Yosemite National Park

See, we were serious!

It’s time to wax lyrical, if I can.  Today we drove from Carmel (which, as we had suspected last night, was very pretty in daylight) to Yosemite National Park.  Driving through the farmland of northern California called to mind the Hawkes Bay in some places, and the rolling hills of the Waikato in others – only all so much bigger.  And the trees were wrong too, but it still reminded us a little of home.  Our GPS is still proving extremely useful, but there are times when we would like to over-ride it.  Being directed to turn right into “Sandy Mush Road” was not inspiring – we wanted to know if there was a better “Firm Asphalt Road” we could choose instead!  Luckily Sandy Mush Road proved to be firm asphalt all the way – the tricky part came at the end when we had to cross a six-lane freeway with no lights or fly-overs.  Not an experience I want to repeat!!

We arrived at our B & B, which is lovely, to find we had made some sort of miscalculation and we are staying about another 1.5 hours’ drive from the Yosemite Valley floor.  This has turned out to be a tiny insignificant detail, as our consequent drive to Yosemite Village exposed us to some spectacular scenery we would otherwise have missed, including a beautiful sequoia grove and the truly magnificent Tunnel View.

 

The beauty of Yosemite is beyond words.  The Grand Canyon was spectacular but there is something here in the combination of waterfalls, forests, snow and ice-carved granite that I find deeply moving.  Our photographs will never do it justice, but will serve to remind us of the grandeur here.  I have been very touched too by the kindness of strangers which has meant that at two of the most beautiful views, we have pictures of the two of us together, taken on our own camera.

We were also lucky enough to see a cheeky grey squirrel (whose tail was magnificent, much more so than the urban squirrels) and a family of grey deer grazing near Yosemite Village.  While the sight of a bear would have been exciting on our way home, we had to settle for another group of deer by the river instead.