I will just give a quick summary of what we did today whilst we drove to the Yosemite national park as it was mainly driving, stopping to take photographs and being in awe of the countryside,  mountains and wild life.

We started the day with a rubbish breakfast at the Buck Meadows restaurant. I had Eggs Benedict, the ham was more like gammon steaks and the hollandaise sauce was more like mayo with a bit of mustard mixed in – it wasn’t the best start !

The drive up to Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park was amazing. The roads were lined with pine tree forest to one side and stunning mountain ranges and valleys to the other side. I lost note of the amount of times we had to pull over to take photographs and videos and on one occasion we had to stop to let a couple of Mute Deer cross the road.

The last 10 miles of the road up to Glacier Point was closed due to the amount of people clogging up the top car park. Fortunately the park puts on a park and ride bus up the top so we parked up and took that the rest of the way. The drive up in the bus took around half an hour though the journey was more than worth what lay ahead.

The views from Glacier point were stunning. After getting off the bus it was a couple of minutes walk up to the cliff edge and commanding views of Yosemite Valley, Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, and Yosemite’s high country, We took loads of photos and video and then went to get some lunch from the gift store. It was at this point we learned of Meat Bees ! If you think the wasps in the UK can get aggressive if they get a whiff of your sandwich or crisps they have nothing on Meat bees. Within seconds of opening our lunch we were surrounded by them, they took a liking to Debbie more than me ( i’m glad to say) and eventually we had to give up our remaining lunch to the bin just so we could get a minutes peace from the striped bastards !

After Glacier point we hopped back on the bus down to the car and headed into the park proper and our base for the night, Yosemite Lodge. The Lodge was ok, nothing special and our room was at the back and though from the photos it looks like we had a lovely veranda opening out onto scrubland and forest, in reality it was quite close to the road and you could hear the traffic leaving the park which put a slight dampener on it. Having said that you don’t come to Yosemite to stay in your room so it was only a base point.

We emptied our car into the room and then went to the bar for a drink before heading out for a walk through the forests. We had a walk down to the lower falls which were dry and then via the paths of the forest to Yosemite Village which was closed. The walk was lovely, we saw quite a few wild mute deer prancing around the woods, and got some great videos such as this ( more to come when i’m home and i can edit them)

Unfortunately Deer were the largest wildlife we saw and till not seen a bear in the wild which is a shame. We also saw loads of Grey Squirrels, and a few Chickarees and Golden Maned ground squirrels (which look like chipmunks). There were plenty of Steller’s Jay’s flying around the area and we saw a few hawk like birds swooping around though wouldn’t have a clue what they were.

After our walk we went back to the room, freshened up and headed back to the bar for a couple of drinks and a light dinner. It was nice having decent ciabatta sandwiches and pasta as opposed to burgers for once.