Today started great, we did some laundry as Juniper springs had facilities yay! (still payed but great to be able to chill in our room whilst waiting) and then started our trek to Yosemite National Park! It wasn’t to far of a drive so we didn’t rush ourselves, stopping at the twin lakes in Mammoth for a look, so beautiful lots of wildlife as well as people fishing or canoeing. Driving up past Mono Lake we wanted to stop for a quick good look and walk around, the parking was $15! not worth it for the short time we had planned, so we pulled up (safely & legally) on the side of the road and took some quick snaps, stillest lake ever with beautiful reflections!

Finally making our way into Yosemite National Park we paid our $20 entrance fee and were amazed at the sights, giant trees, clear running creeks and greenery everywhere. We stopped at the visitors centre for a look and enjoyed the scenery whilst driving. I was eager to get to the hotel, feeling tired today so we made our way down, down, down it was quite a long way. (later on realising what a mistake it was to rush this part of the park) We arrived at our Yosemite View hotel and were very disappointed, it was run down, everything old and dirty, our room door was still open from being cleaned and upon getting inside we had no towels or toilet roll! The air con was loud and for a room worth $400 a night it was very tired, old and kinda dirty. This was very disappointing after being spoiled in juniper springs the night before! The only good part was the view of the river outside that we could see from our balcony, a fast running river, loud with many little waterfalls there were also squirrels, lizards and many ducks. We decided to go for a walk to the river for a swim, but could not find a safe way down. The hotel did offer many pools and hot tubs, 3 outside and 1 inside. We settled on the inside as it was quite sunny and hot and we didn’t want Greg to get sunburned, this worked out great as it was just us and a mother with her baby and 4 or 5 year old, it was so nice to relax and unwind, trying to let the disappointment of this expensive yet tired hotel go. Greg and I had a nice chat about what we would do to improve it and make it great again as it is such a great location! Feeling a bit better we headed a mile down the road to a little store for some milk (we had a fridge again, left over cereal for breakfast yay!) everything was expensive here as it was the only store for 30 miles. We headed back to drop off the milk and make a reservation at the hotel restaurant for later as we wanted to photograph the sunset. Unfortunately they didn’t take reservations (first come first served) we didn’t see this as much of a problem for now so headed down the road to find a great sport for photo’s, it was almost 7pm and it would take too long to find a nice spot higher up. We found a spot that people go fishing not far away, climbing down the rocks carefully, this is where we set up for the sunset, unfortunately the sun was not in a good spot….. Letting this roll off Greg aimed to capture the colours change of the sky and how it hit the trees and the creek. This was a beautiful place to sit and relax, listening to the water and enjoying nature in this foreign place.

I was getting hungry close to 8pm and urged Greg to pack away so we could head back, this was obviously everyone in the hotel’s idea also as when we got back the restaurant was packed! We had at least an hour waiting time! I was cranky another thing not going to plan! Greg settled me down and we headed back to the hotel, chilling out on the balcony and taking some night sky/star photo’s.(unfortunately was too cloudy by the time it actually got dark enough so shot the moon rise as a time lapse instead) Finally it was our turn to eat (we had a buzzer thing) this place was worth the wait, we were a little scared to eat at another proper restaurant with what happened in the canyon, but chose wiser this time. I chose the New York steak with mash and veg, all meals coming with bread, salad bar and soup! ( no wonder people get fat here) Greg chose the hickory bbq ribs with chips and veg. We enjoyed the bread basket and a nice big salad each, pacing ourselves and eating slowly, we skipped the soup not wanting to ruin our meals. Mine was awesome! Best and biggest steak I’ve had in a long time! Greg’s was again a little spicy for his taste ( Americans seem to like thing spicy!) but he still enjoyed it mentioning that the ribs were packed with juicy tender meat. It was nice to have a win this evening, and we went to bed feeling a little better.

Thanks for reading,

N&G