We left the state of Nevada, headed for Los Angeles. Before we could even get near the city, the smog was visible. We had hopes of seeing the famous Hollywood sign, but without doing the 45 minute hike to the top, the smog made that almost impossible. We caught a quick glimpse, and headed back down the mountain. We didn't plan to stay in LA, so we mostly drove around and took in the city. I, personally, wanted to see Rodeo Drive, so even though most of the shops were closed we walked around for a bit. Absolutely unbelievable. It was kind of funny how out of place we looked in the 4-Runner with firewood strapped to the top, when almost every car we passed was a Mercedes, Audi, or BMW. After Rodeo Drive, we left Los Angeles and headed up US 101, or the Pacific Coastal Highway. We drove up through Malibu, and found a place to get some sleep before we continued.

Our next National Park stop was to be the famous Yosemite Valley Park.  We arrived at the southern end of the park after a long day of driving through the farmland of central California.  I never realized how much farming was actually done in California.  The campsite in Yosemite, called Wawona campground, was located next to a beautiful stream at the foothills of the mountains.  I decided that this would be the first place that I tried my luck at fishing.  Unfortunately, after an afternoon and one early morning of fishing, I only had a few bites.  I saw plenty of beautiful golden colored trout jumping all around, so it wasn't all bad.  It had been a while since I have had a chance to relax as much that morning at 6:30am.  The rest of the day was spent on exploring the valley area.  The drive there was spectacular-- mountain peaks covered with snow dominated the backdrop.  When we finally dropped over the mountains into the valley, we were able to see several famous waterfalls and peaks.  El Capitan and Half Dome were plainly visible.  In the center of the valley was a flowing river that winded between gorgeous meadows.  It was almost as if stumbling across a an untouched paradise.  The only problem was that it was so crowded with people that some of the serenity was taken away.  We stayed at a campsite just below the famous El Capitan rock face that we had to share with 3 other tents.  The campsite area was the base camp for the numerous rock climbers attempting to summit El Capitan or any of the other summits.  After spending the day exploring the valley we drove to the north side of the valley and found a campsite way up in the mountains called White Wolf.  Past our campsite was the highest meadow in the Sierra Nevada range called Tuolumne Meadows.  It was amazing to drive through the snowy peaks and reach this giant meadow that had just lost its snow.  The grass and flowers had only seen the sun for 2 weeks at most!  A little further up we drove to the edge of the park to Tioga pass, the highest possible route through the mountains.  We hiked about 500 or so yards up a rocky trail to Gaylor lake.  The altitude was hard on our lungs and we had to stop every few minutes to catch our breath. At the top was one of the most spectacular panoramic views.  We were up in the snowy peaks looking down on mountain meadows littered with lakes and streams.  It was something out of a movie.  We spent the rest of the day relaxing and reading in our hammocks back at camp.  In the morning we packed up and heading toward San Francisco.  Back to the Pacific Ocean!

Since we were starting to be a little more cautious about money at this point, we decided to book the highest rated motel we could find and go from there.  Although it looked sketchy from the outside, we were excited to have a room, a bed, and a nice shower to clean up.  We were in a cool part of town with lots of restaurants around so we decided to walk to dinner.  We ended up at a cool place called Ace Wasabi Rock'N Roll Sushi.  It turned out to be a  really cool place with a bunch of different twists on sushi.  After stuffing ourselves with several rolls and some saki we walked back to our motel.  What we were't expecting was the freezing temperatures we encountered that night.  It was windy, foggy, and so cold.  Wasn't the West coast supposed to be warm and sunny?!? Hopefully the next day would be warm and sunny so we could go see the Golden Gate Bridge and all of the other touristy things.  WRONG.  Foggy, cold and windy again.  We were not prepared or a fan of this weather.  We did brave the conditions and see, Crooked Street, the bridge, Alcatraz, Haight-Ashbury street (home of the Grateful Dead), Chinatown, and the Wharf area.  Lots of driving around and seeing things. The Haight-Ashbury area was really neat and hipster-ish.  We met up with my friend Chris Wilson and his friend at the Wharf area for dinner.  It just so happened that they were traveling across the country in the opposite direction as us and San Fran was were our paths crossed.  After some seafood we headed north towards Napa Valley.

We toured several wineries in Napa and Sonoma.  It was fun learning how it actually works and all of the different types of wines.  We had a very rocky campsite that night...  Then it was off to Redwood forest.