Yosemite May 2010

Traveling during holiday weekends is usually not recommended, but we both had a 4 day weekend.  Why not go somewhere?  I had been looking into visiting Yosemite National Park for the past couple of years.  We had a trip planned for Labor Day weekend a couple years back, but cancelled it due to other plans and the fact that the waterfalls would have all been dried up.  Memorial Day weekend sounded like a good time to go as the waterfalls would be in full flow. 

We booked a camping spot outside the park, because we were out of the country the day the spots in the park went on sale.  They obviously filled up quickly.  I think I tried to book a spot only a few days after the reservation system had opened up.  After some research, I decided on Forks Campground at Bass Lake.  I thought camping next to a lake would be a suitable second to camping inside Yosemite.

Day 1, Friday – Traveling to Yosemite

We drove up early on Friday morning, leaving here around 7am.  I thought this way we’d be able to beat some of the traffic heading out of the town for the long weekend.  Not as many people were probably lucky enough to have Friday off like we did. 

We loaded up the car with all of our gear and 5 peoples' worth of clothing.  It was a sight seeing all of our stuff laying on the ground to be packed into the car.  I thought for sure we’d have to take 2 separate cars.  But, the guys managed to cram everything into the Trail Blazer. We took our time on the drive up.  With 5 people in the car, it can be a little tough driving straight through.  Besides, I think having a road trip is part of the experience and to enjoy it, you should make stops along the way.  We stopped almost every hour on the hour for bathroom breaks or food.  My bladder is horrible in the mornings after having my coffee.  The drive ended up being about 7 hours with all the stops.  I think we made the trip home a little faster since we were all tired and dehydrated.

We got to our campsite about 2pm and checked in at the main ranger’s station.  We still didn’t have any traffic getting to our campsite, it was smooth sailing.  While the 2 guys set up our massive “mansion” tent, the ladies went to the grocery store for supplies.  We didn’t want to haul a lot of food or firewood up as we barely had enough room for all of our stuff in the SUV.  Besides, they say to buy your firewood there so you don’t introduce new bugs to the area.

We chose to spend Friday evening relaxing around camp while deciding on what hike to do on Saturday in Yosemite.  We had a delicious dinner of roasted hot dogs and baked beans.  It was freezing our first night.  I think we had clear skies and were next to a lake, so that made it colder.  The key to camping is sleeping bags!  Blankets do not keep you warm enough and we should have known that from our camping weekend in the desert the month before.

Day 2, Saturday – Panorama Trail

We woke up around 8am to get breakfast going and to get ready for our hike.  We decided on the Panorama Trail, which was a 10 mile out and back hike that was estimated to take 6 to 8 hours.  This was one of a few trails that I had picked out of my guide book, Hiking Yosemite National Park, A Falcon Guide.  It was the longest and hardest and it was agreed to go with the hardest one first.  We made breakfast burritos thinking the eggs would be a good thing to start our day of a long hike.  We packed our bags with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chips, apples, granola bars and water. 

We finally left the campsite at about 10am and headed to the entrance of Yosemite.  We got to the entrance pretty quick and were waved through without having to pay since there were so many cars backing up traffic.  We made our way to Glacier Point and got there around 12pm.  Yosemite is way bigger than it looks on a map!

The view of the valley from Glacier Point is breathtaking!  You can see Vernal and Nevada Falls to the right and Yosemite Falls to the left.  We started on our hike and everyone was in good spirits.  Had they known how the hike would go, a few people wouldn’t have gone the whole way I don’t think.  The trail is downhill in the beginning.  We had lunch down at the valley of the hike along Illilouette Creek.  The hike began going uphill after our lunch break.  Once it leveled out, we were almost at the top of Nevada Falls and were starting to lose one of our fellow hikers.  She had never been hiking and thought it was really hard.  Luckily she is young, so we pushed her along to finish out the hike. 

When we arrived at Glacier Point, we saw the magnificent Half Dome.  We didn’t realize at the time that we’d be hiking all the way over to the west side of it.  None of us realized that the upper fall we saw when we first started was the fall, Nevada Fall, we were hiking over to. 

Once we were at the top of Nevada Falls, we rested and syked ourselves up for the hike back, since we were only half way done.  We had to go all the way back!   I tried to set a fast pace for the way back to keep everyone going physically and mentally.  We made it back to Illilouette Creek and rested and made our way back, uphill, the rest of the way.  The last uphill part of the trail was the hardest.  We were all exhausted, especially our novice hiker.  But, what a feeling when we finished and made it back!  We had to take our photo in front of the sign in the beginning to show we’d survived the Panorama Trail!

It was about 7pm when we finished the hike, so we weren’t going to make it back to camp before dark.  Therefore, we decided to eat out for dinner instead of making dinner in the dark.  We had seen a pizza place, Timberloft Pizzeria (Yelp), on the way into the park and were on a mission to find it on the way out of the park.  We still made a fire when we got back to camp, but crashed out pretty soon after we got back to camp.  It wasn’t as cold the second night.

Day 3, Sunday – Happy Isles to the Top of Nevada Fall

Because of the extraneous hike on Saturday, our companions were done with the hiking.  Mike and I were the only ones interested in hiking on Sunday.  We decided on the hike from Happy Isles to the Top of Nevada Fall.  It was a 6 mile loop that would take about 3 or 4 hours. We chose this hike, because our guide said if it’s the only hike you do in Yosemite, it should be this one.  Sounded like a winner to me.  By the time we ate breakfast and got going, we were starting our hike about 1pm.  We didn't have to pay the park fee again since there was a lot of traffic.  Traffic, parking and crowds were pretty bad down the in the valley.  We realized we probably should have hiked down there on Saturday and at Glacier Point on Sunday.  It seemed more people traveled to Yosemite on Saturday making it busier by Sunday.

We lucked out and found a parking space around Curry Village and took the free shuttle down to the starting point at Happy Isles.  The beginning of the trail is really steep, but it was all mostly downhill at the end.

There were so many people on the trail that I thought it was going to suck.  The guide said the crowd would thin out the further you went, but it ends up being once you are at the top of Vernal Falls.  So many people hike up the Giant Staircase that aren’t really fit and tire out, so they don’t go any further along the trail.  But, the staircase was crowded with people and many people would stop in the middle of the trail instead of moving over to rest.  We tried to be patient.

Regardless of the crowd, the Giant Staircase is pretty amazing.  It is a staircase made from stone blocks and goes up the side of Vernal Fall.  When the fall is in full flow, you get sprayed by its mist.  We were soaked when we got to the top.  Once we were up and out of the mist, we sat down and had our PB&J sandwiches while watching the waterfall and the beautiful rainbow it was making at the base. 

We found our way to the top of Vernal Fall and continued along the trail to start hiking up to the top of Nevada Fall.  That trail was a little harder as it was longer, dry and in the sun most of the way.  We recognized the top of Nevada Fall from the day before and thought about how tired we were at that point the day before!  We continued along our current trail to start circling back down to finish the hike.  Along the trail there was snowmelt running off onto the trail and we had to walk under it, there was no other way around.  Therefore, we got soaked again, but it was fun.

We got back to camp around 7pm and told our travel companions about our hike.  I was starting to stiffen up as we were sitting around the campfire, so we decided not to hike on Monday and just go home as early as possible.  We were originally planning on exploring the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees had we had enough energy.  I could barely walk, however, my calves were really tight!

Our last night at camp, we made grilled chicken and corn on the cob for dinner and tried to eat and drink as much of our supplies as possible.  We ended up having to throw some stuff out, because we had no extra room in the SUV.

The next morning, Memorial Day, we packed up camp and stopped for breakfast at Pete's Place (Yelp) in Oakhurst, before driving home.

Yosemite is magnificent and beautiful!  I can’t wait to go back someday and go on more hikes.  We chose a good year to visit Yosemite, 2010 was on of the best seasons for the waterfalls.  They are expected to continue running into August this year!  I highly recommend visiting the park in the Spring or early Summer if you’ve never been so that you can see the waterfalls.

Trip Summary

Lodging - Forks Campground at Bass Lake #15

Food - Timberloft Pizzeria, Pete's Place, Vons (camping food)

Activities - The Panorama Trail, Happy Isles to the Top of Nevada Fall