After visiting San Francisco, our next stop was the famous Yosemite National Park. Heading east from San Fran it was about a five hour drive to reach Fish Pond Camp near the southern entrance to the park. At least it would have been had we not been led astray by our trusty Tom Tom which took us up Chowchilla Mountain Road. This would have been OK (maybe) in a four wheel drive but not in a convertible! In hindsight a nice little adventure and one that some advise against and others have taken before us... We stayed at the Narrow Gauge Inn, a lovely place (referenced in Lonely Planet) about a five minute drive from the park (TripAdvisor reviews). While our choice of location meant it was an hour's drive to the most popular part of the valley (Curry Village and the Yosemite Visitors Centre) it also meant we were very near the Mariposa Grove of giant Sequoia trees which was our first stop that afternoon. On our second day in the park we headed towards Tuolumne Meadows, an alpine meadow at 8500ft. It's an enjoyable two to three hour drive from Yosemite valley along a winding, scenic road with numerous stops along the way. The view from Olmsted Point is another stunner, and rivals Tunnel View. You can see all the way down the valley to Half Dome and beyond. After chilling at the lake, we figured we should do at least some exercise to burn off the huge meals we always seemed to be eating in the US. Just to the east side of Tuolumne meadow is Lembert Dome, another hugh granite rock which rises 800ft from the meadow. A three mile fairly strenuous walk took us to Dog Lake, yet another beautiful lake. Yosemite is just full of these kind of places, and we barely touched on the vast size of the park.
