Road Trip – Day Fifteen- Yosemite

After we left Monterrey we drove toward Yosemite. I had planned for us

to stop a couple hours from the park and drive the rest of the way in

the morning since it was already late afternoon when we left. Somehow

the campground was not where our GPS said it should be and apparently

we drove past it. Rather than backtrack, which I never do willingly, I

decided to keep on driving and hope we found something closer. Like

most places we have traveled on this trip there was hundreds of miles

of nothing between where we were and Yosemite. To make things worse we

were set on a course over more narrow twisting county roads through the

mountains. I had heard that Yosemite was filled with tourists so I

assumed it would have many places to camp in the surrounding area. We

drove and drove and found nothing. We almost pulled over and camped by

the side of the road we were so tired. After a long drive we found a

campground . I don’t remember the name. It was around midnight and they

had no late check-in directions so we found an empty spot and setup

camp. I figured we could find the office in the morning. I was glad to

be able to rest finally. A few minutes later Jen came back from the

bathroom and told me a bat had flew in there with her and chased her

out. She was none too pleased. In the morning we looked around and

still didn’t find any instructions for paying so we just continued on

to the park.
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I didn’t have that great a time in Yosemite. We found it to be filled

with rude tourists. The national park guidebook I purchased to plan our

trip failed us again. It directed us to spend most our time in the

valley area of the park. I guess everyone bought the same book because

you couldn’t go anywhere in the valley without being neck deep in

jackasses. And this is suppossed to be the off season. There was no parking whatsoever and I almost drove over an old man who was saving a spot for his friends by standing in it. I was the first car to get there and as I was pulling in this old man walked in front of the van. I couldn’t decide who would be the bigger jerk so I eventually decided to let him have it even though his friends were nowhere to be found and at least ten other people were waiting for the spot. It is also

difficult to see as many things as I have planned to see on this trip

iin such a short time.

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One sight we enjoyed seeing was the Bridalveil Falls We climbed up the slippery rocks to get a closer look.

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Here I am sporting a senior photo pose.

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Later we hiked in the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias. Here I am next

to the Grizzly Giant which I think is the oldest one they have at the

park. It was something like 2000 years old. I liked the Sequoias a bit

more than the Redwoods. They seemed more rare to me and the red color

of the bark was more appealing to me.

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Jenny with the giant cone we found next to the tree. We saw some other

people also use it as a prop in there photos after we left.

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The parts of Yosemite we saw were not as pretty as a lot of the areas

we have been to. It looked as though many areas had been damaged by

fire. We also saw a lot of signs related to the planned burning of some

of the trees to let light in for the Sequoias.

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We saw this fearless deer and several others on the trail. She walked right up to us.

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This is one of the giants who had died.

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On the way out we traveled along the north side of the park. I found it

more appealing. I think becuase we have a lot of wooded areas in

Michigan I am a little bored by some of the areas we have visited. Even

though the trees were huge they were not that interesting to look at. I

prefer the ones that look more unusual.

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