Journey to USA- day 8 (Yosemite National Park)

From LA, we took I-5 north and entered CA-99 North where direct us to Bakersfield and Fresno. From Fresno, took exit 131 to merge onto CA-41 North towards Yosemite National Park. The whole distance was about 300 miles and took us 5 and half hours to reach Yosemite. On the way, we bypassed Bakersfield, Fresno and other small towns. Along CA-99, there are many farms and vineyard.
 

The weather was quite pleasant for first 2 hours, until we met a dense fog in somewhere near Bakersfield, and the visibility was very poor for 15 minutes, only in that area. We then proceed to Fresno and stopped by to visit an underground garden, and spent an hour there visiting the hand-built networks of  underground home, including rooms, kitchen, passageways in ancient roman architecture.


 
One thing that amazed me about this underground garden was the owner managed to design it in such a way that every room (or compartment) the temperature varied 10 to 20 degrees. It was built about 100 years ago, and the owner managed to use the nature airway and the way sun shades into his rooms so each different compartments can have different indoor temperature. For more info, check this link.

From Fresno, we took CA-41 North and another 1 and half hours to Yosemite National Park. Because it is quite close to Yosemite, we can see many alpines along the route, and of cause the signs of “Beware Bear” and “Stop car when seeing mule deer crossing road”. We’re only few miles away to one of the famous national parks in US, and everyone so excited. The CA-41 North ends in Yosemite, we entered the park and paid $25 vehicle 7-days pass, then straightaway look for our camp which located within Yosemite Valley.

Yosemite is part of Sierra Nevada, and its remarkable landmarks that attract millions of visitors annually are Half Dome, El Capitan and Yosemite Falls. Before we reached Yosemite Valley, we bypassed Wawona tunnel and reached the famous tunnel view where we can see a wider and closer view of El Capitan, Half Dome and Bridalveil Falls. It’s spectacular and words can’t tell how beauty they are. For more info, check this link.

 

Yosemite has so much to see and we nearly stop for every 1-2 miles we drove within the park. Alpines, meadows, waterfalls, clear cut cliff and mountains with mule deer, gray fox and squirrels, it’s such a paradise and one of the most beautiful places in the world.



 
 


We stayed one night in Yosemite’s Curry Village within the Yosemite valley. It’s a campground with hundreds camp tents and one tent with 4 single beds, no heaters and public sharing bathrooms, that cost us USD100. Because summer just begun and it was weekend, with lots of travellers, especially students, i think that’s why it cost so much.


We had difficulty to sleep that night, because the temperature reached below 10 degree celcius and our tent was as cold as outside!.

Anyway, this was the pic of that day. A credit to us even hardly sleep at night. =)