Contiki Wild Western Tour - the Sierra Nevadas and Yosemite National Park

The chalets at Bass Lake's were very memorable, as was Yosemite itself. The Sierra Nevadas are beautiful!

Quick Tips:

When at the Yosemite National Park, DO NOT FEED THE SQUIRRELS!

As the sign says, "A fed animal is a dead animal"!

Best Way To Get Around:

We got to Yosemite National Park from Bass Lake by the tour bus, so check at your hotel the best way to get around.

If you have a car, then driving would be the best option.

The chalet rooms were the best on the whole Contiki Wild Western Tour - they were two stories (not including a little floor up a ladder), with a kitchenette, a living room, and downstairs a bedroom and a bathroom. It was good not to have cramped, small accomidation for a change!

The pool was quite nice, down by the side of a beautiful lake. By the time I got to the pool, there was not much to see, because it was a bit dark. But it was still fun! ^_^

The Pines Resort features 84 two-story, condo-like Chalets that are great for families. With room for up to six people, each Chalet has a kitchen, a nice living room with color cable TV, private patio with picnic table and small BBQ. Downstairs is the bedroom (king, queen, or two queen beds) and bathroom.

For more information about The Pines Resort, look at their webpage at http://www.basslake.com/!

Yosemite - such a beautiful place! The mountains on either side were covered in pine trees, and there were lots of water falls, and famous rock outcrops, such as 'Half Dome'.

The Yosemite Valley Village is the place to start (and finish) and walks - it's a great meeting place. A few of us headed out on our own walk...

The walk was long and hot (and we needed plenty of "water, water, water" stops!), but the scenery was very pretty.

And there were squirrels everywhere!! They were so cute! ^_^ I got lots of photos of squirrels. There were also lots of these blue crested jay birds everywhere, too... so much wild life in the area! Supposedly there were bears and foxes around, too, but we never saw any.

We went to see the waterfall, half the group going ahead right up to the waterfall, but we turned back as we were the slower at walking group. We had lunch down the path a bit, where lots of people ate. Squirrels were everywhere there! Trying to eat everyone's food, and one even climbed on my lap to try to grab my food! They were not afraid, those squirrels.

Even though there were signs everywhere saying "Do not feed the animals" and "A fed animal is a dead animal", idiot tourists keep feeding the squirrels. Which is why they are not scared of people. Now those squirrels won't be able to gather their own food, for when they need it ... so the sign is right - "A fed animal is a dead animal" ... and all those idiot tourists don't care!! -_-

Anyway, we then headed back down the path through the beautiful scenery, with all the animals around everywhere, and managed to get back to the coach on time for leaving.

Go to http://www.nps.gov/yose/ for more information about the Yosemite National Park!

11th July 1999

Today was another day of driving, through the Mojave Desert, off to the Sierra Nevadas and Bass Lake.

It was another long driving day today, but passing through more beautiful scenery, and a fierce storm sweeping past the coach, off in the distance. There was so much lightning, but I didn''t manage to catch any on camera. But it was spectacular to watch... I guess storms like this is what made the flooding around Vegas, just before we got there.

Leaving the desert behind, you suddenly are in the mountains, in another world. Instead of desert, cacti and brush around you, you''re surrounded by tall, beautiful pine trees. Quite a change, especially for those who slept through the desert, and woke up in the mountains!

We got to Bass Lake, a little place in the mountains, in time to unpack at our chalets.

The rooms were the best on the tour - two stories (not including a little floor up a ladder), with a kitchenette, a living room, and downstairs a bedroom and a bathroom. It was good not to have cramped, small accomidation for a change!

The pool was quite nice, down by the side of a beautiful lake. By the time I got to the pool, there was not much to see, because it was a bit dark. But it was still fun! Then we headed off for dinner at the hotel.

We had a party in one of the other''s chalets that night before retiring for the evening.

12th July 1999

Today, we got told again about needing "water, water, water!" for the Yosemite (said ''Yosamidie'' as in Sam from the Bugs Bunny Show) hiking... so we all brought lots of water again. And power bars, too.

The drive to the park was a long one, because of the curving roads in the mountains... and because the park itself was so huge - it took ages to get from the gate to the Yosemite Valley Village!

But when we got through a tunnel in the road, we stopped to get photos of the beautiful area. The mountains on either side were covered in pine trees, and there were lots of water falls, and famous rock outcrops, such as ''Half Dome''.

When we got to the village, some of us went together on the little bus around the area, to go on a certain walk to some falls.

The walk was long and hot (and we needed plenty of "water, water, water" stops!), but the scenery was very pretty.

And there were squirrels everywhere!! They were so cute! ^_^ I got lots of photos of squirrels. There were also lots of these blue crested jay birds everywhere, too... so much wild life in the area! Supposedly there were bears and foxes around, too, but we never saw any.

We went to see the waterfall, half the group going ahead right up to the waterfall, but we turned back as we were the slower at walking group. We had lunch down the path a bit, where lots of people ate. Squirrels were everywhere there! Trying to eat everyone''s food, and one even climbed on my lap to try to grab my food! They were not afraid of squirrels.

Even though there were signs everywhere saying "Do not feed the animals" and "A fed animal is a dead animal", idiot tourists keep feeding the squirrels. Which is why they are not scared of people. Now those squirrels won''t be able to gather their own food, for when they need it ... so the sign is right - "A fed animal is a dead animal" ... and all those idiot tourists don''t care!! -_-

Anyway, we then headed back down the path through the beautiful scenery, with all the animals around everywhere, and managed to get back to the coach on time for leaving.

We went back to Bass Lake, for a dinner on the lake on some boats! We all gathered on the pier, and then went on various small boats for a ride around the lake, (and some tossing water fights across the boats!) till the boats were all lashed together while we sat and ate pizza and talked. (And some of the Aussie guys decided to go for a swim, jumping into the lake, and trying to get others to go with them!)

The sunset over the lake was spectacular...

After dinner, we went to the hotel bar for a little while and talked, then off to a party in another chalet before going back to the rooms for sleep that night.