Yosemite - 3 day trip

When thinking of Yosemite I have always pictured huge Granite rock faces. The ones made famous in all the climbing movies we have watched together. Yosemite is all of that and so much more. We only had three days at the park and we were staying in a small gateway town called Groveland. We already book all the nights we were going to stay so we couldn't change it when we found out how much driving it actually is to the park and within the park. We looked online and all the camping was booked out but we didn't think of the first come first serve camping spots in the park. We actually spend a day in Groveland just relaxing. We had a beer in a saloon dating back more than a hundred years. It was a pretty nice little town. On to the park

Day 1: Yosemite Valley

We decided to do our first day in the valley on bicycles. You can rent them per day. You can easily do “the loop” in a day and get a short hike or two in. Be warned that in peak season there will be lots of crowds. We set of admiring the biggest granite rock face in the world , El Capitan and the more famous Half Dome. We decided to do the mirror lake trail hike. The park ranger said it would be a nice little like. Indeed hiking through the pine trees with meadows and a river. The further we went the less the crowds became. In no time at all we were back at our bikes and continued. Next we decided to hike an even shorter trail to Vernal Falls. This hike goes on deeper into the canyon so we decided we would see how far we want to go. I think this was a mistake. We headed into a huge crowd of tourists all the way to the falls. We decided to turn around and head back. On our way back we did come across a baby rattlesnake. Right there next to the masses of tourists. A crowd soon formed but thankfully nobody was stupid and the poor guy did not like the attention and sailed away. We looped back to the small “town” and went to the museum and also went to the Ansel Adams gallery. That was a great treat for me seeing some of his original prints from the area.

Day 2: Yosemite sequoias

The second day we headed to the southern part of the park to the big sequoias. You can park your car at the bottom and take a bus up. We arrived there and planned out our route. We were going to see as much of them as possible. The bigger ones and the with more character all have names like Grizzly Giant etc. We could not belief the sheer size of these trees and not to mention their age. Some older than 2000 years. We worked our way up the hill. The higher we got the less people there were. You do have the option to take a fly by tour in a bus. (It kind of spoils the atmosphere but I am sure it is wonderful for those not able to walk that far. But you do miss some of the best things about it. Like touching some of the trees and admiring them for a few minutes. We got to the top and talked to a really knowledgeable park ranger. Turns out Yosemite is actually older than Yellowstone but Yellowstone got the status of National park first. The species in Yosemite is just a little smaller than the trees in the redwoods (We wanted to go to the redwoods but it was too far out of the way so this was a real pleasant surprise seeing the trees in Yosemite)

Day 3: Cathedral Lakes Hike

On our way out of the park we decided to do the Cathedral lakes hike. This turned out to be one of, if not the most stunning day hike I have ever done. I would suggest going to both lakes. It is definitely worth it. The first part of the hike is a bit steep but it levels out after that. It is about 5.6 miles (9 KM) both ways. Just watch out for the thunderstorms that come in in the afternoon. The view at the upper lake is just amazing. I had to get a higher perspective so I walked up one of the big slabs to get a better view. We saw a few people camping at the lake. If you do decide to go off track please don’t trample the grass and plants. Be smart and walk on the rock. This hike is definitely worth it.