Yosemite: Day of Hiking

The next day was a busy day of hiking. I think we managed to see most of the famous areas of the park in one day! First we went to Mirror Lake (2.5 miles). The lake was dry, reflecting nothing! But it was a nice hike and a good warm up for our next trip - up the Mist Trail to Vernal Falls and then on to Nevada Falls (7 miles round trip).

Early morning hike

In the Mirror Lake...

....where is the water?!

We wondered why there was no one else on the trail...

Rosie had a bit of a sugar crash on the first part of this hike - it is extremely steep in the beginning, very hot and high altitude as well! She had to sit down because she was going dizzy. I gave her some water and a cookie and let her sit in the shade of my shadow! She was OK to continue after 10 minutes or so.

Cookie break!

No bears unfortunately....or fortunately

Vernal Falls

Rainbow!

Top of Vernal Falls

We had what remained of our picnic lunch at the top of Nevada Falls, we'd eaten most of it on the way - we get hungry! Then we hiked back down the John Muir Trail. Our feet were aching by the time we got back to the valley floor. We had to change into flip flops when we got back. We also had a snack from the bear locker and a rest at the campsite for half an hour. 

Taking a break

Nevada Falls

Ros starts to think that she won't make it....

...but she did!

Half Dome

Top of Nevada Falls

Afterwards we took the free valley shuttle bus to Yosemite Village and then to Yosemite Falls for a quick 1 mile walk to the Falls. Also dry! A pity because it's the highest waterfall in the USA and the fifth highest in the world, it must be spectacular when it's running.

Yosemite Falls (Dry!)

The deer come out in the evening

There are no showers at the campsites in Yosemite so we took the bus to Curry Village where we had showers for $5 each! We were very shocked - they already charge $20 park entry and $20 per night camping fee. What about people like me who like to have at least 2 showers per day, that's an expensive shower habit!

We felt a little bit better about being charged because we had already had free showers early that morning when no one was around and we didn't realise that you were supposed to pay. Haha Yosemite -we win!

To finish our day we went to Curry Village for well deserved pizza and soda after all our hiking!

Yosemite National Park

Today we turned inland and traveled to Yosemite National Park. 

There is a big fire on the edge of the park at the moment. All the places we wanted to visit are open but it meant the road we planned to travel into the park was closed. We didn't realize this until we passed one of those temporary orange signs, and we passed it so fast we didn't get the details of the detour we were supposed to take (Ros was driving)! Before we knew it we were passing through random small towns with no idea if we were heading in the right direction or not!

We stopped when we saw a tourist information bureau and got new directions from the lady there. It was a bit of a circuitous route but fun driving, winding up and down the sides of canyons. It's a good thing we sorted out the driving too close to the curb thing because the drop off to the side of the road was a bit scary! 

It took us a couple of hours longer to drive the new route so we stopped at a picnic area just outside the national park for lunch. It seemed abandoned, like no one had visited here for years, I'm not sure where everyone else picnics! I was too scared to use the drop toilet because it was all cobwebbed over - I was disappointed with myself - last year we used to trap massive spiders in the salad bowl and throw them out of the van and now I'm worried about a few cobwebs!

On the way to Yosemite

Picnic time!

Lunch with a view

We bought new flip flops in San Francisco!  (I also bought a San Francisco top - saving on laundry!)

After lunch we continued on to the actual park. We stopped at every viewpoint and walk we could on the way to our campsite - the best ones were Bridalveil Falls, Sentinel Beach and the El Capitan viewpoint where some American men lent us their binoculars and we could just make out the tiny climbers on the way up the rock face!

Then, after we had checked into the camp we went out again and made the 1 hour winding drive up to Glacier Point for views of Half Dome and Yosemite Valley. 

We had to leave the park to get fuel on the way back because as usual we think we have enough and then don't, we NEVER learn. It was dark and late when we got back to camp to make our classic camp meal of pasta and bolognese.  Lucky for our camp neighbours because we have to keep all our food in a bear locker here so cooking involves a lot of clattering and banging around getting stuff in and out - well it does for us!

El Capitan - the climbers are a tiny speck and impossible to see without binoculars

Sentinel Beach

On the road up to Glacier Point

Us!

View from Glacier Point

Night time cooking - and someone's left a bag of rubbish out for the bears!

We have a lot more from Yosemite but the laptop battery is running low and it's raining so we don't fancy toilet charging tonight...more soon...

Save Me, San Francisco

We finished our trip up the coast of California in San Francisco.  It was really foggy when we set off early in the morning but by the time we arrived at the Golden Gate Bridge the fog had mostly lifted and we got some awesome views of the bridge and bay. 

We drove across the bridge, well Rosie did - I took care of paying the toll online!  We also stopped for a walk - we decided it was too far to walk all the way across, it's a big bridge, but we walked to the first pillar! Afterwards we continued up into the Marin Headlands for some scenic shots of the bay.

A foggy start to the day

On the Golden Gate Bridge

View from Marin Headlands

City by the Bay!

Later we drove back into the city but we had some problems trying to find a place to leave the van so we could actually see anything! After a lot of driving around we eventually we found a parking space near Golden Gate Park, a good 30 min bus ride from downtown!

We went around the downtown area and then walked to Chinatown and the touristy area of Fisherman's wharf for some souvenir shopping. We got a streetcar back to downtown and to see the piers and the Bay Bridge on the way.

Chinatown - we even saw a couple of Vietnamese places!

We saw much more of the Bay Bridge later. I think there had been a truck breakdown on the Bridge and we got stuck in a never ending traffic jam on the way out of the city. It took us 3 hours to drive the 77 miles to our campsite! I was driving and I was NOT happy but there wasn't much opportunity to swap drivers so I just had to stick it out. I had a beer when we got to our camp to chill out! We used to be extreme distance drivers in Aus, we're just out of practice!

San Fran traffic

Bay Bridge

Over all we liked SF, it's just a shame we didn't have another day to spend here to explore it more thoroughly.  It was also a bit awkward with the van because the driving and parking was so busy and difficult.  The good news is we're already halfway to Yosemite National Park so it will be a short driving day tomorrow.