Last weekend, my guy and I went to Yosemite! It was sort of a spur of the moment trip! We both took Friday off of work and headed up there! It's a little less than a 4 hour drive.
I've spent a lot of time in Yosemite as a child. For many years my family would go up every Thanksgiving in our motorhome. I remember that almost every year we would be there for the first snowfall! As a California girl it was really something special to wake up and see snow falling!
As a child, I really didn't appreciate the beauty of it all! I just liked that I could ice skate at an outdoor ice skating rink. I took ice skating lessons as a child but around here there are only indoor ice skating rinks...for obvious reasons! It was really a special thing to ice skate outdoors, especially as the snow was falling! I have such fond memories of my time in Yosemite as a child...
which is why it was so wonderful to go back after all these years! I think the last time I was there, I was twenty-something!
Yosemite is so beautiful in the autumn! The leaves were just starting to change color and the mornings were very crisp! The temps got down into the 30s at night but then up into the upper 70s in the afternoon.
This is the back of the Ahwahnee Hotel. It's on my bucket list of things to experience in my lifetime. It's over $500 a night but I'm hopeful that someday I will stay there!
This little path was in front of the hotel. I thought it was so beautiful with the canopy of trees over it...
We were riding our bikes around and came across this big rock in the ground. You can see the holes where the Indians used to grind things. There is so much history here!
In the photo above you can see Half Dome. My bucket list also includes climbing this. I've really gotten into hiking, I hike 10 miles every Saturday morning and this would be the ultimate challenge. It's a really popular thing to do. You can see how crowded it gets (click here). I'm still not sure if I want to take the risk after hearing about recent hikers falling to their death.
Update: You can watch a video on climbing Half Dome here.
When I was a kid I loved going into this Village Store! I couldn't wait to go back. It's funny to see something with "adult eyes" that you haven't seen since childhood. It seemed so much smaller than I remembered it! haha!
Luckily the only bear we saw was this stuffed one in the Village Store! They warn you so much there about bears! You can't leave any food, water or toiletries in your car or tent! They have special bear lockers for all that stuff. It's a little weird to be locking up all that stuff and yet there we were in a tent cabin with only canvas between us and the bears!
We took our bikes and rode all around the Yosemite valley. Here's my guy under a HUGE rock...
On the top of that huge rock was something very interesting... a tree growing out of a small crack! Nature is so amazing! You can barely see it in the middle of the rock...
We did this trip on the spur of the moment and didn't have any lodging reservations. We had planned to just find a hotel just outside of the park but I didn't want to leave so I called reservations as we were sitting outside the Village Store. The only thing available were these tent cabins in Curry Village. My guy was not so into it when he heard there were no bathrooms or showers in them. I really wanted to stay there so I talked him into it. The bathrooms and showers were just a short walk down the trail so it wasn't so bad. Luckily the tent cabin we got had heat because it got cold that night! Brrrr!!!
I had such a wonderful weekend there! I can't wait to go back!
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I also took photos of a very old cemetery at Yosemite. I never knew that was there. I'll share those photos soon!
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I enjoyed your post! It's beautiful there! I hope to visit someday. Thanks for sharing:) carol ann
ReplyDeleteGoing to Yosemite is in bucket list. :) Really lovely photos.
ReplyDeleteThinking Out Loud
Thank you! One of my favorite places on this earth. You took some great shots! Blessings.
ReplyDeleteWhen we lived in Fresno we spent many wonderful outings in Yosemite. Your pictures are really lovely and bring back some great memories.
ReplyDeleteYes, we loved it when we visited back in June...it was a most favourite place to see, along with San Francisco!
ReplyDeleteWe too left it so late to book somewhere for the nite, and ended up staying in Mammoth Lakes in a condo! Very expensive, but lovely!I think we arrived about 10pm!
Thankyou for reminding me how beautiful it is there, glad you got to go back!
Your pictures show the beauty of Yosemite. Thank you for posting them.
ReplyDeleteCindy, thanl you for sharing you adventure. Yosemite is certainly a very beautiful place, and thanks to your photos I feel like I've visited too!
ReplyDeleteWow, your pictures make everyone want to be there, even in the tent!
ReplyDeleteThose pictures are beautiful. We vacationed there last month. Would love to go back.
ReplyDeleteUsed to live in Los Gatos and Yosimite and area were my favorite disappearing places. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteAlex
Cindy thanks for sharing all these beautiful pictures!! It brought back so many wonderful memories!! You absolutely need to hike Half Dome, I did it when I was 39 and my daughter, Shannon has done it twice! It is a little intimidating but I got the t-shirt and am proud of it!!!
ReplyDeleteWow Cindy beautiful scenery. It is fun going back to where you have already been as a child. Funny how
ReplyDeletewhen you are a child things do seem to be so much larger or so much different. I am so glad you had a good time. I don't know if I would have stayed in that tent-cabin. There is just not a whole lot between you and animal or insect life. You brave woman.!!!
Oh my, Cindy, what great photos of a beautiful place! Thanks so much for sharing those!
ReplyDeleteHi Cindy,
ReplyDeleteMy family visited Yosemite in May. We also stayed in the tent cabins just like you did. I was lucky enough as a child to see the fire fall. What wonderful memories.
xo
Betty
Such beautiful photographs! I would so love to get away to see Yosemite!
ReplyDeleteBest vacation ever was to Yosemite! Most beautiful place in the States.
ReplyDeleteThat looks like heaven on earth, Cindy....wow......Just beautiful! :)
ReplyDeletexoxo laurie
Hello Cindy; What a beautiful place, I have always wanted to go there,, maybe some day I will,,, your photos are just beautiful to look at.. what a fun weekend for the two of you....
ReplyDeletehugs;
Alaura
Cindy I enjoyed your pictures so much I totally get as a California gal myself how special it is to "play" in the snow...thank you for sharing your beautiful pic's...they turned out great...blessings
ReplyDeleteKarena A Loblolly Life
Dear Cindy, can we swap places for a while, you'll love the weather here...
ReplyDeleteI will definitely love it where you are, the nature looks stunning.
Hugs,
Angela.
Isn't it interesting and fun, how so many of us Californians, North or South, have wonderful childhood memories of Yosemite National Park. Great family vacation destination; affordable. For us, it was an all-day trip, staying in a housekeeping cabin in the 1960s (one step up from the tent cabins).
ReplyDeleteIt was rather amazing how many bears were in our midst. We'd eat at a picnic table in front of the cabin. One day a bear sauntered in and all you heard was one cabin door after another slamming, wham-wham-wham. He pawed at our door. I think this was unusual and that if they do come up with a bear THAT curious, they truck them to higher ground or something.
Sometimes we'd be a stone's throw from the village and parallel a bear on the footpaths; my mom remained so calm but she'd spent a lot of time at the park during the war (WWII) when they'd use the Ahwahnee as R&R/Hospital for wounded soldiers; she had friends who worked up there 'year round. If you don't bother the bears, they won't bother you. I was never scared; it seemed a peaceful co-existence (if humans just follow the rules of the park about feeding them, etc.).
My mom and my husband, forty years apart in making their ascents, have both climbed Half Dome and both say it was treacherous; especially with the recent hiking deaths (apparently it's very slippery), I'm telling you Cindy, I don't think I'd attempt it. But my husband sort of had an ephiphany up there and said when he dies, he wants his ashes scattered over the park. I try to tell him this is legally quite unlikely, but that's how much he feels a kinship with this beautiful place. Yosemite gets you in the heart and soul.
Anyway, haven't been to Yosemite in over 20 years and you're making me yearn to return. I remember the general store; Native American handicrafts! When I was a little kid, I got from that store my favorite Native American doll in her fringed suedy leather, ornate beading and thick, lustrous black braids; she went with me everywhere. And I remember the nature talks by the rangers. Near the cafeteria (we'd get mac-cheese!). And I'm old enough to remember the Firefall above Camp Curry in summer...remember how they'd call out, "Let the fire FALL!!" I guess it was burning embers down the side of a cliff to replicate a waterfall but they had to quit doing it for safety. Camp Curry would smell so smoky afterward. (Camp Curry always would smell smoky anyway, just because of the campfires!)
As a kid, I loved playing in the Merced River there; lovely little sandy "shore" here and there on the banks. (Yosemite is just so, so pretty!) I remember my dad teaching my little brother how to fish with a line. Picnic after picnic; food tastes so much better outdoors!
Everybody should experience this park at least once in their lifetime. By the way, my husband and I did splurge and have dinner at the Ahwahnee and I don't remember what I ate except that it was good, and the tall, tall windows in the massive dining room were majestic as were, of course, the views. Today, I'd have an eye for more detail on the unique architecture but in those days, I was just so caught up by the experience.
Thanks so much for sharing; loved the photos; brings back memories! Never been there in the fall, always in early spring (when the many waterfalls are at their most lush) or summer. But my parents went in the fall and loved it; less tourists, beautiful color in the turning leaves. Guess there's no "bad" time to ever go to Yosemite!
Oh, and as a kid, loved Mirror Lake there, but when I went back as an adult in the early 90s, the lake was almost completely gone, filled with sediment (naturally-occurring event). I was so shocked!
Wow, sorry for the too-long comment but you got me going with your nice post!
I love Yosemite! You brought back some great memories =)
ReplyDeleteBreathtaking pictures! I am a new follow!
ReplyDeleteVicki, I loved reading your comment!! You can spread remains in Yosemite! I just read it on their website last night. I was reading about different permits needed to do things there and I saw it!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous photos. I've been to Yosemite twice (when I lived in Sacramento.) It's breathtaking! Thanks for sharing ~ it brought back good memories for me. I hope I get to return one day.
ReplyDeleteCindy
I feel so lucky as I just drove down from Mammoth today...and it is so gorgeous in the Sierra mountains...all the pretty fall colors up there. Your photos are phenomenal!
ReplyDeleteThe photos are amazing! Thanks for sharing these! Not getting to Yosemite is my only regret when I lived in the bay area for 4 years. We have plans to go back and take the little one to Yosemite when she's a little older. Hope you're having a grand Friday. Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse
ReplyDeleteCindy - great trip. I love the tent cabins (for a short stay :-)
ReplyDeleteLovely photos, thanks fof sharing.
Really, the round shape of an outdoor rug gives us a very neat work of art to work and create a nicer whole. Thanks for sharing good information.
ReplyDeleteCindy, you're a busy girl; can't believe you took the time and added the comment about what I spoke of, as to the ashes thing (don't mean to spoil a nice post about talking of stuff like that, but it's all about the wonder of Yosemite and how it seems to leave no visitor unaffected).
ReplyDeleteSo, thanks; I'll investigate further. Who knew.
I remembered a funny thing about visiting Yosemite in late 60s or so: "hippies" infiltrated the park, don't remember the details, but I guess maybe it was a nice gathering spot in a natural setting. Anyway, you know how there's that big meadow in the valley where I think you're at the base of El Capitan (don't quote me on that); there's a road through it, or used to be. We were driving slowly down it in the big 'ol family Chevy with the huge steering wheel and up pops a girl and guy out of the wildflowers right there by the road, bodies entwined with flowing locks of hair not exactly covering their birthday suits. My dad, startled (weren't we all), almost stalled the car on a boulder, shouting an expletive at the couple (as a lot of the "older folks" didn't understand the hippie culture). My brother and I wanted to shrivel and disappear in teenage embarrassment but the "hippies" just shouted back, "Hey, man; peace and love!" (Or something to that effect.) It was so "the times;" funny little memory.
One last thing and then I'll shut up: There was this gigantic sequoia tree at Yosemite you could actually drive through; it was a tunnel, through this tree and I think it was in the area they call Mariposa. This was early 60s when we and the cousins were little kids; it was quite the novelty for us, to think you could drive through a tree. I think I heard over the years that the tree fell down, so I'm glad I saw it when I did. Missed looking for it on the last trip. That's the thing: a day or weekend seems like never enough time to see and do everything you WANT to do at Yosemite (kinda like Disneyland!).
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. I remembered our outings when we used to live in the States. Thanks for sharing with us your travel. Julia C.
ReplyDeletewow! I dream of that trip.
ReplyDeletewww.minnesotajunker.blogspot.com
I would love to have stayed in a tent cabin like you did! It sounds like you had a lovely trip - going to Yosemite is on my bucket list :)
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