Days 6 – 8 of our Californian road trip visiting Yosemite NP

Travel from Lake Tahoe to Yosemite

We had quite a big drive day of 4 hours to get from Lake Tahoe to Yosemite. We couldn’t find anything to do on the route so I downloaded lots of geo-cache locations near to the road to give us some little breaks on the journey.

The weather was hot and sunny as we left Tahoe but when we reached the Tioga Pass the rain came in – although it didn’t last long. We reached the north entrance of the park at about 1.30pm which was really good and despite us having to obtain peak-time park passes to enter, there was no-body on the gate so we just drove straight in.

^{A quick stop near the North Entrance of the Park}

We then hit road works – it took us almost 3 hours to reach Yosemite Valley and we were so relieved that our accommodation was not on the north side of the park as we would have needed to drive through the roadworks every day!

We drove passed a vista point so stopped to take a photo and then headed into the valley in order to get our bearings ready for the next day. We were quite excited to see a deer by the carpark.

^{Looking towards Yosemite Valley}

^{Deer in the carpark – we saw so many deer!}

We decided to head to our motel – Yosemite View Lodge – which was right next to the Park’s south entrance. We weren’t sure what to expect but it was quite nice. A bit dated but the location was fantastic. Our room was on the ground floor and had a river view which meant we had a massive patio area to eat on. We ordered pizza for tea and then Stu & I wandered up the road to find a geo-cache and see the Yosemite NP sign.

^{Yosemite Valley Lodge}

Yosemite Valley, Yosemite Falls and Vernal Falls

Yosemite Valley Loop

We had no idea how busy it would be in the Valley so the following morning we got up really early and arrived for 7.30am – it was so quiet. We parked up knowing we wouldn’t have to move the car again as you can use busses to move around the park.

We started off by walking part of the Valley Loop which goes along the river and through some meadows and gives views of some of the peaks. There was hardly anybody on the trail.

^{The Valley Loop Trail at 8am!}

Yosemite Falls

We then headed to Yosemite Falls which is just off the Valley Loop. We reached the viewing area and there wasn’t very much water in the falls and the river it went into was quite dry. This meant that you could climb over the huge boulders to get to the bottom of the waterfall. Tom, Izzy and Stu made it all the way but I gave up half way as found some of the rocks quite difficult to get over so stood by a rock watching the chipmunks play!

^{Yosemite Falls – with not very much water!}

We then headed back to the car to grab some food as we wanted to take the bus to the start of the Vernal Falls hike. On the way Izzy announced that there was a kangaroo in the bushes. We saw something move and it turned out to be a bear which hopped through the undergrowth, jumped over a fence and ran across the road!

Vernal Falls Trail

We had read all the information about different trails and decided to hike to Vernal Falls – which was classed as strenuous. They estimated that it would take 3 hours so we took the bus to the trail head.

The first part of the trail takes you to the Vernal Falls footbridge and was just an uphill hike – although as it was so hot, the walk was quite difficult.

^{It took us about 30 minutes to get to the footbridge.}

Once we crossed the bridge and walked for a few more minutes we saw the waterfall. It was much more impressive than Yosemite Falls in the Valley!

^{Vernal Falls – our hike took us to the top!}

The hike from this point was now mostly up steps. Some bits of the climb I didn’t like as the steps kept going in the same direction so I worried if I fell I’d go straight to the bottom! Then when we were almost at the top we had to follow a path in the cliff with just a handrail as a barrier and I found that really scarry! It took us about 45 minutes to get to the top from the footbridge which we thought was good going.

^{Views from the top of the waterfall.}

We wandered along the river for a few meters and reached Emerald Pool. There were loads of signs saying not to swim (probably because it lead to the waterfall) but a few people were in the water. We then noticed that the weather was about to change so thought we ought to head back down and as we did were hit by a horrendous hail storm!

Tunnel View

By the time we had returned to the car we were quite tired do decided to go back to the hotel for the evening. On route we did a quick pitstop at Tunnel View to take a photo. We had pizza for tea again as we didn’t fancy the hotel restaurant and there was no-where else to eat.

^{Tunnel View}

Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias

The Mariposa Grove had been closed due to forest fires and had literally just opened a few days earlier. We woke up quite early again as we had to drive to Wawona on the other side of Yosemite and didn’t want to risk the car park being full. It was raining so we needn’t have worried as it was empty. We took a bus from the carpark to the trees as no cars are allowed to drive the roads in the summer.

We followed the path through the grove and it took us passed some felled trees and you could see their roots. All the big sequoias had names and we saw one which had a tunnel going through it.

It was a nice walk through the trees (and not a bad option for a drizzly day) but after an hour or so we were ready to leave. We returned to Yosemite Valley to have a look at Bridal Falls but the path was closed as they were doing restoration work. As we were tired and the sun was coming out we went back to the hotel and spent the afternoon in the pool as we had another long drive day ahead of us to get to the coast.