Dani woke up early and had a bath before waking me up. It was gone 8:30 AM and, with breakfast ending in half an hour, we hotfooted it across to the breakfast room. We stood in the queue for waffles before giving up as it was taking far too long (maybe tomorrow?). Instead we had some toast and I had a cold boiled egg, and then we had a couple of pastries. We also sorted ourselves out with a couple of teas. After breakfast, we gathered our things and headed off in the car to Yosemite National Park. It took longer than we expected to get to the park and we arrived at the parking for the main visitor centre after about an hour and a half.
We were given a map at the entrance and another at the car park information, and, after catching a bus from the car park to the visitor centre, we got a third. It wasn’t very clear where to start even with all the maps and having asked for information at the car park. Dani asked about the Yosemite waterfalls, but due to the dry weather both the main falls were apparently pretty dry. When we asked again at the visitor centre, the man was a little more helpful, directing us towards the Vernal Falls which involved hikes of different lengths depending on how far you wanted to go up.
It first involved catching one of the shuttle buses that run around the park. The shuttles take you to the main trail heads around Yosemite village. We caught the shuttle to stop 16 and when we got there we thought we better eat the crisps we were carrying, having read warnings about carrying food (due to bears). We also bought some chocolate cookies from the food kiosk and filled the water bottle from the water fountain. Finally, we got going on what turned out to be a much more strenuous walk than we had anticipated! It took about an hour and a half, walking uphill all the way, with a few stops for water and to catch our breath. We saw a little lizard darting about and a pretty impressive butterfly, and lots of little squirrels. Close to the top, when we were having a rest, a boy came past on his way down and cheerfully told as it wasn’t much further - we must have looked like we were on the verge of giving up (we were)!
And he was right! Minutes later, we arrived at the bridge and enjoyed the view of the waterfall, taking a few obligatory “we were here” photos. We sat around under the trees by the bridge for a while to recover before setting off back. We filled up our water bottle again and started the journey back, past a squirrel that was splattered on a rock looking knackered. It looked how I felt.
The walk down wasn’t too bad; certainly easier than going up. Once at the bottom, we joined the queue for the shuttle bus. There were loads of people waiting at the bus stop, as it seemed late, then three came at once: you know what they say about buses. So, we caught the bus back to the visitor centre. We got off at ‘Curry Village’, having spotted some deer from the bus. We took some pictures before heading to the gifts and grocery store where we bought Burt the bear, some Pepsi, a fridge magnet, a sew-on badge and a postcard.
We’d already decided that we wanted to go to Glacier Point next, via Tunnel Viewpoint. This involved a drive. And a much longer one than we expected, as it turned out! We stopped a couple of times along the way, including at Tunnel View, which offered fantastic views across the park. The car park at Tunnel View filled up shortly after we arrived, with a number of coach parties and we left just before we got blocked in by another coach. The drive to Glacier Point took much longer than expected, due to the slow winding roads, but we did see a wolf by the road on the way, which was fantastic. We stopped at a viewpoint shortly before Glacier Point which was pretty busy. Somebody offered to take a photo of us sitting on a rock against the panorama, which was nice. We also saw some more of the blue birds we’d seen earlier and took some more pictures before heading back along the winding roads.
From Glacier Point, our next stop was due to be Mariposa Grove, home to the huge Sequoia trees. Time was already marching on and we started to get concerned whether we would make it in daylight. Again, it turned out to be a really long drive (the park is massive); it took about an hour and a half and it was gone 7:30 PM when we arrived. The light had already started to fade so much that Dani had already taken a picture of the sunset just before we arrived. The trees were incredible, and absolutely massive. Disappointingly, they were fenced off to protect the roots, so you couldn’t get too close. We had a bit of a wander, and it was dark before we left to head back to Mariposa.
It took about another hour and a half to get back along winding hill roads. We went straight to a restaurant in town called the Charles Street Dinner house. It was very nice; I had fettuccine and steak and Dani had honey barbecue baby back ribs. Again, the meal came with a side salad and also some very nice garlic bread. It was all very nice and cost $75, including tip. Back at the hotel, we had a quick look at photos, but the Internet was going too slowly to be any use, so we went to bed, ready for our road trip to LA tomorrow.
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![]() | Posted by Danica Scott at 23:11 |
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Got up a bit late, after our late-night pizza! I went down Starbucks to get tea and, despite having to relay my order several times to different people, managed to get two teas and chocolatines. They still seem incapable of leaving any room for milk, despite being asked!
Got all of our stuff packed up, and toddled down to check out. Had a two dollar bill for the local phone calls (the pizza) - last of the big spenders! Made our way down to the car park to retrieve the hire car - a fairly easy-going walk downhill from Van Ness Avenue to O’Farrell. A friendly parking attendant helped us out, with the pay machine and indicated where the lifts were, and we were away! As we drove out of San Francisco, we happened to pass the car rental offices and, low and behold - a massive queue. No surprise there really! Poor things.
Left San Francisco via the Bay Bridge, which has some intermittent views, but the walls were too high to see over most of the time. The route east was painless and we reached Berkeley easily. Used the SatNav to locate some parking, but found one on our own, just opposite the US Post Office. It was $2.50 for the first two hours, which seems reasonable. Interestingly, there was the ongoing protest outside the post office, to say no to the privatisation of the post office. Quite interesting, given the same question being raised back home. It turns out that the building is being sold, rather than the actual service, but people want to preserve the historic building.
We began to have a little wander, nipping into the post office to buy some stamps. We then found the high street, almost immediately stopping to buy an ice cream from Papa John’s Ice-Creams - we thought we’d start lunch with dessert. Tempted by the promise of a scoop for a dollar, we both had one! Ben had choc’ chip and chocolate, in a chocolate-dipped waffle cone and I had avocado and ube (sweet potato and yam apparently) in a small cone - I’ll be honest; I picked mine for the colours! As the ice cream dripped down our hands, we pottered on. Went in a couple of bookshops, looking for an American Atlas and eventually happened upon a deli, where we bought some huge sandwiches - roast chicken and cheese, which we kept to eat a bit later.
Having returned to the car, we drove out of Berkeley, passing through the University. We were trying to find a renowned beauty spot called Grizzly Peak, but it turned out to be elusive. We drove around for at least an hour, suffering from the distinct lack of British brown signposts to send us in the right direction. Eventually, happened upon Lakeview car park. Sounded promising… But not a real view of the lake, more of a car park. Sat and ate our sandwiches in view of a very symmetrical portaloo! The sandwiches were very nice, however!
Drove on, seeing some spectacular scenery. Ironically, all the places you can stop along the way have views of nothing but trees, whereas you can only drive past the fantastic panoramas! They need a bit of National Trust input!
Travelled on towards Yosemite and our motel in Mariposa. As we went, we couldn’t help but stop along one of the straight, seemingly never-ending roads, with barely any cars. There was nothing to see for miles, apart from pistachio trees and wheat. Stood in the road for photos! The whole journey didn’t take as long as we might have expected and we arrived in Mariposa. Check-in was easy and we had ourselves a room with two queen beds - room for a party! Had a little sloth around and then headed to the Miner’s Inn restaurant. An hour later and we were stuffed. We shared potato skins as a starter, although there were four, which was quite vast, and then I had meatloaf and Ben had southern fried chicken. We were baffled as to why the main courses came with either soup or salad and opted for salad, as a lighter choice! Nevertheless, the portions were massive and we didn’t eat it all. Good value at $45, but huge! How do American people manage this?
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![]() | Posted by Danica Scott at 22:59 |
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