Up early and away by 7.45am today as we had planned to drive down to the western entrance of Yosemite National Park, then drive through the whole park to the village and valley and then leave via the southern entrance, having booked a motel 20 miles south. Made great progress for 2 hours until I spotted a sign flashing ' Tioga Pass closed'. Oh no - we HAD to go over that pass at 9945ft above sea level to get into Yosemite. Dismayed, we pulled into a diner to have some breakfast and establish what was going on. We found out that the pass was definitely closed due to snow and a big rockfall. We scrutinised the map and spoke to some locals but soon realised we had no option but to do a 200 mile detour, almost back up to Lake Tahoe and then into Yosemite from the west. What a pain. We ended up driving 360 miles over 9 hours but finally got into Yosemite late afternoon. The part we saw was dramatic, especially in the setting sun - huge cliffs, waterfall and valley - we were glad to have actually seen some of it in the end but were disappointed to have missed the drive through the whole valley, especially as we had driven all day! However, we did see a lot of the surrounding area, from desert in the Sierra Nevada to fantastic sweeping landscapes with snow atop the mountains so it wasn't a complete waste of time.
We stayed in a motel in Oakhurst overnight then travelled back to San Francisco the following morning. Rob is now an expert in manoeuvering around 5 lane US freeways!
The temperature in San Francisco is 84° as I write this and the forecast is for sun, sun, sun over the next few days. YES! We resume our epic journey first light tomorrow - watch this space.......
Great scenery and blue skies at last!
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