kitchtrips

Around here we break our backs just to earn a buck
We never get ahead but we have enough
I watch people leave and then come right back
I never wanted any part of that
And I’m proud to say I love this place
Good ol’ small town USA

Give me a Saturday night, my baby by my side
David Allan Coe and a six pack of Light
An old dirt road and I’ll be just fine
Give me a Sunday morning that’s full of grace
A simple life and I’ll be okay
Here in small town USA

– Justin Moore

Tuesday 13 June 2023

A 4:45am today. Rough, but at least I had around eight hours’ sleep last night rather than three hours and a 3:00am alarm on Sunday.

The early start was necessary to be picked up from our hotel by Roman, the excellent, quirky and hilarious German-American tour guide for Best Bay Area Tours, driving a Mercedes Sprinter Van, which took us and about a dozen others out to Yosemite National Park, one of my favourite places in the country.

We were away from the city just after 6:30am, racing across the Bay Bridge and past the port city of Oakland. Breakfast was a hundred miles down the road at Oakdale, where we also stocked up on lunch and snacks for the day ahead.

In what Roman said was a record, we were in Yosemite’s park boundaries before 10:00am, coming in from the north on US Highway 120 through Buck Meadows – just like my last visit to Yosemite, six years ago now. Paying a little extra to go on a smaller tour in a faster vehicle than the standard coach was already worthwhile at this point.

Our first stop was the Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias, a part of the park that I’ve never been to in five previous visits. These mature trees have been around for about three thousand years, and used to be near the park’s main northern entry. The road has been diverted around the grove now, and the only way to see them is to walk down about a mile and then come back up the same road, about a 3.5km. It’s worth the effort, though – this morning, the weather was perfect for walking. And I saw a deer at the end!

Next, Tunnel View. There are not many more iconic views anywhere in the United States than what you get standing at the mouth of the valley, high up, looking down the valley at granite monolith otherwise known as El Capitan to the left, Bridal Veil Falls and the distinctive granite formation known as Half Dome to the right. The waterfalls are humming at the moment, thanks to the insanely wet/snowy winter they have had in the High Sierras. It’s a spectacular view every time, no matter the season nor the time of day. Pictures can’t do it justice. You have to go there and see it for yourself.

After Tunnel View and a quick stop closer to El Capitan (where we saw some climbers part-way up, a journey that takes apparently three weeks, and one you couldn’t pay me enough to take!) and Bridal Veil falls, we were given two and a half hours on our own.

Roman suggested to me a walk called Columbia Rocks, which he said was about thirty minutes up the very steep, zig-zag switchback Upper Yosemite Falls track. It was quite the hike, literally uphill from the trailhead, and warmer than I would have liked – even though the temperature was only about twenty-one Celsius – but absolutely and totally worth it when I got to the top where I was treated to views into the smoke-strewn valley (the National Parks Service were burning off today) and the incredible Half Dome.

The way down was interesting. A lot of the rocks on the trail are smooth due to so many people walking on them. A little drama going up, but potentially a real drama going down. I was very careful, and my knees were very happy to be down. Tired, sweaty but very happy. The chance to see something other than valley locations, which I’ve seen a few times before, was worth the effort.

A stop at Valley View on the way out of the park. That is quite a view. Imagine slogging your way through the wilderness back in the 1800s to reach the Merced River and see the valley opening out in front of you like that. Just stunning, and the light was absolutely perfect.

Mexican for dinner on the way home. A stop on Yerba Buena Island – halfway across the Bay Bridge between Oakland and San Francisco – to get a spectacular view of San Francisco at sunset, then back to the city.

Home just on 9:00pm, tired but elated. Yosemite is such an amazing place. I’ll never get tired of going there. If you haven’t been, I highly recommend it. You won’t be disappointed.