Back on the road again…

Sad that we had to leave behind the glory of Zion canyon, we plotted a California bound course and the whole un-red rockyness (woo!) of Yosemite National park. Our faithful drivers, John and Chris thought they would test their metal again the roads and undertake an epic 15 hour overnight journey via the Extra Terrestrial Highway. The first 2 hours of which we ended up getting stupidly lost winding up in the middle of nowhere, with a sat nav no less!!! Yup we really are that good, haha!! Abandoning the ET highway plan we burned the midnight rubber and flew back past the incredibly bright lights of Vegas, rounded bakersfield and eventually coming to a halt at 7am in the car park of Camp 4.

After not booking ahead we were rather lucky to get a pitch on the main Yosemite valley floor and in one of great historical significance to American Rock Climbing. This place is absolutely crawling with climbers which made for a great atmosphere at the foot of a giagantic granite cliff (the less than basic facilities were rather annoying… $5 a shower too…ouch!).

Not being climbers we headed to refill some spent gas and popped into Yosemites largest grove of Sequioa’s. Sequioa trees are a testament to natures ability to grow and outlast anything in its way… these virtually naturally indestuctable trees stand hundreds of feet in the air and are truly gargantuans of the forest. Their sheer size puts all other forests i’ve seen to a humble red faced shame.

Hiking through the lower and upper groves we gazed upon a number of large and iconic trees such as the Grizzly Giant, Washspin tree, the Faithful Couple, California Tunnel tree’s and the Fallen Monarch.

After not keeping an eye on the time we sped back to Glacier Point for a great (if not darkening) sunset view of the entire Yosemite valley. The moon was bright and glowed behind the parks trickiest day hike finishing location, Half Dome, which looked menacing standing at over 8000 ft. We were to attempt the trail to its summit the following day, we knew we were in for a rough ride, but more on the trails soon.

Sadly our times in americas natural wonderlands has come to an end. After nearly 3 weeks of non-stop hiking, driving, sleeping on the cold hard ground, cooking (mainly noodles) on our stove and being witness to some truly amazing sights and landscapes we drove off in search of civilisation once more.

The journey (still) continues however….