The Savage Traveler: Out West Adventure: Part 2--Yosemite Valley

Tues. May 28: Yosemite Valley is STUNNING. We left the campsite earlier than the forest office opens, left an envelope to pay for another night in the same site, and got to the National Park entrance by 9:00. It was a twisty, turning, up and down 35 mile drive in and out of clouds at the higher levels and in temperatures in the forties to get to the valley. We reconciled ourselves to seeing the park in that weather. It took us over an hour to get to the iconic tunnel view. Words cannot describe the wonder of coming out of the tunnel and having ones first view of the valley with El Capitan looming on the left, Bridalveil Fall tumbling over the cliffs on the right and the green, green valley climbing in between. Our morning pictures from the top show a necklace of clouds on El Capitan, and billows of clouds around other peaks, sometimes shrouding them altogether.

Clouds billowing out of the Valley

View from tunnel into the valley

Valley beginning to clear

Bridalveil Falls

El Capitan with a necklace of clouds

But even as we descended on Southside Drive into the valley the clouds were breaking up and the sun began to shine through. We stopped again for pictures of our first view of Yosemite Fall but then agreed we shouldn't stop again until we had been to the Visitors Center to learn more about both the Shuttles and the bike paths we were seeing, and to make a plan. We parked at the large parking area and took the Express Shuttle to the Visitors Center where we got our second Passport Stamp, watched their excellent video, and found out that biking was the ranger’s favorite way to see the park. So we headed back to the truck and got out our bikes. We spent the rest of the day riding 11.44 miles and walking several miles of trails with numerous stops to take pictures. This was our day:

As soon as we began our “bike tour” we passed a lovely green meadow, and looking up, we found “Half Dome” looming over us. It was easy to stop look and take pictures, something we could not have done if we were on the shuttle.
Clockwise on the bike path back to the Swinging Bridge (which isn’t) and across the river and back around to Yosemite Lodge. We found out that the restaurant there is only open for dinner so we bought a sandwich and a salad “to go”.
Took our lunch to the Lower Yosemite Fall trail and ate it sitting on the rocks at the bottom of the falls. Then we climbed a little bit up on the giant boulders to get closer to the falls.
Rode counterclockwise on the bike path through Curry Village and on to the parking area near the Nature Center at Happy Isles.
Went through the Nature Center and got our third Yosemite Passport stamp. Then walked the trails around the three Happy Isles.
Continued counterclockwise, with a short time on a horse trail along the river, and then on the road (which isn’t open to vehicles) to the trail up to Mirror Lake. Hiked up to the lake, which is very low because the Sierra Nevada snow pack was half of normal this winter.
Returned to the parking area via the paved path near the bottom of the cliff under the Royal Arches.
It was lovely to ride along the nearly level valley in the sunshine with temperatures in the sixties and make all the stops we wanted to take pictures of the creeks and rivers, Half Dome, the waterfalls, El Capitan, the peaks, the meadows, etc. After putting away the bikes we drove to Housekeeping Village, where I finally got a shower and washed my hair. While I showered, Marv looked at the maps and decided to forgo another day in Yosemite to drive up to Tuolumne Meadow, which would have been the same drive we had done this morning, plus about 50 miles more of equally rugged driving and back again. We left the valley by driving Northside Drive back to the junction and then up to Tunnel View, where we took pictures again, this time with the sun in the west.

Meadow Reflections

Yosemite Falls

Upper Yosemite Falls

Lower Yosemite Falls

Yosemite Falls

Upper Yosemite Falls

Merced River

Rhododendron on Happy Isles

Half Dome from the river

Half Dome over Mirror Lake

Reflections in Mirror Lake

Half Dome

Afternoon view of Bridalveil Falls

Afternoon view of El Capitan

Afternoon Yosemite Valley View

As we returned towards the south entrance we took the turnoff to drive about 13 miles out to Glacier Point. Several people had told us this was a “must do” for Yosemite. We climbed to over 7000ft where one can look straight down to the Valley, 3000ft below. We could also see Half Dome from the side and the two falls behind it, Nevada and Vernal. There were still big patches of snow up there and the temperature dropped into the low forties. As we debated how long to stay, Ranger Dick came to tell the small crowd that he was doing his Sunset talk at 7:00. So we decided to stay for that and learned more of the history of how the National Parks and Yosemite, particularly, came to be founded. The sun set as Ranger Dick talked and the colors on the snow capped Sierra Nevada peaks changed from yellow to pink to purple. Thoroughly chilled we left then and began the scary descent back down to the drive out of the park. Partway down we stopped to eat the lunch Marv had pack the night before. Back at the campsite at 10:00 we warmed up a can of soup for a bedtime snack before crawling gratefully into bed.