Since we were traveling to California for a wedding (Jen’s cousin got married in Lancaster, in the Antelope Valley of the Mojave high desert) we decided to merge our annual vacation with this trip. We new we wanted to visit Yosemite National Park. I had been to San Francisco a few years ago while coaching a group of Team In Training runners for the Nike Women’s Marathon and really liked it, and I thought Jen might like to go there. So, this became our 2012 vacation.
We decided to spend three days in the park to allow plenty of time for hiking and enjoying our camping experience. Rather than take all our camping gear with us (we were flying into Los Angeles and then home from San Francisco) we decided to stay at Housekeeping Camp, which offers three-sided camping units (the fourth side has a canvas tarp that closes to give you some privacy) with a privacy-fenced patio and a campfire ring. Since all we really needed to use the campsite for was to sleep and hang out in the evening, this was perfect. There had been a recent outbreak of Hantavirus in the park and so many of the lodges and resorts had vacancies, which is really rare. This was really only a problem where the rodents that carry Hantavirus could nest (typically in insulation, which Housekeeping Camp doesn’t have) so there wasn’t much concern where we would be. A nice side effect of the outbreak was that the park had less visitors than it normally would have.
In front of a downed Sequoia in the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park
We arrived at the park in the evening on Sunday and made it to Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias shortly before sunset. We walked through the grove for a bit before it started to get dark, mostly because we were worried we might not make it back over to this part of the park during the rest of our trip. I didn’t realize just how big Yosemite National Park is (Jen does much of the logistics planning for these trips) and the idea that we might not be in this area again over three days was strange to me, but she was right.
Getting to our camp ground after sunset proved to be an interesting twist to our first night on site. We didn’t really have a chance to look around, and after getting all of our food and toiletries into food lockers (Yosemite has a very aggressive bear protection policy and will fine you up to $5000 if you intentionally leave food where a bear can get it) we were too late to start a campfire or anything, so we just planned our next two days of activity and read for a bit on the patio. It should have been a clue of things to come when a 30-lb raccoon showed up, glared at me and Jen, looked at the foot we had laid out on the picnic table, looked at us again and took a step toward the food. I ran it off, but it would have been happy stealing our stuff right in front of us.
As we went to sleep, we started to hear every kind of weird noise imaginable. We heard what sounded like a strange dog barking (almost certainly a coyote) and what was almost certainly two raccoon fighting over territory. We heard loud screaming and a voice yelling “Go away, bear”, which we later decided was probably a ranger as opposed to a camper. We heard the screams of a bird that we were convinced was Kevin from the Pixar movie Up, though it was likely a raven. Regardless, Jen woke up every four minutes yelling, “What in the hell was that?!”
We spent our first day hiking the Panorama Trail, which runs from Glacier Point to the Mist Trail along Happy Isles. The hike is of moderate difficulty and typically takes between 4.5 and 7 hours. We were impressed at how much more demanding a moderate hike was compared to what we expected. We were both very tired by the of the day and I had a couple of blisters. The hike itself was amazing and we saw some of the most beautiful views we’ve ever seen. The downhill portion of this hike was rougher than we expected (we experienced this in the Grand Canyon as well) between the impact on joints and the jarring nature of the descent. We were ready to be done with the trail by the time we reached Happy Isles, but we’re really glad we picked this particular trail.
View from Glacier Point at the start of our hike along the Panorama Trail
Jen had learned about an unmarked trail that was discussed in detail on some of the Yosemite-related internet sources she was using for research and we managed to find it during our hike. It was well worth the detour off the marked trail and was a nice addition to the already scenic adventure.
Our plan for the second day was to hike to Clouds Rest, though we knew at the start of the day that there was no way we would be able to do this without being miserable. Instead, we spent up in the High Country driving along the Tioga Pass and stopping off at various places such as the Tuolumne Meadows, Soda Springs and Tenaya Lake. We had lunch in a field next to Parsons Lodge and next to a small creek, which was one of the most peaceful experiences I’ve ever had. We saw several groups of mule deer wandering the meadows.
Our lunch spot along the trail to Soda Springs and Parsons Lodge
After getting back to the campground area, we started a fire and had dinner. We made the short trip over to El Capitan to look at the mountain climbers that were setting up camp for the night. Ascending El Capitan takes anywhere from 2-7 days and the climbers sleep in what is essentially a platform suspended from anchors on the side of the mountain. We saw a few mule deer wander through the El Capitan Meadow which was a really common sight at dusk. We spent the rest of the night hanging out by the campfire and taking long-exposure photos of the stars from the campground.
Cooking hot dogs on the campfire at Housekeeping Camp
We headed out of Yosemite the following day on our way to the second stage of our vacation in San Francisco. Leaving Yosemite was on par with leaving the Grand Canyon, though we both felt there was more to do (and year-round) at Yosemite National Park. We loved our stay there and both of us want to return in the not-so-distant future. The drive out of the Yosemite Valley was just as remarkable as our drives through it. On CA-120, we drove down Old Priest Grade, which climbs from 910 feet (280m) elevation to about 2,450 feet (750m) over a distance of only six miles. We saw a cyclist working his way up as we were coming down. Craziness.
View from the Rim of the World just outside Yosemite over the Tiogo Pass
