Two Days in Yosemite National Park

On the eighth day of our Californian adventure we left the city of Los Angeles behind. But before we made the long long drive to Yosemite National Park we stopped to have breakfast with my cousin and his fiancee. This is the cousin we had dinner with when we were in Anaheim but we couldn't meet his fiancee so we arranged a breakfast before we left.       

We met at Republic

The food was great and their baked goods section was ridiculous! We even bought some goodies for the road. 

The drive to YNP entrance was around five hours long. We stayed right outside the entrance at Tenya Lodge in Fish Camp. We had booked a 5pm Yosemite Valley Floor tour for that evening. The valley floor is an additional hours drive from the entrance so even though we tried to time things perfectly we still thankfully just barely made it to the tour. H had to throw up.. those roads in the national park are winding. 

But we made it.. phew!

If you are going to YNP for the first time I highly recommend starting with a floor tour. I am not a tour person.. they offer more information than I am actually interested in and I start to get bored. But this one was amazing.. our tour guide was amazing.. this is an absolute must. The tour was two hours long.

YNP is massive, we barely saw 5% of it but the tour helped us get our bearings. Now unfortunately for you I will tell you everything I learnt.. this is going to be a long one.. you ready?

1. The first road in YNP was built in 1869 by Chinese and Italian immigrants. The Chinese immigrants played a major role in the development of the park. You can learn more about that here

2. The park is approximately the size of Rhode Island. It receives 6 million visitors' per year and in August about 6000 per day. 

3. James Hutching monetized the park and introduced tourism.

4. The Ahwahnechee were the original inhabitants of YNP. Many still lived in and near the park until 1969 when the Yosemite staff decided to raze the villages forcing native people out of their ancestral homes.

5. There is only one type of bear that lives in the park, it is the American Black Bear. 

There were many many more tidbits our guide shared..

Now going back a bit.. when we first entered the park we were surrounded by dead trees. We assumed it was the result of a wildfire.. it was a heartbreaking image.. especially as it was our first impression of the park.

During our tour we learned that it was a result of a prescribed burn. The prescribed burn was a practice of the native people. But once they were pushed out of the park the settlers banned the practice. A prescribed burn is a controlled fire set intentionally for purposes of forest management, fire suppression, farming, prairie restoration or greenhouse gas abatement. In order words when the forest gets too dense the chances of wildfires increase. A prescribed burn not only solves that problem but also burns of the weaker trees to enable to the stronger to get the sun and nutrients they need to thrive. Another benefit concerns the life cycle of a sequoia tree. A sequoia tree acorn is the size of a chicken egg and covered in a thick resin. The only way for the acorn to open and the seed to emerge is via fire. 

The ban resulted in many catastrophic fires in the park and after research they realized the native people were right all along. Duh. You can read more about that here

Yosemite Falls - usually the falls are dry around this time but we were very lucky because they had a lot of snow and rain throughout the year. Yay.

 

El Capitan on the left. It is 2 Empire State Buildings tall. Home to 252 different rock climbing routes. The documentary Free Solo is about Alex Honnold who climbed El Cap. To the right we have Bridal Veil Falls. 

 

This is the view from Tunnel View. I tried to make a video of us coming out of the tunnel and getting this view more than a few times but was never able to get a good one. But this view.. this whole place was spectacular. 

We were so tired after that.. we grabbed some dinner at Yosemite Lodge Base Camp.. it was cafeteria style with a decent variety. Then we made the one hour drive back to the hotel and crashed!

Funny Facts -

1.The whole time M and I talked about going to Yosemite D thought we going to go tour a college. We have been to both Harvard and Princeton so I guess it's a fair point. He said is he thought we were saying U of Simite. 

2. All day we said the word Yosemite but when the kids read the signs they thought we were saying it wrong and the park was actually pronounced 'yoz mite' And now that is what we call it. 

We woke up refreshed and ready for our first full day in the park. 

We had breakfast at the hotel and headed out. 

DAY ONE

FIRST STOP - Mariposa Grove. You park in the lot and then take the free shuttle to the grove. Mariposa Grove is the largest sequoia grove in Yosemite and is home to over 500 mature giant sequoias. In 1864 President Lincoln signed legislation protecting the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley. It was the first time in our nation's history, the federal government set aside scenic natural areas to be protected for the benefit of future generations. Yosemite National Park was later added in 1906.

STOP TWO - Bridal View Falls. This was our favorite thing. Afterwards everything we did compared to the awesomeness of these falls. This can be a 10 minute walk to the view platform or you can spend hours just climbing boulders and basking in the majestic glory of these falls. I am not exaggerating. I made a reel here

Then we stopped to have lunch. We had pizza in Curry Village. The pizza was phenomenal.

THIRD STOP - Vernal Falls. It was supposed to be a 3 mile round trip. We planned on getting to the footbridge and then see how we were doing and continue on the the falls based on that. This one was not for us. My kids don't like to just walk.. even it there were inclines.. they like to climb and boulder. Then it feels like they are playing and not just walking. We barely made it to the footbridge. There were no pretty views it was just steep walking and a lot of it. Every person who passed us on their way back was panting.. that didn't comfort me. 

And so we turned back after we got to the footbridge and trekked the way back down. After the hour plus drive back to the hotel we were exhausted. We had to bribe the kids with dessert for dinner just to get them out of the car and into the hotel restaurant. 

Magically happy. Our dinner was pretty blah.. I think we all would have been better with just having dessert for dinner. 

The hotel had a free laundry room so M and I washed our clothes before hitting the sack.

DAY TWO

We didn't hurry to rush out.. we could hear the scurrying of feet outside our door but instead of trying to beat the rush we thought we'd head out after the rush. We had breakfast in the hotel again. And then we headed out. I was almost afraid sleeping in was a bad idea and the line to enter the park was going to be crazy but thankfully that was not true and we breezed right through. 

FIRST STOP - Sentinel Dome. Instead of heading down to the Yosemite Floor we headed east instead towards the dome. It was a two mile round trip. And it was worth every single step.

We had to get to the top of that.. 

We have the Three Brothers to the left named after Chief Tenaya's three sons murdered by the settlers and El Cap to the right.

 We spent a lot of time up here just savoring the view. It was perfect. 

SECOND STOP - Wawona Swimming Hole. Now in all my planning it never occured to me to look into Yosemite swimming holes. I wish I had.. we would have been better prepared. But we saw a sign on the way back to the hotel.. a little goggling revealed there was hidden swimming hole. It was a very weird drive.. we almost felt we were going the wrong way but we found it.  

There were very few people there but they had come prefered with inflatables.. the water was crystal clear and ice cold. We would have stayed longer but while taking the photo of M on the bridge I managed to slice open my baby toe. The water was so cold I didn't even feel it until I noticed all the blood. Yikes. So we headed back to the hotel.

Some traveling essentials we always carry with us..especially on outdoorsy adventures are muscle relief menthol cream for all those aches and pains as well as band aids, alcohol wipes and some antibacterial ointment. When the kids were little I packed stickers as well to take their minds of the injury. I always have some pain killers and allergy meds on me as well. 

The hotel had pools, both indoor and outdoors, so while I got cleaned up M took the kids to the pool. (no pictures) Then we grabbed a snack.. some coffee and headed out again. 

THIRD STOP - Glacier Point. I told M we had to make it there to see the sunset. He was less convinced. I mean we have seen sunsets before in exotic locations and we are not so easily wowed by them. Glacier Point was an hour away from the hotel and the same way Sentinel Dome was. We parked and started walking towards the sunset when we saw everyone was going in the opposite direction. Turns out we weren't there to see the sun setting, we were there to see the colors of the sun on Half Dome.

Magnificent. Made a little video here

 

What a beautifully surreal two days. We saw so little of the park.. it's massive and one could spend weeks exploring. It was hard to say goodbye. 

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