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Week 1, Day 01
BNE/HNL (or Brisbane to Honolulu for the non-jet-setters)
Distance (Air) 9hrs 25min / (Road) 32kms
Finally, an overseas flight that doesn't leave at some ungodly hour! Our long-suffering friends Mike & Julie very kindly dropped us off at the airport at about 7pm as the heavens opened. Hopefully not an omen for the rest of the trip.
We normally start a travel blog with a photo of the car and van. We are now starting a new routine: the photo will be of our (at least initial) mode of transport.
Our Hawaiian A330-200 at Brisbane
Check in was quite easy as we'd already done the TSA pre-clearance for entry into the USA. The only slightly worrying occurrence was the fact that the zip on my brand new Samsonite suitcase took the opportunity to come apart as I put it on the scales at check-in. It looked like the zip teeth had jumped out of alignment. I put it back in its rightful state, but spent the next 10 hours wondering if I'd find an empty suitcase when we got to Honolulu.
We had quite a bit of turbulence on the climb out of Brisbane, and the seatbelt sign stayed on until we were above 33000ft. Fortunately, it quietened down for the rest of the flight.
Week 1, Day 2/3 (actually day 1/2 again, due to International Date Line)
HNL/SFO (Honolulu to San Francisco)
Distance (Air) 4hrs 10min / (Road) 5kms
Rather than just transiting onto the next flight to the US mainland[*], we had arranged a night at an airport hotel at Honolulu. We were given an upgraded room that overlooked the airport industrial area (lucky us!), but more importantly, we (well, one of us) could see all the movements at the airport.
[*] There is no such thing as 'transiting' in the USA. Even if we were continuing on to San Francisco, we still would have had to disembark, clear immigration & customs (having been fingerprinted and photographed), collect our bags and then re-check-in for the next leg. Glad we decided to bail out for 24 hours. As it was it took us 90 minutes to clear customs and collect our bags. This was when we found that the collapsible handle on Sue's bag wouldn't extend (jammed internally), so we had to drag it by a short section of strap. Have we offended the luggage gods perchance? At least the drug/food stuff sniffing beagle didn't even look at us, which was a pity as they looked so cute.
After a great night's sleep in a king sized bed, we got the hotel's shuttle bus back to terminal to start round 2. We were quite happy to be leaving as there was a warning for Hurricane Ignacio that was approaching the 'Big Island' and promised to pass reasonably close to Honolulu. Fingers crossed that all the hurricanes will be gone by the time we return.
This leg was quite uneventful, although quite choppy. The meal service was delayed for quite a while until it all calmed down. One of the factors that we were aware of before we started this trip was the state of the forest fires in California (and other parts of the west coast of the US and British Columbia in Canada). One thing that we hadn't taken into account was how far out to sea the smoke had blown. We first noticed a brown haze when we were still 90 minutes from the US coast. I estimated this at about 1200~1400kms! At least I 'hoped' it was smoke rather than just industrial pollution.
Arriving in San Francisco was far easier than Honolulu as it's a domestic flight. Just get your bags from the carousel and head for the hotels' shuttle bus stop. Hmmm. It would seem that we've really upset the luggage gods. The zipper for the front external section of Sue's bag was completely missing and the compartment was just hanging open. Fortunately we think we only lost a hot/cold pad, however the lack of a handle and now a gaping slot made manoeuvring it a bit of a problem. A temporary fix was carried out using the strap we'd bought to hold my bag together. Finally on to our hotel in yet another airport industrial area (I can sure pick 'em!) and to bed by sometime after 1am.
Week 1, Day 4
San Francisco / Yosemite Valley
Distance 320kms
First order of the day after breakfast was to get the hire car. There is a really good set of shuttle buses and transit options at SFO. I hopped on the hotel's shuttle bus back to the terminal, then changed to the free tram system that services all the terminals plus the rental car garage (they're all in one place). Picked up the car (for the petrol heads out there - a nippy Ford Fiesta with 6 speed automatic) and then set out onto one of the busier freeways in San Francisco while driving on the 'wrong' side of the road. 'In at the deep end' is what I say!
Packed up the car at the hotel and set off again onto the same freeway and over the San Mateo bridge and east to Yosemite. It took ages to get out of the traffic, but we finally got into the hills. This started showing us early on the state of the drought in California. We could have been driving at home - everything was brown.
The Don Pedro Dam
Someone seems to have pulled the plug out.
One of the joys of arriving at Yosemite is the first view you have down the valley.
Our first glimpse of the valley - Half Dome straight ahead and El Capitan on the left
While I had been waxing lyrical for years about the splendours of Yosemite, Sue had never been here. She wisely decided to ignore me and make her own mind up when she saw it for herself. I suspect she was probably at least a little impressed as she used the now totally overused expression 'awesome!'.
We arrived at 4pm and checked in only to find that for some inexplicable reason, check in time is 5pm! We wandered around the area for an hour and just took in the grandeur of the place.
Sentinel Dome from the lodge carpark
The scale of the place is amazing. The valley floor is about 1000m (3500') above sea level, while the surrounding valley walls extend up to 2500m (8000'). It really is difficult to believe that the dome in the photo above is nearly a mile (or 1.6km) above us!
Week 1, Day 5
Distance 100kms
Our first full day and we decided to take the valley floor tour. This is a tour put on by the National Parks Service and is conducted (in fine weather) on the back of a semi-trailer-sized trailer with a ranger giving commentary. They were 2 hours long, and ran every hour, so we opted to book for the 1pm trip, and went off exploring. First stop was the Ahwahnee Hotel - a grand old palace of a hotel that was opened in 1927 and has hosted such luminaries as Queen Elizabeth, Dwight Eisenhower, JFK, etc, etc. To avoid embarrassing any A List folk who might be there, we opted not to stay. I can assure you that the $800/night tariff was not a factor at all.
The Ahwahnee
As can be seen, it is constructed from the same granite that comprises the walls of the valley.
Tree-huggers R Us
The valley is full of huge trees - Sequoias, Douglas Fir, Pines of various kinds, etc. One can't help but hug one!
On the way back to the Lodge, we stopped off at the Gallery dedicated to one of my photographic heroes, Ansel Adams. He was one of the people who really brought this part of the world to the general public's attention.
No apostrophe police in evidence
Just a magical place. One is in awe of the lengths he went to to achieve his photographic visions, especially that you can now do the same things (at least physically) with nothing much more than a smartphone. He went into the valley carrying 8"x10" glass plates, chemicals and all the other paraphernalia needed to achieve a decent black and white print. Even earlier, Eadweard Muybridge (the first person to prove photographically that all four of a horse's legs were off the ground at the same time) had done much the same thing but in the mid 19th century and with 20" x 24" plates. They must have been viewed as mad at the time, but their legacy now remains as a record of the valley over 150 years.
One of the magical items on sale at the gallery was an original print of a view up the valley, hand printed, dodged and burned by Adams. It was a steal at only $48,500. See comments above re The Ahwahnee as to why we didn't actually buy it on the spot.
Another sign that caught our eye as we walked back to the lodge was this one.
Hmmm. No further comment
Back at the Lodge, we boarded the tour and found that there were only about 4 other couples. This was a great relief as the morning's tours were all full (about 60+).
Our trusty tour trailer with driver Doug and...
...Ranger Kate ("I only joined for the hat.")
The Merced River runs along the valley floor
As mentioned earlier, California has been experiencing a long drought, and partly as a result of this, the river level is down. On top of this, the Yosemite Falls wasn't running as it uses snow melt as its source, and it normally dries up towards the end of summer. The haze that was around was due to bush fires at the eastern end of the park. Fortunately, nowhere near civilisation.
A small apology to photo buffs - in the interests of keeping down weight for this holiday, I decided to bring my (very) small 10" Windows laptop (actually more like a tablet). It does really well checking email, internet use, etc, but it really doesn't do too well at processing photos. It also can't run my favourite photo editing applications so things like panoramas (above) do not turn out as well as I would like. I'll redo some of these after we get home, so feel free to revisit the site later.
After a fascinating 2 hour tour of the valley floor with Ranger Kate, we returned much wiser about the geological, botanical, historical, cultural and meteorological facets of the valley. She was really knowledgeable as well as entertaining, and having such a small group was also a great help.
Next up (and it really was UP) was a trip to watch the sunset from Glacier Point as it shone on Half Dome. This needed a drive of some 50+kms and innumerable turns to get to a point about 2 kms from where we started (but 1700m/5000' higher).
Watching the sunset from Glacier Point seems to be about as popular as watching the sunset at Uluru (Ayer's Rock). We got there quite early and got a nice position, but we weren't prepared for the crowds that turned up subsequently. We also weren't prepared for the arrival of a ranger to give a lecture on the history of this part of the park. Very informative and filled in an hour as we waited for sunset. It was fascinating watching the shadow creep up Half Dome as the sun slid below the valley wall on the other side.
Here are 3 shots (I have another 100 or so at 5 minute intervals if you're interested) at the start, just about sunset, and afterwards.
Half Dome - 1:10 before sunset
Half Dome - 0:20 before sunset
Half Dome - 0:05 after sunset
It's a rather obvious point that if you watch a sunset from somewhere other than where you're staying, then you're going to be driving home in the dark. It's no different here. No photos, but we saw a number of deer grazing by the roadside and a couple crossing the road as we drove back down the mountain. They seem to have the same road sense as your average kangaroo - none!
Week 1, Day 6
Distance 97kms
As we walked to breakfast, we were greeted by this cheeky chappy preparing for winter.
Chipmunks are all over the place
It had zero fear of us and sat there posing for minutes.
We took in the museum that portrayed the history of the valley with paintings by European / American artists in the 19th and early 20th century as well as a large display showing the life of the American Indians before the arrival of the 'Pioneers'.
Looking for a bit of nice scenery for lunch (like we had nothing staring us in the face!), we headed off for a lake that we'd been told was worth a visit.
We found this:
Tanaya Lake - altitude ~ 8000'/2500m
What a beautiful place for a picnic!
Tanaya Lake from the other end
The peak on the right is over 10,000'/3300m. None of the white is snow - it's all granite.
On the way home, we pulled over at Olmstead Point to see Half Dome from a different perspective.
Still some smoke haze around
After 3 days in this wonderful place, we're back to San Francisco to start the next part of our trip.
Week 1, Day 7
Distance 191miles
One final look at Half Dome as we left the valley
More traffic that got thicker as we approached San Francisco. Back to the airport hotel, unload the car, take it back to the rental agency then catch the train and shuttle bus back to the hotel. RELAX!!
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