Amazing Yosemite

The first destination on our road-trip - Yosemite - is the best place to start the trip! It is unbelievably beautiful.

We reached there on Saturday evening after starting from San Jose and stopping at an interesting place called Casa De Fruta on the way. Spent Saturday evening visiting the various interesting spots in the valley - Visitor's center, Ansel Adams photo gallery, Gift shop, Ahwahnee Lodge, etc. - and planning the next day's program. Had a nice dinner at Ahwahnee Dining room within the Yosemite valley.

On Sunday we started early from the hotel, as I had planned to hike the arduous 7.2 mile Yosemite falls trail. JH busied himself in activities in the valley, while I started on the hike at around 10:00 AM.

Was apprehensive at the beginning as I compared it to the hike of similar length I had done in Grand Canyon a couple of years ago. That hike turned out to be very strenuous and had me hurting for a week at least! This hike turned out to be easier than the Grand Canyon hike, mainly because the tough part of climbing up comes at the beginning of the hike, and also because the elevation seems to be less than in the Grand Canyon. Better personal fitness and knowledge of the benefits of stretching also contributed a lot towards me enjoying the hike in Yosemite.

On the way up, met a group of tourists from France, and tried to improve my French language speaking skills by conversing with them in French. At one point in the hike up, three of the young guys in the group decided to take a deviation from the trail to take a shower below the falls. Since the whole group was waiting for them to come back, I too joined the young guys, and went over to take a wonderful shower standing in the way of the huge waterfall. There wasn't much water in the falls; the torrent kept moving around, and the water was very cold. Nice to take a nature shower surrounded by incredible scenery!

After the short deviation, I had to part ways with the French group as I was too tired to keep up with their pace. I slowly made way to the top taking many short breaks (at one point, stopping as I could hear my heart-beat very loudly!) and conversing with many of my fellow hikers.

The end of hike up is at the top of the Yosemite falls; it is a wonderful place! There are a few small size but deep pools on the top before the river takes a mighty fall. Many people were swimming and sunbathing around the pools. I too joined the group after dipping in the cold pool. I need to learn swimming after I return to NY to enjoy swimming in these kind of places :)

Hiked down at a leisurely pace, and made it to the bottom by 5:30 PM - thoroughly satisfied with the day. After a short break for dinner, continued the road-trip on the beautiful Tioga road, exiting Yosemite NP, stopping at the immense and beautiful Lake Mono before heading to Reno for the night.

Stayed at the El Dorado Casino in Reno.