Back from Yosemite etc

Hey peeps!

(To the tune of Back in the USSR) Back in the UK we are!! (Sort of works?)

I’ll try to be quick (haha- I think the lack of sleep is warping my mind).

So, after our stop in Monument Valley we were on our way to Zion Canyon. The drive was long so we had a night half way, and that was near a horseshoe bend in a river.

It was amazing to see, and unless you knew it was there you would not have come across it. We parked and then walked for about a mile up and down steep orange sand dunes (past the warning signs about there being no railings and that the rocks can crumble at any time) and then suddenly the floor opened up and you could see the river way below. It was hard to get a photo as I didn’t want to get too close to the edge (I am not a fan of heights or steep things) but I am sure you get the idea.

Then it was on to Zion National Park. Which was amazing, but I don’t have any photos at the moment (both myself and Andy took some photos with our phones to email to our parents etc, but none of Zion it turns out, so will have to wait for Andy to sort out the 1000+ pictures on his camera (and that is not even an exaggeration).

We had a day trip to Bryce Canyon, nearby, which was full of rock formations like enormous stalagmites. Impressive. And also no phone photos. It was cold there though, with snow on the ground. We even saw some pronghorn deer- very exciting.

We then had a long drive back towards California- we drove the loneliest road in America, one day during a snowstorm (that was a surprise when we saw the car in the morning).

We had one night in Lake Tahoe (which is very beautiful and surrounded by snow capped mountains) and then we drove to Yosemite- I was so excited!!

Road trip supplies! Well, sat-nav, map and iced chai latte to share (although some days we had 5 hours of driving so then not so much drinking went on!)

That was our view from the lodge we stayed in! Amazing.

We did loads of walks around the valley, up into the hills, including some very steep walks/ hikes. One started off on very steep trails (and I got annoyed as there was a man in front smoking a cigar- seriously who does that??? and in the end I had to run (up the very steep trail!) to get past him), anyway, as the trail carried on it went by a river, towards some waterfalls, and ended up on steep steps that were soaked by the spray from the massive waterfall. I went up a bit, got scared, came down, waited for Andy (who had gone up in search of the perfect photo), then got worried about mountain lions, so went up again, and this time I must have climbed these steep slippery steps for about half an hour, and still was nowhere near the top, so came down again. My legs were broken after that!

I did get views like that though, so I think it was worth it.

According to someone coming down I still had half an hour of terror to go, so that’s when I turned around.

Does not seem that steep, but it was, and each step was higher than my knee.

Looking down the path- you could see the spray from the waterfall floating way up and out.

We also drove out for a bit, for views of the valley from afar:

And went to some giant redwood trees (some were over 2000 years old!!!). It was all just wonderful.

On our final day we had to drive to San Francisco for our flight home. We were hoping to have time to go into the city, as we both love it there, but the drive was much longer and we didn’t want to risk missing the plane, so we went to a place across the water called Sausalito, for a walk by the water in the sunshine, and then drove up to an overlook for the most amazing view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Perfect.

Then we had an overnight flight to Toronto (on a side note, I bought an eye mask for this holiday and I am converted to not only using it on the plane but also just when the room is light too), and then a day flight back home, arriving on Saturday night.

Yesterday I went to the allotment to do some digging- I was loving that sunshine! My Dad had done some digging while we were away, so I just had to carry on where he had started, and also do a bit of weeding. I was pretty pleased with my efforts. The leeks are looking good, and I will pop down later in the week to cut some daffodils as they are all in bloom too.

Today I went on a short run after work- I only had about 3 hours sleep last night, so I thought some fresh air might help to tire me out some more. I was so excited to get changed so quickly though- all I needed was capris and a t-shirt- no head warmer, no leg warmers, no gloves, no buff, no jacket…

 

This post has taken ages, mainly because the photos have taken ages to load for some reason. Anyway, just seen the awful scenes from the Boston marathon- so frightening for all those people. The marshals look amazing though- on the footage some of them ran right towards the injured people instead of running for cover which is amazingly brave considering they are there to help hand out water and medals etc.