Meg and Greg’s Tag On Holiday

Sunday morning we flew to the city of Fresno. The instructions the woman gave us at the counter were how to get out of Fresno, which is pretty much what everyone does. Passing through, I can understand why.

I realised a problem when I picked up one of my suitcases. The suitcase which has all the chargers and the GPS window mount would no longer unlock. Something had happened to the inner workings and I was presented with a couple of options. 1. Tear open the case (not preferred), 2) go without my technology (not preferred), 3) Get the lock cut open with a pair of bolt cutters. Of course finding a hardware store would be difficult. So I approached the TSA (Transport Safety Administration) security check point with my suitcase. This raised all manner of problems with the TSA. They couldn’t work out why I wanted to cut open a lock on my own suitcase and why I was trying to go through security when I had just arrived. Before I knew it I had a couple of security people wanting to scan my case with a “special” scanner and I had raised the attention of a supervisor. I gave them all the details on what was inside the bag and that I could prove the bag belonged to me. They were more concerned about approaching them and not passing through the cattle hurder that everyone else goes through.

Once I convinced them that I was a harmless Australian who only wanted to use a pair of bolt cutters, they took off to find them in the checked baggage area. They handed the cutters to me to cut my own baggage (despite their policy of cutting locks off of any bag when you check luggage through). I thanked them and moved on. I’m pretty sure my scenario was not in their security flow chart.

We got away and travelled to Yosemite. It’s a pretty easy drive through rural California. We would see the occasional “Support the troops” type message. One included an entire shed on the side of the road painted in the stars and stripes.

The entry to the park winds into the Yosemite Valley.  I had intially thought we would stay at some of the older homesteads in Yosemite rather than the valley proper. We’re glad we stayed in Curry Village. The village is close to everything and driving in and out of the valley would just be a pain.

At the beginning of the valley is the Yosemite tunnel. On exiting the tunnel is a view through the valley including the half dome. From there it was probably another hour to Curry Village. On arrival we needed to sign a form making us aware of our obligations while in the park. Including removing food and toiletries from our car and that food can not be stored in the accomodation. There are also plenty of signs warning of the dangers of sleeping in your car. If you hadn’t worked it out, Yosemite is bear country.

Yosemite Valley

Meg being a bear

Bears should slow down

Curry village is by far the biggest accomodation in the park. It’s a mixture of permanent canvas and hard walled tent with shared bathrooms. I would also say that it’s probably the only way you’ll ever experience what it is like to live in a refugee camp. I don’t think I’ve had a shared bathroom like this since camp at high school. The group dining facilities also have that feeling about them. That said, the accomodation is clean and you can always share a conversation with your neighbours, whether they like it or not - it’s that close.

Camp at night

Deer in the camp

In the next morning we set off to investigate the park. The suggestions given to you by the park rangers are really good. It included must sees and Yosemite in a day. We set off to Glacier point for a view into the valley. The problem with getting out of the valley is that there is only one winding road. To get to glacier point took a good 1.5 hours. not the 30 minutes the GPS said.

Once on Glacier Point it was a brilliant view. Sometime into our walk along the cliff, a search and rescue helicopter started to fly slowly along the lip. We learnt later on that a 24 year old male had gone missing on Sunday evening and now 100 people were out looking for him. The helicopter search continued into Tuesday afternoon. 

Glacier Point

Later in the afternoon we did all the usual sights such as the upper and lower falls. The photography lessons that Meg and I did before we left were coming in handy.

Upper fall

Tuesday morning (today) we set out to do some rafting down the river. The water is from the ice melt so it was absolutely freezing. We coasted down the river to our bus collection point. In the afternoon we did a small hike to Mirror Lake where quite a few people were taking a quick dip, quick because it’s the ice melt and absolutely freezing. We came across a couple washing themselves in the water because they had been camping and as she said it “you just have to do what you have to do”. I probably could have told them that a hot shower was avaiable up the road for $5.

Mirror Lake

On our way out of the park we headed to the Sequoia forrest. These trees were big and they are really trying to preserve them.

Sequoia Trees

Tonight we’re in Fresno because we have a morning flight to Las Vegas. On one side of the hotel is a mexican restaurant, on the other is IHOP. Or as Meg put it “dinner and breakfast”. Meg had her 7th margarita on this trip.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 4:42 pm and is filed under USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.