Our first day in Yosemite started a little slow. After several days of being on vacation and NOT swimming in a pool, the kids pretty much were on vacation-strike until we went swimming again. Since we had talked about the fact that this hotel had a pool with a view of Yosemite Falls, there was no way we were doing anything prior to taking them swimming. LOL
Unfortunately, the pool didn’t open until 10AM and the first hour was for lap swimming only. We hadn’t really intended to start swimming at 11AM so we had a lot of time to blow before we could swim. To pass the time, we ate breakfast, purchased some Dramamine, browsed in the gift shop, booked a tour for later that day, figured out our game plan for the day, etc.
When we did eventually get to the pool, the water was freezing so I pretty much immediately got out. The boys had a ball though and I took pictures of my view from the pool chair. 😉
view from the pool area
My view of Sentinel Rock from the pool
Yosemite Falls was still impressive despite being dry
Mike and the boys were the only ones in the water
We let the boys swim for about an hour and then we had to hustle. We needed to grab lunch, all get showered/dressed, and back to the registration building by 1pm for our Yosemite Valley tour.
Ready for our Valley Floor tour!
My view of Yosemite Falls from the last row of the tram
The park ranger teased us about sitting in the last row but I was able to get pictures of stuff behind us so it all worked according to plan! LOL
The 2-hour tour was a really great experience. The ranger gave us some background over how the valley was formed, named rock formations, discussed rock climbing history, and the background behind the National Park Service and the birth of the National Park movement in the US. It was a great way for us to see many different areas of the valley without having to drive and navigate on our own.
Sentinel Rock
Cathedral Rocks
In many areas the rock walls were so high, it was difficult to get the valley floor and the top of the rocks in the same frame.
El Capitan – We sat and looked at the rocks for a while in the hopes of seeing climbers on the rocks. We weren’t ever able to see anyone.
El Capitan is the largest monolith of granite in the world and rises more than 3,000 feet about the Valley floor.
Bridalveil Falls was down to a trickle when we saw it. The water flowing over the edge turning to mist. They say that it thunders in the spring time.
Bridalveil Falls in the background with the very dry Merced River in the foreground.
Our next stop was Valley View. In hindsight, Valley View was a lot more pretty to photograph than the more famous Tunnel View and I wish I spent more time taking pictures there. Tunnel View was unbelievably stunning to see in person but I don’t think it translated as well in photographs. (Valley View = prettier in pictures, Tunnel View = more stunning sight in person)
Valley View gave us a gorgeous view of El Capitan (left) and Sentinel Rock, Cathedral Rocks, and Bridalveil Falls (right). Half Dome and Cloud’s Rest are further back in the middle but blocked by the trees. In the foreground is Bridalveil Meadow and the Merced River.
Our chariot waiting to take us to our next stop
Next up was Tunnel View. Tunnel View is a lookout point right past the Wawona Tunnel.
Pulling into the Tunnel View parking lot. The Wawona Tunnel was bored through solid granite bedrock and is located on one of the three main roads providing access to Yosemite Valley. At 4,233 feet long Wawona Tunnel is the longest highway tunnel in California.
The most iconic vista in Yosemite National Park: Tunnel View
Photographs just don’t do this justice. The size and scale of the view is completely lost in photographs.
Here is the same picture with quick some labels. To get an idea of scale, our hotel would be near the base of Yosemite Falls and right across from Sentinel Rock. Again, the top of El Capitan is more than 3,000 feet above the Valley Floor (more than 2x taller than the Empire State Building). There are hotel buildings, employee dorms, parking lots, cars, buses, campsites, museums, shops, restaurants, meadow clearings, hiking paths, bridges, river, etc in that forrest of trees on the Valley Floor.
There was a pretty sheer drop on the other side of that stone wall. Mike was pretty freaked out when any of us got close to it. LOL
“Tunnel View: Rededicated October 24, 2008 through a landmark public-private partnership, the Centennial Challenge, commemorating the centennial of the National Park Service.”
This was really cool!
Click HERE to see the full size version of the picture above.
Please note how far he’s standing from the wall. 🙂
One last view of the parking lot and Wawona Tunnel before leaving
This is the view that made me gasp “OMG!” as we drove past the prior day.
After that, we headed back down into the Valley.
Matthew fell asleep at this point. It was deep into nap time but we’d also given him Dramamine to fight any potential car (tram?) sickness he might encounter during our tour. I’m not sure if the medicine made him drowsy but he slept on Mike’s arm for probably 45 minutes. LOL
This rock formation is called the Three Brothers but you can really only see 2 peaks through the trees: Eagle Peak on the left, nearly obscured by the trees on the left side of the opening, and Middle Brother, the peak you can see clearly. Lower Brother is behind the trees on the right of the gap.
Sentinel Rock
You can see the scarring from Yosemite Falls on the rocks on the left. I can only imagine how impressive the Falls are with water running over the rocks.
Yosemite Falls, one of the world’s tallest, is actually made up of three separate falls: Upper Yosemite Fall (1,430 feet), the middle cascades (675 feet), and Lower Yosemite Fall (320 feet). The total 2,425 feet from the top of the upper fall to the base of the lower fall qualifies Yosemite Falls as the seventh highest waterfall in the world. For my family in Buffalo, Niagara Falls is a mere 167 feet in comparison. Niagara Falls has the highest water flow rate in the world so it can still hold it’s own against Yosemite Falls. 😉
North Dome can be seen on the right.
….aaaaand, still sleeping….
Half Dome through the trees!
North Dome and the Royal Arches (curved arches on the rock wall) on the left. Half Dome on the right.
North Dome and the Royal Arches
Half Dome
Glacier Point
Glacier Point was a little too difficult to photograph because it was so tall and we had to look into the sun. So I figured another Half Dome photo was appropriate. 😉
Deer! We saw so many deer during the days we spent in Yosemite.
Our ranger was not very happy to see this man so close to this deer. He warned us to give the wildlife plenty of room.
“Down through the middle of the Valley flows the crystal Merced, River of Mercy, peacefully quiet, reflecting lilies and trees and the onlooking rocks; things frail and fleeting and types of endurance meeting here and blending in countless forms, as if into this one mountain mansion Nature had gathered her choicest treasures, to draw her lovers into close and confiding communion with her.” ― John Muir
Shortly after that, our tour wrapped up and we got dropped off at the hotel registration building. We took a break for drinks and then caught a tour bus to the Yosemite Visitor Center. We planned to look around there for a bit and then head to Mirror Lake for a hike.
After exploring the Yosemite Visitor Center and surrounding area, we took a shuttle bus to the Mirror Lake shuttle stop. Mirror Lake was billed as an easy hike with a mountain-reflecting lake at the end. Perfect destination on a warm summer day! We got off with a bunch of people and looked forward to splashing around in the water at the end of our hike.
Sooooo, our hike to Mirror Lake. How do I describe this train-wreck of an experience? LOL The trailhead had 2 paths: a blacktop-paved path that kind of looked like a street and a dirt path in the woods. There were no markers and a bunch of people took the dirt path so we decided to follow them (safety in numbers, yo!). Turns out, the path we took was the path that horse-back riders take on their tours. It was hard to climb, absolutely covered in horse poop, and a distinctly unpleasant experience. And the boys complained the ENTIRE way. LOL
We had promised them that they could splash in the lake water when we got there so imagine their DELIGHT when we arrived to this:
Yep! That’s right. A bone dry lake bed! AWESOME!!!
Needless to say, the kids were NOT happy campers.
If only the water hadn’t dried up and we hadn’t hiked in horse manure for an hour. We may have appreciated this view more. LOL
We rested up and cooled off in the shade.
Pretend there was water there. Wouldn’t it have been really pretty? Please note that the boys are posing with super fake smiles. LOL
We took the paved, ridiculously easy path back to the shuttle stop. I don’t know if it really was a lot shorter or if it was all due to the amount of exertion in comparison to the horseback path but the return hike seemed half as long. LOL
Bear trap!
We heard a commotion out in the forrest during our hike back (dogs barking up a storm) and I told Matthew to stay close because it might be mountain lions. Turns out, it was a small family of black bears! After we caught our shuttle, the driver said bears had been spotted in the woods. Sure enough, we saw them walking in the trees on our way to the next shuttle stop. Unfortunately, we were on the wrong side of the bus and it was too dark to get a good picture in the trees. But yay for seeing bears in a completely safe, non-life-threatening way!!! It almost (ALMOST) made up for the Mirror Lake Hiking Train-Wreck of 2014. LOL
After our hike, we intended to try a new restaurant and then go to a family-friendly campfire in another spot. It just wasn’t our day because the restaurant had already closed by the time we got there so we had to catch another shuttle, go alllll the way back to our hotel, eat dinner, catch a shuttle in the other direction, and hike to the campfire spot. It turned out to be a comically frustrating experience and we got to the campfires about 10 minutes before it ended. AAAAHHHHHH!!! LOL
We did get there in time to see and hold a Sugar Pine pine cone. The cones were huge.
After that, we decided we had enough fun for one day so we headed back to the hotel and went to bed.
Stay tuned! There are more adventures to come!
I couldn’t imagine what the heck you were going to do for that many days in the 2 parks. Well, now I do. Amazingly gorgeous there. Due to my issues with motion sickness, this isn’t a place I could ever go myself & that makes me appreciate your photos & blog even more.