California & Las Vegas Road Trip Aug/Sep 15! Day 6 - Mist Trail, onto Monterey & 17-Mile Drive

[Lolly90]

Index

Previous Day

Wednesday 2nd September 2015

Another early start for us today, despite how busy we were yesterday. Legs weren’t aching too much. Poptarts and cereal bars for breakfast again, while we packed, as today we were off to Monterey. I’d originally planned to go to Mariposa Grove this morning but as it is closed for restoration we decided on another hike.

We loaded the car up and checked out at 8:00. We drove back into the park, for the last time , parking up in the large carpark in Curry Village.

We got the park shuttle from here (stop 14), at 9:00, to Happy Isles (stop 16), for Mist Trail. We decided before we left to only walk up to Vernal Falls, rather than all the way to Neveda Falls. We didn't have the time or the energy to do the whole trail today.

It was another nice day today, it was warm but a lot of the walks are shaded and we always felt we were getting a good breeze. The Mist Trail walk is lovely and mainly up hill.

It starts off relatively easy, along a paved path and then not long after the Vernal Falls Bridge you reach the stairs, of which there are quite a few.

We took our time heading up these and stopped a few times along the way.

We reached the top of Vernal Falls at 10:00.

You can just about make out the path we had just come along on the photo below.

We spent a few moments watching the waterfall before heading a little further round to Emerald Pools. I loved this area, so beautiful and quiet. We sat on the rocks, just admiring the view with a snack and some water

After this, we headed back down. For some reason I found going down harder than going up. I really enjoyed our morning here and would love to go all the way to Nevada Falls if we make it back. We were back on the shuttle, going back to Curry Village at 11:20.

We parked up in the Village Store carpark and popped to Degnan's for a couple of drinks for the journey ahead. We were soon on our way to our planned stop of Merced, before heading to Monterey. We stopped at the gas station in El Portal, just passed Yosemite View Lodge to fill the car up. By this time it was 12:30, which was a little later than I had wanted to leave but I'm glad we didn't rush our morning.

The drive to Merced was actually really lovely. For the most part you follow along the Merced River, so I spent the majority of the journey enjoying the views once again.

We arrived in Merced at 14:10 and headed to McDonald's for some lunch. I got the new Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Burger meal with a Minute Maid Lemonade. This was so good, definitely the best burger I've ever had from McDonald's. Mark had a double Quarter Pounder Cheese meal with a Dr Pepper.

The rest of the journey was uneventful, I'm not sure what time we left Merced but we arrived in Monterey at 17:00. We made the decision to head straight for 17-Mile Drive, because if we didn't do it now we wouldn't have the chance tomorrow. It was a $10 entrance fee and we spent just over an hour making our way round.

The sea views here our beautiful, it gave us a taster as to what was ahead tomorrow when we were to drive down the coast. We caught a glimpse of Pebble Beach golf course and admired all the beautiful houses along the way.

The later it got, the more cloudy it got so we decided to head on out as we still needed to check in to our hotel. I'm glad we managed to do 17-Mile Drive but I wouldn't rush back. we arrived at our hotel, which was the Hotel abrego at 18:30. The staff here were so lovely and friendly and they kindly upgraded us to a Premier King room. The room was great, it didn't have much of a view but had a gorgeous fireplace and bathroom. After being a little disappointed with our room in Yosemite we were more than happy with this one.

We got ourselves ready for dinner and headed out at 19:30. We decided on Hula's Island Grill, which I'd spotted in abiknox's trip report and we were very glad we did. When we first walked in the place looked tiny but we were seated straight away and didn't realise there was additional seating on the other side to the entrance.

We started off with a cocktail each; there were so many too choose from. I got a Pink Bikini Martini and Mark had a Blue Hawaiian; both were delicious.

For mains Mark had a bacon cheeseburger, I've realised from writing these reports that Mark has too many burgers I went for Shrimp Tacos, which were so tasty and a good portion size too. I almost managed to finish them Total cost was $52.68.

We would have loved to stay for another drink but we were both pretty tired by this point, so we called it a day and headed back to the hotel.

Next: Day 7 - Whale Watching & Driving the PCH

[CrispyA]

What a great day. Mist trail was our favourite hike - it's stunning.

[Cloverlady]

Fabulous photos!
Such a shame we can't do Yosemite (going in March and weather is an issue)
Thanks for posting!

[lovedisney89]

Fab day again and great photos. We went to Hula's too, really nice food.
Thanks for sharing

[abiknox]

Oooh you're making me want to go back so much! Loved that drive from Yosemite to Monterey, so quiet & great scenery.

Love that you booked the Abrego & went to Hulas. Such a great combo!

[Lolly90]

Originally Posted by CrispyA

What a great day. Mist trail was our favourite hike - it's stunning.

See more...

We loved it, glad we managed to see it before we left

Originally Posted by Cloverlady

Fabulous photos!
Such a shame we can't do Yosemite (going in March and weather is an issue)
Thanks for posting!

See more...

Thank you for reading! Oh that is a shame I'm sure you will still have the best time, the West Coast is amazing!

Originally Posted by lovedisney89

Fab day again and great photos. We went to Hula's too, really nice food.
Thanks for sharing

See more...

Thank you! Loved Hula's, the food and the cocktails

Originally Posted by abiknox

Oooh you're making me want to go back so much! Loved that drive from Yosemite to Monterey, so quiet & great scenery.

Love that you booked the Abrego & went to Hulas. Such a great combo!

See more...

I want to do the whole holiday again!

We were so happy with those choices, would have loved to stay more than 1 night.

[Pussycat Doll]

Another lovely day, we loved Monterey too! Food looks good too. Pussycat

[Ruthy1604]

Wow, you managed to fit so much into your day! I'd so love to go back to Yosemite and do more of those trails.

We loved Hulas too 😄

[Enchanted]

Another fab day, the trails look really lovely

[georgemac]

Great day. saw John Muir on the direction board at Yosemite - I never knew about him - from Scotland and known as the father of the US National Parks - he donated a lot of the money to kick them off and get them created (Muir Woods in San Fran named after him).

Really good reports - it's easy in the US to keep choosing burgers!