First morning in Yosemite and within an hour our first bear sighting.
Stella Jays hop from branch to branch following our walk, it is as though they want attention.
Everywhere we look, massive vertical monoliths rise above us. The scale is hard to imagine, this is Mt Watkins and is not one of the big ones!
It's pretty dry here at the moment (late September), so rivers and waterfalls are dry. A return visit in May is a must!
El Capitan, climbers come from all over the world to scale this face. between 4 and 7 days sleeping in portable ledges. All their food and water miust be caried with them!
To give you an idea of scale of these Sequoia Trees, there is an old photo of this tree with 20 plus soldiers and their horses along the top of it!
It's BIG.
Stand under these monsters and look up, makes you feel small!
Hetch Hetchy Damn, over the edge!
Man of action ;)
After a 1000ft climb we make it to the base of Vernal Falls, the steep route down was not an easy one.
We are driving over an hour to see some trees, not something I would ordinarily do. Especially given that we are driving through miles and miles of trees to get there! These though are Tolkein's Ents, giants as old as the hills. The mighty sequoia redwoods, some at 2700 years old must be amongst the oldest living things on this planet. That fact alone makes the drive worthwhile but on the way there is a layby with a view that leaves me stunned, Yosemite valley in all its glory, seen from 6000 feet. If you are ever in this part of the world DO NOT miss 'Tunnel View' on interstate 41 and when you are there, remember to breath, little things like that go out of your head when you stand there mesmerised.
Mariposa Grove has various hiking trails winding through the hills, the further and higher you go the quiter and more immpressive it becomes.
We steal ourselves for a four hour hike looping through backcountry valleys to the summit at 6800 feet and down again. Humbled by these enormous trees we feel like Lilliputians in the land of giants sharing the trails with more deer and squirrel than fellow humans.
To give you a feel for the size of these Sequoia, 'California Tree' has a tunnel cut through its trunk, a tunnel high and wide enough to allow a horse drawn stage coach to drive through it and despite this tree butchery, the giant lives on growing another foot in diameter every decade.
The view from the summit is impressive, although Kathy's vertigo does not let her get too close to the edge it does mean she doubles her pace on the way down. Back at the car and we are tired, the ascent was 3 hours constantly up hill, the descent easier but still one and a half hours, for the second day running we have covered over 8 miles. It is though worth every step.
One last highlight on the drive home is an impromptu stop at what turns out to be ‘Valley View’, a scramble down through the bushes and balancing out onto the boulders in the river provides an excellent photo opportunity, mountains and their reflections.
It's a long drive. The sort of drive which inspires road trip B movies. We head out from under the shadow of THE Hollywood sign and make our way through Hollywood Hills Dollar$ville out onto the freeway. A freeway winding its way through a surreal magic mountain theme park backdrop painted on to over sized hills & canyons, it does not feel real. After a couple hours of our own tarmac roller coaster we pop out from between the hills and everything changes. Hundreds of patch worked miles, olive trees and vines stretch away in all directions, as flat as God's ironing board.
The car drives itself, straight and steady for another couple of hours, on through Fresno the landscape begins to change again. Rock scattered foothills give promise of things to come and another 50 miles through forested valleys brings us to Yosemite View Lodge. From the roadside this place looks like a prison block, a drab grey 3 storied lump. We are here for 5 nights and we are worried! Don't judge a book by its cover though, the room is huge, the bed is huge, there's an Olympic sized Jacuzzi bath in the living room and a double shower in the bathroom! The balcony views look up & down the steep wooded valley and the Merced river tumbles over rocks below us. This'll do!
We started out next to the Atlantic & golden beaches, have driven 6 hours through hills, plains and mountains yet we have barely covered this huge state, after America itself this is the 2nd largest economy in the world. Scary to think the man they have put in charge is an ex Austrian body builder turned actor, Arnold "The Governator" Schwarzenegger.
Only in America!
It's been a couple of weeks since the last holiday so with itchy feet, we're off again. This time America beckons us. We fly into LA and have 3 weeks to make our way to Vegas and back via Hollywood, Yosemite, Death Valley, Scunthorpe, The Grand Canyon and San Diego. OK well maybe not Scunthorpe but many other places in between.I'm really looking forward to
Yosemite, tripod and camera gear are stowed away already! As usual I will blog our adventures dropping in the odd photo along the way!
We eventually make it back to the visitors centre and grab sandwiches for a late lunch picnic & after a short drive we find a secluded spot on the Merced River bank, after lunch and a short walk along the bank reveals fresh bear tracks just 50 meters from our picnic table, time to make a hasty retreat!
