Yosemite

We arrived at what is arguably the most famous national park in the U.S, Yosemite. After the close call at the Rocky Mountain national park we headed straight to a campsite and got a spot easily. Yosemite has an enormous bear population and the rules are very strict to stop bear attacks and damages. You not only have to put all food in a bear proof cage but also anything that has a smell. This means all toiletries, lipsalve, make up, literally everything. If your car is broken into by a bear you are hit with a $5000 because you must have left something scented in there. After learning this we basically emptied the entire van into the cage and then headed out to explore.

As i drove down the windiest roads i've ever driven i spotted something moving in the trees at the side of the road, i nearly put us through the windshield when i realised it was in fact a brown bear walking about. We turned off the radio and sat watching it in awe at how close we were. Then out of no where a tiny bear cub came bounding in and climbed up a tree, they were no more than 10 metres from our van and no one else had spotted them so they hadn't been disturbed yet, we were incredibly lucky as most bear sightings are deep in bear country along trails. Eventually the mother bear became weary of us and moved her cub further into the forrest. We drove on feeling on top of the world at what we'd seen after being in the park for only a couple of hours!

We spoke to a park ranger and decided to head down to the 'big trees' these are ancient sequoia trees and i could see where they got their nickname from, they are enormous. The branches of the trees are as wide as large tree trunks. Some of them had the middle of their trunks cut out many years ago, as a tourist attraction as they were so wide you could drive a car through the trunk. Although you can still stand in them you can also see how the tree is slowly healing itself and growing back together. It was really interesting to learn about the forrest, especially the fact that forrest fires are vital to the progression and growth of the forrest. When forrest fires were stopped so as not to harm the trees there was a noticeable drop in the size and growth rate of the forrest. The fires act as a kind of detox of the forrest and open the canopy to allow more light to reach the lower parts of the forrest and help the smaller trees grow.

That evening we watched the sunset at Glacier point which had some incredible views of the valleys and mountains around Yosemite. Most notably the Half Dome, which is a dome shaped rock formed mountain which you can, if you are brave enough, walk up and over. A permit is required and only a certain amount are given out each year so we were unable to do it.... not that that bothered us particularly!!

The next day Izzy had to see a doctor and wasn't feeling up to a hike so we found a lovely little beach area along a stream which you had to wade waist deep to get to, We sunbathed and relaxed whilst surrounded by mountains, we even went for a swim in the river which is fed by glacial water and was absolutely freezing but very refreshing. After a chilled out day we headed back to our campsite to make some dinner, i went for a run and stumbled across a gorgeous meadow, it was lovely although i was constantly on the look out for bears!

As we were cooking, a car pulled up with an Australian couple in, they had arrived late and couldn't find a spot to camp, as we only had the van the tent spot on our site was free so we let them pitch up on our spot. They joined us for dinner and we sat around the fire. They were doing the notorious Half Dome climb the next day and were in another pickle with the campsite. They had to leave for the hike at 4am and needed to leave their car and things there, however they had no cash to pay for the self sign up campsite. Long story short i did my good deed for the day and paid for their campsite for the night, they took my email address and said they would return the favour when i'm in Aus, so we'll see what happens!

The next day, our last day in Yosemite, we woke up early and ready for a hike, we headed up to Vernal Falls and weren't dissapointed. The hike was hard as it was very very steep, luckily as we had started early the heat wasn't too bad. The entire way up was picturesque and serene, there were points where you had to hike through walls of mist from the falls which was nice and refreshing when we were rather sweaty! We reached the top and were rewarded by stunning views back down what we had just climbed, some 1,300 feet! We took it all in and then headed back down, the descent was, at first, harder than the climb as going down such a steep incline was a bit tricky. On the way down we saw the exhausted faces of people on their way up and encouraged them that it was worth it once they got to the top! We made it back down with only a few hairy moments and jumped in Suzanne ready for our next, very exciting, stop of Danville, where i grew up!