Woke up - had breakfast at Santorini (a nice Mediterranean restaurant across the road from the Hilton) and then checked out. After a few lost loops around San Francisco, we finally got off to on the right route to El Portal. Stopped on the way at Livermore for a bit of rest and some coffee - lovely town.
Arrived in El Portal late afternoon. The last few hours of driving was pretty exciting - first 140, which started off straight as an arrow before it hit the sierras. Then quite a few miles of windy roads beside the roaring Merced river (from the Merced town onwards) - there was actually a place where we had to cross (what looks like a temporary bridge) due to a landslide on one side of the river). El Portal had the last petrol pump (gas station) before the wilderness of Yosemite. But, as our luck would have it - it was broken.
Arrived in El Portal late afternoon. The last few hours of driving was pretty exciting - first 140, which started off straight as an arrow before it hit the sierras. Then quite a few miles of windy roads beside the roaring Merced river (from the Merced town onwards) - there was actually a place where we had to cross (what looks like a temporary bridge) due to a landslide on one side of the river). El Portal had the last petrol pump (gas station) before the wilderness of Yosemite. But, as our luck would have it - it was broken.
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Checked in at the Yosemite Lodge Hotel, our room was in the Cedar Lodge, from the balcony we could hear the river.
Next morning - drove back down to Midpines to fill up. What seemed like a 15-20min drive last evening took and hour - weird how the sense of time is skewed when you're not paying attention to it. Filled drove into Yosemite after lunch, and it started snowing. It's hard to capture the magic of snow in Yosemite but I'll always remember it.
Out first stop was at the "swinging bridge" - don't think this bridge does any swinging - it's solid wood.
Next morning - drove back down to Midpines to fill up. What seemed like a 15-20min drive last evening took and hour - weird how the sense of time is skewed when you're not paying attention to it. Filled drove into Yosemite after lunch, and it started snowing. It's hard to capture the magic of snow in Yosemite but I'll always remember it.
Out first stop was at the "swinging bridge" - don't think this bridge does any swinging - it's solid wood.
The blurred scenes of the Yosemite creek - through falling snow was beautiful - the temperature was really freezing though.
We next made our way to the north pines campground - plan way to hike to mirror lake. The weather however was too cold for Ankoor and the snow was heavier than before. So we made our way to towards the Yosemite falls. From the parking lot we spotted some mule deers running around.
Yosemite falls is one of the highest falls in the whole world - over 2000ft. It is broken into three stages the upper, middle and lower falls as they are called. Starting on the lower Yosemite fall trail, the clouds suddenly lifted to give us a glimpse of the upper fall - high above our heads.
It was still cold, though the snow had almost stopped.
The little man in the tall forest.
Following the trail, another glimpse of the upper fall. By itself only, the upper fall portion of Yosemite falls is ne of the tallest 20 waterfalls of the world. In this shot notice how mist from the waterfall has frozen on the sides - these gels into ice sheets and sometimes come creashing down with a thunderous sound.
Finally arrived to the base of the lower falls - however from here you can't see the upper or the middle sections at all :-( Being spring - the sound was deafening!
From there we drove out of the Yosemite National Park and back to the hotel - there were plans to make an early start tomorrow, so that we can go up to the Giants Forest in Sequioa National Park tomorrow itself.
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