San Francisco + Yosemite

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After a full day of transitting I finally arrived at USA Hostel, San Francisco. All I really did that night was sleep. The next morning I walked up bright and early, totally failed an attempt to make myself pancakes for breakfast in the hostel kitchen and walked down to the piers to do my tour of Alcatraz. It was a pretty great set-up, I was particularly impressed by the gift shop (usually one of my favourite places) where I bought a shirt and some music, and the audio tour (I don’t usually like audio tours so this is high praise). The audio tour was narrated by a guy who used to be a guard of Alacatraz and it was very effective in leading you through where all the interesting things happened in that jail over the years. Also a nice addition was the documentary video they had right near the dock when you first get off the boat so you can have a bit of background information before you explore- I had certainly never heard anything about the Native American protests that took place there in the 1960s. Anyway, great tour, very interesting, would recommend to all. I would definitely go back to do the night one- it’s kind of also inspired me to check out Fort Denison at night when I get back to Sydney.

One thing to note was the ridiculously large proportion of Australian accents I heard on Alcatraz- gosh we’re everywhere. I met this nice guy from Sydney on the boat back- he was 8 months into his trip and had already seen 21 countries, not a bad way to spend a year (all the more impressive as he was considerably older than you’re typical backpacker). I meandered back up Market St and had some clam chowder in a sourbread bowl for lunch (something I’d missed out on my first tie in San Fran due to vegetarianism). It was delicious! (much better than Brooklyn clam chowder). After that I got back to the hostel and repacked my bags (so I could leave the 2 big ones behind) for my trip to Yosemite and started catching up on my long neglected blogs (the fruits of which you have no doubt been reading).

The next morning it was up bright and early (6am- oh, the days when that was wakeup time for work- I dread your return) and caught a taxi down to San Francisco Ferry Building to catch my series of Amtrak vehicles followed by a long uphill walk to make it to Yosemite Bug Hostel. Several hours later I was there. Unfortunately I had to wait another couple of hours until checkin (inexplicably not until 4pm), which once again gave me an opportunity to catch up on blogs. I’d been having a fascinating 24 hours, right? Blogging, bussing and waiting. I was eager to go out and check out the area.

I got that opportunity the next day. I caught one of the earlier YARTS busses up to the national park, where low and behold- snow! Lots of snow. Hadn’t quite anticipated that, but OK. I started off by going to the visitors centre and getting some advice (and a map) from one of the rangers. Then I caught the shuttle to lower Yosemite falls and started on my first trail. I got to see great views of the falls and then I got lost. Still, it was magical- wandering around a trail with little idea of where I was (but still on some sort of trail so not really concerned). At some points there would be sounds of rustling and suddenly the sight of a big clump of snow falling off a tree branch. Every now and then I saw deer prints in the snow. It was like being in Narnia.

Eventually I found myself off the trail and back on the road. Once again in the midst of a picturesque view- surrounded by towering rocks on all sides with dustings of snow. In front of me was a meadow (2 feet of snow of course). There were signs saying Mirror Lake was about 4 miles away in that direction (one of the trails I was wanting to do). I waded through the meadow, stopping every few steps to re-admire the view. It’s hard to get over. I made it through the meadow and continued on the road (following the signs to Mirror Lake), through a footpath on and off covered in black ice. Suddenly the sign pointing to Mirror Lake pointed off to the left, into what seemed to be nothing (impossible to see the trail underneath all the snow). There were a few footprints going vaguely in that direction so I traced over them. I followed this, even as the snow got deeper and prints harder to see- I was plodding through snow halfway up my calves. Eventually I saw something up ahead- a hotel. I consulted my map, I was nowhere near Mirror Lake- I had somehow managed to get lost again. Luckily that hotel was on the shuttle bus schedule, so I hopped on and decided to ride the shuttle for a bit and try to get my bearings. By then it wasn’t long until the bus back to the hostel was leaving so I headed to Yosemite Lodge (where it left from) and got a hot tea and read my book until the bus came.

As beautiful as Yosemite is, I had realized from the first day’s wanderings that 2 days would have been sufficient to do everything I wanted to do (a lot of trails were closed in winter). So for my second day I decided to take it easy. I took a scenic stroll from Yosemite Lodge to Curry Village then to the Village Store for lunch. A woman near me was asking someone how to get to the ranger wilderness talk- I had forgotten about that, 2pm every day- perfect way to kill the afternoon. I followed the woman who had asked for directions and both of us went hunting to the ranger group that had already left. We found them on the edge of a snow-covered meadow talking about acorn woodpeckers. It was an interesting talk, though we didn’t run into any particularly spectacular wildlife, I did get to feel the pelt of some (the fur of roadkill that the ranger carried in her backpack). The talk went for a full two hours, in the end I had to leave early and power walk to the bus. That night I got back to find out that everyone else in my dorm had checked out. Dorm to myself, yay!

My last full day in Yosemite I got up early enough to get an early bus. It never came (or if it did, it was at least 10 minutes early). There were 3 of us stranded at the bus stop (no way I was doing that brutal uphill 1km walk back to the hostel unless necessary), luckily I had my handy dandy book ready to kill the time. A good novel- traveller’s best friend. The next bus came – a mere 2 hours after the one we had intended to catch. There were 2 trails I was wanting to do that day- the first was Vernal Falls. Gosh going uphill is hard when the whole trail is covered in ice. Or so I thought- the greater battle in fact was getting down again. The view from the top was worth it though, even if getting down did at times involve standing sideways and trying to slide down the ice in the most controlled manner possible (I managed not to fall down once though!!) Probably even more worth it was on the way up watching people slipping and sliding down, teenage boys showing off to their friends by sliding down like their shoes were some sort of snowboard ten almost falling over. Anyway, it was a satisfyingly exhausting walk up and a fun ride down- probably my favourite walk from my time in Yosemite.

Now, the fact that I could mention seeing people sliding their way down the trail is significant because the other two days I had been in Yosemite there had hardly been anyone around, and suddenly there were quite a few. Then suddenly it dawned on me- it was the weekend. There were a LOT more people around. I can only imagined (and shudder to) what Summer is like if that’s what Winter weekends are like. Anyway, once back from Vernal Falls I walked over to the Mirror Lake shuttle stop then through the snow to Mirror Lake. Finally I had made it there without getting lost! It was quite beautiful, but then again so is the whole of Yosemite. I caught a shuttle back to where the bus back to the hostel was leaving and made it with just enough time to eat a belated packed lunch in comfort. I got back and my dorm was no longer empty. From blissful solitude I was suddenly in a room with a group of 8 loud, obnoxious Brits with a disturbingly large amount of alcohol and 2 older American women, one with a service dog (Border Collie- cute, but smelly). Luckily I was checking out that morning and heading back to San Fran.

I caught the bus down to the Amtrak station. While I waiting I happened to be sitting near a nice family and an elderly couple and we all had a lovely conversation while waiting for the train to come. With this being my third trip to San Fran, I spent my final day clothes shopping, eating delicious food and going to Black Swan at the cinema. Then it was time to head home. My plane left San Fran 11pm on the 7th, and thanks to distance and time difference, arrived in Sydney at 8.30am on the 9th. I was back in Australia...

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