Yosemite Road Trip

The Mist Trail sits takes you to two beautiful falls, Vernal and Nevada. With a total gain of 1,900 feet in only 3 miles, it is a stair-climber session your trainer would be proud of. There are some moments on the way to Vernal where you feel like you are in South America on this dodgy staircase carved out of the cliffside - some Indiana Jones shit. Once you get to the crest of Vernal the view is pretty great but you can't help want more, I think the altitude starts to swell your brain and you have no problem continuing the climb to Nevada. Be glad you do, because the top there is worth all of the effort. The landscape at the top is so different than anything else in the park, feels like the Southwest. You can take in the views of your 6,000' summit of the Muir Trail below and then you can look up at just another 2,800 feet you can summit Half Dome which stands tall at 8,842 feet. WHOA! The loop back down changes the perspective of the falls and is just as beautiful but harsh on the knees and toes.

Yosemite has the biggest grove of Sequoias outside of Sequoia National Park which was a must see for me. When we visited the Redwoods awhile back, something there changed me and I had to see the larger brothers of these beastly trees. The Mariposa Grove itself isn't that pretty but you get to go a little Where's Waldo in a re-growing forrest of Cedars and Pines. These suckers are HUGE. They look like movie props or maybe you feel like an elf, I can't decide. The largest is Grizzly Giant which is 1,800 years old, 30 feet in diameter, and has a single branch that is 100ft up and larger around than nearly an other species of tree. I am now dieing to see Sequoia National Park, we hope to tag this onto our next trip to Yosemite in spring of the future.

Yosemite Valley was created by sinking glaciers that filled a forest meadow once 250,000 years ago. The glacier melted over time, 10,000 years ago was the last of the ice giving us the dramatic peaks and valley walls today.

Yosemite RD2.

This was the trip we had planned and cancelled right before we got the call to move to Australia, we were determined to make it happen this summer and we almost had to cancel again. The Yosemite Rim Fir burned 77,000 acres in wilderness areas in the northeast corner of Yosemite. The area was outside of the valley where the main park lives, you would never have know that there was a fire just on the other side of the valley with the exception for a view viewpoints. Anyway, we did it and we are glad we did. First off, the fires scared away a lot of people which made the park more pleasant and at some points kinda eery. Second, September is a great time to travel because kids are in school but it is the wrong time to see Yosemite. The great Yosemite Falls which is the highest measured waterfall in North America and 6th in the worlds DOES NOT FLOW IN SEPTEMBER. This park is still mind-blowing beautiful, but I can't help think that I got a 40% off sale.

STILL, this place is insane, everyone needs to see it. Everyone needs to feel it. Everyone needs to take time in these parks and understand their significance to America. Everyone needs to read about John Muir and wish they could shake his hand. I always feel like a guest in these parks and completely minuscule to nature. It is an emotion I embrace.

In a perfect world, we would have taken the coast all the way down, spent a few nights in the Redwoods and cut over through some legend mountain pass that would rip the tires off the avant - BUT to spend maximum time in the park that meant maximum time on I5. It is about 18 hours with stops for the necessities and a few photos. There were a couple killer mountain passes which Sarah got the majority of and the drive into the park from Merced is very fun.

Online camping reservations sell out in minutes, so you get whatever your browser feeds you. We scored a handicap spot for the majority of nights which was very spacious in a site where there isn't much real estate. Rangers were militant about keeping food in the bear boxes. I feel like we got piked on comparing our neighbors habits to ousr, we even got woken up past 11pm because there were snooping in car windows. Apparently bears can open beer bottles.

Some of our adventures got cancelled do to road closures but that ended up being a good thing because there is so much to see. Every twist of your head in this park you will see something amazing. The granite rock formations, meadows, rivers, wildlife, everything is a photo and everything makes you stop for a moment of "wow."