Our ultimate destination when we left Crescent City had been Yosemite
National Park, however we knew we could not get there in one day and
Dunnigan was the closest town with campsites that we were able to reach
before evening. We also wanted to visit Sacramento, the biggest town in this
area of California, before leaving 'civilisation' again and heading into the
National Park. Dunnigan provided a convenient location from which to do this
and we spent the next morning in Sacramento.
Now, people might wonder why you need 'civilisation' when you are on
a road trip. For us the need arose from being slaves of the modern world - we
needed to find somewhere to send emails, and we needed to download
photographs from our digital camera onto compact discs. Consequently,
almost all we saw of Sacramento was a shopping centre and public library - it
seemed like a lovely city though. As we drove through we saw lots of small
wooden houses, many murals and gorgeous trees shedding their colourful fall
leaves. It was just a shame that we were in a hurry, and that it was raining.
We reached our intended campsite, close to Yosemite National Park,
by nightfall. This was another KOA site outside of Mari Posa. We then spent
the next day in Yosemite.
Yosemite is the country’s number one National Park and is visited by some
4.1 million people each year. It is also vast, although we only visited one part
of it, Yosemite Valley. Once again, the scale of the natural features was the
first thing to strike us. Giant trees, huge outcrops of rock, and – at 2425 feet –
Yosemite Falls, the tallest waterfall in North America. We quickly realized that