Yosemite & onwards

Yosemite is so different to other national parks we've been to so far - although there are still rocks, it's so green. None of the others have been so green - more just rocky. Yosemite has the rocks, trees, lakes, rivers - it's beautiful. There are lots of families cycling around and picnicking, and even though there are lots of people there at the moment, it still felt quite peaceful - different again to the other parks.

There are lots of walks and things, but as we were short of time, we didn't get to do much, but would both like to come back at some stage and do more.

The two main attractions are El Capitan - on the left of the top photo, which is a huge granite monolith, standing 3000ft, or 910m tall. A favourite with rock climbers, that thing is massive and very distinctive.

Even more distinctive, is Half Dome (left), more granite, and even bigger. It is about 4737ft, or 1444m. It looks as though it's lost half of the side of it, as if it used to be "whole dome", but it hasn't - it's just made this way.

From there it was about a 4 1/2 hour drive, a lot of it through windy rural roads, to get to Lake Tahoe. The drive was actually quite interesting, winding through tiny towns, and seeing the odd ranch or two.

Some of you may know Lake Tahoe from the Elemeno P song "Fast times in Tahoe" - needless to say, there has been a lot of singing of that on the way today.

Lake Tahoe is home to a few ski resorts - most famously Heavenly, which is just up the road from where we're staying. The lake itself is split over two states - California and Nevada. We're staying in California, but within 5-10 minutes walking distance is Nevada. The shops are in California, and right next door are the casinos, which are in Nevada. Imaginatively, this part of town is called "Stateline". Lake Tahoe is the 2nd deepest lake in the US, pipped by Crater Lake in Oregon.