Turning Japanese

Wednesday 25th April 2012

We had to get up quite early today as the inclusive breakfast here is served between 6am and 9am! It's only a continental breakfast so why they can't serve it until a bit later I don't know. It seems to be a common theme over here.
According to their website, the motel we are staying in serves the best continental breakfast in town. Whilst we can't say this is true for certain, it was definitely the best inclusive breakfast we've had so far. Mainly because there was a DIY waffle making machine. And some fresh fruit for once. And tea!

It was just starting to rain when we set out, and the weather didn't improve all day. In fact, it got slightly worse. By the time we got to Yosemite it was grey and misty, and raining steadily. On top of that, we were both feeling a bit rough, for no particular reason, and were struggling to motivate ourselves to do much.
We went to Yosemite Valley, which is the main tourist destination because it's so easy to get to, and very pretty. You can see most of the well known sights of Yosemite there, either from the car or within a short walk.
Even though it was a wet spring day there were still too many people around for our liking.

We've come across a lot of coach tours during our trip. These are annoying because you can be in a quiet spot enjoying a nice view/picnic/bear etc when all of a sudden the peace is shattered by 50 people pouring off a coach. The most annoying ones are Japanese. The reasons for this are threefold:
Despite the fact that they are nearly all young and sprightly, they never venture more than a few metres from their coach. I don't understand this, as they would see so much more stuff if they did.
They talk very loudly and sound angry.
Their cameras are huge and sometimes they push other tourists out of the way with their lenses.
There were a lot of coach tours in the valley today and it was tough going, although I shouldn't really comment as we have hardly ventured from the safety of the car today.

We hardly did any walking today. The furthest we walked was about half a mile to a waterfall which was spectacular, but giving off so much spray we couldn't take any photos. I was amused to pass a very large lady on the way up the gentle hill. It looked like every step was a struggle, and taking her one step closer to the grave. We passed her again on the way back, but I decided not to tell her that she would actually be able to see the waterfall better from the car park, whilst remaining dry and not straining her heart.

We have not seen as many fat Americans as I expected on this trip. I don't know if we've visited the wrong states for that sort of thing. We've seen a few, but no more than the average back home.

After the wet waterfall, we drove up to a place called Glacier Point. This is a viewpoint at around 7,000 feet (the valley floor is at 4,000). The road looked like it had only just been reopened as there were still some snow ploughs working on the road.
Despite the weather, the views were amazing. We didn't really get a feel for how big and impressive the scenery was until we looked down on it. The waterfall in the second photo is over 2,000 feet high.

The valley looks like an extreme version of my GCSE geography field trip (which was to Snowdonia). You couldn't ask for a better U shaped glacial valley with the impressive little hanging valleys and their waterfalls. Mr Worthington and Mrs Parry would be very impressed.

We only wished that we'd got a time machine to go back to when Yosemite was first discovered by the white Americans and see the Valley without the easy access roads and all the tourists.

On the way back down to the valley floor, we came across a rather inquisitive coyote. He looks strangely like he's hovering in the photo, but he wasn't. He did also have four legs. He was very responsive to the rustling of bags, but soon got bored when he realised they were camera bags, not food bags.

Tomorrow the weather forecast is no better than today. But come rain or shine, we will be doing some walks in an effort to get away from the crowds. We're going back to Yosemite Valley to see some more waterfalls, and a part time lake. It should be a lake tomorrow, but later in the year it will magically turn into a meadow.

Then we'll be moving further north so we can explore the more controversial, north western part of the national park the day after.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Yosemite National Park