After hiding out in our motel in Merced for a couple of days, it was time to move on.

On Tuesday morning we set off after a quick breakfast, heading east on Highway 140 towards Yosemite. The road took us along long, straight roads through the central valley, past endless fruit and nut orchards. Eventually the road began to wind between low rises blanketed in huge fields of long golden grass, dotted with cattle grazing, as we left the orchards behind and entered the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. As we continued east the road climbed higher and higher with the land becoming more forested and rocky, until we were fully in the mountains.

As we continued, the weather got greyer and greyer until, as we approached Yosemite the sky was completely overcast and the foggy sky was filled with a constant rain. Undettered, we continued alongside the raging Merced River to the entrance to Yosemite National Park, the steep granite walls of the valley sides rising beside us until we entered both the park and a perpetual state of awe which lasted until we left the next day.

Despite the dreary conditions we were blown away by the scale and grandeur of the valley. The Merced River wound across the flat valley floor which was consisted of grassy meadows and the odd grove of trees. Towards the edges of the valley the ground was peppered with huge boulders of granite, some bigger than houses, which had broken off from the sheer, impossibly huge granite cliffs which reared, seemingly straight out of the ground, up into the cloudy sky, topped with amazing formations.

We meandered along the road up the valley, stopping to get out and look at the falls of meltwater pouring from sharp ledges thousands of feet up, or running in rivulets down the curving grey walls, the water in every case re-converging in the valley to rush over rocks and between trees to eventually rejoin the Merced River. Everywhere you looked was the most incredible scenery imaginable, far more impressive than we had imagined.

Eventually we reached our campsite near the far end of the valley, and proceeded to set up our tent in the cold and rain. With that job out the way we took the free hybrid shuttle bus which runs around the valley floor to take a look at the magnificent Yosemite Falls, passing through the shops and cabins in Yosemite Village and past the warm and luxurious-looking Ahwahnee Lodge, built as an exclusive resort in 1927.

The Yosemite falls are in three parts, totalling 2,425 ft in height, thundering down between the granite faces of the valley to the rocks below, and are comprised entirely of snow meltwater, drying up in summer. This fact made our trip in the dreary spring weather seem worth it, knowing we wouldn't have been treated so such an incredible sight, had we come in summer.

After the falls, we took the shuttle bus back to near our camp and set out on the path to Mirror Lake, not actually a lake but merely a wide point in the Merced River, famous for providing amazing reflections of the towering granite giants surrounding it, such as the famous Half Dome. Unfortunately Half Dome was shrouded in cloud but we did get some incredible views at Mirror Lake, the star of the show in fact being the water of the river itself, which was astoundingly clear.

Eventually it was time to head back to camp which we did via an unintentionally roundabout route along some of the walking paths in the valley. Once back I attempted to get a fire going and make some dinner in the rain, eventually succeeding with both tasks. Dinner was quite miserable though, eaten out of paper bowls standing in the by-then pouring rain. Deciding the best move would be to just get into our beds and stay dry, we did so and settled down to read for a bit before sleeping. Unfortunately one of our inflatable sleeping mats had sprung a leak so I was left lying a bit close to the ground. Nevertheless we dropped off to sleep listening to the rain pouring down on the tent and hoping it would keep us dry.

On Wednesday morning we woke to the welcome absence of rain drumming on the tent. Finding ourselves relatively dry apart from a bit of the usual condensation inside the tent, I thought we had done pretty well until Lucy informed me that the ground outside was covered with snow. I initially didn't believe her but when I looked around I notice the tent looked a bit 'heavy' in places and when I peeked out the window I realised she was right, and the ground was covered with three or four inches of the white stuff.

After bashing off the snow weighing down our tent's door I managed to squeeze out to find myself in a winter wonderland, in the middle of May. However, the sky had finally cleared so we got some amazing views of the surrounding cliffs in the clear morning air, before the sun rose enough to start evaporating the snow, creating huge clouds of mist and cloud which shrouded everything again.

After scraping the car and tent and packing up all our gear we went for a drive around the valley floor, seeing everything literally in a completely different light to the previous day. The awe-inspiring sights of the valley were even more incredible in the bright sunshine, backed by bright blue skies with clouds wrapping around the clifftops. After circling around the valley and taking in all the sights again, including a guy climbing from his portaledge halfway up the 3,000 ft face of El Capitan, we headed out of the valley in a southward direction of Highway 41.

Just before leaving the valley we stopped at the Tunnel View, giving us the most jaw-dropping view of Yosemite yet, with the whole valley laid out in front of us, cliffs rising on either side and in the distance with waterfalls pouring down and the tree-carpeted valley floor far below.

After soaking in the view we continued on the 41, snaking through the snow-laden trees up to a height of 6,000 ft before beginning our descent. Luckily the roads were in great condition and we carried on to Mariposa Grove, a wooded area home to numerous giant sequoia trees. The redwoods we had seen before were the tallest trees in the world but the sequoias are the widest. We walked on the slushy-snow covered paths between the trees, enjoying the huge orangey sequoias including the Grizzly Giant, estimated to be 1,800 years old and 28 ft across at its base.

Then it was time to get out of the mountains, so we carried on down Highway 41 back towards the central valley. The journey was a mirror of our trip up the previous day, with the wooded hillsides giving way to grazing land of swaying golden grass then the orchards again. The temperature rose from around 3 degrees celsius to 20 in the space of about half an hour as we dropped from 6,000 ft down to the valley floor.

We carried on in the sunshine to Fresno before heading south on Route 99 down the central valley to Bakersfield, where we got a room in a Super 8 near the highway, grabbed some mexican grilled chicken at El Pollo Loco then chilled out for the rest of the night.