Yosemite

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I spent two nights at a Hostel up in the mountains near to Yosemite National Park.

The drive from San Francisco to Midpines was nice. I was just glad to have got out of San Francisco alright given that I hadn't driven an automatic before and I was on the wrong side of the road in a busy city. The bridge across to Oakland was very foggy but once I got out of the Bay area it cleared up. I soon realised that I would need a map of better quality than that found in the front of my guidebook so I picked one up at a gas station.

I stopped in Coulterville which is a wild west gold rush town with its old saloon (still in operation) and old boardwalk. It was a dusty old place in the middle of no-where. I continued to the town of Mariposa which is another wild west gold rush town but this has expanded a little and is a modern place, but still with old boardwalks and saloon. It also has the oldest continually used county courthouse from the 1850's. A lot of nationally imporatant mining law decisions have been made in the courthouse over the years.

The following day I went with the Yosemite tour from the hostel. We left early and headed first to Mariposa Grove. This contains some of the massive Giant Sequia trees that are only found in these certain groves. The can live up to 3200 years! We saw one that had had a hole cut in it so that carriage could go through it.

Then we went round to a car park and had a short walk up to the top of Sentinel Dome from which we had great 360 degree views of the surrounding peaks. After lunchon top of the dome we went for a walk around a seasonal lake which is only filled with water in the spring when the snow is melting. The point of this walk was to see a bear which we did see, along with her cub. I was really pleased, I didn't expect to see anything.

In the evening we had a few beers and a camp fire.

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