Yosemite

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When we started winding into the Yosemite hills on the 10th, we were greeted with a deer standing just to the side of the road - stunned and looking at us. It took a while before he bolted back off into the forest - how cool. Once we got to our accommodation just as we got out of the car, two raccoons came running out from behind us and across the path in front of us. It was the first time that I have ever seen a racoon and they seemed tame and a little cheeky. They raced up onto the bin and fished out some bits of food and ran off with them. As I was taking photos of them at one stage, one noticed me and started trotting towards me. I didn’t quite know what he was going to do so I made a fairly brief exit. I could picture it climbing up my leg, latching onto my face and not letting go as the girls laughed.

The first thing we noticed about Yosemite was the sound of flowing water - our lodge was right beside a river and there are waterfalls all around the valley. The waterfalls flow majestically in seemingly slow motion out of the shear vertical rock cliff faces (the water turns almost into a fine powder on the way down).
We were expecting Yosemite to be coooold, much colder than the Grand Canyon, but it ended up being warmer - around 3 degrees when we got there (at night) and during the days it would get up to around 11-13 - a perfect temperature in fact for walking around. The first day was overcast but wasn’t windy or rainy. We went on a walk around Mirror Lake that wound underneath Half Dome rock which is the probably most well known “monument” there. Yosemite is spectacular in the way the granite rock cliffs plunge almost vertically out of the ground to towering heights. Once again, photos can’t really do the place justice. The reason the valley is like that is once there was a giant glacier that moved its way through the valley, carving the mountains on each side as it went through. Eventually it melted and left the vertical sides.

It is a different sort of wow to the grand canyon and death valley - not as big, but more beautiful. The place even sounds good - the water, the trees, the wildlife, and the silent sound of the towering cliffs that seem to expel energy in the air (wow - listen to that, I should be a poet). The best part for me was when we heard a rock fall from one of the cliffs and it literally sounded like thunder echoing around the entire valley.

On one of our walks Amanda finally saw a squirrel that she has been holding out for the entire trip - in fact we saw 7!

Today as we left Yosemite we went via Tuolumne Grove to have a look at the giant Sequoia trees. The walk to the grove was covered entirely in snow but being brave kiwis we walked down anyway. Sunita had shoes that could pass for ice skates so we had to hold her hands most the way down so she didn’t slip over - but once we got there it was worth it. These trees are protected and only grow at a certain altitude, too cold and the water is too frozen to absorb, too hot and the trees lose too much moisture through evaporation. Some of the trees were over 4000 years old and very wide and high.

This is the first post I have made that includes more than a single day - but makes sense as it all sort of merged into one in my mind anyway.
San Francisco coming up!

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Comments

[Jeremy]

I am so happy that Amanda saw a Squirrel!!!

[db]

Glower
Those evil raccoons kick ass. Hey thanks for all this blogging, it's really interesting. I'd never even heard of Yosemite before, and look how awesome it is. Congratulations to Amanda.