A cold morning and our first ever ‘shower’ in Betsey. Very awkward, but more so for anyone who is taller than me (e.g. Will). Was nice to be clean again haha. Then a quick breakfast and we were back on the road to Yosemite. And like all good tourists we took the ‘tourist’ road as we later found out – complete with hairpins at every turn (again we were on the cliff side – what is it with that?!). We also picked up our first hitch-hiker – he was powering up the hill as he had ‘forgotten to get gas’ that morning and had run out. Who the hell does that?! He sounded local, but maybe he wasn’t!?
We stopped for info at Stanislaus National Park and heard that the pass we’d hoped to go over from Lake Tahoe to Kings Canyon had had 30 foot of snow in recent days – no wonder it was still closed. Anyway, this road was usually not open until late May – only in 1998 had it been open in April, so we were a bit ambitious in even considering it.
A squashed skunk later (it stunk even from inside the car and we weren’t even the ones to squash it!) and we arrived on the next windy road up into Yosemite National Park. We passed through a big valley with grassy meadows, but it looked as if a fire had gone through in recent months, as all the trees were black and crispy-looking. A bit like the drive through the pine plantations on the way to Devonport from Deloraine. Then we went up a hill again and down into a gorgeous valley with sheer cliffs and waterfalls, which greeted us as we made our way down into the park. Like the good tourists we are, we stopped at each vista point and took photos of hazy boulder-shaped protrusions along the tops of the cliffs. I waited for the piercing call of an eagle as it circled a cliff, like in the movies, but did not hear anything. I might have to look it up on Youtube to get my fix. Again we were cliff side, but we even got to go through a couple of tunnels (Will had just been saying that the USA is behind Switzerland and France, who would have just blasted a tunnel through any hills or mountains in the way – stuff building a road around or through them!). The tunnel did cause Will to panic a bit – he thought Betsey was leaking water, but it was just the water that had splashed up underneath the car in the tunnel. All the other cars had the same thing happening!
Then we were on a one way road down one side of the river and officially in Yosemite National Park. More stopping at vista points for waterfall and cliff shots. Until we reached Curry Village – the quieter out of the two villages, the other one being Yosemite Village.
Now, don’t hold this against me, but I wasn’t too impressed by Yosemite. It may have been that I had a fever and could barely concentrate on anything or it may have been the hordes of tourists who were determined to cross the roads without looking and who were walking on the edge of the road, not facing traffic, obviously with a death-wish as the speed limit was 35 miles an hour. There were just tooo many people. And it’s not even summer. Apparently this park gets four million visitors a year, so I’m glad that we aren’t visiting when the majority of them are there! I’ve decided that I like to enjoy nature minus kids screaming at each other in Spanish. I like nature quiet and natural like how Mother Nature designed it. We did not walk to the highest falls in the world with hundreds of other people, but we did take photos of it as it blasted its way over a cliff. Then my desperate desire for sleep forced us away from the hordes and back into relative peace with Betsey.
The views in Yosemite were definitely gorgeous, but I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t see deer, bears or even many squirrels like the postcards at the info centre had promised. We saw a fish in the river, who was just hanging out and looked as if he had ten fins on either side. Then some American tourist spat in the river, so we left. We did see a squirrel on our way back to the car, but then other tourists scared it away. It may have been a chickaree – which have smaller, shorter tails than squirrels. And obviously I wasn’t up to doing any hiking, which I think is when you see cool animals. The cliffs were awesome, but there are only so many things to look at when admiring cliffs. It was a pretty spot, but a bit overrated for a normal Friday morning.
A landslide was over the road we were hoping would provide free camping spots, but the local who told us about it didn’t realise the road actually met up with another one further along. The RV park only did full hook-ups at $37-$42 which was above our budget, so we continued to search for the free camping. Will said the guy at the park claimed it was ‘sold out every night.’ So we found a free camping spot, which turned out to be $21 with only a drop toilet. We both had a much-needed nap, which was only interrupted by someone asking ‘anyone home?’ but by the time I was awake enough to respond, they’d driven off. We slept for several hours, which was soo good – must’ve been tired! Then as I was slowly waking up, Will met the not-so-friendly local ranger who wanted to make us pay even though we only wanted a car parking spot, not an actual tent site. Will reckoned he was mean (I guessed old Vietnam Vet who hadn’t quite been accepted back into society – think the guy who hangs himself in The Things They Carried. Henry?). And then as we were driving back along that road to the main one, we saw his permanent fifth-wheeler (trailer) where the poor sad guy must live, watching as tourists drive past so that he can pounce on them for $21.
A little bit refreshed, we continued on our drive, on our quest for that coveted RV owner’s holy grail: free camping. We were held up slightly waiting for a traffic light to change as we by-passed a fairly major looking landslide. We had to take a smaller road and it was one way traffic only.
Another vista point carpark awaited us – this time without a vista. We didn’t go and look, but you probably had to walk to get to it. Another uneventful night in Betsey.
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