bt3.com: Barrie Turner's Web Site. <go home
bt3.com/Baz's 1992 USA Holiday California and the Golden West. |
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Where and how? |
Day 8: Wednesday September 30 |
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The USA. As I mentioned at the time you clicked the link to this page? To be precise, a fully escorted coach tour, starting in San Diego CA and thence stopping in Phoenix Arizona, Williams AZ, Las Vegas Nevada, Visalia, Merced, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo before finishing the tour in Anaheim near Los Angeles (all California). Marvellous. No, better than that, the Holiday of a Lifetime. Do yourself a favour, and navigate through this holiday using the hyperlinks scattered throughout the text. If you want to go back to the start, or feel a need to go to my site homepage, well, by now you should know what to do? :o) |
Today's journey, from Visalia, via Fresno and Yosemite National Park, to Merced started with super (superb, take your pick) weather, as usual. After leaving the Holiday Inn, we travelled on highway 198 and highway 99 for about 45 miles, until branching off onto highway 41. For a further 60 miles we wound upwards through the Sierra National Forest, stopping first at the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees. These trees really are huge, and, on the tram ride through the forest, we were treated to an informative and entertaining introduction to its history, with the guide indicating the names of various trees, including the California Tunnel Tree, the Clothespin Tree and the Grizzly Giant. After a brief stop at the Grove's museum and a walk through a 'tunnel' tree, we got back on the tour coach for the 34 mile journey to Yosemite Village.On the way to the village, we stopped off at a scenic rest area to view the majesty of the rock formations of the Yosemite Valley, El Capitan and Half Dome, this being immediately recognisable due to its shape. Leaving the tour coach outside the village, we rode the free shuttle bus to the centre. There we visited the museum and various other exhibitions relating to the history of the valley. Especially interesting was the section through a tree with various dates from history aligned with the rings of the trunk. After our walk, we went to the pick up point to relax until the time came to leave. Here, we sat on a fallen tree trunk just off the path and watched the sightseers and local wildlife people go by, and, we regretted the fact that we hadn't arrived there earlier when the time came to leave. The drive to Merced, through Mariposa, 82 miles west along highway 140 was, for the first 46 miles one of the most tortuous routes imaginable for Marvin, the driver, to negotiate but, true to his word, he got us through safely, albeit at the cost of a small number of the tour passengers fingernails. The area of Merced, population 36,500, in which we were located, at the Travelodge Eagle's Nest, seemed like one in decline, the McDonalds across the road being reachable only by crossing a relatively busy main road and traversing the dusty, long-abandoned site of some forgotten buildings. Hilary had informed us that the restaurant on-site was not of the best quality, although the morning after, at breakfast we had no complaints. After leaving McDonalds, we had a chat with some of our companion travellers, some of whom had dressed for dinner (at McDonalds?!), then went to bed. |
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