Autumn in Yosemite

After arriving in San Francisco at 11 am we picked up the rental car and headed straight out of San Francisco for the town of Tracy. Driving on the other side of the road was a really strange experience at first and took a lot of concentration! We bought supplies and food in Tracy and stayed the night at a motel before heading out the next morning for Yosemite National Park.

We came in on the north road (120) and got our first glimpse of Half Dome from a little roadside stop at the end of the valley. We also went up to Tunnel View and Bridalveil Falls before heading to Upper Pines to set up camp. That evening we went for a walk to Mirror Lake and watched the sun set on Half Dome. The lake was more of a sand field actually and the Yosemite Falls were not going at all (took us a while to figure out where they were supposed to be!).

The next morning we headed into the Visitor Centre and the Ansel Adams Gallery and lightened our pockets a little before heading out that afternoon to the Mariposa Grove of Sequoias at the southern entrance to the park. It started raining while we were visiting the trees and got a lot worse and very foggy by the time we got back to the valley. That night was a torrential downpour and we had to move the tent to higher ground to avoid the puddle forming right outside the front door! Was a bit of a sleepness night wondering if the tent was going to stand up to the amount of water but daylight came and the rain had stopped and we were still dry! Was a great misty morning and the Yosemite Falls had suddenly come alive over night and were roaring over the cliffs.

We decided to head up the Four Mile Trail for the day to Glacier Point as it was a nice day and it was our only chance (the road was closed but actually opened as we were leaving the next day but we are really glad we did the walk instead anyway). We got up to Glacier Point for lunch after having a wonderful walk up the trail looking at the views of the valley the whole way, passing by blueburries, conifers, squirrels, jays, chipmunks and a couple of eagles. We had Glacier Point all to ourselves apart from a couple that arrived just as we were heading back down again.

The next day we headed north to Lake Tahoe via Carson's Pass which was a great drive as we weren't expecting it and the road travels up along a ridge the whole way to the pass at ~8500 ft and quite a bit of snow around. We spent last night with our friend Sam (a New Zealander who has been living in Tahoe for about 3 years now). Sam and Sarah took us out to a really neat Mexican restaurant in their local casino.

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