(Complete!) Ticking Off the Missing Stuff: SF, Yosemite & Carmel food & trip report June 2022

[Wordsworth]

Our second night in Hotel G was much quieter than the first, but we were still up early enough to get to Sears Fine Food by 8am.

This morning we both went for omelettes. I had:

Joanie's Special Omelet - smoked chicken apple sausage, green onions and cheddar cheese. I upgraded to home fries as I like peppers and onions with my potatoes.

DH stuck with the hash brown option and had:

Denver Omelet - a long time Sears favorite, bell pepper, onion and ham.

Both tasty, and the overall cost was about the same as the day before.

We then went for a walk around the Chinatown area to stretch our legs, as we knew we’d be spending a lot of time in the car.

It was still fairly early on a Sunday morning, so quiet streets and closed stores. Sadly this meant we couldn’t stock up on the Irn Bru we spotted in the window of the Scottish import shop - that stuff gets everywhere!

We were due to pick up a car at 11am from Avis on Post Street, a short walk from our hotel, so we made our way back to the room and repacked our bags to fit in my many candles and hand soaps.

DH always grumps a lot about my holiday shopping and having to move it, but it was at this point he informed me that he’d planned a driving route to Yosemite that encompassed a stop off at a Premium Outlets with a B&BW shop, so his bark is obviously worse than his bite.

Checking out of the hotel and picking up our intermediate SUV was painless and we were soon out of the city and on the road!

The San Francisco Premium Outlets, at Livermore, were about 45 minutes away. At just after 12 on a Sunday, people were circling the car park waiting to pounce on spaces becoming free, so we were at first worried we wouldn’t get parked. We soon realised though that if you were willing to park a little further away, which we were, there were still a lot of empty spaces.

We didn’t realise it was some kind of outlet weekend with extra discounts, so that might explain the crowd! We spent a happy time shopping - we bought a sweater (me) and a shirt (DH) in J Crew, and a top (me) and cap (DH) in American Eagle. We browsed in the Disney Character Warehouse, Gap, Coach, Kate Spade, Longchamp and a few trainer stores, but didn’t buy anything.

We also found Bath and Body Works! I managed to get bottles of two of the Christmas lotions I wanted, plus a Christmas shower gel, and the Orange Vanilla Twist body lotion as well, so I was happy.

At this point we needed sustenance. DH spotted something he thought was a Cinnabon; that’s because it was a Cinnabon! We got some Bon bites and a Sprite to share.

After that, it was time to get back on the road, with Yosemite still a couple of hours away. The parking lot was properly full now, and someone stalked us all the way to our car for the space.

DH drove the whole route; I snapped some photographs as the landscape changed from flat to hills.

We reached Tenaya Lodge, our home for the next two nights, with no issue, and checked in. We got two reusable water bottles and a s’mores kit, as well as a parking pass to display in the car.

I was slightly freaked out when we arrived at our room, as the layout was *exactly* the same as our room at Wilderness Lodge. Disney got the National Park lodge vibe spot on!

The lodge has several options for food, and tonight we decided to walk to their pizzeria, which is open seasonally.

We ordered a 16 inch Sicilian to share - pepperoni, mushroom, red onion, mozzarella, olives.

And we also snagged the last bottle the pizzeria had of this!

I must admit, I was entertained to notice that the only groups (in fact, couples) ordering wine by the bottle were Brits. Always dedicated to enjoying ourselves, I guess.

I charged this to the room, but from memory it was about $65, including tip. We sat in to eat but you could also takeaway.

Both the pizza and the wine were delicious, although we had to stop eating the crusts of the former to have room for it all!

On our way back to our room, we stopped at the deli to get some breakfast cups for the next morning, and well as drinks and a chocolate bar to share. DH had a soft drink while I tried this:

I wouldn’t have it again, to be honest. I like my tequila unwatered.

We watched a bit of tv, but we wanted to head into Yosemite earlyish the next day, so were soon off to bed.

[Wordsworth]

We were on our way to the South entrance of Yosemite National Park not long after 7am, after a quick breakfast in our room. We’d bought a frankly massive cup of yogurt, granola and strawberries each at the hotel deli the previous night, and kept it in the in-room fridge.

The lodge wasn’t far from the entrance at all (although it is then an hour from the entrance to Yosemite village - we were fine with this, having already stayed in the village on our honeymoon). We had a short wait behind two cars to show our reservation info and pay our entrance fee. The car in front seemed to have an issue paying, trying different cards a couple of times.

At the moment to visit the park during peak times you need a reservation, made in advance - out hotel had messaged us with the dates the reservations would go live when we’d booked with them. Once you made your reservation, you could save it to your apple wallet to show at the gate, which I did.

Both the reservation and the entrance fee cover you for 3 days at the moment, although we ended up not going to the park until day 2 of our reservation. We got our parking pass to display, which reflected the fact we only had 2 days of reservation left.

We also got a receipt, which we didn’t stop to look at then. We should have, because when I looked at it later we’d been charged for 2 vehicles rather than 1. perhaps due to the previous guest’s payment problems, I don’t know. DH offered to turn around but I knew they were expecting queues at the gate, so we decided to press on and sort later.

We stopped at Wawona to get fuel, but our first “real” stop was at Tunnel View. You can see El Capitan, Half Dome and BridalVeil Fall from here.

When we came to Yosemite on our honeymoon we used the North entrance and didn’t come this far south, so this was a great view to finally see.

Our next stop was the twin whammy of BridalVeil Fall on one side (with our hire car for scale )

And a view of El Capitan on the other.

Sadly the trail to BridalVeil Fall was closed for upgrading, but the last time we came to Yosemite (in September) the waterfalls had run dry, so it was great to see it at all!

Back in the car to our next stop at a meadow area with a view to Yosemite Falls.

You can walk closer to the waters edge, so of course we did.

We could tell from the number of cars that it was starting to get busier, so we decided it was time to head to Yosemite Village. After a brief detour and repeating of the route when we took a wrong turn, ended up at the lodge then got stuck in the one way system ( but in my defence, I said we needed to be in the other lane!) we arrived at the main car park, near the visitor centre.

We had no problems getting a parking space and, after a brief loo stop, decided to go to the visitor centre to ask about the double entrance charge. It was on our way to our next view point anyway.

Unfortunately when we got there, the desk was closed until the following day, due to short staffing! We asked one of the nature guides and they advised we’d have to speak to a ranger, so we decided we’d do it at the gate the following morning.

We continued our walk towards Yosemite Falls, spotting these guys on the way.

And passed another meadow area, where DH remembered taking night time photographs on our honeymoon. Half Dome is here!

(I’d stayed in the room, I wasn’t going to get chomped by a bear for a picture of some stars.)

Seeing Yosemite Falls with actual water was one of the two main reasons for returning to the park. I’ve never forgotten how disappointed my husband was when we did this walk on our honeymoon only to find someone had turned off the tap!

The pipe was burst this time, though. We walked the easy trail to the lower Yosemite falls.

As someone who has read both “Off the Wall” (aka all the ways you can die in Yosemite) and “Over the Edge” (same for the Grand Canyon), I was frankly horrified by the number of people ignoring warning signs and climbing over safety railings to get to the water.

We did not do that; instead we followed the trail loop back down, to get a better view of both upper and lower falls.

We kept turning back to check out the view - perhaps we should have done the trail the other way round, but I actually think this made the end of the walk more exciting. The upper falls were most visible first.

Then both together.

I think it would be great to see the 3 parts of the falls essentially merge into one when the water is high. Reason enough for another visit in future…also the Glacier Point Road was closed during our visit, which did disappoint DH, and that gets you closer to the upper falls, so… next time!

Another shot of Half Dome on the way back to the village centre!

Another of these guys:

And then a spot of lunch (one turkey sandwich and one beef, which we shared) from the deli.

[Wordsworth]

(I started writing this up yesterday but my Safari crashed and I lost it, so I stropped off in a huff )

After lunch we decided to head to Curry Village. We discussed taking the shuttle bus but decided to take the car over - perhaps we should have second guessed this when we saw how full the Yosemite Village car park now was. We were stalked to our space after I confirmed to someone we were leaving.

Sure enough the sign at Curry Village said their parking lot was full, and a couple of turns around it were not fruitful. We drove a little further to see if there was a free roadside space - there wasn’t - and decided to have one last look in the car park. I spotted a walking couple stop right by a car close to us, so we stopped and asked if they were leaving. They were - result! The space was even shaded by the trees.

After parking we walked to the Happy Isles Nature Centre, then since it was there, caught the shuttle bus for one stop to our desired trailhead. DH wanted to do the Mirror Lake trail to see if we could see the fabled mirror effect reflecting Half Dome - on our honeymoon visit, again the water had been too low to nonexistent.

There seem to be two possible routes - one up a road on the left of the water, and the other through the trees on the right. We chose the right.

DH remembered taking a photo of this bridge last time, so duly did so again.

It’s an easy enough slightly uphill trail, and we soon reached the point where it was deep enough for people to swim, or jump off boulders into the water.

We carried on a bit further, where the water was shallower, to find the spot DH remembered from last time. We took photos of Half Dome.

It was at this point I decided that I wasn’t going to come all this way and *not* go for a paddle. Shoes and socks off, jeans rolled up, into the water I go.

Two things:

1. Pieces of rock that have been swept off mountains can be rough underfoot, and

2. Water that started life as snow can be bl**dy freezing even in June.

Luckily, I’m made of stern stuff! (Until later, at least…)

DH generally isn’t when it comes to water, though, so I was quite surprised when he suggested we wade over to the other side and walk down the trail towards the road. As I was already in the water, I was happy to do it.

The water at the deepest point was upper calf/below the knee on me.

It wasn’t enough to get any reflections here.

After we’d dried off and popped our shoes back on, we started walking back towards the shuttle bus stop. We spotted a mum squirrel with two young ones, then just after that, found a deeper patch of shaded, still water.

We found the mirror we wanted!

DH was happy, as you can imagine.

The above is the view from the bridge photographed earlier.

We had a short wait for the shuttle bus - and when it arrived a bride got off, her bouquet strapped to her rucksack! I hope they got some stunning photos.

We took the bus back to where the car was parked (mostly because we meant to get off a stop earlier at the campground but weren’t paying proper attention!). That meant we had to repeat our walk back to the Happy Isles Nature Centre. We’d had a bit of a debate about whether to walk the first part of the Mist Trail, to the foot of Vernal Fall - beyond that it would be too strenuous for us, but we thought we could manage the moderate bit.

It was steadily uphill, and unfortunately I soon started to feel uncomfortable - not because of the hill itself, but there was a steep drop off the side of the trail and I am scared of heights. This might have been ok if I’d been able to stick to the inside, but the people coming downhill tended to force me out to the edge.

In addition to this some downhill hikers (rudely, IMO) had started running rather than walking down the crowded trail, several in big groups, and I began to get concerned they’d accidentally run into people and knock them (me) over.

The final straw for me was when the wind picked up and one of the downhill hikers did trip and fall, sliding a few feet down the trail. I had to tell DH I couldn’t go any further; I could feel a panic attack coming on and was getting tearful. I have had less than a handful in my life, but at that point, it’s worse to try to push through it. Better to stop and get it under control.

He offered to turn back but I knew we were close, so I told him to go on. I found a rock on the inside of the trail to sit on, and did some breathing exercises to calm myself. I was soon annoyed with myself, of course, because I knew without this I could have made it, but these things aren’t rational.

DH soon returned and assured me I hadn’t missed much.

I just focused on holding my nerve until we were back at the bottom of the trail!

So calm, unlike me.

At this point it was 4.15pm; we decided to go back to the car and start driving back towards the lodge, since we knew it would take more than an hour.

We did try to stop at Tunnel View again on the way back, but there were no parking spots to be had, and rather than wait for one to free up, we decided to carry on.

The drive back to the lodge was uneventful and after a short rest, we showered and got ready for dinner. We wanted to try the lodge’s Jackalope’s Bar and Grill tonight.

We didn’t have a reservation so were told it would be about 30 minute wait. They gave us a buzzer and we just sat in the lobby, chatting about our plans for the following day, while we waited.

Once we were seated, ordering drinks was the first order of the day. I wanted to try their rattlesnake ‘Rita but they were out of the required strawberries. The server offered a regular spicy margarita instead, which I happily accepted.

This was fabulous - possibly the best spicy margarita I’ve ever had. It was properly lip tingling, and the chilli salt around the rim was the perfect touch.

DH had a glass of the Cru unoaked Chardonnay. We don’t like heavily oaked chardonnays, but I tried this and agreed with DH that it was very nice.

Deciding what we wanted from the menu was a real challenge. I really wanted to try the house speciality nachos but wasn’t sure whether to make that my main and order another starter.

In the end, I talked DH into sharing them as a starter.

CARNITAS NACHOS - Lime-Salted Chips, Carnitas, Black Beans, Cheddar Cheese Blend, Jalapeno Peppers, Charred Lime, Pico de Gallo, Sour Cream

These were delicious, and ultimately my favourite part of the meal. I love nachos.

For main, I ordered:

THE SOUTHWEST BURGER - Grilled Burger, Pepper Jack Cheese, Green Chilies, Grilled Onions, Jalapeno Jam

It was served with fries and coleslaw. DH ordered:

TURKEY & BACON CHEDDAR MELT - Grilled Sourdough Bread, Tomato, White Cheddar, Cilantro Ranch Dressing

He had onion rings instead of fries, but we shared the sides. Our mains turned up before we’d finished the starter, despite us leaving a ten minute gap before ordering the mains, which confirmed we were in the USA! It’s not my favourite thing they do, but I can cope with it.

We also ended up cutting each sandwich in half so we could try both. I preferred the burger, as I thought the melt was a bit too greasy, but DH preferred the melt so we perhaps should have stuck to our original choices.

All of this was too much food, so there was no hope we’d manage dessert. It was also incredibly busy so the staff were struggling a little to keep up, but when we saw our server he was great, so we tipped just over 20%. Again I charged this to the room so can’t remember the precise cost.

We picked up two more breakfast cups from the deli for the morning, then went back to the room to relax for the rest of the night.

[anji]

Fabulous day 🙂 I don't think that I would have coped either with the runners on the trail - very foolhardy! Beautiful photos, especially the reflection ones.

[Wordsworth]

Originally Posted by anji

Fabulous day 🙂 I don't think that I would have coped either with the runners on the trail - very foolhardy! Beautiful photos, especially the reflection ones.

See more...

I thought it was irresponsible, it was steep enough it wouldn’t have taken much to lose control. It didn't help that I was also tired (I slept horribly the whole holiday). Just everything coming together at the wrong time.

Thanks for reading!

[Wordsworth]

We were slightly later up this morning - eating the same yogurt cup breakfast in the room as the day before - but were checked out of the hotel and on our way to the Yosemite south entrance for around 8am.

Being that tiny bit later did make a difference, there was a small queue back onto the single lane highway, then about 5 cars at each entrance gate. A ranger was out speaking to every car and tried to wave us through the open gate on the right, given we had our in-date pass on display, but we explained the double charge. She then directed us to the lane with the most experienced ranger to help.

Once we got to the booth our refund was sorted quickly, and we were on our way to the Mariposa Grove parking lot. We timed our arrival here well, because there was a longish queue for a shuttle bus to the grove just boarding, and we managed to be one of the last groups to get on.

The shuttle bus didn’t take long at all and we were soon at the grove - the first pic is dated 8.50am.

I’ll be honest - based on previous redwood grove visits elsewhere, I was expecting this to be a boardwalk up and round through a few trees in a grove, and then back to a bus. So when my husband started talking about how far round the trail we’d go, the news this wasn’t the case came as a shock to me!

But of a miscommunication between us. I was a bit annoyed DH hadn’t clarified this, as I’d said earlier I was leaving the water in the car since we wouldn’t be long. He then said yes, he had been surprised by my answer…not enough to check in though. We agreed we’d just see how we felt as we walked. The whole trail is described as strenuous, and there was no way we had time to do the whole thing today, but I found the section we ended up doing easy. It starts flat, then climbs uphill, but it’s an incredibly gradual incline, and the trail is well defined as I assume the rangers drive on it at times. And no cliff edges!

We have loads of photos because DH adores sequoia trees, but the first “big” sight for us was the Grizzly Giant.

Not sure you get the true scale of it through the screen. The root on the right really looks like a bear paw! I enjoyed sitting in the reclined chairs round the base, looking up at it.

The trail splits into two here - the Grizzly Loop goes down to the California Tunnel tree then back towards the parking lot, while the Mariposa Grove trail continues on up. We could see from DH’s downloaded map, that behind the Tunnel tree, there was a further short trail through the trees that took you back onto the Grove trail, so that’s what we did.

We walked through the “tunnel” and then through the trees - this small trail was the least defined part we walked - back onto the Grove trail.

We stopped for several pictures at The Faithful Couple, who basically share a base.

And carried on as far as the Clothespin tree, which I think was my favourite of all the trees we saw.

It was about 10.10 at this point, so we’d spent 90 minutes in the grove. We decided to start heading back, given we knew we had a few hours of driving ahead of us.

We took the Grove trail all the way down, and had to stop at the Grizzly Giant for more photos.

It was more crowded now, with a whole coach party arriving, but by 11am we were waiting for the shuttle back to the car park.

(Hard to fathom that less than a month after our visit, these trees would be under threat from a wildfire that seems to have started at the Grove. Thankfully it sounds like the trees have been saved!)

[anji]

Really beautiful photos of the trees and such a blue sky. You can really appreciate their height.

It's heartbreaking about the fires destroying so much. 😭 It does look like the Grove will be ok though. Fingers crossed.

[Captain Ethan]

Looks truly stunning, can’t wait for our own adventures here. Thank you posting such a detailed, informative trip report. Thoroughly enjoying it

[Wordsworth]

Originally Posted by anji

Really beautiful photos of the trees and such a blue sky. You can really appreciate their height.

It's heartbreaking about the fires destroying so much. 😭 It does look like the Grove will be ok though. Fingers crossed.

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I’ve been following the firefighting Twitter account and that’s what they’re suggesting, which is good news. They’ve obviously done a lot of preparation for stuff like this. Such a shame it might have been started (I hope accidentally) by people visiting the area though.

Originally Posted by Captain Ethan

Looks truly stunning, can’t wait for our own adventures here. Thank you posting such a detailed, informative trip report. Thoroughly enjoying it

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Thank you for reading, I appreciate it.

[Pumba75]

Really enjoying your trip report. Beautiful photos.

M x