Didn't leave San Francisco until late in the afternoon (too many things to do and places to see) knowing that we had a big drive ahead of us. Hard to fit it all in! We still wanted to get a sneak look at the Redwoods and with Redwood country too far north for this trip, we decided to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge and head to Muir Woods. That's the amazing thing about San Francisco - just a short drive out of the city (12 miles) and you are in a different world - we even saw wild deer on the side of the road. Coastal Redwoods are Earth's tallest living things and exist only on the Californian coast. Muir Woods has it's fair share - only had time for a short walk, some tree hugging and a few photos. The trees really are spectacular. Plenty of squirrels too - the kids love them!
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| Muir Woods |
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| Muir Woods |
It's a long drive to Yosemite and by the time we get even remotely near, it's already dark. We have already been lost a few times - we came across a sign that says the entry road into the park is closed due to snow, so we need to find another entry route - Doris (GPS) does not like this and keeps trying to take us the way we are not allowed to go!! We know that by the time we reach the national park it will be 10pm ish or even later at this rate and we don't really know what to expect. Will the gates to the National Park be open? Will there be someone at the campground at that time of night to check us in? With no mobile phone coverage and even 'Doris' losing sattelite coverage, we knew we really were in the wilderness. Not ideal to be arriving so late, but hey,
that 's all part of the adventure! I must say that I have a small fear that we would get a flat tyre and would need to unload a full boot in the dark whilst we were looking for the spare, all when bears were lurking nearby!!!!!!! (perhaps I have just been watching too many 'I shouldn't be alive' programmes on TV!) Anyway, we survived! Kids fell asleep, which was ideal so that Jim and I could concentrate on finding our way through these mountains to some form of civilisation! (in the form of a National Park Village) We passed some snow on the ground, some wild deer, but not bears! We made it - 11pm! It is wickedly cold!!!!! Our booked accommodation is a cabin/tent at a place called Housekeeping Camp...check it out, it's pretty cool!
www.yosemitepark.com then click on accomodation and scroll down to housekeeping camp. We hired bed packs for us all and went about getting our cabin ready for what would undoubtably be a cold night! (Next time I will be taking a 'down' sleeping bag!) Jim and Holly are pretty happy that they bought ski jackets in San Francisco - they are about to sleep in them. Kids and I are happy that we packed thermal leggings - Jim doesn't have any and is wondering how that vital piece of packing advice got lost in translation! I purchased a beanie in San Fran and can see that this may well be the best purchase I have ever made! To give you an idea, the cabins have 3 sides of concrete walls and then a roof like a marquee. The fourth side of the cabin is like a big curtain that you just pull over...a bit breezy....and am feeling a bit vulnerable to the possibility of wildlife coming and going while we sleep!
The park has very strick rules about how you store your food, so on arrival we had to sign a document promising that we would not leave any food, food wrappers or any rubbish, as well as toiletries, in our car or in our cabin. Each cabin has a big steel locker outside that can be bolted closed, where we had to store all of our stuff...imagine us...it's now 11.30pm, freezing, dark (thankfully we had a torch) and we are frantically trying to find every single lolly wrapper, food item, toiletry etc (which are spread far and wide throughout our bags and car!) and place it all in the locker...the bears are known for coming into the campground at night, so by this stage we are feeling a bit nervous! (but a little excited about the possible Bear encounter - preferably a distant one!) Beanie on, as well as quite a few layers of clothes, and we're well and truly ready for sleep. Since we arrived in the dark, we are looking forward seeing our surroundings tomorrow!
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