Have spent all day today in Yosemite National Park, and all I can say is...WOW! What a pity all you loyal readers will have to wait for the photos!
We're staying in a lovely little B&B in the district of Groveland, California, about 12 miles or so from the western entrance to the park at Big Oak Flat. It's a very pretty drive to the entrance through Stanislaus National Forest, and once you enter the park you start climbing until you get to the top of a mountain crest at Tuolumne Grove (about 7000 feet above sea level) and then you descend on the other side into Yosemite Valley. It's a perfect blacktop road with a yellow centre line - must have been resurfaced recently - and you hit one bend after another as the road winds its way across the mountain. It's like driving in a video game! We parked in Yosemite Village and then wandered about for a bit before taking the Valley Floor Tour, which lasts about two hours and is a good way to take a first look at all the main sights in the valley. The Ranger running the tour told us that all the waterfalls in the valley, which are caused by snowmelt, are in full flow right now, so it's a great time to be here. Also, it was a good time to take the tour because we were lucky enough to spot a bear! There are no brown bears (grizzlies) in this part of California now, so these are the smaller black bears, but strangely enough they have brown or blond fur in Yosemite, so they look like small grizzlies. Apparently, if you are confronted by one while out hiking, you wave your arms about and shout at them, and they run away. Easy! Jen is completely confident about the matter.
After the tour, we walked for an hour or two. The highlight was climbing over a pile of rocks (well, I did, anyway) to get as close as possible to the bottom of the lower Yosemite Fall. You get sprayed, but it's really awesome to see a waterfall in full flow that close up.
One of the most impressive sights in the valley is 'El Capitan' which is just a massive granite monolith. If you get to a point where you have a good view of it, the trick is to try and spot the climbers. It's really difficult to see them with the naked eye, but after a while you get the knack, and then out come the binoculars for a closer look. It's hard to describe the huge scale of what looks to me like a sheer rock face, but apparently it's one and a half times as tall as the Empire State Building. These rock climbers have my admiration, especially when you consider that they rarely finish the climb in one day and have to rig sleeping bags wherever they can. They need about a gallon of water a day, which they have to lug with them, and I forgot to ask the Ranger what the toilet arrangements are!
Over the next few days (we have four more days in the park) we're going to do some walking, some river rafting and some more driving to the higher sections. Really looking forward to it after today's taster.
This evening we're off to the local town (Groveland) for a drink and a bite to eat in what is claimed to be California's oldest saloon - a genuine gold rush relic. Let's hope they serve small to moderate sized portions. Oh sorry, I forgot, we're in America!
Jen's bit: The B&B we are staying in is picture perfect here in the mountains, all chinz and brass bedsteads. I only just about managed to stop myself calling out "goodnight John Boy" before I fell asleep. Jx
If you are rafting on the Stanislaus River watch out for Big Dog Falls - the story is someone fell out of the raft at this point of the river and was saved by his Big Dog swim shorts hooking over a stray branch - thats what they told us in the Big Dog shop anyway - and guess what? - I bought some - just to be on the safe side. Raft safe....
ReplyDeleteOh and they work - I've never fallen out of a raft
ReplyDelete