Yosemite National Park

As we headed toward Yosemite, we were 11 days into our 42 day adventure and Yosemite was #4 of 14 national parks. The car rides have gotten easier, and we’ve gotten more relaxed on car activities! For example, yes you can play Nintendo Switch.

Trip Details:

Where: Yosemite National Park, CA

Campsite: Yosemite Lakes RV Park (Thousand Trails), Site 110 - great location

Length: 4 days

Itinerary:

Day 1: Rainbow Pool

Day 2: Yosemite National Park/Yosemite Valley/hiking

Day 3: Yosemite National Park/floating the river

Day 4: Yosemite National Park/Yosemite Valley/hiking

Charlotte’s Highlights: Vernal Waterfalls hike

Paige’s Highlights: Half dome views

Adult’s Highlights: Clark Point hike, the scenery in the valley and El Capitan

To get into Yosemite, you have to book a permit in advance. The park offers a 1-day pass or 3-day pass, so we booked a 3-day pass which started on day 2 of our visit , so we spent our first day at Rainbow Pool. This pool had a quaint waterfall and two different pools to swim in. While we were there we even saw a guy jump from the cliff into the pool! The girls didn’t swim much because the water was “too cold!” So we went crawdad hunting. Ironically, I was finishing up the book, Where the Crawdad Sings. Haha They caught around 20 and we brought them back to have a crawdad boil.

The second day, we headed into Yosemite National Park. We quickly got into the park by showing our drivers license, our Yosemite 3-day permit and our American the Beautiful pass, which is a yearly pass for $80 that gets us into all the national parks, national forests and most national monuments for the year. This pass makes up the cost within 3 national park visits since most national parks charge a $30 entry fee for a 7-day visit. We got our obligatory national park sign photo and away we went into the park to explore!

We’d never been to Yosemite, but knew it was a popular national park. As we entered Yosemite Valley, we quickly learned why it was a popular destination. We saw the longest waterfall in the US, lush green meadows, majestic peaks, domes and beautiful lakes. We decided to do some hiking so we went on the Lower Yosemite Falls Trail, which was an easy 1 mile hike and provided views of both the Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls.

From there we hopped on Valley Loop Trail toward Mirror Lake which was a 4.5 mile hike. This hike goes to show us that some ideas and plans we have don’t always work out. This “Mirror” Lake was practically dried up and we quickly learned it is best seen during the winter and spring when the lake is full. Whomp, whomp. We did eat lunch at the dried up lake and birds and squirrels came to visit hoping we’d feed them.

We decided to hike on the bike path on our way back and as we were leaving Mirror Lake, we did see a lot of swimmers and sunbathers on the other end of the lake, where there was actual water. The views of this part of the lake were gorgeous. However, if we had to do it over again, we would skip the Valley Loop Trail hike, rent a bike and do the biking path to Mirror Lake. It would have been faster and cooler, since it was a pretty warm day in the valley.

The next day we dedicated it to be a driving day to see the highlights of the park. We got some good views of the Tunnel View, El Capitan, Bridalveil Falls, and the Half Dome.

* Clockwise from top left: Tunnel View, El Capitan, Half Dome, Bridalveil Falls

* Yes, Aaron has on swimming trunks. Yes, I bought it for him. Yes, I made him wear them. And yes, they are family matching swimsuit set - family pics to follow in Channel Islands NP 😆

After the girls got their Junior Ranger badge, we attended a Butterfly Ranger talk and saw a dissection cut of a large redwood This was really cool, because it shows how old the tree is compared to important dates in history, dating back to 923 AD.

After our driving adventures, we threw the girls in the Merced River and enjoyed the cool water! It was a nice relaxing time for us to soak in our Yosemite Valley views and the girls had fun floating the river.

That evening we enjoyed an outdoor movie night, feature presentation - Avatar.

The last day at Yosemite, was hands down our favorite day. We were all rested enough for a good hike and we chose to hike up Vernal Falls to see some water falls which was a 2.3 mile trek up. After parking at Curry Village, we skipped the shuttles and hiked Mist Trail for about a mile toward the Vernal Falls hike. There's two views of Vernal Falls, one is a footbridge and there is the one to the top of the waterfall. We went all the way, and it was so worth it.

Here's the obligatory footbridge photo:

And here are some photos along our journey to the top! We had to climb 600 granite steps to get to the top! It was a challenging hike for us but once we were on top, we enjoyed a lunch at the edge of the waterfall.

After lunch, instead of walking down all those 600 steps, we decided to continue to hike up, for some odd reason. Haha. We chose to hike up to Clark Point and because of that decision we got the best views from above Vernal Falls, along with views of Nevada Falls. We also got great views of the back side of Half Dome. Although the hike up was a little more difficult, the hike down the mountain was easier than 600 narrow and sandy granite steps! In total we hiked about 4.5 miles and ascended 1,500 feet for the best views we had seen on our trip yet.

As we exited the park, we decided to check out Hetch Hetchy which is a valley and reservoir. Normally national parks are to be untouched and remain in its natural state, so Hetch Hetchy is a bit of a controversy. This dam was built in 1934 to help deliver water west to San Francisco and the greater bay area. It also comes with its own waterfall and pretty views similar to the Yosemite Valley, just on a much smaller scale.

This part of the park closes at 5pm, so we didn't have much time to explore. If we would have known what this little gem had to offer, we would have made sure to give it more time. There was a cool trail that went though a granite tunnel that took you to the waterfall. And yes, it was windy! Haha!

Yosemite had some big shoes to fill after Crater, Redwood and Lassen Volcanic NPs, and it succeeded! I asked the girls what their favorite national park was so far and they couldn't decide in the moment. I thought about it myself as well, and decided it was too hard and unfair to try to compare them. They all have their special highlights that make them unique. Yosemite's was its grandeur - its granite cliffs, large waterfalls and vast views.

Thanks for coming on our adventure! Until next time….

~ Mary