14th of May - evening
We arrived in Granite Bay, where Susan lives with her family. Daniel got to know Susan some time ago when they met in Switzerland.
We stayed in the yurt you can see in the picture.
The house, the yard and the yurt are in a very nice area with everything around us just green.
We were a little bit tired after that day because we visited Alcatraz and drove to Granite Bay, so we fell asleep pretty fast.
15th of May
We moved out to a boat ride at the nearby lake. Swimming in the clear freshwater was so pleasant and there was no salt we had to rinse off.
Swimming costs a lot of energy but that was no problem because we had a delicious, nutritious dinner that evening. We showed our pictures and talked for a while before we went to bed.
16th of May
We had to say goodbye since Yosemite National Park was waiting for us. We took one last picture with the whole family.
Thank you for hosting, Susan, Mike, Allison & Jess and for the great food and everything else!
We drove to the Yosemite National Park where we stayed the next three nights. You can see our campground in this picture.
After looking around and having a barbecue we roasted some marshmallows over the fire before we went sleeping in our tent.
17th of May
It was hiking time, so we tried the Vernal Falls / Nevada Falls hike, about 6 hours round trip.
The mist trail... you will get wet, you might get soaked :)
Vernal Falls in the background.
In front of Vernal Falls
The view down from Vernal Falls.
Emerald pools
On top of Nevada Falls, after about 1600 feet (~500meter) elevation gaining. Daniel felt a little bit sick so he stayed at the Vernal Falls
A very curious squirrel at the Vernal Falls.
Sunset at halfdome.
We stayed another night in our tent after having dinner in Yosemite Village.
18th of May
You have to be aware of bears in the park. They can open cars to get to the food inside and you have to store everything inside a bearproof container.
We liked the trail the day ago and decided to choose anothe rone, a longer one with more height difference, the Upper Yosemite Falls trail.
This picture was taken BEFORE the hiking.
The view from somewhere halfway at the trail.
Upper Yosemite Fall from a distance... we had to go up there.
On our way to the top.
Almost there...
Anybody afraid of heights? It is just a 2000 feet (600meter) dropoff...
Finally, after 4 hours, on top of the falls, more than 2600 feet in height gaining (800 meter)
The way back... beautiful landscape
This picture was taken AFTER the hike... notice the difference ?
We had dinner and took a shower before we went to our tent and slept, it was an exhausting day...
19th of May
Roy tried swiming in the nearby river... the water had a temperature of about 50°F (10°C) so it was a short swimming.
We left Yosemite, heading towards Lee Vining and the Mono Lake.
A lake somewhere at the road, the water was not warmer than the one in the river...
Picture time
We drove to Mono Lake, a big lake near Lee Vining (Nevada).
The lake has 3 times more salt than the Pacific Ocean. It doesn't even taste salty, it is too much salt to taste it.
You will float in that lake, just like in the Dead Sea. We forgot our newspaper but you can float on the water surface and read newspapers :)
We arrived in Reno in the evening, had a great dinner in a steakhouse, found a geocache and went to our hotel where we stayed for just one night.
20th of May
Driving Day !
500 miles (800km), 8 hours, from Reno (Nevada) to Boise (Idaho)
8 hours consisting of sand, some small bushes and trees but mostly pretty much nothing but desert.
We arrived in Boise in the evening and checked in at our hosts house.
21st of May
We visited a cave, the Kuna Cave.
The cave is about 50 feet (15 meter) deep and .25 miles to the south and .25 miles to the north (each ~400m)
It was very dusty down there but it was so cool to have a self guided cave tour where you can do whatever you want.
We bought something for barbecue and some other things before we drove back to our hosts house.
We had a nice barbecue together with our hosts and some neighbours.
That is how the evening ended and this is how this blog post ends...
coming up: another day in Boise, Yellowstone & Glacier National Park
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