Blogs from Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California, United States, North America - page 8

Bishop was quite a quaint little town, but we left in the morning without spending any time to check out what the immediate area had to offer. Bishop didn’t actually seem that far from Yosemite, but the problem was that it was on the opposite side of the park to the town where our hotel was located. For one thing, Yosemite is absolutely huge and for another thing, the roads are narrow, windy and constantly going up-and-down. It took two hours of driving to get from where we went into the park to where we wanted to be. We broke that drive by stopping off a small lake called Tenaya Lake. After being 190 feet below sea-level the day before, this lake was at 9,000 feet above sea-level and our ears had been popping for most ... read more

So we got up this morning and buttoned up everything again for the trek from San Francisco to Yosemite. Left about noon and ended up here around 5pm. Stopped along the way to adjust mirrors and refuel before heading to the "wilderness". We're in the Chukchansi Indian Casino parking lot tonight. It was a bit frustrating trying to get parked...they didn't have any signs, the place is literally out in the middle of nowhere at the top of a small mountain, so it took us a couple of "trys" to find the rv parking. We drove through Modesto and Merced to get here, so saw lots of almond trees along the way :) As soon as we left the Bay area, it warmed up considerably!! I didn't see the temp when we arrived, but bet it ... read more

Geo: 37.7163, -119.665 Today we packed up camp. David and Anna were both in a hurry to get home- I think one had work and the other wasn't feeling well. Galen and I were both still energized and spontaneously decided to stay behind an extra day and then just drive home that night. Since we brought two cars it was totally workable. After seeing the Mist Trail from Glacier Point the day before, he was deadset on hiking it, potato-chip blisters and all. With moleskin on, too. So we headed down to the Valley and the Mist Trail trailhead. Because of this hike, Galen was inspired to do Half Dome with us the following month. =D We even saw the brand-spankin new "Do You Have Your Permit?" for Half Dome signs. They weren't in effect yet ... read more

Geo: 37.7163, -119.665Our second day, we got out of bed once we forced Galen to get out first and make us coffee. Then we headed down to Yosemite Valley to the Upper Yosemite Falls trailhead. I had hiked it once before with Chris. My siblings all wanted to go up since they'd never done it before, though. I probably should have made sure they were in better shape first but we did all make it up and down without dying of heatstroke!The trail is 7.2miles roundtrip, which doesn't seem too bad until you consider it's pretty much a straight shot up the cliff via switchbacks. With the exception of one flatter portion that lasts all of ten to fifteen minutes, it's all uphill with an elevation gain of 2700ft. It's a 6-8hr roundtrip hike.We started the ... read more

Mariposa Thurs 3 June well it looked just like cheek abrasions yesterday - and the solid crash of camera on rock sounded like a lens smashing (but all continued to function to record the gasp-inducing Glacier Point thankfully. However this morning's mirror tells me it is a domestic violence case! and the somewhat blood-weeping grazed pinkie left some blood on the sheet (Warfarin good for nothing but anti-coagulation and bleedin')... read more