Yosemite
Trip Start
Jan 04, 2008
1
124
130
Trip End
Dec 17, 2008
Yosemite National Park,
California,
United States
Friday, November 28, 2008
Just down the road was a big hotel complex, where we managed to get a decent meal and felt quite Christmassy as it was cold here and they had a log fire burning outside, as well as one of the largest Christmas trees we've ever seen indoors. Everything seemed so much better than the last couple of days and we were looking forward to getting into the park itself the next day.
We awoke to a cold but glorious sunny day to drive into Yosemite National Park. After paying the $20 entrance fee we drove the winding road through large pine & sequoia tress for about 15 miles before reaching the valley view point. It is a very impressive sight to behold when you turn that corner, El Capitan nearest and on the left with its sheer granite rock face, Half Dome on the right and in the distance with the distinctive shape, all surrounded by other granite cliffs jutting out of the tree covered valley floor After catching our breath we decided to kick off the one (and only - according to Maud) hike we had planned to do in the Park, the walk up to Inspiration Point. The 1.4 mile (or in reality 3, their distances are well out here) hike was a nice gentle climb through the forest to a viewpoint about 300 foot higher than the one on the road, but even so Maud needed some coaxing at times, she is definitely done with this hiking lark !! The walk was worth it though as the views were even better up here and well away from the crowds and crazy Japanese tourists. It was so nice and peaceful.
After retracing our steps back to the car we headed off into the valley for lunch. As it was nice and sunny we ate al fresco at Cathedral Beach at the foot of El Capitan which was stunning even though it was still chilly in the sun. In the afternoon we headed for another walk (this time on the flat) to Mirror Lake where we got some arty shots of Half Dome perfectly reflected in the water.
The next morning we headed back into Yosemite to see the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoia trees which is the biggest and most impressive cluster of big trees in Yosemite. The biggest tree there is known as the Grizzly Giant and began it's life over 2,700 years ago and there's also the fallen Tunnel Tree that you can drive through after it toppled in 1969 and another one that had a big hole cut through it so that folks could drive their carriages through it.
The Sequoias were impressive but surprisingly the wood is really weak. Years ago when they were felled the loggers found that all the wood was good for was toothpicks and pencils so they soon stopped hacking an hour them down. After wandering through giant trees for an hour or so we headed back into the valley but found that both the routes we wanted to drive were closed for the season due to snow so we took in the parks waterfalls and some more views of El Capitan and Half Dome.
We had planned to overnight in Fresno and having left the park after sunset arrived there about 8pm. We picked a reasonable looking motel and checked in only to discover that Fresno wasn't the most salubrious city in the state and the motel room looked like one from a movie that you might be murdered in. We asked to see another room which wasn't any better, there were a couple of doors with fist marks in and a few rooms that looked as if the occupants lived there permanently so we swiftly got a refund and hit the road.
We drove through a blanket of fog for an hour finding that Californians are nutters who see no reason to slow down from 70mph and build cars with no fog lights (even rear fogs are an optional extra that we didn't have). At $20 more than the scummy motel we checked into the Holiday Inn amazed that they even had a choice of pillows. We ate at a tasty Italian called Little Italy and hit the sack ready for the next days drive to Sequoia National Park.
