Yosemite National Park

After a three hour drive which took us from the green hills of Angel Camp through Central Otago-like scrub, we arrived in Yosemite National Park. We picked up an $80 All National Parks Pass which should get us in to most the NPs for free (and give us a few more days of awesome rock formations, monuments and forests). We knew Yosemite was going to be beautiful, but we weren't really prepared for the grand scale of it.


It is absolutely stunning. We both reckon it's the most beautiful place we have ever been.


Ralph helped us at the tourist office, although Charlotte paid more attention to his turquoise rings than where he was pointing on the map. We headed in through dense Sequoia forests over sheer granite cliffs with amazing views of the valley below. Winston handled the narrow winding roads well and we drove right into the park. Yosemite was the first national park, and the inspiration for a number of others, so it's not surprising that it's incredibly well set up. A free shuttle bus connects car parks with visitor centres and loops past walking tracks to the main sights. There are lodges, camping grounds, cafes, a gas station, art galleries and activities like horse trekking. That may sound commercial and awful, but it is all so well thought out and everything fits perfectly and blends in with the scenery. Certainly a different experience to NZ's national parks.


We spend a good part of the day looking at (and getting drenched by) waterfalls and taking spectacular pictures of the surroundings. No real tramping was done (most of the inclines are approximately 0%), but we did have a good wander. Yosemite Falls has the highest drop of any waterfall in the USA (and 4th in the world) and was just incredible. We're running low on adjectives now, it's fair to say we had a great day there!


Most of this post was written on the way out of Yosemite, as we were waiting in a 1/2 hour road works queue. We had hoped to cross the Tioga Pass Road to the eastern border of the park. Unfortunately there is still quite a bit of snow around and the road is still closed. We headed to Wawona, then to Fresno. On the plane Mark watched a Louis Theroux documentary on Fresno, or more specifically, its high proportion of methamphetamine users. We sped away from Fresno to Kingsburg where we found an RV park (right by a highway and closed) and a lost RV man called Gene (retired, of Nevada). Using our incredible RV park bible we found an alternative place, and led Gene there. It was also closed and locked, but a nice man let us in. He also returned my license and credit card when I left it in the shower.


There's light rain tonight, but it's still warm.


Stats
USA Flags: 54 (we're noticing a strong inverse correlation between town population and number of flags).
NZ Flags: 2
New Zealanders: 0
Squirrels: many
Bears: 0
Coleopterists: 1 (Gene)


Link - www.nps.gov - The American National Park Service has loads of info on national parks/monuments/forests.


Post written at 9pm, 25/05/10 - delayed posting due to lack of internets. Or rather, lack of willingness to pay for internets.