It could be a dream perhaps, or maybe some form of temporary amnesia, but I was going along a sunny California Highway watching the crops go by and then suddenly, I was in the middle of a snowstorm in the high Sierras with darkness setting in. Ok, the fear is subsiding now, we're safe and it's all coming back to me now. Loved that northern (mostly western this time) again! We got going out of Stockton on Rt 4 and bam! There it was! Remember "The Big Valley?" Picture the scrub oaks and the large rolling hills. Cows nestled in around a couple of them here and there. Jeff recalls that they referred to the big cattle town where they went and it was Stockton! To that we started into the theme music. Then we got into the groves. Miles and miles and miles of groves. Olives, Nuts? Then we got into all these ponds. Rice? Fish? The little town of Copperopolus was a surprise around every corner. They had clotheslines hanging across the street in a couple places with clothes on it! It may have been a consignment shop. Yosemite itself was great. It didn't do for me what it did for John Muir, but there were some breathtaking views of waterfalls, not to mention those majestic rocks that surrounded you on all sides. I think the weather took a little away from it. We did have some clear views, but sometimes there was the fog hanging over and a fine mist going on. It also poured on our one and only night there. Yes, the campsite was flat like we had requested, but it sure wasn't level! We had a river flowing under us by morning. So we set out to explore while the tent dried out having done a run-through the afternoon before when we did a short hike to Bridalveil Falls and explored what was out there. We stayed in Hodgdon Meadow which was near the entrance we came in at 120. I had planned to try to get into Bridalveil Campground but it was closed as well as several passes. We were able to Hike to El Capitan and saw great views of both upper and lower Yosemite Falls as well as Half Dome and Glacier Point. We toured the Ahwahnee village and museum. Lots of rocks. Everywhere. The mountains were made of rock and there were humongous ones all scattered down below where we were. It made you a little nervous how some of the places on those mountains looked like they were ready to break off at any moment! We got a lot of nice pictures and saw some wonderful views. Right now I've got Grand Canyon South Rim as my #1 still, followed by Sequoia and Yosemite. Oh yeah, the snowstorm. Whew! I'll have to blog that separately!