The trip started with an early morning flight, so we had to catch an Uber ride at 5 AM. The ride itself was rather long because parts of Highway 401 were closed off and the driver didn't know about that. On the positive side (I suppose it was a positive thing) the driver started playing some old Russian songs (he turned out to be from Georgia).
At the airport, the security process was annoyingly long, as always when you fly to the USA.The flight took about 5 hours, just enough time to watch a movie and a couple of shows. At the SF airport, there was a free SkyTrain that took us to the car rental building, which was already packed with tourists. After about half an hour wait and some arguments about the price of the rental (stupid Alamo had some hidden fees, I managed to get rid of some of them) I finally got the keys to the car, which was a shiny new Nissan Rogue (mid-size SUV). After some looping around the airport, I managed to get on the highway and started driving towards the first hotel near Yosemite Park.
The drive to the hotel took about 5-6 hours with a couple of stops: first at a gas station to get some water, then at a grocery store (Safeway) around Modesto, where we also had some lunch at Panera Bread. We picked up 4 bags of groceries and 24 bottles of water. That supply of food and drink lasted for quite a few days allowing us to avoid spending money and time at overpriced and not-so-great restaurants around the park.
After several hours of driving, we finally started seeing hills covered with golden grass. Later we found out that California is currently in the middle of a long drought and most of the grass has dried out, creating fire hazards and great views. The hotel was located in a deep valley between mountains, right on the highway leading to the park. The mountain road was extremely winding and narrow, making the drive rather interesting, especially after dark.
A couple of notes from the first day:
- Highways in the US are very unlike Canadian ones, there are a lot of them and they intersect frequently. I'm pretty used to having just a couple of highways and driving forward for hours without any turns.
- The hotel was called a lodge, which means a 2-floor motel. Cars are parked right in front of the entrances to the rooms and service is not as good as in a normal hotel.
- There was no cell phone connection around the hotel, probably because of all the mountains. WiFi at the hotel was expensive and slow, so I didn't bother with it.
2025-02-07