You may not have been following along on previous posts of this journey, so I will summarize here. My husband and I took a cross country flight from North Carolina to San Francisco, CA. I chronicled the journey, because it was my first flight, and our first week long vacation together in 10 years! So, in my previous post, we touched down in San Francisco, and then came the wait to get off the plane. Finally we were out, and we made our way to the car rental station. Ok, I followed along behind my husband obliviously while he guided us there.
We rented a nice little hybrid SUV that ended up having a mind of its own, and fussing at my husband every time he happened to do something it didn't like. But it was a nice little car. Before we left the city, we drove to the closest beach and took a few minutes to walk out on the brown sand. The wind. The pounding waves. The rocks. It was so different from any of the east coast beaches - but one thing was the same. It still smelled like the beach. After enjoying the coast for about an hour, We wove through the busy city, heading east. When we finally left the sprawling suburbs, I was amazed at the amount of orchards we passed, and the variety of things being grown. And so many vineyards! Those were most fascinating to me.
Soon we left the fertile valleys, and started into rolling hills covered with long golden grass, and peppered with beautiful sprawling oak trees. I'm not sure what it was about those hills, but they were absolutely enchanting. When we arrived in Angels Camp, we went straight to our room and crashed. Jet lag is a real thing, apparently.
The next morning, we were awake at 3am, so we headed toward Yosemite National Park. We got there before the main gates were open, but there were no barriers so we eased into the park, feeling vaguely guilty. We drove straight to the Valley that first morning, and shivered our way on the short walk to see Bridal Veil falls. We were thankful that there was plenty of water pouring over the falls. We got properly misted as we took photos, and then we scurried back to our grumpy hybrid rental and drove slowly toward the main loop.
toward a lake. shimmery blue water, flanked by trees, and then rising almost straight up from them, shooting far into the sky were the famous granite cliffs. We squinted and saw climbers halfway up the wall. It was so quiet and peaceful. We stopped on a bridge and just drank it all in. Walked further and gazed at the cliffs, the trees, the grass. Touches of humanity here and there, but so much wild beauty. It was everything I thought it would be and more. There was a deep tranquility that touched my soul as we meandered around the valley that day. We didn't take any of the strenuous hikes - we just strolled and drank in the wild, fantastic views.
The park got busier. We went to the gift shops, picked up maps and souvenirs, and then took a little known road out of the park. I'm glad we took the road, because we saw some amazing landscape - but it came at a cost to my sanity! There was barely room for two vehicles, and no guardrails. This road looked like it was literally carved out of the mountain!
Soon after we left the park, we were winding along in a valley, following a river, and we noticed that there was a track on the other side of the river that used to be a road. We followed it for miles, and I was so fascinated by the amount of history on that old road. Here was an old model T car half lost in the long grass. There was a buckboard wagon missing one wheel. We could see where the road was built up with rocks in some places, to make it more level. And there was a hole in the mountain - leading to gold no doubt. We left the river before the old road ended, and I felt a stab of loss. I wanted to know where it led. What was its history? Who last drove the wagon? When was the mine last used? Lives were lived and lost along that river in the past hundred years. We will never know their story.
We finally arrived back at our hotel. Day one in California was a success. We ate a sleepy supper at six o'clock. (it felt more like nine o'clock according to our North Carolina internal clocks). Then we crashed. Tomorrow we would go back to Yosemite and take some of the roads skirting the Valley. Tomorrow couldn't come soon enough.
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