Spent the last two nights at Yosemite National Park and I was veryimpressed. The first night we drove through and umed and arred at the beauty of valley and the contrast between the dark green of sequoia (giant trees) and the pines against the grey granite of exposed rock faces, its not surprise that Yosemite is world heritage listed! The second day when we went hiking that was most impressive. A group of four of us decided to do a steep 9-mile (return) trail up to Yosemite falls which is in the main valley and offered great views of the length of the valley especially Yosemite Half Dome (we saw the other famous climbing rock, El Capitan, on the way into the valley in the morning). It should be noted that Yosemite falls is the highest waterfall in North America and the third highest in the world.

The climb was relatively easy on a well marked (but rocky) trail - here I reaped some benefit from my hiking efforts in Kawa'i as I thought it was an absolute cake walk - the others didn't agree and thus the going was slow as I stopped frequently to play catch-up. In fairness it was bloody hot with the temp in the high twenties and the granite next to the trail being highly reflective. The views all up the trail (through numerous switchbacks) were breath taking. At the top of the falls the short exposed decent to the viewing platform was also amazing - though not for those squeemish about heights. Holding my camera over the edge I got a birds eye view of the falls, complete with rainbow.

Max and I pushed on the additional mile to Yosemite Point at 2,221m. We were rewarded not only with an excellent view of half-dome but also we stumbled across a deer on the trail - no bears though....

The set up of the National Park in Yosemite valley just blew me away - one of the two villages held six hundred cabins but looking at them they were very well hidden. A continual shuttle bus service took hikers and sight seers from the villages to various trail heads. The number of people was massive (over 3 million annually - which is even more impressive when you consider numbers dwindle in the winter) yet it didn't seem crowded. With over 800 miles of hiking trails around the valley I've definitely marked this as a place to come back to one day and spend a few weeks. Not a bad start to this tour.

The other thing that I've really noticed since being on the US mainland is just how friendly people are. I have had more than half a dozen instances in the last three days where locals figuring out that I was a forigner have come up and said hi and/or helped me out. This would rarely happen at home. Just for the record this was not just on a hiking trail or in a small town but twice in San Francisco. Dad did mention that he had found American's very friendly and helpful on his visit but I didn't really expect this.

I'm writing this in the bus on route from Yosemite into Nevada where we will camp for tonight before heading for Oregon, Idaho and eventually Yellowstone in Wyoming. Three states down 47 to go!!