USA road trip, Post 4: Yosemite

After leaving the Alabama Hills on Saturday (July 3rd), we headed for Yosemite National Park, about 4 hours north-west. By the way, Yosemite is pronounced with four syllables - "Yo-sem-it-tee". :)

Here's a picture of Delle touching snow as we drove into Yosemite... and yes, this is still California, where the previous day we'd been in 44-degrees-at-7pm Death Valley!!



For some reason Delle thought it would be a good idea to throw the handful of snow she'd collected at Ben (who was innocently sitting in the car), so of course this happened...!



A sign on the rangers' booth at the entrance of the park...



Here we are stopped at a scenic outlook - I think the large rock is called the Half Dome. There were people climbing it; see if you can spot them in the last photo below!









Once we reached the main part of the park, there were walking trails, facilities, campgrounds, and most of all: crowds! This was the 4th of July long weekend, and apparently that's when all Americans go camping in Yosemite National Park. It does detract somewhat from the enjoyment of a natural space... but since we were contributing to the problem, I suppose we can't complain too much!

But here's what Yosemite NP is all about:

Lush meadows...













Wildlife sightings (this deer turned and headed away from the crowd just after the first photo below, leading to Ben getting the second photo!)...





Crashing waterfalls...










Bubbling streams...



And sheer rock faces.



On our way out of the park, we were stuck in a traffic jam for about 40 minutes. Crazy!! Eventually we cleared the crowds and set off towards San Francisco, 3.5 hours due west.

During our drive we saw this beautiful sight, a result of the setting sun shining through the trees and lighting up the smoke from a nearby controlled burn...



We ate a delicious and hearty dinner at a crowded roadside restaurant and made it to San Francisco by midnight. In San Fran, we stayed with our Kiwi/Aussie friends Adrian and Petrea for the next 3 nights. Stay tuned for our San Fran shenanigans!