Wandering around the West Coast - Day 11 – Glacier Point, Yosemite Falls and dinner at the Majestic

[jocat]

Index is here.

Day 11 – Friday 4th August 2017

We woke with the alarm at 7am, showered, ate breakfast and got ready for our tour.

We met outside the front desk at 8:15 am. There seemed a lot of people waiting, but they were split into a whole day hiking group, then 3 groups for the Glacier Point Tour - the round trip guests who boarded first (including us), one way only, then finally a standby group.

It took us about an hour and a quarter to reach Glacier Point, with the guide pointing out various areas of interest on the way, as well as giving us lots of interesting information about the park, it's trees, plants, animals and birds.

We reached the top and were given an hour to explore - well I could have stayed here for much longer. In fact, we didn't even make it to the amphitheatre as we took our time in other areas there. The only slight disappointment was the cloudiness, but nothing could spoil those views - they're still spectacular no matter what the weather is doing. One little American boy wasn't at all impressed though - I quote "all I see is trees!" One day, I guarantee that he'll appreciate those views.

On the way back to the meeting point, I spotted a bird with electric blue wings. I later found out that it's a Steller's Jay. It's really striking. I'd actually seen one the other day when we ate at the restaurant in Big Sur, but it was just flying through the trees, and I'm not sure Martin believed when I described the bird with the bright blue wings. See, I wasn't imagining things.

We passed Bridalveil Creek on the way back, but I wasn't quick enough to take a photo unfortunately.

We stopped for 10 minutes at Tunnel View to take photos, then pulled back into Yosemite Valley Lodge just after 12:30 pm. We tipped the guide as we left - he'd been extremely knowledgeable and gave us information for the whole journey there and back. He also gave us directions for where we wanted to visit that afternoon.

We decided to go to the food court at the lodge for a drink and some lunch. We just plumped for a burger and shared some fries and a drink.

We then dropped the rucksack back off at our room and walked to the Lower Falls trail. There were some huge rocks on the way there, that had obviously fallen a long time ago.

Once we got to the viewing footbridge, Martin decided to climb up the rocks to get a bit closer, but I just stayed on the footbridge to take photos. I'd changed out of my converse when we went to the room as they were rubbing me slightly on my little toe, so I'd only got my flip flops on now - definitely not the right footwear for climbing rocks!

After visiting the falls, we decided to carry on walking into Yosemite Village, first visiting the Ansel Adams Gallery. We admired a beautiful photograph of Yosemite in the snow, but at a cost of $22900 for it unframed, it was out of our price range unfortunately.

We continued for a little way further and came across Degan's Deli, where we grabbed a large bottle of water to share. We sat outside enjoying the surroundings for a little while, before continuing our walk to the Majestic Yosemite Hotel (formerly the Ahwahnee). We'd booked dinner here tonight, but wanted to move our reservation to a later time. We booked through Open Table, originally for 7:45 pm. But then we thought we might end up rushing dinner to make sure we caught the last shuttle back, so changed it to the next earlier time available which was 6:15 pm. This wasn't ideal, but with no other time option available, we accepted it at the time.

We walked down the red carpet at the entrance to the Majestic and easily found the dining reservations desk. The lady there quickly accommodated our request to change the time to 7pm - perfect.

We wandered through the downstairs area of the hotel. It has magnificent fireplaces! I purchased a desk calendar from one of the shops, then we walked out to the shuttle stop outside. Two minutes later, it arrived and within 15 minutes we were back at our hotel. The sun even came out for a little while.

We relaxed on our balcony for an hour before getting ready for dinner. We were trying to decide where to visit tomorrow, but the wifi wasn't playing along too well. We'll try again later.

Once ready, we left the room at 6:10 pm to head to the shuttle bus and one turned up 5 minutes later. Good job really, as after we boarded the bus the heavens opened. We'd got to change at a bus stop ahead, so we were bound to get wet now.

We got off at stop 10 and crossed the road to stop 2, which meant we'd only got 1 stop to go to the Majestic. It was still raining but there was a dry spot under a tree.

The bus turned up about 10 minutes later, but the driver said that they were now out of service and everyone got off. That is until the female driver spotted me in a dress and said she would drop off at the Majestic only. About 12 people got on. She told us to duck down when we passed the people who had just got off and again said it was because she knew we were going to dinner. I got thanked for wearing a dress by a fellow passenger when we got off! I also thanked the driver again for her kindness.

We were seated for dinner by about 6:50 pm. I loved the dining room there. We ordered a bottle of wine to share and they brought us some water each and a basket of bread.

Martin ordered French onion soup as his appetiser- can you tell it’s one of his favourites? He only ever has it on holiday, as at home he tends to stick to fish or mushroom dishes as a starter. I gave a starter a miss, however our server brought me an extra spoon in case I wanted to share Martin’s soup, or alternatively a small complimentary fruit salad in case I didn't. I went for the fruit.

For our main courses, I ordered the Chicken, which came with summer vegetables and whipped potatoes, while Martin ordered the salmon, both of which were delicious. Finally I ordered a crčme brűlée and Martin ordered a scoop of ice cream. Both came served with lots of berries. My crčme brűlée was the best one I'd ever tasted.

The bill came to $151 and we left a $30 tip. We both loved everything about the evening there.

The only thing that let the hotel down for me was the ladies restrooms on the mezzanine level. There were tissues and hand towels everywhere. It really needs someone to check on it more frequently, as it wasn’t what I expected in a hotel as lovely as this.

We left just before 9pm and waited for just a few minutes for our shuttle bus back. The driver said that there were only 3 buses doing the loop now, so we're glad we didn't stick to the original 7:45 pm dinner. I think it would have been risky to assume we’d get the shuttle back and definitely wouldn't have fancied the 40 minute walk in the dark.

[Melbatb]

The views are stunning - definitely more than just trees

Another great dinner choice! Shame about the loos!

[tocpe321]

Great day. Glacier Point looks beautiful. We did the Valley Floor tour. We did the Lower Falls as well. Nice memories! The food at the Majetic looks excellent. Nice of the driver to give you a drop off.

[jontybfc]

Loving your trip report so far. How did you reserve the Yosemite tour? I'm in full on planning mode for our west coast trip next year and your trip report is so helpful.

[WileyCoyote]

Wow, fabulous views today , looks amazing.
Dinner sounded fab too and thank goodness you got the bus to dinner.
Shame about the rain but doesn't seem to be spoiling things too much.
How much was that painting ? For real ?

[Disney Wishing]

Wonderful day. Yosemite is such a beautiful place.

[Pussycat Doll]

Stunning! Lovely picture of the Jay and of the food!

[jocat]

Originally Posted by Melbatb

The views are stunning - definitely more than just trees

Another great dinner choice! Shame about the loos!

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They were such fabulous views and a fabulous dinner too! I was really shocked at the loos as I was expecting them to be luxurious.

Originally Posted by tocpe321

Great day. Glacier Point looks beautiful. We did the Valley Floor tour. We did the Lower Falls as well. Nice memories! The food at the Majetic looks excellent. Nice of the driver to give you a drop off.

See more...

I wasn't sure which of the tours to take, as both get such good reviews. Dinner at the Majestic was so lovely, and I was very grateful to the bus driver for rescuing us from the rain.

Originally Posted by jontybfc

Loving your trip report so far. How did you reserve the Yosemite tour? I'm in full on planning mode for our west coast trip next year and your trip report is so helpful.

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I'm glad you're enjoying the trippie and finding it helpful for your own planning.

The tour can be booked online at travelyosemite/things...ded-bus-tours/ Just click Check Rates in the top right hand corner.

Originally Posted by WileyCoyote

Wow, fabulous views today , looks amazing.
Dinner sounded fab too and thank goodness you got the bus to dinner.
Shame about the rain but doesn't seem to be spoiling things too much.
How much was that painting ? For real ?

See more...

We thoroughly enjoyed all of our time at Yosemite. Even the rain didn't spoil it. I was actually glad as it cooled the temperature slightly - I wasn't looking forward to sleeping at nights with no air con, but it meant that it wasn't a problem.

Originally Posted by Disney Wishing

Wonderful day. Yosemite is such a beautiful place.

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It certainly is. Your trippie last year convinced me that we needed to add it to our itinerary. Am so glad that we did.

Originally Posted by Pussycat Doll

Stunning! Lovely picture of the Jay and of the food!

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I've got lots of pictures of birds from the trip.

[Animagus]

Oh wow! The views in Yosemite are beautiful. It looks like a stunning place to visit. The Majestic hotel looks lovely too. A nice gesture from the driver.

[lynne6705]

Reading this has just made me even more excited about our stay in Yosemite next year