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The lure of the West Coast becomes obvious, as every day is sunny and dry. The nighttime temperatures are cool. I love this weather.
The scenery varies greatly on the two-hour drive from Fresno to Yosemite National Park. Fresno's geography is flat and agricultural. North of Fresno the ground becomes hilly and rocky with a good smattering of trees. Finally the road heads into the mountains where evergreens and redwoods cover the landscape. Upon entering Yosemite, another one-hour drive is necessary to reach Yosemite Valley.
Yosemite's beauty comes mostly from Yosemite Valley at the center of the park. Sheer cliffs and gorgeous rock formations surround the valley. El Capitan and Half Dome, the two most-famous rocks, are striking in their appearances, especially when the sun shines on them. All of the beautiful sights in Yosemite can easily be seen in a day. Most people come to Yosemite and stay for a few days just so they can walk or bike through the picturesque meadows and woods of the valley. The bear population supposedly is great although they have transitioned into nocturnal creatures in Yosemite; thus we didn't see any bears.
We saw two beautiful mule deer bucks in Yosemite Village but we had left our camera in the van. A pond in one of the meadows had an abundance of trout swimming in a deep pool. A fisherman and his son were trying unsuccessfully to catch the fish. They weren't biting.
We had originally planned to spend two days at Yosemite but changed our minds when we could not find accommodations within the park. It took one and a half hours to drive out of the park to the nearest hotel and we didn't feel like repeating that drive two more times.
Rather than reenter Yosemite, we decided to head to Las Vegas. We know that Las Vegas holds a plethora of hotel rooms and dinner buffets and is close to Lake Meade. And maybe we'll find Uncle Ike's quarters, although he lost them somewhere at Lake Tahoe.
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