We left San Diego with some reluctance, because we had fallen in love with our spot there. We have stayed in other places that feel like home, but at the others there are weather-related reasons that make it easier to move on. (It is either going to get too hot or too cold — or too rainy — in a short while.) San Diego doesn't have either of those disadvantages, and It was easy to imagine living there. But we weren't really ready to give up our full-time roaming life, even for San Diego. Our first planned stop when we left there was to visit Yosemite — a new National Park for us. So that made it easier to get back on the road.
We had missed seeing Yosemite on all of our previous trips to California. This was a great time of the year for our first visit. It was still spring, the waterfalls were all active, crowds were minimal and the weather was great for exploring. Unexpectedly, we found that this National Park has wonderful bike trails throughout and we took full advantage of them.
Cars weren't allowed in some parts of the park, which is a good thing because of the huge crowds this park attracts, especially in the summer. (That's the reason we had never visited the park before.) There are shuttle vans between scenic stops and we used those as well as our bikes.
This Park was incredibly beautiful and even the visitor centers were well done. Having a lot of visitors pays off. Like everybody else, we'd seen the iconic scenery in movies and pictures but it was more stunning than we had expected. We are so glad we got to spend some time there.
The downside, though, was that we had to stay about 50 miles away, so we spent a lot of time on the road that week. I don't think another trip to Yosemite is in the cards any time soon unless we find a way to stay closer. The hundred-mile daily round trip would spoil it now. (We were younger and diesel was cheaper back then.)
Below are a couple more pictures of this beautiful park:
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