We just chose to drive 1800miles. I reckon in the US it’s not a lot, in the western europe it’s considered a bit mental. Luckily for us, our new car gets 44miles per gallon, (11.6 miles per litre). And that’s with multiple mountain passes, so not all flat and not electric car – pretty good – thank you Rudolf Diesel

We drove down to Yosemite Nation Park, it’s in California across from San Francisco.

On our way back up North, not as in Grim Up North, but as in travelling north back to Portland we also stopped at Mount Shasta, which is very close to the Oregon Border near the Interstate #5. We took our ski’s with us so we could do some ski also.

Going down there, after 6hrs of driving we spent the night in Redding California a little farmer town, but has a big name architect bridge. The Sundial Bridge (cantilever spar cable 2004 glass walkway) by Santiago Calatrava. Photos were off my iphone.

here’s a few things.

1. Small Northern California towns are strange, creepy, awkward, nutty, peculiar… you choose.
2. Yosmite national park is huge and super awesome.
3. Mount Shasta is great too. But not as super as Yosemite

Yosemite was a bit of a wash out for us. We went there at a time of freak rainstorm, so the experience was not the best to do outdoor things or take pictures. But we still enjoyed it.. We stayed in accommodation / cabin things in the boundaries of the national park (sorry I didn’t take photos) which I like a lot because its very 70’s vibe. That 70’s craft vibe where stuff was made well and made to last. This was all designed in a unique national parks way. Which you either love or hate.

We saw a lot of cool rocks in Yosemite valley and also heard a pack / band of coyotes howling and I got a photo of two of em.

Yosemite National Park is twice as big as London, which pales into insignificance with Yellowstone.
With two famous climbing rocks in the climbing world- El Capitan (3000ft vertical granite face) and Half Dome, if you haven’t heard of Alex Honnold, you should google him because he’s a proper nutter and has the time record on climbing up El Capitan without ropes.

Just before coming back into Oregon, we Cross Country skied at Mount Shasta, it was nice but it’s not as good as Oregon views. It felt a lot less busy than Mount Hood, Oregon, which is nice. Coz theres a lot of flip flop kirkland water-bottle buggers getting up Mount Hood.

Pictures of Skiing and mount Shasta.