West Coast First Timers - Day 5, Yosemite

[abiknox]

Index here

I woke up naturally today at 6.30am just after sunrise, I was so excited to get out onto the balcony & get my first proper view. It didn’t disappoint, It’s very hard to describe how stunning it all is. We were in one of only two rooms that had a balcony continuation right over the river, some others were very close but ours and one other were just that tiny bit closer. I spent a lot of time out there before Aaron woke up just feeling incredibly lucky to be somewhere so beautiful. I took a lot of photos, silently face timed my sister to show her the view and just sat there taking it all in.



After an hour or so Aaron pops his head out of the door saying we have an ant infestation Nightmare! They were everywhere on the kitchen surface & had gotten into the bread and the sweet boxes, basically everything that wasn’t in the fridge. It was really annoying as the shop at the lodge only sold awful generic bread, where as we had bought a lovely crust loaf to toast from Walmart. The staff didn’t seem too interested as if it was a regular occurrence. Im sure it is in a place so full of nature but a little note warning to put all food in the fridge would have been grand! We might not have saved the bread but the choccie would have been fine. Hey ho, we struggled on and ate Pound cake with Nutella. It’s a hard life! We quickly facetimed Aarons mom, I smothered myself in sunscreen & bug spray which pretty much choked me and we had a selfie on the balcony.



We were out of the room by 9am and headed straight into the national park paying our $20 on the way in. The photo opportunities were plentiful and we stopped a few times on our way into the valley.







We pulled up at Bridalveil falls but as expected it was dry.



We parked up in the village and walked over to the information center to ask directions. We were wanting to do the Mist Trail so we got directed over to a shuttle stop and told when to get off. Simples.



Off we set! It was hot today so we kept stopping and sipping water.













Sorry about all the photos but I just can’t help it. This is a very small selection of how many we actually took! The walk up was relatively easy, I don’t think we had done ourselves any favours missioning around San Fran in the three preceding days but it was all good fun. Each time my legs hurt we just stopped for a couple of minutes and admired the view.











When we neared the top of Vernal Falls there were a lot of groups of men, probably all early 20’s jumping into the water. It looked so refreshing but also pretty dangerous with a lot of notices saying keep off the rocks! There was one lad in one of the groups that really didn’t want to jump but they all goaded him into it and in the end he just did a running jump and went for it! Luckily he re surfaced with a smile on his face.




Spotted this little guy on the way home.

We slowly made our way back down the trail reaching the start again at about 2pm. We got on the shuttle to the village & head into Degnans Deli for a sandwich. I went for the Ham & Swiss while Aaron went for the Beef & Horseradish with the plan to go halves, we grabbed a bag of crisps too and a Turtle Brownie for pud Im afraid my sandwich photos are with the lost bunch, RIP, but I have pinched this one from Google. Luckily my brownie pic was uploaded to FB so I have that one safe and sound! This little lot came to $23 with a diet coke. Well worth it as we could have shared a sandwich, they were pretty big. We both agreed the beef was the better option.





Onwards we walked over to the Ahwahnee hotel to have as look around. Its gorgeous. There was a wedding taking place in the gardens and it just looked so idyllic!



We bumped into one of Aarons work colleagues in the foyer, they had one of those moments when they both looked at each other, not sure if it really was who they thought. Very small world! They chatted for a while & I spoke to his girlfriend. Turns out they were also at the Yosemite View Lodge for the same two nights as us and had also come from San Fran although they had luckily left before the traffic hit!. They were going onwards to Death Valley & Vegas though so we wouldn’t cross them again.

After a while we said our goodbyes and head out of the park. Its about 4pm by now and we decide to do a load of washing and then try out the hot tubs out by the river. The laundry was really close to our room, another plus and in the 30 minutes it took to wash the clothes there is a torrential downpour! Very lucky we left the park when we did.

This was what my white Converse looked like after today’s hike!



Luckily they came out bright white again in the wash

We head to the hot tubs at around 6 to try and time it right for sunset, they were quiet and we were the only ones using them. We stayed for about 30 minutes before heading back to the room for a shower.

Hungry by now we decided pizza was on the cards. Aaron popped out to get it and came back with a medium Ham & Pineapple. Again I have lost the photo so here is one I found online, just imagine it with a Hawaiian topping instead



It was delicious and with a cider for me & beer for Aaron it was absolute perfection after a heavy days walking. We sat out on the balcony eating it & listening to the river again.

We watched TV for a bit before falling asleep to the sound of a thunder storm outside. It had been am incredible day.

Tomorrow….. More Yosemite & onto Monterey

[Guest]

Ah! The Ahwahnee Hotel - they do an amzing James Bond Martini there. You can see where Disney got there ideas from for Wilderness Lodge and Grand Californian.
And, Yosemite... just breath taking isn't it?

[Lolly90]

Yosemite looks incredible, you took some really great photos!

[NatsyNoo]

Beautiful and absolutely on my bucket list! What a small world bumping into a colleague there!

[MichelleS]

Yosemite is amazing ,we want to go back there

[Pussycat Doll]

Lovely photos, brings back so many memories! Pussycat

[Twilight Nerd]

It looks amazing I am loving your report, can't wait to see Yosemite next year

[CrispyA]

We loved the Mist Trail - great pictures!

[SuzyM]

Yosemite looks amazing, can't wait to see it for real next year. We're staying at the same hotel as you but just for one night then the Lodge at the Falls for 2 nights. How far is the Mist Trail to walk? Does that take you to the Vernal Falls? I haven't researched the different trials yet so don't know which ones we are doing -that one looks lovely though.

Suzy

[BLDY&McGoo]

We will be hoping to go here in 2016!
Your pictures look lovely! Such a gorgeous place!