The second leg of the trip - from Ashland to Yosemite - took another 9 hours. We whizzed through Sacramento - a huge modern city (that was a surprise) - and turned towards the mountains. I particularly enjoyed the last hour and a half of our trip: we were in the rolling footsteps of Sierra Nevada. The road flowed between round dry hills covered with tall dry grass that, in the rays of the sinking sun, seemed more molten gold then anything organic. Every turn of the road opened a new vista, both rustic and wild, with small farms clinging to the hillsides and scant trees dotting the landscape.
Finally we reached the town of Fish Camp. It is the tiniest of townships one can imagine, a handful of homes, a couple of restaurants - and several inns. But this little town is historically significant: here the US government placed its cavalry and made a stand to defend Yosemite from loggers, pouchers and developers.
Tenaya Lodge - our destination - is a sprawling hotel complex with a majestic sentral hall, all decorated in roughly hewn stone and wood, outdoor and indoor swimming pools, jaccuzis, restaurants, and parks. It sits on a slope facing a picturesque canyon at 5 thousand feet above sea level. It is, of course, rather pricy (from $350 per night) - but so are all of the hotels near the gates or in the park itself. Just to think about supplying water, electricity, food, etc. this far into the mountains - no wonder the prices could be stiff.
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