19/05/10

We spent the night at a Wal-Mart in just about the last real town before the mountains and Yosemite Nation Park. On route I picked up a new book which has to be the driest book I have ever actually sat and started to read. It is a book of the hardest and most frequently asked words that come up in the vocabulary part of the GRE test. It is pretty much like reading a dictionary, but so far I’m not too bored. So far my favourite word is “magniloquent”.

The drive to the national park is pretty stunning, with winding roads through the valleys and mountains but none of this prepares you for Yosemite Valley. It is incredible; the valley walls are almost vertical slabs of granite interspersed with waterfalls and with trees hanging on to wherever they can get purchase. We got into the park at about lunchtime so decided to walk the Mist Trail up to the top of Nevada Falls. As the walk name suggests, you go up through the spray at the bottom of one of the waterfalls and you end up getting soaked, good fun though and amazing views of the waterfall and the valley.

When we got down we went to do some laundry and have a shower. The showers and laundromat were controlled by this really ditzy lady who was very nice but a bit all over the place. She initially needed to go to the shop before it shut but despite us telling her to go she just kept talking. When she got back she gave us a lesson on how to use the laundry machines, very sweet, but we have done laundry before. We finally got our washing on and went for an expensive shower. They charge $5 to use the shower but you get unlimited time, laundered towels and shower gel and shampoo provided. To make the most of this we had really long showers and used liberal amounts of the soaps.

When we finished the cleaning, we headed out of the park. We couldn't actually camp in the park for the night as it books up months in advance, so we got out of the park land and found a nice out of the way place to park up and sleep in the van. It ended up being quite a pleasant place to stay as it was really dark and quite as we were in the middle of the forest. We weren't even bothered by bears either, a definite plus. Although we were woken in the night by a bright light coming from under the bed, the obvious thing to think is aliens, but in reality a light had somehow turned itself on under the bed, very odd.

Cube out.