I haven’t done a lot of traveling in 2019 due to my grandson’s hockey. When you travel for hockey, it really isn’t much of a travel event. Well it is… but I don’t think anyone cares to hear how it goes when we arrive for a tournament and such. If someone out there does, then I will be happy to start a Hockey Diary just for these events.
Meanwhile in 2019, my daughter came home to visit and wanted to spend a few days in Yosemite. We found the sweetest deal ever through Airbnb inside the park. A cabin (with no wifi) that slept 6 people in one of the few private developments in Yosemite called Yosemite West. It is located inside the south entrance off Hwy 41. 20 minutes to Wawona, 30 minutes to Mariposa Grove, 20 minutes to Glacier Point, and generally 30 minutes from Yosemite Valley. The best part was that we did not have to wait anywhere from 15-45 minutes each morning to get into the Park. Loved it! I would recommend staying there if you can. Just a warning, bring food for your meals. There are not many places for shopping or eating out, but those that are there are pretty expensive.
We got in on a Wednesday night and it was a easy, if windy, drive in from San Jose, California. If we never stopped it would have been about 3.5 hours, but of course I can’t drive that long without at least one potty break. So we stopped once. Since it has been a few weeks, I can’t remember the town.
Thursday – June 27,2019
Caitlin set up with a guide company for rock climbing in the park. It is expensive and she is an experienced climber as were her friends who joined us, but they all felt it would be better to have a guide since there really isn’t any “sport” climbing. I should remember the name of the route they did but like I said, too much time has passed and I can’t remember the details. I really should have been doing this as we go. It was a multipitch climb close to El Capitan but not on El Cap. I want to say it was the After Seven climb with 6 pitches and rated 5.8. They were gone most of the day.
Meanwhile, Shaun and I hiked the Mist Trail. I was going to go to Nevada Falls, but.. It was hot. I passed a lady throwing up (heat stroke) and another clutching his chest (ended up he had a heart attack) so basically this trail is tough. We went just a wee bit past a mile before I decided I did not need to kill myself. Per my Pacer app, we had 413 feet of elevation gain in the one mile UP. We turned around and came back down the trail but was stopped by a crowd who was observing a baby rattler on the trail. We carefully edged around the snake who was hiding under a rock and then striking out at the crowd and continued on down. Yosemite Valley is a fairly good transportation system but parking can be very tough. I would highly recommend getting there as early as possible so you can easily get a parking spot. On our way into the valley, we swung into Bridal Veil viewpoint trail. I did a U-turn and left because, there was no parking. Unfortunately, my grandson was a little slow getting up that morning and it was already 10. That also meant that the buses were crowded and sometimes you had to wait for a second or third bus. There is trail that you can walk if you want. Shaun was not interested. Afterwards, I realized it would have been smarter for us to go to the farthest point away and work our way back. We would have missed most of the tourist that way. So the only other sight seeing we ended up doing was visiting the museum/visitor center which was only one stop away from where we parked. By the time we got back on the bus, Shaun was ready to go back to the car and our Airbnb. We parked at one of the lodges, so we wandered into Starbucks and got refreshments before heading back to the cabin.
After getting back to the cabin, I sat out on the deck and stitched while Shaun did whatever 11 year olds do when you don’t have cell or wifi service. It was nice. When the other crew arrived, we made dinner and then played Mexican Train dominos. There were no directions with our set of dominos and it had been a while since we played, we had to make up the rules as we went. When we got back to civilization, I looked it up. We were very very close.
Friday, June 28, 2019
Last night we all decided to do different hikes. Our original hike we planned on doing on Friday, Caitlin found out that the road wasn’t open due to snow melt. So we had to do something different. Caitlin, Danielle, and Kenny decided on doing the Four Mile Trail from Yosemite Valley to Glacier Point. They ended up doing a detour to Sentinel Dome on their way there. They had planned on taking the bus back to Yosemite Valley but the bus wasn’t starting until Saturday. They could not reach me by phone, so they had to walk four more miles down hill to their car. They had about 3400 feet of elevation gain in their 11 mile walk that day. They were pretty beat by the time they made it back to the cabin for dinner.
Meanwhile, Shaun and I had planned on doing a meadow hike off of Glacier Point Road. We left way earlier that day and decided to go all the way to Glacier Point before it got too crowded. Best decision of the day. While driving up the Glacier Point Road, there was snow on the side and I was getting a very bad feeling for our meadow hike which could be marshy on a good day. It was gorgeous at Glacier Point. There is a viewpoint just before you get there and we did stop and it was fantastic, but the view at Glacier Point was beyond fantastic. We could see El Capitan, Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, Nevada Falls, Vernal Falls and I think the other falls was Bridal Veil, but I am not sure. You could see Yosemite Village very clearly. Amazing view of all the mountain peaks in the park. Such a great place to go!
Shaun and I drove down to the trailhead for our meadow hike. We only got .35 miles into the hike before the trail became impassable for me. I wasn’t going to be jumping from rock to rock and log to log so I would not have to walk through mud and water. So we turned around and went back. Later in the summer or a spring that was not so wet, this would have a quite nice hike. Leaving it on the list of things to do in the future. It was called McGurk Meadow Trail. It was only 150 feet elevation gain and 1.6 miles out and 1.6 miles back. A nice hike.
Instead, I decided to drive to Mariposa Grove. Wow how that has changed since the last time I went there. They now have a Visitor Center where you park and take the bus to the actual grove. A great place to go if you have people of different hiking abilities. There is a .3 trail most packed and/or paved for those who just want to see the Redwoods without the strain. Shaun and I decided to did the middle one which was a loop and was a total of 2.08 miles with 347 feet of elevation gain. Challenging but not so steep. Not as many UP then DOWN. A lot of switchbacks though. We really enjoyed the hike. If you never seen the California Redwoods, then this is a must. I have never seen trees like these. There was also another loop that went off the one Shaun and I did that took you farther up the mountain and was a 6 mile roundtrip hike. Something for everyone.
Shaun in front of the tunnel tree
We headed back to the cabin to meet the others. Had another night of food, games, and laughter. They were challenging each other to thinks like wall sits (who does that?) And the most excitement was the spider who headed straight for Shaun while he was laying on the ground a pretty good pace. There were screams and chair hopping. Needless to say, the spider doesn’t have the guts to do that again.
Saturday, June 29, 2019
We were originally suppose to do one more hike Saturday morning on our way out the park. Everyone decided that they were too exhausted from the last two days of adventures so we headed home.
Great trip. Would recommend Yosemite to anyone. This year, we had so much rain the valley was very green and the waterfalls were very full.
Headed tomorrow to Halifax, Nova Scotia. I will attempt to not wait quite so long before posting my travel diary for that one.
Peggy
beautiful! Yosemite has so many breathtaking views. Thanks for sharing♥