Day 11 - Las Vegas to Yosemite National Park

---

I went with the slower route because I wanted to pass through Death Valley and it turned out to be a day of long roads and spectacular scenery.

The whole drive took about 8 hours and by 10.30 in the morning we had reached the visitor centre at Furnace Creek in Death Valley. Both Furnace Creek and Death Valley are well named; we got out of the car at the visitor centre at 10.30am and it was 45 degrees (expected to rise to 50 degrees by mid-afternoon), and the only living thing we saw in Death Valley (apart from other drivers) was a snake, which I happened to run over. On the climb out of the valley it got a bit warm because there were signs advising that air-conditioning should be turned off to prevent the car engine from overheating, and opening the windows felt like someone was aiming really large hair dryers into the car.

After Death Valley we turned Northwest alongside the Sierra Nevada Mountains, followed them all the way to Yosemite and crossed them through the Tioga Pass on the Eastern side of the park. We used quite a bit of petrol today, but it’s quite cheap here (although the Americans are up in arms because of the high prices!), we’ve got a 12-gallon tank and it costs about £20 to fill. There is also no problem over here with drivers who fill up and drive off without paying; you have to pay cash in advance or pay with a credit card before you fill up. It was a bit strange to start with because I’m used to filling the tank and then paying, but quite quickly you get used to just putting 20 or 30 dollars in the tank and the pump cuts off automatically when you reach your limit.

Overall there was very light traffic on the route today and I was able to make good time, but the last hour through Yosemite was quite slow; we climbed and fell a few thousand feet through winding roads with no chance of overtaking and eventually reached Cedar Lodge just outside the Western edge of the park at about 5.00pm.

It’s a nice hotel with indoor and outdoor pools, a small shop and a couple of restaurants, and it’s amazing how the prices have dropped since we left Las Vegas. Yet again I had an hour by the pool while Sam watched TV (too hot for him! so he doesn’t like sand, doesn’t like heat and doesn’t like too much sun; I think he would do well as an Eskimo!)

At about 6.30pm we headed back into the park to find some of the highlights. We’d passed a few on the trip across the park earlier but we went in search of Tunnel View and Bridalveil Falls, both of which we found and both of which were spectacular. We did a bit of hiking and climbing up to the base of Bridalveil with Sam trying to show off his climbing skills but the views were well worth it. We didn’t see any bears on the walk, which is just as well because I didn’t have too much faith in the guidebook advice (Just curl into a ball and use your hands to protect your neck!).

This is a very quiet and peaceful place, not unlike the area surrounding the Grand Canyon and I could easily imagine coming back here to spend a few days wandering around the place.

---