Written Friday 6 June
We're here!! So psyched to have arrived! The change in landscape on route was the first clue that we were entering Yosemite territory - the scenery underwent such a radical change at the beginning and end of just a 2 hour drive that we could easily have been in different countries. We're far away from the desert now - dusty orange rocks standing their ground against the blazing desert heat have been replaced with vast shady forests, snowy mountains, shimmering lakes and towering granite cliffs. It looks a lot like Canada, from the pictures I've seen - can't get over the difference. The air also feels cleaner and clearer, think the lack of dust will come as a welcome relief over the next few days.
'Yosemite' means 'where the grizzly bears live' although actually it's smaller black bears that call it home. Haven't been lucky enough to see any but we still had to bear proof our campsite (packing all food and scented products e.g. toothpaste, food wrappers etc in the trailer before bedding down). We did a moderately steep hike to Lambert Point which involved scaling up a rock face in the last 10 minutes! The views were incredible, I was rendered speechless after the initial 'wow' escaped my lips. We sat for ages just staring out at the impossible beauty...I've never seen anything like it before in my life. Eventually tore ourselves away to have a picnic lunch at a stunning lake framed by those famous grey cliff faces. It was a bit too chilly to swim but I was perfectly happy soaking up the view :)
The next stop was what I'd been waiting for since the beginning of the year...the sequoia grove!!! (Tuolumne Grove.) Was SO excited and they didn't disappoint. I know to some people they're just trees but they're pretty impressive: they can live for 3,000 years, grow to 300 feet tall & the bark of the oldest trees can be up to 2 feet thick. They're one of the oldest, largest & fastest growing trees in the world - and there are only 75 naturally occurring groves of giant sequoias on earth. It's the giant girths of the trees that make them one of the biggest - we're also seeing redwoods in a few days which I think are the tallest. Made the most of the experience by clambering up onto a fallen sequoia (luckily someone had strategically placed a log round the back for this exact purpose) although getting back down was interesting! We also crawled/wriggled through another fallen sequoia which got steadily narrower - dusty work and took about five times as long as it probably should have because we were laughing so much! When I say we I mean the 3 badass girls on the trip (not my words!) - everyone else marched through the grove barely stopping to soak up the rarity of the experience - really don't understand why you'd want to race through such an incredible place?
Dinner, shower in the scummiest campsite bathroom I've ever seen (puddles of brown water all over the floor, mosquitos in the cubicles, only 2 showers and 1 sink for multiple pitches...the list goes on), campfire, beer & bed. Another big day tomorrow, can't wait to explore some more!!
