Day 13 – San Francisco to Yosemite National Park

Early start this morning as we had to leave San Francisco bang on 7.45am. As breakfast was only served from 7.30am at the hostel, it was all a bit of a manic rush to get food, but thankfully everyone was all on time for a prompt departure.

I can’t say I’m sorry to see the back of San Francisco and I’m looking forward to being on the road again and seeing what the USA’s scenery has to offer.

I was kind of hoping to catch a final glimpse of the famous bridge again on route out of the city, but fate would have it that today was a day when San Francisco’s famous fog was surrounding it. I honestly had no idea how frequent the fog was so it sounds like I got really lucky with my own photographs of the bridge. Michaela (our tour guide for the trip) also explained that the bridge was originally meant to be painted black and gold, but they overspent on budget and only got as far as putting the primer coat on, the red/orange colour that it is now. It blended so well in with the environment around that the colour has stuck to this day.

Other than various pit stops, today was largely a driving day, with an estimated time of arrival into Yosemite National Park for around 3pm.

Yosemite National Park is located in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California and was the second national park to be established in the USA (the first, being Yellowstone). The park receives around 4 million visitors per year and is home to 250 different species of animals and fish including the mountain lion and black bear. Sadly we didn’t see either, but we did see a very photogenic chipmunk.

It is also home to around 1500 species of flora and fauna.

The park was created by volcanic activity along the fault line, which pushed the Sierra Nevada upwards, causing the streams in the area to flow faster, speeding up the process of erosion. A series of glaciers also emerged, also contributing to the sculpting of Yosemite Valley and various other canyons in the area. 

After stopping for a few pictures of the commonly photographed spots, El Capitan and the Dome, we had a chance to go for an explore of the national park, including to a rather non-existent waterfall – at this time of year it was more of a trickle. By the visitors’ centre we came to the “Big Tree”, as it was known. This was a tree, which had fallen down about 20 years ago, but was around 1000 years old. They had marked various points in history on its rings, including when America was first discovered.

When then headed back to the campsite, when we got to play with putting up our tents. Most of us were complete novices and so this was easier said than done! Hopefully it will get easier…