, albeit with shaking legs! As we headed back to the car the rain started so our timing was perfect. I don't think I would fancy being up high in the rain! We picked up a delicious ham sandwich and ate this in the car before moving on to Yosemite village. We parked the car and picked up the free shuttle before spending some time in the various shops in the village. We some deer on the way from really close up (2 meters). Beautiful! It was still raining so we lingered for a while before heading off for our second walking the day - a gentle walk around the valley to see Yosemite falls. I stupidly left my jacket in the car so had to buy a fetching yellow poncho, only for the rain to stop ten minutes later. Typical! It provided Claire with a laugh anyway. The second walk was much more serene and as it was late afternoon we kept our eyes peeled for bears but sadly didn't see one. No Yogi bears for us today! Speaking of which, I learned today that Boo-Boo was Yogi's friend and not his son. Who knew? I also learned that Bugs Bunny's enemy was called Yosemite Sam, named after the park. Again, who knew? I obviously need to brush up on my cartoon trivia! Back to the walk - there were trails up to the top if the falls but after our earlier walk, we decided to take the easier option and look up from the bottom this time. Still a great view!
Yosemite was great not just for the scenery and wildlife but also for spotting license plates!! We haven't seen any new ones for days and we were stuck with 7 left, all from Eastern states plus Hawaii and Alaska. We knew the latter two were always a long shot but hoped to see the others but had started to give up hope. Today started well when we saw Delaware in our hotel car park. Yippee! We later saw another Delaware. A bit like buses... This afternoon we were looking for a parking space and Claire spotted Hawaii! How exciting! I couldn't see from the passenger side so actually got out to have a look. The owners, sat in the car, thought I was crazy. Then, just as we were leaving Yosemite, Claire spotted Alaska! Yippee! What a great day! This also answered our question about whether people even have cars in Alaska. So, now we have to spot West Virginia, Washington DC, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. The race is on!
Back in our hotel we went to the hot tub to soak our tired legs and then grabbed a take out pizza. Tonight has been a sorting night, re packing our bags and checking our things before handed the car back tomorrow.
Day: 24
Miles: 4020
Licence plates: 46