Strawberrykitten

When i stopped using siangibson.com i accidentally erased all my blog posts that i wrote whilst on our USA road trip. So I’ve decided to recap the locations we went to bit by bit. Take a walk down memory lane and maybe let you guys know some of the cool places we went too, just in case you want to do the same!

First on the tour is Yosemite national park…

[Yosemite valley with El Cap to the left and half dome in the far middle]

Yosemite has to be one of the most beautiful places i have ever been, it really is epically big, photos just don’t do it justice, when you’re standing on the valley floor looking up at the mountains you feel like an ant. We were there for about a week and stayed in a lovely little cabin at ‘yosemite bug’.

The drive into the park alone was beautiful, winding roads through a high valley, following the meandering river. Saw a few amazing looking rock slides that I wouldn’t want to have been near at the time. Once you get into the park itself, you feel like you’ve been transported back in time to the land of the dinosaurs, apart from the car parks and people of course!

Our plan was to do a few walks before our epic plan of climbing half dome to get prepped for the 10 hours walk/climb. If you don’t know, half dome is, I think the second highest mountain in north America and ends with an extremely steep and scary cable climb.

[Simon pointing out how long the half dome trail is]

On the actual day, we set off before sunrise, not a great idea seeing as though simon can’t see in the dark, meaning we ended up going the wrong way for an hour! The climb up to the half way point was extreme, scary and beautiful made even more difficult for simon who couldn’t see every uneven path and deadly drop! This is where we realised we just couldn’t make it, it wasn’t worth risking our lives for. At half way point we turned down the ‘easy trail’ which takes a longer route down but isn’t as deadly! After a brief stop for cheese spread sarnies simon revealed why he wanted to get to the top so bad and proposed with the following view in the background! Overall it was a really challenging day but totally amazing, as I wasn’t expecting it at all! I love him  hehe

[the view i had when Simon proposed]

If you ever get to go to Yosemite, you have to go on the valley floor tour, we got to see a lot that we missed, especially me as when your driving you generally are concentrating on driving! Also if it’s in season do the rafting down the river! After a few arguments we got the hang of rowing, although It was pretty calm I wasn’t strong enough for some parts and we ended up going round in circles a few times! The nice thing about it is it’s very slow paced and relaxing, you can pull your raft up to the beaches along the river and take in the amazing views.

Overall I think Yosemite has to be one of my favourite places on our entire trip, not just for the sentimental value but it is just so beautiful! I would highly recommend a trip there, maybe team it with a san Francisco trip too!

See the rest of our Yosemite photos here