Still struggling for a solid nights sleep, waking up at 3 am (Jackie has no issues), but hopefully after today's exploits I won't have any problems.
Woke up at 7 to a super crisp morning and after having breakfast and making some sandwiches we set out for the drive to Yosemite. Was about 40 minutes to the park entrance, was unfortunately too cold for the top down (50 f vs 95f when we were cruising in from LA) but still made for some enjoyable and "spirited" driving. Windy and beautiful are the roads.
Its 20 dollars for a week pass which is pretty reasonable especially seeing as they have free shuttle buses too get you around to the main hikes. The views and scenery in the park are amazing, you can see why it has such fame. Massive granite mountains create an extremely steep valley with waterfalls plunging off the sides, it reminds me a lot of Switzerland. After visiting the information centre we decided on the Upper Yosemite Falls hike which is about 15km and rated at 6-8 hours. Easy right? Maybe not as there's an 850m vertical ascent. The hike takes you to the top of falls which are apparently the tallest in the US. We started out on the actual hike at about 10.30 and made it half way up in about 1 hour. The next half's brutality was only matched by its beauty, steep stone steps edged by massive drops looking out across the valley. The path switches back and forth numerous times and runs through forest, scree, the waterfalls spray and dry stony cliffs. Had lunch at the top and then started back down which only took about 2 hrs, total round time was about 5hrs. The wind had switched on descent and the falls were blowing straight onto the path, with the ice melt water chilling the air to freezing, in about 30 seconds Jack and I were frozen. We warmed up by the time we reached the bottom ready for chips and coffee.
A quick side trip to see the giant sequoias and then a top down cruise back home. There's one part where we went through a tunnel with the top down, pedal to the floor... It was fun... just glad the thing has traction control...
Anyways back in our cabin typing this up on Jackie's nexus and my fingers are hurting so that's about it for now. Will try and add some photos but the internet is horribly slow.
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