We left Death Valley early on a Thursday afternoon, hoping to be at Yosemite that evening. This turned out to be a slight under-estimation! We finally arrived on Friday evening. In the event, the old adage, "It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive", proved only too true. The scenery en route was fantastic from baking deserts to the immense snow capped peaks of the Sierra Nevadas, passing through "Gold Rush" country (great "Wild West" Main Streets in Sonora & Angels Camp) & beautiful wooded valleys glowing with Fall colours. We drove through Glencoe, which was in a setting nearly as beautiful as the original & one of the few namesake places we've seen which remotely resembled the original. The sun shone in a clear blue sky but it turned out that 3 mountain passes were closed by snow for the winter so we had to keep driving further& further north (surpisingly) till we reached the Carson Pass at 8573 feet & finally made it over the mountains. We felt like pioneers by the time we had finished our 200 mile detour!
Sadly, Yosemite proved to be an anti-climax. Much of the Park was closed for the winter, mostly the wilderness areas that we would have preferred to explore. Being there on a Saturday was not a good idea - the over-built-upon & gloomy valley was swarming with other people. Yosemite may have been the original model for the whole National Park system but it was not one of the highlights of our trip.
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