Yosemite National Park

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Left San Fran early in the morning to try and beat the weekend traffic, yeah right! Traffic became heavier and heavier, until it actually stopped. Cars not moving for as far as you could see. People were getting out of their cars and walking around on a 5 lane freeway. Bit by bit things got moving at a snails pace, we probably moved about 2 miles in an hour an a half. Turns out some crackhead was going to jump off an overpass and the cops had to divert both sides of a 10 lane freeway through side streets. I would have pushed him and got things moving if i could have.
This part of California has not had rain for about 5 months. Guess what, it started to rain and rain and rain and rain. Just as we got to Yosemite it stopped but the fog and cloud hung around.
It was a foggy driving down into the valley but still very beautiful. They have it all set up for people to camp and stay for a while. Groceries store, Post Office, Showers, Camping Sites, Visitors centre and walking trails for all the visitors to use and a free shuttle bus which takes you to each of the different areas of Yosemite Valley which is 9 miles around. There were a lot of people visiting down in the valley due to it being a weekend and the place was packed.
Because it has been so dry and the fact that it is the end of summer, nearly all the waterfalls had almost dried up and we're only but a trickle, but still impressive.
Spent the night at Oakhurst, a nice pretty little town and then headed back to Yosemite the next day.
The weather had improved and was a clear sunny, blue sky day, and was quite warm, about 30 degrees.
Stopped at the grove of Giant Sequioa trees on the way back up the mountain. Huge trees', not as big as the Redwoods but still impressive. The National Parks guys were burning off, and the smoke through the trees looked quite eerie.
Headed off over the Sierras then, over the Tioaga Pass which is about 3500 metres high. One minutes its stinking hot, yeah it was at least 30 degrees, and next minute snow is on the edge of the road, bizzare. Driving another hour or so and we were in the desert on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. We went from valleys, to rain forest, to mountain spurs, snow and the desert all within a few hours. Stayed the night at Lone Pine, just near where they found Steve Fossets' plane(the adventurer who disappeared in his plane a few months ago), and right on the edge of Death Valley.

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