The contrast between the desert areas of Lone Pine and the National Park at Yosemite could not have been more extreme. Once we crossd over the Sierra Nevada mountains to the Pacific ocean side, the whole climate changed. Desert to vineyard. Emptiness to intense farming. Lonely, winding desert roads to busy highways. And when we got to Yosemite, dry heat to rain and snow. 

   
 Fist we had to find a place to stay. We resisted the tempting “Bates Motel”, and opted for the “Miner’s Inn”. Yosemite is up in the mountains, so it is a lot colder than we had gotten used to. It is also on the ocean side, so it is a lot damper. The area has been inhabited for thousands of years and local Indian peoples lived, hunted and farmed here, up to very recent times. It is now a national park, entered by a natural rock-arched road, and with many wonderful waterfalls and stoney riverbanks, and lots of wildlife. 

   
   
We strolled and drove around, wrapped up as warmly as we could get, before stopping for hot coffee and the museum tour in the visitor centre. By afternoon, the snow was falling heavy and we decided that here in the mountains, discretion was the better part of valour. We bade farewell to Yosemite and hit the road.  We are San Francisco bound.