Wild West road trip - day 3 - Yosemite

[TrueBlue]

Day 3...

Warning... prepare yourself for a photo overload

We woke up this morning about 7am. I made myself a cuppa and sat on the balcony listening to the river, watching the sun come up and enjoying the peace and quiet.

The river was flowing so fast still due to the amount of snow the area received over the winter. There's still a fair bit of snow up in the hills and it's this that's melting and making the river so cold and flow so fast. The noise is tremendous. I did video it but not sure if I can load it into this post? Will check it out.

Today's plan was to drive up to Glacier Point, have lunch in the valley then hire some dingy's and take a leisurely trip up the merced river.

DH and DS got up not long after me and we all sat and talked about the plans for that day. I took a selfie of me and DH on our balcony with our new selfie stick. Have never had one before but thought i'd come in handy for this trip

We headed out for breakfast at our hotel. It's a buffet type breakfast and you could chose from scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes etc or there was also fresh fruit and cereal too.

After breakfast we decided we'd first drive to see the old trains that we passed by just before we approached our hotel. They're literally a couple of minutes drive away and was interesting to see them up close

We spent about 10 mins here just having a look around and taking pics. We then made our journey into the Valley again.

The drive itself into the park is full of stunning views and you're also driving along the edge of the merced river. The size of the rocks in the river that have come off the mountains over the years are massive. And if you look up you can see where they've fallen from. This has obviously happened many many years ago... even thousands of years ago considering when Yosemite was first formed.

We made our way towards Glacier Point. We came here 2 years ago and I burst into tears It was just so beautiful

But first we came upon Tunnel View which is another 'must see' in Yosemite. The views are stunning and you're so high up. There is ample places to park but there is a lot of tourists and buses up there that it can get a bit congested. We parked with no problems though as people generally only stay for 5 or 10 mins then head off again.

There is some steep hillside here too and Scott can never resist running up the top to get his photo taken. He did the same 2 years ago but at a different bit which was much more steeper than this

Continued below...

[TrueBlue]

Part 2...

We then decided to make our way up to Glacier Point. For anyone who hasn't been here before please believe me that this is a 'must do' You will not regret it.

It takes quite a while to drive to the top of Glacier Point. Even though it's directly above the valley it's about a 45 minute drive.

We got as far as the ski place and they got us to park up and wait in line for the next shuttle bus as the car park at the top was full. We waited about 10 mins for a bus and we were soon on our way.

The shuttle buses are free to use. The bus ride is about 30 mins long and there is some hairy points driving round some of those bends with sheer drops - but the scenery is stunning

When you get off the bus you are greeted by this view...

The bus drops you off at the information centre / tourist shop which also sells food. By this time we were fairly hungry again so we popped into the shop and I got a cheese burger, DS got a hot dog and DS got a turkey sandwich. We sat in the ampi theatre area and finished our food and just took in the view. I surprised myself by not crying this time lol

We then spent the next hour and a half wandering around, taking it all in and taking lots of photo's and videos.

This is just a few...

This is a view of the valley below...

The shop where you can purchase food and souveniers etc

We decided to head back to the valley and see if we could hire a dingy to muck about on the river. We went to the information desk at Yosemite Valley Lodge but they weren't hiring dingy's out at this moment because the merced river was flowing too fast and it was too cold. They said it would be about 2 weeks before they were available for hire again.

So we headed off to Sentinel Beach area in the valley and chilled out there for a while.

It was a lovely finish to another busy day

At 5pm we decided to head back to our hotel and relax around the pool for a while. That's when we encountered our first problem with staying outside of the park.

There was a traffic jam with everyone heading out of the park. It was a very busy weekend (4th July holiday weekend) and we ended up being stuck for about an hour and a half. It was nose to tail the whole way back to our hotel which was pretty frustrating.

But anyway - we finally got back to our room and didn't fancy doing too much tonight as we were so tired (still jet lagged too).

We took a stroll up to the hotel shop and just bought some things for eating in the room. We bought things like noodles that we could cook in the micro wave and some fresh fruit, cookies, cheese and various other nibbles.

It was actually really nice to kick back and not have to go out to a restaurant as we were so tired.

Tomorrow - more Yosemite...

[jocat]

Those views are simply stunning, although don't think I'll be standing on that thin rock like you were - I feel frightened for you!

Can see my camera needs to be fully charged in Yosemite - it's going to get a lot of use.

[TrueBlue]

Originally Posted by jocat

Those views are simply stunning, although don't think I'll be standing on that thin rock like you were - I feel frightened for you!

Can see my camera needs to be fully charged in Yosemite - it's going to get a lot of use.

See more...

We cheated as there's not a big drop below this - maybe about 3 feet But it's a good place to stand and make it look like there's a sheer drop below you.

There is another rock though which does have a 3,000ft drop below it so just make sure you chose the correct one lol

I took all the photo's with the camera on my phone. I have a samsung S7 edge and our pics turned out amazing. I took our big camera with us but it's too heavy to carry around everywhere so didn't even use it once

[christybell]

Wow... amazing... loving this report as we are planning our 1st West coast trip next year... thanks for sharing

[Melbatb]

Wow - just wow!

[tocpe321]

Amazing views. Everything looks so beautiful.

Thanks for sharing.

[orlandosgr8]

Just WOW, that has totally made up my mind that I would love to visit this wonderful place

[EJSakaAnna]

How amazing, brilliant photos! Definitely somewhere to add to my bucket list

[abiknox]

WOW WOW WOW, I need another trip to Yosemite soon! Your photos are amazing!

We never made it up to Glacier point, it just looks incredible. I am also desperate to hire a dinghy there so will have to plan timings well as it's a long way to go to be told they aren't available.

Looking forward to more