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Yosemite
On the way up Nevada Falls. Day 107 - San Francisco - Yosemite NP
We had a morning of sorting our lives out before leaving Pat and Robert's around midday. It was back to living out of our bags after a week and a half of luxury!
We set off to try and find San Andreas Fault but we failed in our mission - the Tomtom did not live up to it's usual standards! We still had a nice drive around Los Altos Hills though so the time was not wasted.
Once we had admitted defeat we set off on our way to Yosemite National Park. It was a long drive so we did not arrive until 7.00pm but the last hour of driving into the park really got the juices flowing, we went to bed very excited about the next couple of days.
We were staying in a permanent tent in Curry Village - one of the "resorts" in the valley. My fear of bears was definately not helped when we arrived at our designated tent to a ranger shouting "get out of here bear, get out of here" and telling everyone to back off. We did not actually see the bear as
Yosemite
Top of Nevada Falls and the view of the valley. we were too late but I was petrified from then onwards!
Day 108 - Yosemite NP
We survived the first night in our tent without any bear attacks and got up in good time to start our walk up the waterfalls in the west of the valley. I decided to leave my waterproofs back in the tent as it was a beautiful blue-sky day and we headed off on the "Mist Trail". It became apparent after a mile or so why it was called the mist trail and we got soaked in the spray from the bottom of the impressive Vernel Falls. As you walked up the 600 steps to the top of the falls you could see so many mini rainbows in the spray - it was really pretty.
Once we got to the top we dried off in the sunshine and continued up to Nevada Falls, where we ate our lunch and enjoyed the amazing views through the valley and then headed down a different trail (The John Muir Trail) to the bottom. We decided that the top of Nevada Falls may have been our favourite place that we have been anywhere in the
Yosemite
Half Doom and Nevada Falls. world!
At the bottom we headed to the Mirror Lake; which wasn't very impressive as it was not particularly mirror like and unfortunately we couldn't walk all the way round as there was a massive rock slide a few months ago.
At dinner time we went to the "All-You-Can-Eat" buffet. It was actually good with some healthy options, plus all the fat people put you off eating too much so it worked out quite well!
Day 109 - Yosemite NP
We had a slightly earlier start as we had planned a 14 mile hike for the day ahead. Again we awoke to clear blue skies, we could not have wished for better weather (I think we were due some luck after the rain in Aus).
We had a very tough first 5 miles up to Glacier Point, gaining 1000m in height. It involved hundreds of winding double-back turns and absolutely no flat sections! It was basically the equivalent of hiking up Snowdon from sea-level so I am not surprised that I was almost dead at the end...and we still had 9 miles to go!
We stopped for a rest at the top, taking in the incredible
Yosemite
On the way up to Glacier Point - a view of Cathedral Rock and The Three Brothers. views. You can reach this point by car so it was slightly ruined by the huge number of people but knowing that you had hiked to the view-point made the views just that little bit better! From here we continued on a trail called the "Panorama Trail" and it definitely lived up to it's name. We basically traversed across the mountain, descending to the top of Illiloutte Falls before making our last ascent to the top of Nevada Falls (again - we could not resist a return!). I reached a serious low point on the top of Illiloutte falls due to the prospect of another set of double-back turns but it turned out that by the end of the walk it was the steep downhill sections that the legs did not like!
At the top of Nevada Falls we had a nice half hour break, taking in the amazing views for the last time. It was sad to leave one of my favourite spots on Earth but it was time to make the long descent done the "Mist Trail" to the valley floor - this time we wore our rain macs!
I think I can safely say that this was
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Upper Yosemite Falls. one of the best days of our trip. Yosemite NP is probably our favourite place we have been and I will be surprised if it gets beaten.
Day 110 - Yosemite NP - Monterey
After a leisurely start we packed our bags and took in the last views of the Yosemite Valley. On the drive out we stopped at the Mariposa Giant Sequoia Grove to see the biggest Sequoia in Yosemite which was really big (The Grizzly Giant)!
We then had to make our way back out west to the coast, which took about 4 hours and we went along some very straight, very dusty, very long roads. Once we arrived in Monterey, we found a motel on the outskirts before taking a drive around.
Sarah had promised (months ago) that we could go to see Terminator 4 at some point during our travels in America so we spent the evening at the cinema. It was a novelty watching it near to where the film is set and it was funny when the audience gave a cheer when the Governor himself made a small cameo appearance!
Day 111 - Monterey - Buellton
Yosemite
Down Vernel Falls on the "Mist Trail". We explored Monterey in the morning, taking a walk along the coast from downtown Monterey to the Fishermans Wharf and on to Cannery Row. We were sucked into looking at photography of Yosemite at one of the market stalls and we could not resist but buy a small photo of The Half Dome as a souveneir. However, we did resist buying anything from the outrageous Candy Store. It was a struggle to walk away from the Jelly Belly Beans with crazy flavours such as 7-Up and Chocolate Ice cream.
From here we made the short drive to Carmel. It was a struggle to find a parking space as it was bank holiday weekend (Memorial Day), but it was very easy to see why this little town by the sea is so popular. It is obviously a very upmarket town with very nice looking restaurants, art galleries etc. Carmel is also the unofficial start of the Big Sur Drive so after a wander around we set off on the coastal drive south. We were both really impressed, the road gave you an excellent view of the dramatic coastline and we preferred it to The Great Ocean Road in Australia. We had
fair few stops along the way to take a look at the views and we also took a couple of short walks; one to a coastal waterfall and one down to a pretty bay.
The day had disappeared in front of our eyes, we did not really leave the winding coastal road until 6.00pm. We decided to use the last hours of sunlight to get as far as possible down the coast and we stopped off at "Chillis" for dinner on the way - our first American Diner experience of our trip. We both came to the conclusion that portions are definitely smaller than when we had previously visited the USA but they still had the good old doggy bags for those who could not finish!
We reached Buellton at about 9.30pm so decided to find a bed for the night. It was not as easy as it sounds with it being bank holiday weekend, we ended up taking one of the last rooms in town above a sports bar! It happened to be in The Windmill Inn from
Sideways so Rob was happy. Since we were above the bar we decided to venture downstairs for a taste of a
true American Bar and it was interesting! The barman was quite clearly drunk and forgot that he had taken my driving license and then thought it was a credit card for my tab (I missed a trick asking for it back)! We then got talking to a Marine on leave who told us how much he hated California and how Texas was much better as you could walk down the street with a beer and many other interesting facts about life in America.
Day 112 - Buellton - Los Angeles
We carried on south towards LA and stopped in Santa Barbara which is an old Spanish Colony and now a trendy college town. We wandered around the main drag and had a look at some of the old colonial buildings before heading on to Malibu where we stopped for lunch. We have taken to living out of supermarkets here in the US as they often have mini food courts inside with good cheap food.
We carried on and soon hit the LA city limits and stopped in the posh seaside suburb of Santa Monica and wandered around the shops and the beach area which is all
Buellton
The "Windmill Inn" made famous by the film "Sideways". really nice.
A few miles down the road is the suburb of Venice. We ventured to the beach which can only be described as a scary but interesting freak-show. There were loads of stalls along the boardwalk mainly selling tattoos, drugs, palm readings or a combination of all three and loads of really weird people. There were also lots of police out to make sure there was no trouble. It was by far one of the most threatening and bizarre places we have been anywhere on our trip and we had to be careful not to stare at anyone for too long!
In the evening we headed out to one of the more "peaceful" neighborhoods to find a suitable motel for the night.
Day 113 - Los Angeles
We headed to Hollywood first thing to see all of the famous theatres and we walked along the walk of fame and had a picture next to our favourite stars. I went for Celine Dion while Sarah went for Winnie the Pooh! We also took the mandatory pictures of the hollywood sign and had a look at the hand prints in the concrete outside the front of
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Me next to Celine's star in Holywood. the Chinese Theatre. Apparently Hollywood has got much nicer in recent years but it looks like a really grim area even during daytime so I cannot understand why they like having premieres and award ceremonies there!
With our star map in hand we went looking for various celebrities houses in neighbouring Beverley hills. These included David Beckham, Tom Cruise, Jack Black, Christina Aguilera, Leo DiCaprio, Simon Cowell and the list goes on. It is pretty obvious which are the celeb houses as they are so tucked away with long drives and gates.
After this we decided to have a look at UCLA which is one of the state universities located in Bel Air. It is a really nice campus (probably the nicest part of LA!) and it looked really well funded; I think I know what universities in England are aspiring to become as it seemed to be quite a slick money-making machine and is almost a brand name out here!
We then had a poke around Rodeo Drive which is the very posh shopping district before heading to Inglewood in search of some gangsters but we failed to see any on the street corners!
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Pat
non-member comment
So you Survived the Yosemite Bears!
Hi Sarah and Rob, Happy to hear that you had a fabulous time in Yosemite (and that you didn't encounter any bears!!). I agree with you that Yosemite is probably one of the most amazing places to visit. Hope you are enjoying being back home. It was so lovely to see you both when you visited us.