Sunday 15th October
After breakfast we wandered up to look at Yosemite Lower Falls and then left the crowds to drive up for a couple of hours along the Flat Oak road to walk to Merced Grove where there are some giant redwoods. It took us a couple of hours to walk there and back but it was a fairly gentle gradient. We then drove on a little way out of the park into the Stanislaus National Forest before turning back and driving past Yosemite Valley again and on down to the Big Trees Lodge where we are staying for a couple of nights. We have a room in an old wooden house built around 1918 and the main building is from 1860s. It is in a lovely spot and the food was very good too!

Monday 16th October
After excellent poached eggs for breakfast (which makes a nice change from scrambled) we did a five mile loop walk from the hotel to the Swinging Bridge. The first part was a narrow tarmaced road but through tall pine forest and then on a dirt trail to the Swinging Bridge. It was lovely, apart from the flies, which rivalled those of Australia! The return trail wandered through the forest and then onto a small road through various holiday cabins. Once back, I had a bowl of soup and Iain a salad, with some excellent iced tea before having a relaxing afternoon on our verandah,

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