Yosemite National Park

So a week ago, more or less, I spent the week-end at Yosemite National Park and it was totally amazing, so I'm really excited to share the photos of the trip with you. I went as part of a tour with Bug Bus, which I must say was incredibly well organised, with tour group no bigger than 9 people at a time, really knowledgeable guides and excellent hiking! I was very impressed and I wholeheartedly recommend this organisation if you ever happen to want to go and explore Yosemite. Apparently they also organise snow boot hikes in the winter and I think that would really be something!

The Bug Hostel

As part of this week-end tour, we got to stay at the Bug Hostel, which was the best hostel I've ever stayed in. The beds have memory foam mattresses which beckon to you after a long day hiking. The food is amazing and apparently has quite a reputation with the locals who come to eat there as a treat. And as part of our tour, we got free entry to the hostel's spa with its sauna and hot tub at the end of the first day hiking! What more could you ask for?

On our first day of hiking, we started out in Mariposa Grove, where we got a chance to see some of the sequoias. They were pretty amazing in terms of size, although this grove doesn't have the biggest by far. Apparently, in terms of solid mass, sequoias are the biggest living organisms on Earth as opposed to the redwood trees which are the tallest...

This is the root system of a sequoia tree which fell down 200 years ago and is still perfectly preserved due to the tannic acid in the tree's sap. All the sequoias apparently have these rather short root systems, which leads to their greatest fatality rate, when the roots can no longer support the size of the tree, causing it to simply topple over. It's a bit as if the roots one day just said:"That's it! I'm done here! I'm giving up! "

The best way for sequoias to survive the threat of toppling over is to grow close together and over time merge their roots with the other trees, so they can balance each other out.

To give you an idea of the size of these trees... This sequoia was carved out as a tourist attraction in the late 1800s. The Park Rangers no longer allow this sort of carving out, because it puts the trees at even greater risk of falling over by depriving them of some of their roots. There used to be a carved out sequoia large enough for a bus to drive through it, but it fell over in the late 60s.

Engravings inside the trees dating back to 1926

While we were in Mariposa Grove, we got to see quite a lot of wild life, all pretty indifferent to us as, I guess, they must be pretty used to people hiking and visiting the area. I was quite grateful that we never came across any bears or mountain lions, which also live in those parts, although I'm told that the bears aren't as dangerous as we're lead to believe...
 I did learn some useful information on how to deal with both bear and mountain lion attacks. Apparently f you're attacked by a bear, you should into a ball and play dead, because they might maul you a bit, but they have a short attention span, so soon they lose interest and move on. With mountain lions, it's the opposite, you should start by making yourself as big as you can, but if they still attack, you should punch them in the chest and in the face, where they have their most sensitive pain receptors. I bet you're now glad I shared this bit of information to prepare you for your next bear/mountain lion encounter...

Cute dear...

Woody Woodpecker

Did you know there are more than 5 different species of squirrels in Yosemite alone? I thought there were only red ones and grey ones...

We then went for a hike up Glacier Point, at the top of which you can look across the whole of Yosemite Valley, which is the viewpoint from which the early settlers first discovered the existence of the valley. It's a view that literally takes your breath away!

Remember the waterfall in this picture, it'll help put in context one of the waterfalls you'll come across in some of my later photos...

Half Dome

El Capitan

After lunch, we went hiking up the Vernal Falls, which you could see in one of my previous photos. The trail to these falls is very popular, for obvious reasons, and is called the Misty Trail because it's so close to the waterfall, that you get covered in mist as you approach the top.

No matter how you take these pictures, they never do the waterfalls justice! They always look smaller than in real life...

On the Sunday, after spending the night by a camp fire and going to look at the stars, free of light pollution, we went hiking at the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. This reservoir is where a large portion of Northern California and all of San Francisco's water comes from, which is a little awe inspiring! But also, it's a great hiking spot because very few tourists venture out there, as opposed to the previous day's hike.

The Hetch Hetchy Dam

The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir... Once again, size is quite deceptive...

During our hike, we had our first and only encounter with deadly wildlife, a rattle snake! And as all good tourists that we were, our first reaction was all to try and get close enough to it and snap a picture! Thankfully, it looked like it'd been in the shade for a while and wasn't too lively, but it was quite surreal!

More Awesome waterfalls!

I hope these photos managed to convey at least a 10th of the incredibly beautiful landscape available in Yosemite and I really recommend it to anyone in the area! It is so worth the detour!