Hiking at Hetch Hetchy
Well, we finally saw one chipmunk. Out at Hetch Hetchy, a much less visited part of Yosemite National Park in the far north where we had a lovely flower-filled hike alongside the reservoir in the sun. We were a little alarmed to find red newts (or maybe salamanders?) on the path wherever it was a bit damp, as the likelihood of stepping on one seemed high. They tended to waddle off into hiding, and indeed on the way back along the trail we didn’t see one.
If you ever visit Yosemite for a few days and find the crowds getting too much, head for Hetch Hetchy. Even when we got back to the car, late morning, there were still only a dozen or so cars parked.
Newt or salamander?
Yet again our super-early start was a winner (I could turn into a morning person after this holiday!), because fat raindrops started falling as we got back in the car, and by the time we got back to our cabin at lunch it was pouring with rain and occasional hail. It kept raining, hard, for the entire day and right through the evening. Luckily we’d set aside this afternoon for relaxing and catching up with work, although unluckily the WiFi here was rubbish so catching up with work wasn’t so easy. Couldn’t believe how much rain kept falling. We got pretty well soaked just going out for our desultory pizza. The guest lodge where they was a bit of WiFi was filled with damp souls, playing card games and drinking bottles of wine – many bottles of wine – on what was basically a wash-out of a day. Even a Proper Englishman wouldn’t have gone hiking in this icy downpour.
Flowers before the rain
Related Images:
This entry was posted
on Sunday, May 15th, 2016 at 1:04 am and is filed under USA.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
