Yosemite National Park, California

We booked five nights in Yosemite, not because it’s somewhere that we’ve always wanted to go or that we love bears, but because we keep hearing from people and TV shows that it’s a beautiful place. On that basis, we showed up with no expectations and no idea how we were going to entertain ourselves for just under a week.

For starters we checked into our accommodation at Curry Village, which is one of four accommodation locations within the Yosemite National Park. We went for the tent cabin option because it seemed to fit in with the idea of roughing it a bit in a national park setting (and because it was about a third of the price of the cabin option - yep, tightarses), and let’s just say that the postcards they sell are a little flattering. You get what you pay for and compared to the other accommodation available within the national park, it is pretty cheap. We must also point out that each tent cabin comes with its own bear proof locker for the storage of any and every (it is compulsory) item that has a scent - food, drinks, toiletries etc). It was relieving to go to bed at night knowing that a bear could scratch through the walls of your tent at any time, but that your food could survive even the most ferocious beer attack.

The Americans really know how to do National Parks. Yosemite has sealed roads throughout, walking and cycling paths along the main routes, a free shuttle bus that comes about every 15 minutes and services the accommodation sites, car parks and hike starting points, and well maintained hiking tracks.

- Day one in the park was a pretty relaxed affair.
- Day two saw us hike 7.25 miles (11.6 kms) to Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall. This was pretty hard work, with some serious inclines and declines, and an absolute drenching spray from Vernal Fall as the path meandered its way up to the top of the Fall. The trail also required us to navigate our way through snow covered parts of the track (one of us didn’t do quite as well as the other, slipping over on the icy snow and ending up with a wet arse). We also found out that there are no dry zones in the national park, so as long as you clean up after yourself, you are free to drink your alcohol wherever you want within the Park. Coupled with the fact that you can buy a bottle of beer for a buck and our accommodation has a $12.50 buffet, Yosemite National Park has more in common with Vegas than we could ever have imagined.
- Day 3 was pretty chilled. We went on a ‘Grey Nomad’ walk to lower Yosemite Fall, which was bituminised the whole way and was only about an 800m round trip. This walk was frequented by families, the aged, disabled, young and lazy. We also went for a short walk to Mirror Lake, which as the name suggests, shows you the mountains that rise above in the reflection of the lake. We even got in a bit of culture and had a look at the Native American exhibition.
- Day 4 was our power day. We hiked to the top of Yosemite Fall which is the highest waterfall in North America and the fifth highest in the world. Yosemite Fall is an 823 metre vertical rise involving a 7.2 mile (11.6 km) round trip hike to one of the most beautiful outlooks we have come across, but it was certainly a very challenging affair. It took us about four hours and forty minutes of total walking time and left us pretty much shattered. One of us ended up on our arse after slipping on some rocks during the descent. A coffee, a couple of dollar beers and a couple of quiet wines while watching the NHL playoffs pretty much saw the day out.
- Day 5 was another pretty quiet one. We hired bikes for a couple of hours and cruised around the Park’s tracks. There’s so much water in Yosemite. Everywhere we looked there was a waterfall bringing the melted ice down from the mountains and no one bats an eyelid as the Park workers hose off the many paths - if you did that in SA, someone would lynch you.

Yosemite was beautiful, the massive granite towering cliffs, the fast flowing river waters and the big forests. It was a landscape that neither of us had seen before and was pretty inspiring. Our only disappointment and maybe it was a blessing - No bear sightings!

Today we jumped on the YART (Yosemite Area Regional Transport) Bus and then onto the Amtrak to make our way back to San Francisco. We are checked into the Edwardian Hotel again. A couple of days in SF and then we are on the Amtrak to Portland.

---

---