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Rolling, rolling, rolling, keep that Nissan
rolling
Time to leave Vegas, and move on. As always,
it seems to take longer to pack up our rucksacks than it really should.
In fact, its probably the job we all look forward to least. Because
we have the car, some of our stuff stays in the boot permanently unless
we need it – things like sleeping bags, fleeces and sheet sleeping bags
(for hostels where they provide the blankets, and you provide the rest).
But there still seems to be tons of stuff to load/unload at each new
motel. As well as our 4 rucksacks (although Emily’s is the size of a
dinner party handbag!), there’s a laundry bag, a coolbox for drinks
and things like milk, a food bag, with the essential basics (cereals
and cereal bars for midnight munchies for the girls, and tea bags for
Sarah), and a security bag that contains the Tablet PC and our passports
and tickets.
Anyway, by the time we’ve loaded all of this, and had breakfast, we
tend to get away around 10:30, when the sun’s managed to really warm
up. We left Vegas as the thermometer went through 93-degrees, and headed
north east into the desert, towards Arizona and Utah.
 We left the Interstate at one point to drive through
Fire Valley, and saw this dust devil making its way across a car park.
They are mini-tornadoes, that spiral upwards, lifting up dust and small
stones. We watched this one for a while, as it inched past our car –
it was quite fascinating, although we don’t really know how they come
about, and how they move. We’re hoping somebody else will know something
about them?
 We
then drove on, through Arizona (hmmm, dry desert), into Utah (hmmm,
dry desert), and through Zion National Park to get to Kanab, a small
town north of the Grand Canyon. Zion Park is amazing, with dramatic
canyons alongside the road. We only drove through it, and didn’t stop
too long. However, we did take a photo, as after miles of desert it
was dramatic to see. Most people visit the Grand Canyon at the South
Rim, but we’d read that the North Rim is as dramatic, but a lot quieter
and less commercialised, and that’s why we were heading to Kanab. It’s
close to the Canyon, but also in the middle of triangle with Zion, Bryce
and Lake Palmer National Parks. Over the next 3 days we hope to see
a lot!
We found ourselves a brilliant hotel. Although it’s more expensive than
the others we could have chosen, its also much, much, much nicer. More
of that later. As it was late, we ate at a local fast food place and
went to bed. Today we’ve driven 250 miles, bringing the total since
we arrived 12 days ago to 1,200 miles.
Cowboys and Canyons
After a slap-up breakfast, we looked around Kanab,
which used to be the centre of the Western movies business. There was
a time when everybody in Kanab, from the postman to the pastor, were
extras in the movie business. Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jnr, Dean Martin
and Ronald Reagan all made films here. But that seems to be history
– now the town is a dormitory for the Grand Canyon, with the main street
full of cafes, motels and fast food restaurants.
 However, just down from the hotel is Frontier Movie Town, which
is a coffee and gift shop, and out the back they have a garden full
of movie set buildings from the various westerns. Compared to the Calico
Ghost Town that we visited, it was brilliant. Okay, so all the buildings
were fake (but then, they were at Calico), but they were ‘good fakes’,
and actually looked old. We spent an hour and a half there, exploring,
taking photo’s and generally talking about the wild west way of life
with the owner.
 And the top moment was when we discovered
the ‘cowboy cutouts’ – just like the seaside ones that used to be in
England. Emily and Charlotte insisted on being photographed looking
through everyone of the 8 face holes, as cowboys, cowgirls, saloon girls,
sheriffs and outlaws. Of course, I only took part because they insisted
that I should. What a cultural moment
And then it was time for the Grand Canyon. We drove the 90 miles from
Kanab to the North Rim of the Canyon, passing through green forests
and meadows, spotting deer, wild turkeys and chipmunks on the way. The
park was really quiet – about 50 cars in the car park, and most of them
were staying in the park in the cabins. Because of the time zone changes
between Utah and Arizona, we left Kanab at 2 o’clock and arrived in
the park at 3:30 – after a 90 mile drive with a picnic stop. We went
straight to the viewpoint, which was scary to reach – a narrow 4-foot
wide path with 6-inch high kerbs, with near vertical drops of a mile
and a half on one side or the other. In some places, there was no side
– just a direct drop on both sides. None of us are afraid of heights,
but both Charlotte and I got a little nervous on this walk.
 Anyway, at the end was a small fenced platform on top of a rock,
with a view down, up and across the canyon. There were only 6 other
people there, so we had plenty of time and space to take in the view.
The weather wasn’t great – thunderstorms moved across the landscape
in the distance, with huge lightning detonations happening every few
minutes, but the view was still great, with really clear visibility
to the mountains 70 miles in the distance. The weather also made it
quite cool, with us wearing our fleeces for only the third time in 7
weeks, and Charlotte even got so cold she needed a raincoat over her
fleece. Rather than feeling energised we felt a bit drained – but we
soon found out that this was due to the altitude – the rim of the canyon
is at 8,800 feet – well above the top of Ben Nevis. Although we were
on the edge of a huge plain, we were also on top of a huge mountain
range.
 Charlotte
and Emily love the Junior Ranger programmes that they run at the National
Parks. At the Visitor Centre you collect a booklet, with lots of small
tasks to complete during your visit to the park. For the Grand Canyon
this included ‘See the Sights Bingo’, which was easy because we’d seen
so much wildlife on our drive in. They also had to write about how she
felt about different aspects of the park (Emily scrawls all over her
booklet then tells me what it says so that we can write it down for
the Ranger to check). And then they had to draw their own petroglyphs
describing an important part of their life to somebody else – Charlotte
drew a drawing pad and pencils; Emily drew a swimming pool! (Golly,
they’re being changed by the travelling). Anyway, at the end they took
their booklets back to the Ranger Station, where they are checked by
the Rangers, (including questions to check that they did the work themselves!)
and then they receive a certificate, a Junior Ranger badge, and have
to repeat the Junior Ranger oath. Charlotte takes all this incredibly
seriously. Emily was too tired to even hold up her hand – so I had to
crouch behind her, holding up hers and mine together. Then, when Sarah
took out the camera, the Ranger produced two Ranger Hats for them to
wear. Again, Charlotte took her role seriously, while Emily refused
to wear hers and put it on me instead. So there I am, taking the Junior
Ranger oath, wearing a Junior Ranger hat, holding up my hand, oath style,
when Sarah decides to take a photo, and Emily decides at that exact
moment to run off. Here’s what
that looks like – you’ll also understand why the Ranger was smiling
in the first photo! Sometimes I wonder if this website is just
career suicide – still lets hope nobody reads it who knows me professionally.
Another canyon day
Today we went to Bryce Canyon, the third canyon
in three days. Although Kanab is slap bang in the middle of Zion, Bryce
and Grand Canyons, it doesn't mean that it's near any of them! It's
30 miles to Zion (not bad), 91 miles to the Grand Canyon (but hell,
it's worth it to see one of the top 10 sights in the world), and 81
to Bryce Canyon. So these days are full of road trips.
 We set off after breakfast (bacon 'n
eggs) and drove up to Bryce non-stop. There are two types of roads in
the US - those where the speed limit is 60-65, and you can actually
travel at that speed; and those where the speed limit fluctuates every
5 minutes from 60 mph down to 15mph. Fortunately the roads around Kanab
are the first type, so the drive to Bryce only took us an hour and three-quarters.
When we arrived, we went straight to the Visitor Station to get Charlotte
and Emily their Junior Ranger pack, and then we drove into the park.
We were amazed - we'd seen photo's of Bryce Canyon from our friends,
but nothing had prepared us for the awe inspiring vision that greeted
us at the rim. Laid out in front of us, like an army of soldiers, were
loads of upright limestone pillars (called hoodoos here). They were
the colour of carrots at sunset - an awesome sight. We stayed at the
first viewing point for over an hour - partly to watch, partly to picnic,
and partly to hear Kevin Poe, Park Ranger extraordinaire, give a Geology
talk.
 The
Geology Talk was part of the work for the girls to get their Junior
Ranger badges - they have to attend one of the Ranger talks. Sadly,
we'd missed the guided trail and talk this morning, and we were going
to be gone by the time the campfire talk was ready. So we had to do
the Geology Talk. Imagine how thrilled they were at the prospect of
this - a 3 and a 7 year old listening to a geology lecture. However,
they sat enraptured for 30 minutes - for two reasons. 1) Kevin had bought
some rocks and (wow) dinosaur fossils with him. And 2) Kevin sang part
of his lecture with (so bad they were good) rock star impressions. Let's
face it, if you've got a group of 20 kids sitting through a geology
lecture because they want the badge at the end, then you've got to do
something a bit different to help you go to work in the mornings. He
also explained a lot about sedimentation, using a bottle of Tang. The
kids may have learnt more about Tang than about geology, but when they
get to secondary school and 'sedimentation' gets mentioned, they may
well be transported back in time, to remember that Neil Armstrong took
Tang to the moon!
Afterwards the girls wanted to take the shuttle bus to another viewing
point, so they set off with Sarah while I walked to the car park to
pick up the car and meet them there. Unfortunately, after I'd put everything
from lunch into the boot, I closed it - and as it closed I caught a
glimpse of the car keys as the boot slammed shut on them! I got some
help from a Ranger, a bus drive and then the driver of the world's largest
breakdown truck, and eventually recovered them - and ended up $35 poorer.
45 minutes late, I rolled up to the next viewpoint, to find the girls
playing happily (I'd rather expected that they'd be whining about "Where's
Dad? Why are we waiting? Why do we have to sit here?" etc etc).
 The Sunset viewpoint was even more amazing, and we
decided to walk down into the canyon to view it from a different perspective.
This was even more amazing - looking at the pillars towering above us,
and feeling the cool air in the shady bottom of the canyon. The girls
walked down the twisty track, which was narrow with very steep drops,
right to the bottom. And then walked back up, despite being at 7,000
feet altitude, and being hot and tired. It was a great experience for
us all.
 Then, after an ice cream, we drove back
to Kanab, passing through typical American mountain scenery on the way.
After a while you become immune to more views of the 'same stuff' on
drives, but every now and again you remember that you're not at home
any more, and you've only seen this kind of scenery before in films.
 When we got back to Kanab it was sunset, so I had
to take this photo of a typical motel sign, with the red hills in the
background. This isn't our hotel, it's Parry Inn, where the movie stars
used to stay when they made Westerns out here. The rooms are named after
film stars, like Ronald Reagan, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jnr (even
though it appears they never stayed here - is that 'spin' or what?)
  And then, after a quick bite, we went back to our hotel. I've
mentioned it a few times, without saying why it's so good. Well, as
the name suggests - Victorian Charm Inn - it's been built and decorated
as as old-world inn, with lots of frilly curtains and table clothes.
It's normally well outside of our budget ($120+), but Sarah negotiated
it down to a rate that we could afford (just) of $80, and for that we
get a room with two huge iron bedsteads, a jacuzzi in the room, and
a cooked breakfast.
 And
the girls loved the hot tub - each night they dived in as soon as we
got back to the room, and bubbled away for an hour. It was good for
us too - an hours peace and quiet. The only side effect is that jacuzzi's
seem to scrub off our hard won sun tans!
More driving
Today, more driving. We have to relocate from
Canyonlands towards Mammoth Lakes/Yosemite area. There are two ways
to do this - head to Vegas, and then drive through Death Valley (in
these temperatures, we'd have to be mad), or to head across miles of
barren desert, and along the Extraterrestial Highway. So ET it was.
 The
entire journey was 450 miles, and for the most part it was just long
straight roads across dry desert. Most of the time we could drive at
70+ mph, and just slow down every 30 minutes when the road bent! We
stopped for a picnic at a reservoir, and kept going through village
after village. In all, over 450 miles, we passed through TEN villages
(they all looked like towns on the map, but most of them only had 50
houses or less). One, called Cedar City, really was big - about the
size of Banbury. Can you imagine the drive - London to Aberdeen, on
dead straight A-roads, passing through only 10 villages (and with only
one toilet on the way!)
 Anyway, the highlight of the trip was
the Extraterrestrial Highway. This 98 mile long highway runs alongside
Nellis Air Force base and the famous Area 51 Top Secret Area. Mainly
its just more straight road through the desert, but the excitement is
heightened by the fact that you're driving along the boundary of America's
most secret (well not really) facility.
 Quick
history: Area
51, also known as Groom Lake, is a secret military facility about
90 miles north of Las Vegas. The number refers to a 6-by-10-mile block
of land, at the center of which is a large air base the government will
not discuss. The site was selected in the mid-1950s for testing of the
U-2 spyplane, due to its remoteness, proximity to existing facilities
and presence of a dry lake bed for landings. Groom Lake is America's
traditional testing ground for "black budget" aircraft before they are
publicly acknowledged. The facility and surrounding areas are also associated
-- with varying levels of credibility -- with UFO and conspiracy stories.
In 1989, Bob Lazar claimed on a Las Vegas television station that he
had worked with alien spacecraft at Papoose Lake, south of Area 51.
Since then, "Area 51" has become a popular symbol for the alleged U.S.
Government UFO cover-up (the
Rosswell Incident)
 The ONLY THING ON THIS 100 MILE ROAD is the 'town' of Rachel,
which has loads of caravans and two permanent buildings. One of them
is a petrol station (phew!) and the other is the A-LE INN. The girls
loved it! Especially the fake aliens that they could sit with inside
the coffee shop. They sold loads of different souvenirs - T-shirts,
aliens, Alien driving licences, alien key rings, Area 51 posters etc
etc. And books, lots of books telling stories about Area 51 and the
various UFO encounters around the world. And on the walls, lots of photo's
of UFO's. We've seen lots of tacky things in the states, but this really
beats them all!
After tea at Rachel, we drove another 200 miles to Tonopah, where we
crashed into a motel at 10pm, after 12 hours of travelling. Lots of
people asked me "What do you do all day when you're travelling". Well,
there's a good example of a whole day used up!
Mammoth Lakes
Yesterday we drove from Tonopah in Nevada to
Mammoth Lakes in California. It took us about 3 hours driving time,
for around 160 miles. We drove out of high desert, across passes up
to 7,500 feet high and between 13,000 ft mountains. It was a long drive,
but quite straightforward – roads that were as straight as a ruler,
with visibility of up to 15 miles ahead. Then we passed into the Sierra
mountain range, where the desert gave way to pine forest and lakes.
This weekend is a holiday weekend for the Americans, as Monday is Labour
Day. That meant that the roads got very busy in the afternoon – this
was a bit of contrast to the desert driving, where we’d see another
car perhaps every 20-25 minutes.
 We’d booked our motel two weeks ago over the Internet, because
accommodation is very difficult to get, and expensive, during holiday
weekends. The town of Mammoth Lakes is a winter ski resort, and used
for hiking and mountain biking in the summer, and as a result has the
look and feel of an alpine resort – lots of chalets and wooden-log buildings.
The girls just wanted to relax, after all the time in car, and so did
we, so Friday evening and Saturday was just spent swimming. The big
news is that Emily learnt to swim without arm bands, and successfully
went from “I’m not taking them off” to swimming the width of the pool
in the space of 2 hours. And Charlotte learnt to dive (Yes, I know that
it’s not the world’s best photograph, but it’s the only photo we’ve
taken in the last 48 hours, so you’ll have to make do with it!).
The American budget deficit
We’re trying to get around the world on a limited
budget, of around £400 a week to cover accommodation, activities, food
and travel – and everything else. We knew that Canada and America would
be more expensive, because of accommodation especially, but America
has turned out much more expensive than we’d imagined. The principle
reasons are food and motels. As America doesn’t really have a hostel
network, we are staying in motels, which can cost from around $39 to
$100 up. Mostly we’re staying in $49 motels, which means that we get
a pool, and a continental breakfast thrown in. However, at weekends,
and in some towns with little competition, we can end up paying $80.
And sometimes, we end up paying $80 because we don’t want to stay in
the cheapest motels in town when we can get a bit more comfort for a
bit more money (Kanab is a case in point – we could have paid $50 or
$60, but we chose to pay $80 to get a much, much nicer motel and a great
cooked breakfast). This is very different from last time we were travelling,
when we famously walked 2 miles with our backpacks to save 25p on a
rickshaw!
Staying in motels also creates food problems – the motels don’t have
cooking facilities, unlike hostels where there’s a shared kitchen to
cook in. So it means that every lunchtime and evening we have to eat
out. Cheap eating here is mainly fast food – McDonalds etc – which is
cheap but not the best thing for a regular diet. Some days we’ve even
had to resort to McDonalds for lunch and dinner – how depressing is
that!
So now we’re starting to picnic more for lunch – after supermarket visits
– and try not to eat McDonalds in the evenings. But the alternatives
tend to be either pizza or another fried food – at The Junction we managed
to find fish and chips, but they’d battered each chip individually,
just to make sure there was enough grease in the meal!
I’ve put on weight already in just two weeks, which is depressing, because
travelling used to be a sure-fire way to limit my waistline. Roll on
Fiji, where cheap food means vegetarian curries! (Not something the
girls are saying!)
Still at Mammoth Lakes
 Well, it’s still the holiday weekend, so we’re still
here at Mammoth Lakes. After a lazy day yesterday, today was a day to
wear ourselves out. We went to the Devils Postpile National Park – the
main feature of which is the ‘giants causeway’ style pile of rocks.
But we didn’t bother with that, and went straight to the Rainbow Falls
trail. The trail is 1 ½ miles to the fall, and 1 ½ miles back. Charlotte
walked all the way (although not without more than normal complaints!)
and Emily managed to get there, but had to be carried back in the backpack.
The waterfall was fantastic, because there had been rainfall overnight,
so there was a fantastic chute of water coming over the ledge. Being
in the backpack was fine for Emily (although she complained she was
‘tired’ from the backpack), but it was difficult for me, to carry her
plus my new American-fast-food weight, up a staircase cut into
rock, and along the trail, all at 8,000 feet.
 On the way back we had to walk through the fire-hit forest again,
which was hot and dusty, with no shade. We passed a group of horses
and mules, making off for a one week trail across the Ansel Adams Wilderness,
and all wished we could hitch a lift back. Still, we all made it back
to the Red Meadows cattle ranch café, and had a sandwich. The guy behind
the bar was very friendly, and soon the girls had managed to get themselves
a free chocolate milkshake, as well as hear lots of stories of forest
fires, bears and huntin’ n’ fishin’.
And the late afternoon was devoted to the pool, to wash off the sweat
and dust of the morning. By the pool Charlotte was telling an American
couple about the ‘long walk’ she’d done in the morning, but they’d just
arrived at the hotel after a 12-day wilderness hike, so they weren’t
that impressed!
Moving on to Yosemite
 We were all excited today as we loaded the car and
headed away from Mammoth Lakes, towards Yosemite. We knew it wouldn’t
take us long - the Park entrance was only 30 miles from the motel, and
it was dual carriageway all the way. But getting to the park gate was
the easy bit! It turned out to be a long, long drive from the entrance
to the Curry Village Lodge (where we were staying). We entered through
the high Tioga pass (3,000m) to Tuolumne meadows. This was different
landscape to anything we’d already seen in the States – grassy meadows,
bordered by forests, with huge smooth granite outcrops popping up everywhere
– and huge means anything from lorry size to mountain size.
 We stopped for a picnic beside a beautiful lake, and encountered
another of the features of American National Parks that we’ve seen a
lot – road works. It seems that every national park chooses the summer
to do their major road works programme. Charlotte and Emily are getting
very familiar with the different types of lorries, diggers and earthmovers
in use over here. And they even get to say “Hello” and “Thank you” to
every ‘stop/go’ man/woman on the road (amazingly, they don’t use any
traffic lights for road works, no matter how long the closure, but instead
have humans turning Stop/Go boards. (Mind you, after their experiences
with electricity over the last few years and weeks, perhaps its not
such a bad thing after all!).
 On
the route down through the forest, we came across a forest fire. At
first we were a bit concerned it could alter our plans, but we found
out that it was under control – in fact, it was a ‘managed fire’. This
means that the park authority allows it to burn itself out, perhaps
covering a few hundred acres as it goes, because it helps to prevent
larger, unstoppable fires. As long as the fire is limited to ground
level burning, and not leaping hundreds of feet into the air to burn
the tops of trees, its actually a good thing – it helps regenerate the
forest floor covering, and many of the trees have a fire-resistant bark
layer which actually needs to be burnt every few years. So small fires
are watched rather than extinguished. Some are even started deliberately
by the foresters, to burn up some of the deadwood and other material
that could be potentially dangerous if left for a later fire to consume.
(However sensible this sounds, it sometimes goes wrong – the big fire
this year in Jasper, in Canada, was a fire started by the parks authority
which went out of control, and ended up covering thousands of acres,
closing roads, threatening towns and ruining the tourist trade at peak
season.)
 Anyway,
after two hours of driving through meadows, forests and lots of twisty
windy roads, we emerged from a mile-long tunnel to see this view. It
was certainly another “wow” moment (and yes, for those who’ve been sending
me emails over-using that word, I really, really do mean “wow”).
We drove the further half hour deep into the valley – all feeling refreshed
by the view, and by knowing we were nearly there at last. We also felt
that it was so much easier to breathe – at 3,000m I had definitely noticed
that I got out of breath quicker doing physical things, and because
we’d been at 2,000m-plus for 2 weeks, it was starting to get frustrating
(I know I’m not fit, but I don’t want reminding every 10 minutes). The
floor of the valley is at 1,200m, so the air is much thicker there (and
much warmer than up in the meadows).
 We
arrived at Camp Curry around 4pm, and checked in. We’d booked a four
bed tent for three nights. By booking in advance on the Internet, about
two weeks ago, we’d saved half of the cost – reducing it from $76 a
night to $38. This might seem a lot for a tent, but it isn’t an ordinary
tent. They are laid out in the forest, under tree cover, and have a
solid wooden frame – in fact they’re more like cabins except that the
sides are fabric. But they have wooden floors, real beds (although the
plasticised mattress was a bit basic) and a single bedside cabinet.
We even had sheets and blankets (so we’ve still not had to use our sleeping
bags in 7 weeks). The toilets were in a toilet block 50m away, and the
showers 100m away in another block. Let’s hope that nobody needs to
go in the night!
Activities in Yosemite National Park
 Every day there’s a programme of activities at the Parks, led
by Park Rangers. I’ve already written about the Junior Ranger Programme
a bit, so I won’t repeat it. It means that in every park, the first
things the girls want to do is get the books, and start completing the
exercises. It also means that they’re happy to sit still for 45 minutes
to listen to a talk on something. In Yosemite we got them to sit through
a 45 minute slide show on “Amazing Amphibians”, which was all about
frogs and toads. It was really aimed at adults, but they both got things
from it (Emily especially liked the idea of the frog that freezes every
night in winter, ‘like an ice cream’). They did get to go the a programme
activity specifically for them – “Owls – What a hoot!”, in which they
got to talk about owls, impersonate owls and make their own owl from
paper and a balloon.
For their Ranger badges in Yosemite, they had lots of different activities
to complete in their books, which included some drawing, some writing,
some collecting, word searches, crosswords etc. If only we could keep
them as excited about some of the other ‘boring’ things they see (like
volcanoes etc). If you visit any of the National Parks with children,
then you definitely have to do these activity books! And the girls love
it purely because they get a badge at the end. They don’t even realize
they’re doing more work in a day than they might at school!
And at the end they hand their book back into a Ranger to be checked
(which the Rangers actually do - I’d expected them to glance and hand
over the badge), and they sometimes get quizzed on parts of it. There’s
no way that we could get away with doing their book for them! (Or perhaps
we could for Emily, because every time it gets to her turn she goes
instantly shy and hides away – until the ‘Junior Ranger Oath’ has been
done, and then she re-appears when its badge time.) They then get to
keep their books as souvenirs – and Charlotte uses them to invent more
quizzes and games on the car journeys, as well as finishing anything
she didn’t have to do to get her badge. For us, it’s a top feature of
the parks.
The other thing we found is that some Visitors Centres loan out Activity
backpacks. These contain a whole host of different activities related
to a specific subject. At the Happy Isles Nature Centre we borrowed
the Birds backpack. It had moulds of birds heads, spotting books and
cards, some bird quizzes, and most importantly a pair of binoculars.
Charlotte and Emily loved using them, especially on things within 3
feet of us, like squirrels and shoes. It didn’t matter that they weren’t
doing every activity as planned – they were just having fun, but using
the pack covered a whole range of different educational aspects for
them, and taught them new ideas.
It is experiences like this that make me smile when I remember those
who said “But how will the children learn while they are away? Won’t
they go backwards in their education?” I really do think we’re covering
a huge amount of the curriculum through what we’re doing with them –
both now and in the future.
Today’s schedule is a good case in point:
8:00-10:00 Shower and breakfast
10:00 Bus to Nature Centre
10:30-11:30 Nature Centre
- looking at the animal exhibits, and information about their habitats
11:30-12:30 Outside with the birds activity backpack
- looking for birds, calling birds, and whistling at squirrels
12:30-1:00 Bus to back to Curry Village
1:00-2:00 Sandwiches for lunch
– watching the squirrels
2:00-2:15 Bus to Yosemite Lodge
2:15-3:00 Wilderness Centre and Ansel Adams Art Gallery
- what do you need to take when you go hiking and why?
3:00-4:00 Film
– the nature and splendour of Yosemite
4:00-5:00 Indian Village and Museum
– how they used to live and cook.
5:00-6:00 Walking
- through the woods and meadows, deer spotting.
6:00-6:15 Bus to Yosemite Lodge
6:15-7:00 Owl talk
7:00-7:15 Bus back to Curry Village
7:15- 8:15 Pizza
8:15-9:00 Film and talk
- Yosemite in the winter
9:30 Teeth, milk and bed (for everybody)
(Gosh, reading this makes me feel like a bad dad. How on earth
can a three year old keep up this pace for a year? This was a bit of
an unusual day because Emily didn’t sleep during the day, which she
does when we’re in the car – probably because of days like this. It’s
also why we build in days where the girls get the chance to just play
– in the room, round the pool – and rest. On days like today’s though,
the challenge tends to be to get the girls to stop somewhere long enough
to take it in, rather than rush off to the next thing straight away).
Yosemite National Park
It’s difficult to write about Yosemite without
using too many superlatives, so I’m not going to tell you about the
views, and the scenery and the breathtaking moments – I’ll show you
some photo’s of those, and you can see for yourselves. And if you want
to know about them you can go and find out in the your library (or even
come to Yosemite!). Instead, I’ll tell you about the things you won’t
find in a Yosemite Guide Book, and what we thought about them. But first,
a picture…
Of course there are mountains in Yosemite, and no trip would be complete
with going up one and taking pictures. There is a big difference to
last time we traveled. 10 years ago we were younger, fitter and
didn’t have two small children with us. In New Zealand we were doing
50km hikes and climbing 1,600m mountains without too much preparation.
But with the girls, we find that we’re really limited on what physical
activity we can do with them. Normally we find that while one is ready
to walk, the other isn’t – too tired, too hungry or just plain grumpy.
Although we sometimes insist, and drag them along moaning and pleading,
it does mean that it limits our options.
 So
‘going up a mountain’ in Yosemite meant driving 30 miles up to Glacier
Point (to stand at the edge of a 1,000m vertical drop, 50m horizontally
from our starting point in the valley), rather than taking the four-mile
hiking trail.
However, there are other things that we do that compensate. We all enjoy
the wildlife spotting – in Yosemite there are lots of wild deer, that
wander around the forests and meadows, and through the car parks. We
also saw lots of squirrels and jays, which scavenge from the food. We
saw raccoons one night, and a wild coyote strolling alongside the road
twice. We didn’t see any bears, but there were plenty of bears around.
The bear problem in Yosemite is a big one – they are attracted to the
valley floor by the amount of food available, and have learnt all kinds
of tricks to get it. Signs all over the park warn you not to leave food
unattended, and to always lock it into a bear-proof storage container.
And cars don’t qualify! Food has to be taken out of cars, even
the boot, and put into lockers provided in the car parks and camp sites.
We weren’t allowed to store food in our tent (same reasons), and had
another locker near the toilets (mmm, nice) to store food we wanted
on the campsite. And we weren’t even allowed to temporarily take it
up to the tent to eat it – it had to be eaten away from the tents. So
we would end up eating breakfast on a picnic table near the restaurants
rather than in our ‘room’. And these precautions didn’t extend just
to food, but also to drink (Coke cans) and other fragranced items (like
shower gel, toothpaste etc). It was a complete nightmare. It would be
easy to think that they were paranoid about this, and being extreme,
but the statistics speak for themselves – 800 cars a year broken into
by bears in the park (‘broken into’ means that they’ll yank the doorframe
away at the window, smash the window, and if the food’s in the boot,
they’ll smash through the back seats into the boot). Some of them didn’t
even have food in, but contained things like old food wrappers, crumbs
in the car seats, or even the smell of a meal eaten in the car that
evening! Somebody had warned us at Mammoth Lakes, and had told us to
vacuum our car out before we went. Although we thought they were a bit
over-cautious, we did it – and having seen what happens, I’m glad we
did.
Anyway, a quick description of the photo above – the tube in the
middle is a bear trap – they bait it, and leave it sitting around the
car parks. If there’s a stray bear, it gets trapped inside the tube
as it goes for the food (if you think that’s difficult to climb into,
you’ve obviously not seen the film of a bear climbing in through the
driver window of a Suzuki Swift). Then along come the Rangers, and sedate
it and fix a bear collar onto it – this can then be picked up by radio
receivers in the park – they then know when it comes too close to humans
(like camp sites, and car parks), and can chase it away. While we were
there they were trying to catch a bear that didn’t have a collar, and
was causing damage overnight in car parks.
And, another picture…
We picked the perfect time to be at Yosemite. All of the American schools
were back by the end of last week, and we came straight after the Labour
Day public holiday on Monday. This meant the valley was quiet (relatively),
and all of the staff commented on how lucky we were. If we’d come in
August we’d have been fighting for accommodation, food, parking spaces
and space on the walks. Its really noticeable how much quieter the roads
and hotels are, and of course the only children we tend to see now are
either under 5, or foreign.
Our accommodation was okay, which really means it wasn’t okay.
The standard of upkeep at Curry Village isn’t what it should be. Often
the showers and toilets were pretty dirty, and inside the tents didn’t
seem to be cleaned at all – at one point Sarah’s pillow fell off her
bed, and got covered in a layer of dirt and yeuchy stuff. Perhaps the
reason is that the camp is staffed by young students, mainly Russians,
who are doing it for a gap year. If you were 21 again, how would you
feel about clearing up for other people, when you really wanted to be
down the pub? They facilities are also run by ‘Yosemite Concession Services’,
a monopoly organization which doesn’t have any competition. All over
the park there are signs saying that they charge reasonable prices,
which I do agree with – the problem is that the quality of much of what
they do is pretty poor. It reminds me of motorway services in England
10 or 15 years ago. We paid half price for our tent – if we were paying
$70+ I’d be pretty dismayed. We met quite a few Americans who were,
and they were either ready to complain or had already complained. (In
fact, it was them that made use realise how poor things were – I’d kind
of written it off as “Well, you expect lower standards when you’re in
a tent”).
(Separately, while in the park I read that American unemployment is
now running at a high level of 6%. Perhaps employing Russian students
to staff restaurants, hotels, motels and visitor facilities in America’s
Number One National Park could be part of the reason. But then I guess
that’s the same anywhere – in London you find few reception staff in
big hotels who are English – they’re all working down in Australia on
their working visa’s there! I’ve just read what I’ve written - I
must be reaching middle age.)
Leaving Yosemite
After three nights, its time to leave Yosemite.
We've really enjoyed our time here, as the park is very beautiful and
the girls really enjoyed it, with lots of running around and animal
watching. Its a shame that the accommodation wasn't everything we'd
expected, but then if everything in life was perfect, nobody would have
anything to talk about!
 As we left, we pulled over at a small parking lot
on the exit road. There were no signs to it, and as it was 'behind us'
on a one-way road, we were really lucky to spot it. But from there,
we had the most amazing view of the valley - with the huge cliffs of
El Capitan on the left, and the cliffs of the opposite side on the right.
And in the middle is the area where we camped. A great last photo opportunity.
Read part
three - Lake Tahoe, and San Francisco to Disneyland
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