Oot & Aboot: Searching for Yosemite Sam

I’m up early today, after only two hours of sleep during the night. I wake up constantly during the night due to severe stomach cramps. I am border line calling the doctor for fear of having appendicitis, but notice that the stomach pain isn’t localised so I soldiered through, still hoping the feeling would eventually go away.

The trip to Yosemite National Park would take five hours on the bus. I made sure I got the back seat so I could get some snooze time in as it was going to be dead boring. After two hours of driving we made our first rest stop in a dinky little town that didn’t appear to have much more than a supermarket. I bought myself a huge Gatorade. My local pharmacist in San Fran told me to chug Gatorade down to assist with the dehydration I was feeling. It was a relief to hear of such a simple remedy but it slightly worried me as I hate Gatorade and we know what it’s like trying to force down something that you don’t like. I had no appetite and hadn’t since Friday, but I thought it best to try something small to eat to help sustain some energy. After twenty minutes at our stop we were to get on the bus and spend the next the next three hours getting to Yosemite. I am so glad at this point in time that I didn’t take the option of the Yosemite day tour from San Fran. In one day you drive 10 hours in total to go and see Yosemite for 3 hours. So not worth it!

During the bus ride, the tour guide continued to guide us along the way, past such points of interest as China Town where the Chinese stayed during the gold rush. It still stands, largely all original, and was kind of interesting. There is not much more to report re scenery. We mainly passed farms and fruit and vegetable growing area. There was lots of berry and grape growing areas. The scenery started to get hillier as expected, given we were on the way to Yosemite. During the bus ride we watched a DVD on Yosemite and I have to say, I was looking forward to checking out the nature side of the US.

To give you some background on Yosemite, this is it in a nutshell. Yosemite is located in Central California and is 1189 square miles, the size of Rhode Island. It reaches to the Sierra Nevada and is visited by about 3.5 million people per year, which averages 10,000 people per day. Of those, about 80% stay within the park or close to, overnight. It is a World Heritage site and known for its waterfalls, animal life, and huge granite rock faces. Yosemite Valley, where I will be staying near is only about 1% of the park as much of it is wilderness and ‘off the beaten track’ if you are to hike it. It is very popular for hiking and rock climbing.

We made one stop on the way at Tunnel View which was incredible! We got into Yosemite at about 2pm at Yosemite Lodge. I thought that this is where I would be staying but apparently not. I’d be staying at Yosemite VIEW Lodge. Only difference being, I would be 45 minutes out of the park. Very sucky, but I’m given tickets to get in and out of the park the next couple of days. I was in no mood to argue the mistake that had been made with my travel agent given how I felt, so I let it go. I waited for the shuttle to get me to my hotel which finally arrived an hour after I had got to the valley. I could have spent the time searching the valley after checking my luggage into the local lodge, but instead I spent the time chilling given how I felt. My first taste of wilderness was had waiting for my bus. Squirrels! I’m sure they are considered pests in the US but I thought they were cool. They’d hang around hoping for food, and would come right up to your feet.

The ride to my hotel, which took some time, allowed me to see some more of the scenery as it wound around the Merced River. I’m not a scenery person but I dug it, and can see why it’s so popular. Then it happened, I saw a bear!! I was so excited to see a bear. You are warned constantly of bear dangers as many roam the camp sites in the Valley but I just wanted to see one. They are so tough they can get into cars that have their windows up. The bear I saw was was down at the river drinking the water. I would say it was only a cub.

I got to my hotel and checked into my room. It had air conditioning which was a relief. What was not a relief was the fact that I had an upstairs room and it was only accessed by two flights of stairs. This would not be fun as a single person carrying 40kg worth of luggage in three bags. So that took about 20 minutes before I landed onto my bed, put on the tele and tried not to think about how sick I felt. I feel asleep only to wake a couple of hours later thinking it best to get something to eat for dinner. The hotel was in the middle of no where so I didn’t quite know what to expect. They had a pizza take out place at the hotel which was basically my only option. I managed to eat about three mouthfuls of pizza and some water before I went back to bed. My deal was that if I didn’t feel any better by tomorrow I would go see the doctor in Yosemite. We shall see.

What I learnt in Yosemite today:

Do even try to do Yosemite in a day. It’s massive, and worth spending a few days in at least.
The wildlife is really evident. It’s not one of those places where you’d be lucky to find something.
Don’t be dumb like me and go during the summer school holidays in the US. So many dam kids everywhere!

The smallest waterfall in Yosemite Valley - Fern Springs. It's so small you can easily miss it along the side of the road.

One of the meadows along the road. Just beautiful. They regularly undergo burning off in the valley to keep their meadows, so they aren't overtaken by the pine trees, thanks to wandering saplings.