Yosemite National Park (September 12 – September 13)

From Susanville we crossed the border into Nevada and proceeded south on the 395 to enter Yosemite from its’ eastern side. Upon entering the Park we climbed to an elevation of 10,000 ft in a very short period of time and were quickly treated to magnificent views of deep canyons and distinctive smooth granite domes sculpted by glacial processes.


After a slow and scenic drive through the Park we pulled into our campground to be told by the nervous young ranger on the gate that a black bear had entered the campground just ten minutes prior. Rather gutted to miss this sighting we set up the tent and cleared our car of all food, drink, crumbs and cosmetics. Basically anything that has a scent had to be removed and locked in the metal ‘bear bins’, a far more stringent policy than at Yellowstone.

We weren’t visited in the night by a bear but instead woke to an ice cold morning. We hit the road early and headed into the Yosemite Valley to beat the large number of other tourists and their RVs. That morning we squeezed in a 5 mile hike around the Valley, providing superb scenery of large grassy meadows and the famous Half Dome mountain.


A short and sweet trip but we were glad we visited the Park as the landscape was very different from Yellowstone. We are quickly learning how diverse and pretty the scenery of California State really is. Leaving the Park around midday we headed to Oakland, San Francisco where we will be calling on family friends to stay for a few days to check out the Bay area.