Carry on camping in Yosemite National Park

Driving merrily on our way to Yosemite for our first USA camping experience we stop at a nearby town to buy some goodies (marshmallows, obviously) and to get some tourist info. Apparently we will have no problem camping in Yosemite as "not many folk camp at this time" and the info lady tells us what we will be doing "So you'll drive to the big trees, get out, take some pictures, get back in your car and then you'll drive to tunnel view where you'll get out and take pictures of El Capitan and Half Dome before getting back in your car..." oh will we info lady? Will we?! Telling us what to do indeed. The next stop is the big trees where we get out and take some pictures. The Sequoia trees are huge, some are big enough to drive cars through. We have a small walk around the trees before getting back in the car and driving to tunnel view where we get great views and pictures of El Capitan and Half Dome.

It is a big tree.

Big roots

The tunnel tree

It was this big!

El Capitan and Half Dome

 James has great fun driving through all the twisty roads in the park but still gets to see plenty of sights as we go quite slow. It's 6.30pm but not many folk camp at this time so we'll be fine for a pitch. The next sight we see is the "Campsite Full" sign, it's not the best thing we've seen on this trip, especially after a long day driving. The info centre is closed but they've helpfully left a list of other campsites outside the office, it must happen a lot!

Passing Camp 4 in Yosemite we notice tents, will they have space? James goes on a hunt and comes back grinning, phew! The rules seem complicated but as long as we can find a bear proof locker to store our food in we're OK to camp. Tent up and food locked away from hungry bears it's time to start a fire...without firelighters. We don't have a stove so it's the only way we can have hot food, we're praying that our fire starting skills are up to scratch. After a while James gets a fire started (all that time in the Scouts finally paid off), it's only small but hopefully it'll be enough to heat some water for a pot noodle. As James starts to warm up some water in a frying pan (Did we mention that all the shops we went into had sold out of saucepans? Oh what fun!) the couple in the tent next to us start to cook sausage and pesto pasta on their fancy stove and across the way some girls are literally eating, like, so much tofu. James tucks into some warm crunchy pot noodle and Christine decides that she's on a diet anyway. We have just enough time to toast marshmallows before the fire dies out.

 As we watch the embers fade three people come up to us and one of them seems a little upset with us "This is where we're camping. This is our campsite, it clearly says on my ticket that we're camping here. Did you just ignore it or did you not see my tent that's right there?!" When he stops for breath we explain that it's 6 people to a site and that it's nice to share. Surprisingly he's happy with that simple explanation, apologises and all three join us at the fire. They get a roaring fire going (we get some tips for tomorrow) as we swap stories and originally angry man gives us some rum, what a nice chap! The rum must have had an effect on James as instead of throwing a log into the fire he tries to throw himself in but it's OK as he saves himself by grabbing onto the edge of the fire pit. The metal fire pit! We haven't got a picture of the huge blisters it left but oooh they were bad (Don't worry Nana, it's healing up nicely!), let's end the night there eh?

The view from our tent.

What a terrible sleep. It's our own fault as we only had one sleeping bag and a thin blanket, it was so cold! Now it's light we can see our surroundings and it's a beautiful spot. It's so cold because of the huge mountain blocking the sun on one side and the tall trees on the other, it looks brilliant and we feel so small. It's time for some serious hiking, after a very strong coffee of course (and a microwave muffin full of that lovely American pretend cheese)! It's a warm sunny day and we spend it exploring the park and hiking up to three different spots to see Vernal Falls (opposite, next to and above it), it's magnificent and so loud! We see Nevada Falls in the distance but it's a bit too far to walk and we've still got to get back down. We find a different route to head down with far less people on it, it's a lot easier than going up and we're kept entertained by the ground squirrels that keep popping up. Unfortunately we didn't see any bears or bobcats, booo!

Opposite

Next to

And above!

one of many ground squirrels that came to say hello.

Back at the campsite we have some much needed food - chicken from a tin stuffed into cardboard wraps (yes it was as delicious as it sounds) and as it is still light we decide to head out to visit Lower Yosemite Falls which is really pretty and equally as loud as Vernal Falls.

Now, time to make fire. It takes a while but with a bit of team work and an airbed pump we are successful! It's the most beautiful fire we have ever seen, so warm with a lovey crackle and it brings the gift of chili, hot hot chili! Yippeeee!! We have no camping buddies today so we watch the fire burn out and then go to bed wearing all of our clothes. James even managed to get through a whole evening without falling in another fire.

Mmmmm...so warm!