Today I drove towards my next destination, but the weather is overcast and dizzly, so I'm taking the day off, to just chill.
Tomorrow, Glacier National Park xx
Day 148: Wyoming: Yellowstone National Park
Today was a massively huge day! I got up at 5am and was out looking for wildlife by 6.
I had no idea what I was looking at, but the lovely nature watchers were really helpful, and every time I pulled out to see what they were looking at in the distance, someone would let me look through their industrial binoculars.
I saw a lot of cool things, which I couldn't get pictures of because even with a zoom lens they were too far away, but they were all amazing!!! (There are 3 wolves and 3 wolf pups just above the two sticks in the 4th photo, somewhere...)
The rest of the park was amazing, and I'm not even going to bother writing about all the different things, because the park is enormous, and I saw so many amazing things.
Day 147: Wyoming: Grand Teton National Park
Today I made it to the start of my next lot of national parks, Grand Teton National Park.
I actually had no idea what to expect, as I had only seen it on a map, a shortcut to get to Yellowstone, but it was definitely worth the day to explore!
The drive took me through some classic "Old West" landscape, which was amusing in itself, with lots of log buildings and animal skulls. (I couldn't find a place to stop to take a picture of an entire arch made of deer antlers)
Once I got to the park, I was immediately blown away by the huge mountains caused by the Teton Fault Line.
The park didn't have a ton of attractions, just the mountains from different angles, but there were a few deer around the place, and a few beautiful lakes.
I left from there and drove to my hostel through Yellowstone. I was tempted to stop a few times, but I am saving it for tomorrow. It might even take 2 days to see the whole thing!!
There are a lot of bear warnings though, so if you hear of an Australian girl who was taken by a Grizzly, tell all your friends how cool I was.
Tomorrow, Yellowstone xx
Day 146: Idaho: Salt Flats and Casinos
Today I drove through Nevada and Idaho on my way to Yellowstone National Park. It was long, and admittedly, kind of boring.
Almost every shop I went past was at least in part a Casino, and it seems like road laws don't apply in this part of the world. Even with 80 mile an hour speed limits (over 130km/h) people were still speeding past me!! (to be fair, I was only going 120)
I stopped a few times, for food, petrol, sightseeing or just a pee break, and Nevada definitely lived up to it's gambling name. There were pokies in every single shop I stopped at!! Even the petrol stations!!
The road was interesting enough, but not for the hours I was driving. The salt flats were cool for 15 minutes, but not for the 2 hours it took to drive through them, and the mountain ranges all blurred into one another after hours of continual peaks and valleys.
I feel like I'm a bit spoilt for amazing sights, and have no right to complain, but in such an amazing part of the world, you would think they would be capitalising on them rather than "senior's specials" at casinos every 20km.
Tomorrow, hopefully getting to Yellowstone for the night xx
Day 145: California: Yosemite
Today I finally made it inside the Yosemite National Park. After the false start from yesterday, I knew it was going to be insanely busy as soon as the sun came up, so I got there just after 5am, while the park was bathed in semi-light by the sun rising behind the massive cliffs.
It was amazing to think that the entire valley was split by the force of glaciers. With less people, it would have been an unbelievable place. As it was, it was still pretty great.
I grabbed a quick breakfast at the cafe in the park, and went straight to the Yosemite Falls in the heart of the Valley.
By now, the park was getting busy, so I decided to just park my car and take the free shuttle that was going to be starting in half an hour. Unfortunately, because it was so busy, the busses weren't running the full route, so I had to walk to the Bridalveil Falls.
I teamed up with a man I met on the bus who was a retired maths and computer teacher, and we ended up hiking together for around 5 hours!
The views were totally worth the hike, and it was amazing to hear some of the park facts from someone who has been going to Yosemite since he was a kid.
After the hike and a quick drink, I decided the crowds were just too much, so I tried to go back to my car and head off. The shuttle bus took the best part of an hour in the traffic to get the 3km back to my car (if I had known, I would have walked!!)
But I did meet a guy who was carrying a sign seeking the legalisation of weed, whose entire life was backpacking around the western hard of America, so that was interesting...
After making it to my car, it then took 2 hours to leave the main park, but I went north around a road that is normally snowed in and closed, but was open, and got some more amazing views of the park.
I'm stopped for the night in carson City.
Tomorrow, lots of driving, towards Yelowstone xx
Day 144: California: San Fran and the Line for Yosemite
Today I spent my morning well, getting up nice and early to catch the first cable car of the day, up some of the insanely steep hills of San Francisco.
While the cable cars themselves were nice, and historic, I misjudged where the stops were, so got off at the end of the line, and realised that the hill we had just gone down at a hilarious angle, I now had to walk up again!!
The houses were all set on crazy angles, and looked straight out of "That's so Raven", so I didn't hate the walk as much as I thought I was going to, and got back to the hostel in good time.
I took a few last photos from the backyard of the hostel across the bridge and Alcatraz, and headed off.
The drive to Yosemite is only about 280km, and I allowed about 3 hours to get there, thinking I would be there by 1pm, and would be able to scope out which sites I would be hiking the next day. I didn't realise it's the memorial day weekend and that a billion people would all be headed there too.
I didn't get to Yosemite until after 5pm, stuck in traffic, and all of the campsites and lodges were booked out.
Fortunately, there was an unofficial RV park nearby, so I parked near a huge group of people who turned out to be a family. Around 30 people, and they could not have been more accommodating, offering me food and smores, and playing card games by the firelight well into the night.
Tomorrow, an early start for Yosemite xx
Day 143: California: San Francisco
Today was just a straight up great day. I got to San Francisco early and dropped my car off at my hostel.
The hostel I'm staying at is a reformed fort, and based on the shape of the doors, I think my room is an old army hospital room. It's pretty cool.
I started the day off with a walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. It is longer than I thought! The walk across it (and back again) took over an hour by the time I stopped and took photos and got delayed by slow cyclists.
It's really popular to ride a bike across it, but it seems like maybe you can forget how to do this, seeing as I almost got run over on 3 separate occasions.
After the bridge, I headed to the pier that takes Alcatraz tours. I hadn't thought to book tickets in advance, which had sold out weeks ago, but after a tip off from a security guard, I found out that if you wait for a few boat-loads of people, occasionally, a group may be missing a member and will sell you their spare ticket.
I waited about an hour for this to happen, and was about to leave when a group was short-numbered, and gave me their spare ticket for free!!
The boat ride to the island was really cool, seeing the whole city skyline from the water, and the prison slowly looming up at us.
The prison itself was really interesting. For such a short-lived prison (only 30 years as a federal penitentiary, but more as an army prison) there is so much history. Some of the stories from the audio guide, as well as just some of the signs hanging around the place were so eerie.
After I got back to the mainland, I went and got some dinner (listen up Maccas, In n Out have burgers a hundred times better. If it weren't for the lack of free wifi, I would be completely converted).
On the walk home, I stopped by pier 39 which had a heap of really interesting shops. It is in the main part of Fisherman's Pier, a massive tourist trap, but was still totally worth the visit anyway. I almost stopped by Bubba Gump Shrimp, but was too full. "You got new legs, Lieutenant Dan"
I heard a strange noise though, so followed it, and by the side of the pier, there were hundreds of Sea Lions! I have never seen that many in one place, and they were all just sunning themselves, talking to each other, and climbing over each other in massive piles!
I could have watched them for hours, they were hilarious!
Tomorrow, cable cars and the Yosemite xx
Day 142: California: Mt Shasta and Burney Falls
Today was mostly just a driving day, but I broke it up nicely with a few stops.
The first stop I made was to a small town called Mount Shasta, so named because it is right next to a mountain called Mount Shasta.
I stopped in at the local information centre (mostly to use the toilet) but the woman was incredibly helpful, and told me a heap of really interesting things I would never have otherwise found out. My favourite fact, aside from the dozens of religions which worship the mountain, was the legend that a civilisation of small people live within it. Yep.
I spent a few hours exploring the town, including their "new footbridge" which everyone seemed to be very proud of, which was quite a pretty hike, but was nothing to the majesty of the mountain itself. It was fairly normal when compared to a lot of the mountains I've seen lately, but as it was a potentially still active volcano, it kind of stood out among a few hills.
After Mt Shasta, I stopped by the Buney Falls. They were pretty enough, but $8 to access them was a bit steep, seeing as they were a "State Park" and not covered by my national parks pass. Another good hike though.
I finally ended up in Redding, which was a nice town, with some lovely people, and a cool bridge. The bridge itself was a sundial. Quite a cool idea, I thought.
Tomorrow, San Fran xx
Day 141: Medford: Roses and Crater Lake
Today I saw some amazing things. I got up early and headed to Washington Park in Portland.
They had an amazing rose garden, over 4 and a half hectares, with hundreds of varieties. They were beautiful, and walking around the garden smelt so strongly!
It's mostly a test site for new varieties, dating back around 100 years. I had my favourites, but I think everyone else must ask about "black roses" because there were signs everywhere to some very dark red ones.
I had hoped to go to their "Japanese Garden" but it wasn't open until 10am, and I was there around 7:30.
After the roses, I hit the road and went to "Crater Lake". They get over 40ft of snow every year, and even though it's almost Summer, there was still snow everywhere, making the incredible lake in the middle of a mountain even more spectacular.
I also stopped at a few pullouts on the way as well, so there's some of those photos too!
Tomorrow, Mt
Day 140: Mt Rainier: Rainier and Foggier
Today I went to my first USA National Park. I got a 12 month pass (they don't sell shorter than that, and I'm not paying $30 per park!!)
The pictures I have seen of Mt Ranier were amazing, an old volcano that now sits well above just a few other peaks, snow capped and brilliant.
Sadly, today it was raining. Not hard enough to soak anything, just enough to completely obscure the mountain completely.
On the plus side, the hiking was great!! My favourite was the "Silver Falls" hike which was about 4km, following just a huge series of rapids and waterfalls. The colour of the water was incredible. Bright blue!!
Tomorrow, Portland xx