Philip S Raine Rest Area on CA99 North

All of today was taken up with the 387 mile journey to Yosemite from San Marcos along the I5, the CA99 to Fresno then picking up the CA41 to Oakhurst, the Park entrance and finally retracing our steps back to Cabin 23 at the Redwoods in Yosemite on the Chilnualna Road.

We'd stayed at Cabin 23 in September 2014 travelling to and from San Francisco as part of our trip over for Chris and De'Shaun's wedding. It was incredibly dry then, with no water in any of the major falls so we said we must come back in the spring one year. And here we are, 18 months later very much looking forward to 3 days of hikes in this most majestic of places.

We're sitting in front of a log fire relaxing after that long journey in the heart of the redwoods. The journey was mostly fine, except around Los Angeles which was a pig. North of LA the scenery improved, passing through an impressive range of hills before hitting the Central Valley with all its agriculture; almonds, vines, fruit and vegetables. All very intensive but using a considerable amount of water in what is essentially a desert.

North of Fresno we approached the foothills and then the high passes leading to Yosemite, this time everywhere was green, such a difference to that September. We were following in the footsteps of John Muir, whose writing I was reading recently. He travelled extensively in this area and final miles felt as if we were capturing his spirit, for it was him, a Scotsman from Dunbar who was largely instrumental in establishing America's National Parks.