Day 6: Yosemite National Park and driving to the border the long way.

Good morning, USA

First thing in the morning we drove into the Yosemite Valley. We thought the views coming into San Francisco were good, but the scenery here was magnificent. The sheer scale of the Mountains, with giant, sheer cliff faces, almost glowing white in the morning sun rising up. The Merced river was flowing South next to us as we drove. The water was so clear we could see the stones at the bottom. Luckily for us, recent heavy rain meant that waterfalls which usually don't start flowing until the winter ice melts, were flowing. It was an out of season treat to see them. Unfortunatley something else out of season had happened. The Tioga Pass, our intended exit on the Eastern side of the park was closed early, it not being due to close for another couple of weeks. This meant that instead of being able to drive all the way through, we would have to make do with travelling down the Western side, and re-routing through Fresno.

Spectacular Waterfall in the background. I love Alex's tripod.

Before we did that however, we decided to stop and cook some bacon and eggs for breakfast. Ruby had come equiped with a little fuel stove, so we got it out and I tried to work it. Now I don't know if it is broken or I am stupid, but before long, not only would it not light, but fuel came leaking out of the top. As I am a fan of having all my fingers, I decided that maybe we should give that a go another day, and Alex made me a peanut butter & jelly sandwich as we drove out of the park.

I soon gave up.

On the way out we stopped at the Mariposa Grove to admire the giant Sequoia trees. I have never seen a tree that big before, and apparently they are over two thousand years old. The trees were filled with pockmarks where over the centuries animals had made there home inside the thick bark.

This tree was here during the Roman Empire.

We decided not to spend too much more time in California, as we might regret it and have too rush later on, so I decided to try and cover the 400 mile journey to Las Vegas. We made to to a town called Barstow by sunset, and decided to eat there. The visitors centre at the railway was made entirely out of old rail carriages, and joined together. To bad it was just filled with kitsch.

It was a long drive. Alex ate twinkies while we passed what is the largest wind farm in the world (that's what the sign said)

The country had turned to desert by this point and we decided to head a little way out of town to a rest area. Somehow we managed to miss all of them though, and we ended up a little lost in the desert. We had to stop at a rail crossing for a freight train which was easily twice as long as any that I had ever seen coming out of Port Kembla. I wonder how long it would take for one of those things to stop?

The country was getting drier, but still very hilly.

In the middle of nowhere, we found a little church with a parking lot. It was late and we figured they wouldn't mind if we just parked in the corner and went to sleep. So we did.