Miles covered today = 280. Miles so far this trip = 1450
We made it to Yosemite National Park at last!!
Yosemite National Park at last. Our alarms went off at 5.15 am, as we wanted to be at breakfast by 6.30, and on the road as early as possible. We have 2 day’s things to do today, as it should have been a leisurely drive to San Francisco today, but we have to see Yosemite and drive to SF, so we needed an early start.
Yosemite National Park – Amazing
After breakfast we headed towards Yosemite National Park. We are so glad we did as upon entering the views and scenery was amazing. The first thing we saw was El Capitan, a huge rock face towering over us.
We made a few stops before reaching the visitors centre, when we decided to walk Vernal Falls. It was a 2.5 mile round trip, which sounds simple enough, but it was an incredibly steep climb, and probably one of the most tiring things we have done!
The views at the top were not quite as spectacular as we had hoped. We are glad we did it and when we revisit, we will definitely explore some more.
At the top, Suzanne had a little mishap, and slipped, almost plummeting to her certain death, but she survived, and lived to make the trek back down again.
Yosemite National Park is definitely a place we want to go back to, and spend a lot more time exploring. If you want more info, check out the National Park Services official page here.
Heading to San Francisco
After this we set off for the near 4 hour drive to SF, which should get us there at 7ish. One of the major roads that had been closed for some time to fight the fire, opened late yesterday. As a resultwe were able to take this route, and see some of the devastation the fire had caused.
On arriving at SF, we had to cross over Bay Bridge. At this point we hit a load of traffic going through the toll. Our sat nav however told us to take an exit on the right, just before. We did, and it turned out this “exit” was a car pool / bus lane. Around us, police were pulling cars over everywhere, but we just sailed through.
We missing the toll altogether and joining the same road the other side. It remains to be seen if we get a £250 dollar fine for mis use, as the signs indicated. Other cars that qualified for the car pool lane were sitting in the toll traffic, so we are not sure why they didn’t take our route.
San Francisco = Expensive
The drive to the hotel in the city was pretty uneventful. On turning up, we began to realise why San Francisco is one of the most expensive cities to visit in the USA. It is going to cost us $51 a day to park there!! Once we had checked in, we went for a walk in the wrong direction and got collared by a homeless blind guy, before finding a decent place to eat, before retiring for a full days sight seeing of the city tomorrow.
