Bear spotting!

Left Mammoth Lakes and drove to Lake Tahoe. As we were leaving Mammoth we went to see the ski resort at Mammoth Mountain. The snow wasn't as bad as we'd been told, but it was too late by then! Paul was gutted! We drove back to the main road via a marked "scenic route" and stopped in a car park signposted "craters". The road became too snowy to drive down so we didn't see the craters, but as we were turning round we saw...... our first bear!! Only a baby one (we think, with our expert bear knowledge!!!!), and he was camera shy so we have no proof of this sighting, but you'll just have to take our word for it!!

Lake Tahoe

Arrived in Lake Tahoe after a four or five hour drive - which the girl at the hotel reception in Mammoth said would take 45 minutes!! And we all thought Paul was a fast driver!
Lake Tahoe was nice - some of it has been a bit over developed, but we found a quiet bit and had a walk along the beach.
After a very stressful "are we about to run out of petrol in the mountains" and "why are Californian road signs soooooo rubbish?!" kinda drive we arrived in Oakdale (via a long detour to Sacramento thanks to the afore mentioned rubbish signs!!) and got a room for the night.

Yosemite

Went to Yosemite National Park which was spectacular.

Yosemite Valley

Saw El Capitan

El Capitan

and Half Dome which rose impressively from no where, and walked to the bottom of Bridalveil Falls where we got absolutely soaked!!!

Getting soaked at the bottom of Bridalveil Falls

Considering Yosemite is meant to be the place to see bears, we saw a grand total of zero! (Barnaby was very disappointed!!)
Paul asked about staying in the Park for the night, and was told they had one tent left. He thought he'd better run it via Helen first, and after going to see it she decided a metal frame with some canvas thrown over it and metal boxes outside to lock food in to keep it from the bears did not pass her stringent "bear proof" tests, so the idea was scrapped!

Nightfall at Yosemite

Watched the sunset from Glacial Point, overlooking the valley.

From Glacial Point

Yosemite Lakes, United States