Favourite 5 things to do in ( or around) Yosemite
 

So doing a feasibility study on a trip to New York for a few days then flying to Vegas to start a road trip through Death Valley to Yosemite to San Fran and down the Pacific coast highway before flying home

For each place / area , I will be asking for your 5 favourite / must do things
Having got such good responses on the San Francisco one here
https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1158714
It is now the turn of Yosemite and surrounding areas

So please put your favourite 5 things to do, in ranking order if possible
It would be useful if you could put an approx time required , and approx cost per person

If there is anything you think is over-hyped or a waste of money , please let me know

And anything that was a bit of a little known gem that you were really glad you did

Looking forward to all your suggestions

Mmmm

I found nothing about Yosemite over hyped, and enjoyed everything we did. Which entrance will you enter and exit from (or have you not got that far).

We arrived from San Francisco and entered from the Merced end, and left two days later via the Tioga pass so we built our itinerary around that really.

In no particular order as everything we did was amazing

1. Chill out on the ‘beach’ by Housekeeping Camp - so peaceful even in the height of summer

2. Mirror Lake - a nice easy walk

3. Mist trail - very tough but oh so worth it to get to the top of Vernal Falls

4. Rafting down the Merced River - great fun with beautiful views in every direction

5. Sunrise at Glacier Point - you need to leave by 5am as it takes about an hour to get up there. You’ll forget about being tired as soon as you take in the view

6. Tunnel View - our first view of Yosemite, jaw dropping

7. Starry Night Skies Tour - so informative, we saw loads of shooting stars, the ISS and the Milky Way. Only $10 each

Yosemite was probably my favourite part from our California Road Trip, I could have spent at least another 2 nights there

If you drive from Vegas you will arrive via tioga pass , Awesome . While there the main things to see ?
Valley floor tour ,open top vehicle,2 hours and let’s you get your bearing and give a little history.
Drive up to glacier point 10,000 ft
Walk over to El Capitan And would suggest you watch the 2 films before you go, Free solo and the Dawn wall.
Walk up to vernal waterfalls and down via the john muir trail. This will take most of the morning but well worth the time. Tip go early before it gets to busy 9-930 and make sure you take water bottles as at this altitude you will get dehydrated quite quickly. The valley floor is at 4000 ft and you will walk up to 5500 to 6000.
Night walk for the stars and an early morning for sun coming up at tunnel view

We loved glacier point, altho we didn't make it early enough for sunrise! From there we then travelled further south to Maripisa Grove to see some giant sequoia. We didn't have the best of weather for our few days in Yosemite, lots of rain and low cloud, but it was stunning in the few breaks in the weather we got. We didn't do any organised tours just took our time and walked to the various falls and lookout points.

Thanks guys

Karen - my current plan is to drive in from tioga pass then on to SF and PCH
But no reason why we couldn't fly into Sf, do PCH then Yosemite and down through Death Valley to fly home from Vegas

Ok cool - so I loved Tioga Pass, Glacier Point, Mariposa Grove, and just bumbling around taking in the scenery. We visited Ahwanee Lodge (I’ve spelt that wrong!) too because we wanted to see what had inspired the Wilderness Lodge. Absolutely loved Yosemite. Our kids loved the ‘junior ranger activities’ but think yours are too old (mine too, now!)

I hope you love it as much as we did :)

1 - Hiking Vernal and Nevada falls - quite a climb but totally worth it.
2 - Views from Glacier Point - stunning but freezing first thing in the morning.
3 - The giant Sequoia at Mariposa Grove
4 - Tioga Pass - we had snow at the side of the road here which felt strange after really hot weather in the Valley Floor
5 - Seeing El Capitan

Don't forget that when planning on using Tioga Pass the opening times after the ploughing can be late June/early July depending on the previous winter. In 1998 I went over the Pass on July 6th and it had only just reopened on the 1st, Tenaya Lake was still frozen and the snow at the Tioga entrance was 15 foot high where it had been ploughed. In 2019 it opened on 1st July too yet in 2014 it opened on May 2nd - it really is totally dependant on winter snow pack. The good news is that Glacier Point usually opens earlier than Tioga.

Here is the link to the National Park Service website for Yosemite for some good information:-

https://www.nps.gov/yose/index.htm

1 - Hiking the mist trail up to vernal falls then on to Nevada falls, this was probably the absolute highlight of our entire west coast trip. It's about 7miles round trip and I recommend going back down the John Muir trail rather than attempting the mist trail down again. It's lot of work and a lot of uphill/steps/uneven paths but incredible views and an amazing experience, however it's important to carry as much water as they recommend at the time of year, as well as food and wearing the correct clothing/footwear, otherwise it might not be a great experience. A lot of people just do the mist trail to vernal falls and back down, so that would shorten and simplify the route. - estimate would be 3-4hours for the walk not including getting to the start point, rest stops etc.
2 - Views from glacier point, we drove up quite early, the car parking situation is a bit of a nightmare but you get to see a totally different view of the valley - half a day inc travel time
3 - Visit The Ahwahnee Hotel, ideally grab a drink and chill out around the back of the hotel, it looks incredible against the mountains or have a meal in the restaurant (hot beef sandwich was amazing, partner had food envy) - food prices online, parking was free at the hotel even without a reservation, 1-2hrs
4 - Mariposa grove of giant sequoias (if you aren't hitting Sequoia national park), I think it's about an hour out of the valley, but it was a nice little wander and very different environment. we gave this around half a day including travel time.
5 -Housekeeping beach/river area - nice to chill out after walking around all day, or a nice calm early morning spot if you're staying there or curry camp

Overrated - Tunnel view, you'll pass it anyway so it's worth stopping for the photo but don't get excited about it as it's so busy with every tour group squeezing in to take photos, whereas other places have good views without the masses.