Vernal Falls and Manteca

We went down to breakfast as it started and got straight in without waiting this time. Same fare, nothing too exciting. Back to the room to pack, and off to the Yosemite Valley.

Not many people in the park yet - we were able to park just outside the general store. A quick visit to the visitor centre and we hopped onto the free shuttle to the bottom of the Vernal Falls hike. 1,000 ft ascent again - ouch! And pretty much straight up again! The walk followed the river for the entire climb. About half-way up it changes from a path to a climb on granite stairs - about 600 of them - and steep! Right through the "mist" zone, where we both got absolutely soaked. However, it's well worth it - the falls are spectacular!

A few hundred stairs from the top we decided to turn back. Yesterday's effort aside, we were running out of time and I'm pretty sure we had already seen the falls from the best vantage point possible - right near the base of the upper falls. The path was becoming increasingly crowded now - it was no doubt one of the more popular hikes - I can't begin to imagine what it's like on an early summer's weekend afternoon! Plenty of stopping and waiting for people to pass on the narrow staircase.

Back to the village for another burger, then we headed off on the drive to Glacier Point. Long, winding and slow - it was all worth it! The views over the valley floor and across to Half Dome and to the high Sierra mountains in the distance towards to east end of the park are second-to-none in Yosemite. And to look down on the valley floor and realise that we'd actually climbed _higher_ than that yesterday was simply unbelievable!

Back down into the valley, past melting snow on either side at times, we joined the traffic snarls leaving the park on a Sunday afternoon. Painful.

Finally, we cleared the gates and back onto open road towards San Francisco. The idea was to drive until around 8pm and see where we were. For half the trip we back-tracked the way we came in from Mammoth Lakes a few days before. The rest wasn't that exciting. But after 3 days of winding roads up and down hills with 35 mph speed limits, driving at 65 mph you felt like you were actually getting somewhere!

Around 8pm we found ourselves in Manteca, 77 miles outside SF. We found a Comfort Inn that was reasonably priced, and turned out to have free Wifi, breakfast and a spa! Yah! The room was huge and it was great value! As usual, I stayed in the spa until Karina had had enough - not long enough for me...

After booking SF accommodation it was too late for TV so we just crashed.

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