Yosemite, America's First National Park

Monday, 11 April 2016 

Today we’ve got a big road trip to the next stage of our holiday - Yosemite National Park. Leaving the wine region for some nature . So we went to one of the most famous national parks in the world, Yosemite National Park. When we told people we were going there they all raved about and said we’d have a great time – except our first host who was originally from New York and who said “you see a tree, you see a waterfall, you see a rock. Next.” We’re happy to say we disagreed with him and agreed with the majority opinion. It is really awesome. Such a really beautiful place. 

Because accommodation was really expensive for what you got (e.g. $200 per night to sleep in a tent), we decided to stay about 20 minutes outside of the main valley (but still inside the park). We stayed at a little apartment called Cozy Bear cottages. It was really good and fantastic value for money. But it had one small (not a deal breaker) draw back. The owners went nuts over the bears. They were everywhere. It had bears and bears and bears everywhere. Pictures, paintings, calendars, bears on the shower screen, bears on the bedspread, teddy bears, carved bears, bear rugs. In all, we counted 138 bears in this small apartment. There were also assorted cows, chickens and snowmen. Could have lived without that. On the other hand, it was in a beautiful spot in the forest and we saw deer and squirrels. We even saw a coyote outside our kitchen window when we were having breakfast. We didn’t get a good photo, but still worth putting in... 

On our first day we wandered around the valley and took some pictures of the waterfalls and rock formations like El Capitan, Half Dome, Yosemite falls, Bridesveil Falls, Horsetail falls etc.