Alcatraz

On Wednesday June 27th, I went into San Francisco on the BART train and met up with Emma and Isa again. We walked down to the piers and along to the one where the Alcatraz ferry departed from. After a quick lunch, we collected our tickets and boarded the 12:35 ferry to the island.


So, a few quick facts. Alcatraz was a lighthouse, then a military fortification, then a military prison followed by a federal prison until 1963, when it became a national recreation area. It was home to the infamous Al Capone and has been in several movies, recently The Rock.




When we got there, we went straight to the main attraction on the island, a self-guided audio tour around the main cell block, which took about an hour or so. It explained the history of the island and each room you went in to, with various escape attempts and incidents narrated by former inmates and guards. It was a little spooky at times but enjoyable and brought the place back to life.


After we'd completed the tour, we still had plenty of time, so went around the whole island to make the most of the slightly expensive ticket. We saw a few more out of hte way areas, like the bird colony and exercise yard that you might have otherwise missed. Although very windy in parts, the island also offers great views over the bay and of the rest of San Francisco.




After we'd had a good look around, we caught the ferry back to the city and went our seperate ways, as Isa and Emma would be flying back to Sweden the next day.

University of California, Berkeley

On June 26th I met up with Gary and Woo Mi from the TrekAmerica bus tour at the University of California, Berkeley, for a guided tour. Berkeley is one of the most prestigious universities in the world and with it being so close by, I thought it would be worth a walk round.

There were a surprising amount of people on the tour - about 150 - which was split into two groups. In our half, we were the only internationals. The student guide explained the history of the university, which dates back to 1868, and then took us around the campus for about an hour. It was also interesting to hear about the differences between our universities and theirs, particularly the fraternities and sororities with their Greek names.

The campus itself is what you would expect; clean with plenty of grass and classically styled buildings. In the Life Sciences building which we went in, there's even a full T-Rex skeleton on display. After the tour, we went up The Campanile, a large clocktower that dominates the campus. From here you could see over the Bay to San Francisco and around.

We went for lunch in Berkeley, then I said goodbye to Gary and Woo Mi, and went off in search of a camera shop. My camera had been overexposing photos, so I needed to work out what was wrong with it. I found a small independent shop and tried out various combinations of cameras and lenses, eventually working out that it was the lens that was faulty.

Out and about in San Francisco

The next day I got the BART train into the city with Alice and then went to buy a cheap phone, since I had lost my own in Los Angeles. After getting a simple pay as you go phone from AT&T, I called Emma and Isa from the TrekAmerica tour and we met up in Union Square in the city centre.


We went to the tourist information office and then booked a trip to Alcatraz due to the high demand for the city's most popular attraction. We walked down to the Embarcadero area, where we began to walk along the various piers. Number 39 is Fisherman's Wharf, a tourist attraction akin to a theme park, where we ended up having lunch at a fish and chip place.


The rest of the afternoon was spent getting to the famous Golden Gate Bridge. We caught a bus to the Marina district, then walked the rest of the way. Along the way we met a few other people from our TrekAmerica tour, which was pretty cool. After catching the bus back into the city centre, I got the BART train back to Albany and Alice's house.

On to San Francisco

On June 24th, it was our last day on the TrekAmerica tour. We got up for breakfast at 9 and had everything ready and cleaned at 10:30. The entire day was spent driving to San Francisco, with little to report on the way there. We got to the city at about 4:30, where I bid farewell to my fellow travellers and phoned Alice, who I would be staying with.

San Francisco is known as one of the more affluent and 'liveable' cities in the US, with a population of about 800,000 and another 7 million in the surrounding Bay Area. Apart from landmarks like Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge, it's home to Silicon Valley, where many of the world's computer companies originated from.

I caught the surprisingly clean BART public transport trail to the Albany in the East Bay area, where I met Alice, who I had first met on a bus tour in New Zealand. I got settled in and contemplated what to do over the next 7 days I was in the city.

Hiking Yosemite

The next day we were free to explore Yosemite and do whatever activities we liked. Isa, Emma and I chose to hike the Upper Yosemite Falls trail, taking us to the top of the highest waterfall in North America (and 6th highest in the world). It would be a 9 mile round trip, with a 823m elevation gain.


Waking up at 6:30, we drove into the central Yosemite Valley, then got a shuttle bus to the trailhead. We started the hike at 10, but took 3 hours to get to the top. Needless to say, it was a steep trail! We wound our way up the hillside next to the waterfall, climbing switchback after switchback. Half of the time we were in the shade, but even with that it definitely lived up to the National Park Service's description of it: "very strenuous".


What greeted us at the top made it all worthwhile though. The views from the overlook were simply stunning, showcasing the entire valley below. The sheer cliff dropped away immediately below, adding to the effect.


We stopped for lunch at the stream at the top, which was beautiful enough in its own right, then continued an extra mile to an even higher vantage point. This one was even windier than the first and presented an even more dramatic view.


We took our time climbing down, arriving back at the valley floor at about 5. The rest of our group who had been doing various other hikes met us at a pizza place, where we all had dinner. Sadly, it was our last night together as a group on TrekAmerica.

TrekAmerica day five - on to Yosemite

On June 22nd, we left the campsite at Benton Hot Springs and started the short drive to Yosemite National Park. We got to the World Heritage Site at about 1pm, after stopping at Mono Lake for lunch.


We drove across the park to a grove of Giant Sequoias, where we went for a short walk which lasted about an hour. Yosemite reminded me of New Zealand a bit, with its steep sided glacial valleys, forests and lakes. It doesn't seem really that imposing, but we would find out the next day what it was really about.


After the walk, we drove on to a campsite at Indian Flats, where we would be spending the next two nights.

Las Vegas to Benton Hot Springs

Our fourth day on the TrekAmerica tour from Los Angeles to San Francisco took us from Las Vegas to Benton Hot Springs. We had an unusual lie-in in the morning, then left the motel in Vegas, heading up Highway 95. It was a day that involved driving for the most part, so it was largely uneventful.

We stopped in Tonopah for lunch, then arrived at Benton at around 5. The campsite was fairly basic, but it had two hot springs, which were great to take a dip in and relax after a hard day's drive. That evening we celebrated one of our number's 25th birthday, so it was another day of 'merriment' following our night out in Vegas.