Shortly after we booked our flight and were still just beginning to plan our activities for this trip, I saw the episode of Oprah where she and Gayle drove across the country to camp in a national park. They were clearly out of their comfort zone, but ultimately came to the conclusion that it was worth it to experience a place so beautiful. The episode ended with Oprah urging her viewers to visit this place for themselves. Later that night while discussing the upcoming trip, I found myself saying to Justin, “Oprah says we should go to Yosemite.” And instead of mocking me for blindly obeying Oprah, he said, “Let’s do it!”
The adventure began with uncertainty. The record snowfall in the region meant that our entrance to the park wouldn’t open for the season until two days before we planned to drive through. Due to the scheduling of our events in southern California later in the week, if there were any delays in clearing the snow, we wouldn’t have time to stop at the park at all. So when we drove past the roadside sign that blinked ‘Tiago Pass Open’, we were pretty excited. As we began the steep ascent into the mountains, I made Justin stop the car. We weren’t even officially in the park yet, and I was already amazed by the view.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Yosemite National Park!
Even as summer set in, Ellery Lake was just starting to thaw. It was really bizarre to stand among snow and ice in a tee shirt and be perfectly warm.
All of the melting snow meant that seasonal waterfalls formed everywhere, including some down the side of the mountain that dumped their water into the narrow roads that led through the park.
The water eventually found its way to the rivers and flowed with force. Signs were posted to remind visitors to respect Mother Nature’s power and stay out of the potentially dangerous rapids.
One particularly breathtaking spot was Olmsted Point. We wandered around here for over an hour, taking in the views and the fresh air. (Full disclosure, I got a little sun burned too. It didn’t occur to me, until it was too late, that at the high elevation I would need more sunscreen than I usually use.)
This little guy was a yellow-bellied marmot, which are a cousin of groundhogs. We saw at least a dozen of them scurrying around on the rocks and they were adorable. Cute as they were and tempting as it was, it’s against federal law to feed or touch them or any animal in a national park, so I had to settle for a few photos. Fortunately, he didn’t mind posing at all!
We moved on to find another amazing waterfall.
As we were on our way out of the park for the evening, we stopped in one last meadow to have a look around, and this beautiful young buck walked up to join us. He kept an eye on us until we got back in the car, and then continued on his way.
When we returned in the morning, we were headed down into the famous Yosemite Valley for the day and stopped for a photo at the entrance of the park.
The first place we visited was Bridalveil Fall. Unless you wanted to get absolutely drenched, this was about as close as you could get. And even at this distance, some spray managed to drift through on the breeze. Justin decided to be brave, get soaked and walk all the way up the path to the viewing station at the bottom of the waterfall. I stayed dry while checking out the river in the forest.
We enjoyed a picnic lunch at Sentinel Beach where we had a great view of Yosemite Falls. The waterfalls empty into the Merced River, which had overflowed it’s banks and flooded the nearby trails. Apparently, this happens every year during the winter melt.
Without question, the star of the valley is El Capitan, a granite giant towering nearly 3600 feet above the valley floor. In Yosemite, this mountain is king of the mountains.
This wide shot of the valley is the most famous view in Yosemite – El Capitan with Bridalveil Fall across the way and Half Dome in the distance. This is the scene that sparked the desire to protect and preserve this land, which eventually led to the creation of the National Park Service. Thanks John Muir! We all owe you big time!
We went exploring around the base of El Capitan, and took a couple photos to show how our height compared to that of the mountain.
We found a few signs that indicated the directions for trails to other locations nearby, so we set off on what we thought was a trail to Inspiration Point. After climbing around the difficult terrain on the side of the mountain, hitting numerous dead ends and being forced to turn around, I started to think that maybe we had lost the trail. Justin insisted that we absolutely had not lost the trail, it just wasn’t a well traveled one. I maintained that it shouldn’t be this difficult to navigate if it really were a trail, and that we should just give up and go back. He reminded me that he knows a bit more about hiking than I do, after all, he’s hiked on four continents and I haven’t.
We went back and forth, both in conversation and in our attempts to locate and stay on the trail that we may or may not have been on for about a half hour. Finally, I told him to sit down, smile for the camera and follow me out of the woods because I was done searching for the trail. So here we are admitting defeat to the forest. You won, Yosemite, you won… this time.
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