We had spent 4 weeks and so
much time exploring different areas and enjoying the spectacular scenery that
we decided to have our first morning off in Yosemite; this meant Malc visiting
the laundry again, Diana sorting out the suitcases again at our 12th
hotel; why do they never give you enough coat hangers [4 between 2 of you for
three days] and de-rubbishing the car. A
morning of hard work was enough for both of us so off we went to explore the
Valley in the early afternoon.
We thought a visit to see
the giant Sequoia redwood trees would be great so off we went to Mariposa to
find Mariposa Grove – logical thought but quite WRONG! Mariposa Grove is nowhere near Mariposa;
should have known, not like me to not undertake robust research, must be in the
holiday mood and too relaxed. The lady in the tourist
office at Mariposa was lovely and blamed the sat nav [which we didn’t have the
heart to tell her we didn’t put on].
Duly chastened we set off again on another long journey to find the big
trees. It was good to know we were in
the right direction but did find out there was a much shorter route to get to
the Grove from our hotel.
We eventually arrived,
several hours after we had set off, and much lighter in petrol, just in time to catch the last guided
tourist train around the Grove ie 5 pm!!!!!
It took 1.25 hours to go round the Grove and what an amazing experience
it was; such huge trees several hundreds of years old, some with tunnels through,
others which looked like clothes pegs and some which seemed to hug each other
and blend together. It was truly awe
inspiring and the guided tour was superb and well worth doing. We certainly couldn’t have walked through the
Grove, learned so much about the trees and enjoyed it as much in the time we
had there.
We drove back into
Yosemite Valley and spotted some Mule deer crossing the road just in front of
us. The sun was about to set [7.15 pm]
and there were many people out with their cameras and tripods attempting to catch
the best shot of the magnificent peaks which surround the valley and the
numerous gushing waterfalls which were emptying their winter melt water. We neared a road sign and Malc said ‘which
road do we take?’ – excuse me we had the sat nav on!!! I looked down to check the visitors map and
then heard him cry WOLF! I looked up to
find myself staring into the face of a very arrogant looking coyote who was
crossing the road in front of our car and looked at us as if to say ‘what do
you think you are doing in my park!’ He
didn’t miss a step just kept walking at his usual pace and looked sideways at
us whilst continuing on his way ..... coyote on a mission.
It was a bit of a shock,
he was so large and looked so at home, which of course he was. We couldn’t believe our eyes. What a magnificent animal he was.
We had been seeing signs
for bears and mountain lions but never expected to see anything other than a
few deer but we have seen so many animals in the park we are quite amazed at
our experiences. Would have loved to
have seen Yogi, but all we saw were bear traps and bear-proofed ‘trash’ bins. There’s still time ………
