San Francisco - Yosemite - Bishop 1.08

Tunnel vaade

1.08 Hommikul ärgates tundsin ennast üllataval kombel puhanuna. Mõtlesin, et tunnetan magamata ööd ja ajavahet koheselt aga alguse kohta polnudki hull. Suundusime alla hommikusöögile (üldjuhul valin majutused, millel on hommikusöök hinnas), mis oli tegelikult täiesti arvestatav. Helbed, röstsai, puuvili ja võimalus ise vahvlit küpsetada. Igatahes süüa oli. Aga esimest korda elus sain majutuses olles süüa ühekordsetelt nõudelt. 

Lennujaama äärsete hotellide buss viis igal täistunnil tasuta lennujaama, meie auto ootas 8.30, seega startisime 7.  Tulime maha rahvusvaheliste lendude peatuses ning suundusime edasi lennujaama rongile, mis liigub väga mugavalt terminalide ja autorendi vahel. Auto võtsin nagu ikka Avisest Seekord ei saanudki leti taga inimesega suhelda ja allkirja anda. Küsisin küll aga suunati edasi ekraani juurde, kus oli minu nimi ja auto kohanumber. Uurisin veel lisakindlustuse kohta kuid sellest ei olnud nad kuulnudki. Hea küll siis.

Platsil ootas meid valge Toyota Corolla, võtmed ees. Käisin tavapäraselt ringi ümber sõiduki, et vajadusel vigastused üles pildistada. Pagasiruum täidetud valisin Tomtomis esimese sihtkoha. Marsruuti ei ole võimalik koostada. Et nagu mis mõttes?😮 Proovisin paar korda veel. Õnneks olin oma telefoni eelnevalt terve reisi google maps offline kaardid tõmmanud. Aga mis mõttes Tom ei koosta marsruuti kui ta lasi enne kõik koordinaadid sisestada ja ei näidanud kordagi, et mingi osa kaardist oleks puudu?

Väravas küsiti lube näha ja tee võis alata. Kuna päev tuli pikk, siis lõuna ostsime poest kaasa. Selleks tegime esimese peatuse Tracy Walmartis. Kasulik nõuanne: suurtes poodides on tualett. Kõik on suur Ameerikas. Igatahes, Walmarti võiks ära eksida. Võtsime kaasa salatid ning suundusime päeva peasihtkohta Yosemite rahvusparki. Väravas ostsin America the Beautiful kaardi, kasulik nõuanne mille sain FB Reisihullude grupist. 80 dollari eest on võimalik aasta jooksul külastada piiramatu kord tohutus nimekirjas olevaid rahvusparke, mis tasub ennast juba ära, kui külastada vähemalt kolme parki.

Huvitav tee viis mööda mäekülge üles. Vanemad tegid vahepeal lõunapausi, kaasaostetud krabisalat oli liiga äädikane.

Yosemite rahvuspark. Piltide peal ei tundu need kaljud, liustikud, puud ja kosed üldse nii võimsad, kui kohapeal. See tohutu massiivsus. See võrratu ilu. Pindalalt umbes 3000 km², kuigi enamik inimesi külastab 18 km² suurust Yosemite orgu. Yosemite rahvusparki külastab aastas umbes 4miljonit inimest, rekord on aastast 2016 (üle 5miljoni). Seal on erineva pikkuse ja raskusega matkaradu ning lihtsalt peatuskohti vaadete nautimiseks. 

Bridalveil kosk

Kuna aeg oli piiratud, siis tegime nii nagu paljud turistid ja sõitsime läbi Yosemite orus oleva ringse tee. Alustasime Tunnel vaatest, maanteel 41 asuvast punktist, kust on näha nii Poolik kuppel, Kapten kui Bridalveil kosk. Sattusime kohale päikesepaistelise ilmaga ja ilmselt õnneks nädala sees, sest inimesi oli ka neljapäeva kohta tohutult.

Sinilind

Bridalveil kosk. Parklasse jõudes oli see juba pilgeni täis. Kuna rada on lühike ja pikniku pidamiseks on eraldi kohad, siis õnneks kose külastus üle mõistuse kaua aega ei võta ning varsti leidsime ühe lahkuva auto. Parklast koseni viib väga lühike rada. Kosk ise on 188m kõrge. Proovisin ebaõnnestunult ühte ülitegusat sinilindu pildile saada.

Kapten

Tegime paar peatust, kus iganes puude varjust mõni kaunis vaade paistis. Mingi hetk tundsin samuti, et võiks süüa. Salat oli tõesti hapu, noppisin suured krabitükid välja. Tegime peatuse Katedraali ranna piknikualal, kust avaneb suurepärane vaade Kaptenile, 914m kõrgusele vertikaalsele kaljule. Sinna otsa viib loomulikult rada. Piknikualasid oli teisigi, kõik inimesi täis. Yosemite orus oli paaaalju telkijaid ja matkajaid. Nii tore näha inimesi ilusat ilma looduses nautimas. 

Poolik kuppel

Ja loomulikult Poolik kuppel, mis näeb välja nagu.. poolik kuppel, kõrgus 410m. Kui 1870ndatel peeti kaljut ronimatuks, siis praegu viib sinna tippu mitu rada.


Nevada suunas liikudes jäi teele Tioga tee, mis veel juuni lõpus oli lumeolude tõttu suletud.




Väljusime rahvuspargist, möödusime Lee Viningust ning suundusime lõunasse. Kokku peaagu 3 tundi rahulikku maanteed, mis viis meid õhtuks 3700 elanikuga Bishop linna. Öömajaks Red Roof Inn Bishop, selline madal ja pikk motell, mida (peamiselt õudus)filmides näeb. Tuba oli täiesti korralik. Õhtusöögi võtsime lähedalasuvast Vonsist.

1st of August. Surprisingly I felt quite rested when I woke up in the morning. I have never had such a time difference, so I thought I would feel more tired after the sleepless night before. We headed down for breakfast (I usually book the hotels/b&bs that include breakfast) and it was rather usual. Cereals, toast, fruit and the possiblity to cook your own waffles. I had to try a thick waffle. Anyway, plenty to eat. But it was the first time in my more than ten years of travelling that we had to eat from paper plates and use cutlery.


A shuttle took people to the airport every full hour. Our car waited for us at 8.30am, so we took the 7am shuttle. We got off at the international flights terminal and took an airport train to the rental cars stop. Very convenient. As usual, I booked the car with Avis. This time I didn`t get to talk to a person behing a counter and sign a document. I did ask but I was sent to look at a screen where I found my name and our car`s lot number. I also wished to get the supercover but they hadn`t even heard of it. Fine then.

A white Toyota Corolla was waiting for us, with keys in it. As usual I took a thorough walk around it to photograph any possible scratches, etc. We put our luggage in the boot and I chose our first destination in Tomtom. It is impossible to compile the route. Like, what the fudge? 😮 I tried it again several times with the same result. Fortunately I had downloaded the offline google maps for our entire trip on my phone. But what on earth, Tom not composing the route although I had specially bought the USA map and it allowed me to insert all the coordinates before our journey without showing that any part of the map would be missing?

They wanted to see my lisence at the gate and our roudtrip was on its way. As it was going to be a long day, we bought crab salads for lunch at Walmart in Tracy. A useful tip: there are toilets in bigger shops. Everthing is big in America. Anyway, one could get lost in a Walmart supercentre.

All together, approximately 3 hours from San Francisco airport to Yosemite National Park, that was our main attraction for the day. I bought America the Beautiful Pass at entrance, a useful tip I got from Reisihullud group in FaceBook. For 80 dollars the pass allowes you to visit tons of national parks countless times during a year. It actually pays off if you visit at least three.

A road took us up a hill. My parents decided to have their lunch break, the crab salad was way too vinegary.

Tunnel View

Yosemite National Park. One place where you simply cannot comprehend from photos, how grand those rocks, glaciers, trees or falls are. You have to be there. That magnificent beauty. It takes your breath away. The park coveres the an area of 1169 sq miles although most people only visit 7sq miles of it (Yosemite Valley). About 4 million people visit the park every year, the record of more than 5 million was recorded in 2016. There are many hiking track of various lenght and difficulty.

Bridaveil Falls

As we had limited time, we did like many other tourists and visited only Yosemite Valley and drove the circular road. We began with Tunnel View, a location on route 41 that allowes you to see Half Dome, El Capitan and Bridalveil falls at once. We had a lovely, sunny day. I guess it was fortunate we were there during a Thursday, I cannot imagine the amount of people visiting at weekends.

Bridaveil falls. When we got to the car park, it was already completely full. But as the track is short and there are better locations to have a picnic, it does not take that long to visit so a car left soon enough. A short track takes you from the car park to the 188ft high falls. People tried to get as close to the water as possible. I tried to take a shot of a bluebird but with no luck.

El Capitan

We stopped couple of times whenever trees didn`t hide the views. At that point I also felt hungry and we conveniently reached the Cathedral Beach picnic area. Gorgeous meadow with a view to  El Capitan, a vertical 3000ft granite monolith. And naturally a track (or some) take up to the summit. There were several other picnic areas, all packed with people. There were maaaaany hikers and campers in Yosemite Valley. So lovely to see people spending time in nature.

Half Dome in the background

And of course Half Dome, that looks like.. a half of a dome. The granite dome is 1360ft high. As late as the 1870s the dome was described as "perfectly inaccessible", but now several tracks take you up.

We drove through Tioga Pass, a road that was closed until July this year due to snow.


We exited the national park, passed Lee Vining and headed to south. All together around 3 more hours until we reached Bishop with its population of 3700. We stayed the night at Red Roof Inn Bishop,  the kind of low and tall motel we see in (mostly horror) movies. Our room was lovely. For dinner, we had salads from Vons.