Park Life

As we approach the end of our month-long drive around the USA, there was one more fabulous scenic drive to complete - around Yosemite National Park. And if it is to be our last experience of the great roads in the USA, then it left us with quite the parting gift.

After departing from San Francisco Bay, we headed East for the first and only time on this trip, and as soon as we were a few miles inland we started to feel the warmth that we'd been missing in 'The City' suddenly envelope us again for the first time since last week. The heat and sunshine had been sorely missed. Down came the roof of the car once more, and we soaked up the rays in the faint hope of garnering a tan before we arrive back in England on the weekend.

Approaching the National Park some 180 miles away, Adam and I spotted a huge plume of smoke rising up on the horizon, and we feared that perhaps some of the Californian Wildfires had spread in Yosemite too, and that we wouldn't get to enter yet another park. Thankfully this wasn't the case, and as we entered the forest area, we were greeted with some wonderful views and vistas, and a road that perhaps stood as one of the very best that we'd covered in all the near 6,000 miles that we've achieved on this trip.

We edged round huge skyscraper-high rock-faces and stared down into the valley to our right, all the time feeling that this was a place rivalled perhaps only by the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley in all that we'd seen so far. The twisty road took us down into the valley and to Yosemite Village, where we sampled the not-so-great visitor centre, and the hugely busy village store. But despite the village not being all that great, the drive back out the valley was just as enthralling as the drive in, and the added bonus was that we exited the park on the other side of the valley, so we got a whole new range of views and more twisty roads to experience.


All in all, Yosemite certainly left a lasting impression on me, as being a place of amazing natural beauty, and a place that I would love to visit again. The day ended with us pulling into a motel in Fresno, and contemplating our last big drive the next day - to Los Angeles - the City of Angels - where we will sprout wings, and start the long flight home.




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