THE STORY OF OUR TRIP AND OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
After a few days spent windsurfing and surfing in Mexico’s Baja California, we started our SUP roadtrip by driving straight to one of America’s most iconic National Parks, Yosemite. Home to some of the most famous climbing spots on Earth, El Capitan and the Half Dome, Yosemite is considered a wilderness sanctuary by most Americans. Therefore so many people from all around the world flock there every summer to experience first hand the majesty of such a dramatic landscape. Here, of course, everywhere you look there is a perfect Instagram scenario. The only problem is that usually where you can spot a good view so can everyone else.
As we got to the Valley we realized that every single campground was full. So we had no other option than to move on and look for another place to sleep. We decided to drive up to the High Sierras. After a long drive on a winding dirt road – luckily maps can be extremely detailed in the US – we arrived at a campground where two very nice guys offered to share their space with us. Being in such an isolated place offered a night sky view that was worth our while.
In our rush to find a place to sleep, we didn’t realize we were already 9000 ft high, so that night the temperature was really, really low and we just didn’t have the appropriate camping gear. To add some excitement, we heard that a few nights earlier a bear had opened a car to steal some food and so, even if everything we had was safely locked away in the anti-bear box provided in every campground, we still were a little concerned.
Obviously we didn’t get much sleep and so very early we headed to Tenaya Lake. It was a beautiful day and we found a paradisiacal landscape. Tenaya is considered the most beautiful of all Yosemite’s lakes. It’s a mile long and bordered on three sides by granite peaks and domes. The lake was created by the Tenaya Glacier, which flowed out of the vast Tuolumne Ice Sheet and down to Yosemite Valley. This same glacier created Half Dome.
