These Boots Were Made For Walking
For our day in Yosemite, we had booked a guided hike however right as we arrived a winter storm commenced that closed the roads in and out of the park so unfortunately the hike was cancelled. Undeterred, we decided to spend the day doing our own walking in the freezing rain which was much better than it sounds on account of the scenery. Probably fortunate for our hypothalamus that we learnt AFTER the walk that the giant piece of fresh scat we saw on the path was indeed the calling card of a black bear that had been ambling around the car park.
The valley is smaller than expected - only 8miles from one end to the other so very walkable. There is also a shuttle that goes round the valley which meant we got to hop on and hop off at the points that we wanted do. Over about 5 hours we got to see Mirror Lake, the Lower Yosemite Falls, El Capitan and a glimpse of Half Dome. The weather was quite inclement by the afternoon which had its own magic: the huge granite cliffs and snowy trees looming out of the mist and clouds was breathtaking.
Thoroughly saturated and scenically satiated, we returned to our cottage at the Ahwahnee for a hot shower and a sit down beside the biggest fireplace known to man. I think there’s something about the scale of Yosemite that makes a human feel insignificant and the builders of the Ahwahnee appear to have dealt with that feeling with the scale of their building: the dining room has a 30ft ceiling held aloft with enormous pillars of Douglas Fir trunks and huge cross beams. This gigantism extends to the meals served in the dining room: American meals are huge anyway but the steak we had for dinner was at least 4inches thick.
Yosemite has to be one of the most spectacular little pockets of America that deserves to be visited in all its seasons.
