We woke up this morning and checked out, leaving a bag and the mandolin to pick up when we got back to San Francisco in a few days.
It was the first time we were up in time for breakfast, but we had to head straight off, so they gave us a takeaway cup for our coffee and a few donuts.
We walked a few blocks to the Hilton, which was the pickup location for our three day Yosemite tour.
We waited a bit then tried to find some more people from the group, and after I confused things by giving Darren the wrong company name, we finally found an Aussie guy, Sean, waiting for the same tour.
So we had a chat with him for a while as we waited, then were joined by a couple from Spain, Carmelo and Angela, and the five of us waited for the bus.
Sean got a phone call from the company saying the bus was running late, then eventually we saw it come down the street... then drive straight past us and around the corner.
Then it came back around... and drove straight past us and around the corner...
So we kept waiting for it to come back around, and the boys ran into the liquor store next door while we waited, then eventually Sean called the company again and found out that the bus was waiting around the corner for us!
Oops!
Apparently everyone else's itineraries had the other entrance as the pick up point, but the five of us had a different one!
So we got there in the end, met our guide, Shane, and boarded the bus.
We sat in the back with Sean and an Indian guy, Yash and drove about one and a half hours to our first stop.
As soon as we were about 20 minutes out of the city the fog cleared and we were given a beautiful sunny 30+ degree day!
We stopped at a small fruit market called Denise's to get some snacks.
We got some apples and strawberries, and Darren got a coconut icypole. Sean got a smoothie and we joked that we had all stages of the smoothie, solid (strawberries), liquid (smoothie), and frozen (icypole).
As we waited by the bus we chatted to some of the other people on the tour, a family of five from Essex, England.
Sally and Tim, and their teenaged kids, Izzy, Michael and Eleanor.
When everyone had their snacks we got back in the van and drove about another 30mins to our lunch stop, which was a supermarket that sold some decent sandwiches.
We had some time there to grab some food, and I got some inari rolls and seaweed salad instead of a sandwich then Sean, Carmelo, Angela, Darren and I went and bought some beers as well.
We loaded up the trailer (Shane had bought some firewood and other things as well) then got back in the van.
I had a bit of a snooze in this section of the drive and when I woke up we were on the edge of a mountain!
We wound our way through mountains and valleys as we entered into the Yosemite National Park.
We learnt a little bit about the history of the area, and the importance of wildfire, as we drove through hectares of burnt land.
We entered the national park and went to an area called Tuolumne Park.
Here, a few of us changed into shorts as it was getting way too warm for the jeans we put on in San Fran!
When everyone was ready, we hiked down the trail, which was about one mile to see the Giant Sequoia trees.
On the walk down, there were heaps of huge sugar pine trees, which have pine cones that are absolutely massive, probably as long as your forearm.
As we were hiking down two huge pine cones fell from the trees about a metre behind the guys in front of us! A slightly slower pace and they would have landed on their heads!
About six or seven total fell from the trees as we were walking down, and Shane was so surprised, as he had never seen that happen before!
A bit further along the trail we came across our first Giant Sequoia, which was so much bigger than I expected (and apparently it was a small one!).
Further up there was a huge dead Sequoia that spanned the entire path (it was a pretty wide path too) which had an arch cut into it, so you had to actually walk through the tree! So cool.
But even better, was up the road, where a massive Sequoia had fallen over. It must have been there a while because it was completely dead and dry, but it was also hollow, and we were allowed to crawl through the centre of the tree! It was so beautiful!
We looped around the path through the Sequoia grove and started hiking back up the trail.
It was a beautiful hike.
When we got up to the top, there was a guy holding two of the massive sugar pine cones, taking them back to his car.
Shane called out to him to tell him it was illegal to take anything from the park, and that he could get a $5000 fine.
His response was "Are you sure?".
Like he'd just make that up!
It was so funny and turned into a running joke for our group.
I don't know why he thought he could just take something from a protected national park anyway!!
So the group headed back to the van and drove down the mountains into Yosemite Valley.
As we came down into the valley we passed through a tunnel, and on the other side was the most breathtaking view of the valley. I can't even describe the sheer beauty and magnitude of the valley. Absolutely stunning.
The van wasn't allowed to park there, so Shane drove around the other side of the valley to another viewpoint where he was allowed to park, and we got out to take some photos.
After this stop we made our way to the valley floor. We stopped for a very quick photo at Yosemite Falls, then continued on to our campsite at India Flats RV park.
We got our tents and sleeping mats and bags and spent some time getting the campsite set up before our free time, when everyone got into their bathers and we went down for a swim in the river that ran by the campsite, the Mercad River.
We took some beers and walked down to the shore where we met up with the last couple from the group, Yohei and Satoko, from Japan, then jumped in the water with our drinks.
It was soooooo nice. The water was perfect and the sky was blue and it was such a picturesque setting.
We spent some time there as the afternoon grew long, and the sun started to head down towards the mountains.
When we were good and refreshed we headed back up to the campsite, where everyone pitched in to chop up veggies and make guacamole and everything for our dinner of burritos.
We ate our delicious dinner when it was ready and everyone had some beers together (everyone of age at least!) and had a good night of drinks and conversation with the group.
I think we got pretty lucky with the group. Everyone was so nice!
Shane lit a campfire, and we got to try Smores.
It was basically a fire toasted marshmallow put in between two graham crackers with a piece of chocolate.
It was surprisingly delicious even though it sounded like sugar overload!!
We all had a few of them, and many more beers together. We were joined by another tour guide, Brian, who had some awesome videos of bears and climbers and slack liners as well as some horror stories!
Carmelo taught me how to open a bottle with a lighter and we all drank a bit more!
Eventually it was time for bed, so we got into our tent and I was asleep in minutes.