Yes Yosemite

 Today was the day we get to Yosemite (finally).This has been on my bucket list for many years and I'm so glad we made the effort to get here. We didn't realise just how vast the National Park was, and it took us an hour of driving before we got to the Valley and the amazing sights. The drive was very scenic, and so refreshing to see green trees after so much desert and Sierra countryside.

Beautiful scenery.

We passed through an icicle laced tunnel 1 mile long to be greeted with this breathtaking sight! El Capitan on the left is the largest granite monolith in the world, on the right you can see Half Dome rock and Sentinel rock with Yosemite falls tumbling down the cliff face. The temperature dropped significantly here, and we were excited to see ice and snow.

The mile long tunnel

First stop was Bridal Veil Falls, an easy 15 minute walk off the road. There were quite a lot of people visiting despite the season and it made us glad we weren't visiting in summer.

Bridalveil Falls

The valley itself is only 1 mile wide and 7 miles long, so it was very easy to drive around to see most of what there was to see. Had we been keen hikers, we could have stayed at one of the lodges on site to take advantage of other numerous, longer hikes.

El Capitan

Giant redwood tree

Yosemite falls from Sentinel Bridge

Half Dome

Picturesque River Merced

Yosemite falls

Yosemite falls was the last sight before leaving the park, and another easy loop walk from the road. The falls were falling quite fast so at the foot there was a loud roaring noise and icy water spray. Invigorating to say the least. On the return loop, the path was blocked with Police tape, you know, the one the says "Do Not Cross"? Yeah that one. Did we take any notice of that? No! Jason's words "it's just a prank", we could see well beyond the tape and it looked fine. It was fine until we stepped into thigh high snow!! By this stage we estimated we were half way back, so whether we forged on or turned back it was going to be tough going. It was alarming and hilarious all at the same time. We did make it, we didn't fair too badly except Sam who had very cold and numb feet.

A long drive out of the park (yet again at dusk), and we pushed on (through very dark, very windy roads), to a place called Sonora. Another gold mining town where we found excellent cheap accommodation and one of the best meals we've had in the form of the Chinese restaurant down the road.