Yosemite is an outstanding park, and definitely would visit again, much like Grand Tetons. I think I really needed to have a day that I had touring around the park. It has been stressful since I arrived in California, basically the camping issues that I have had to deal with. I think how the park is laid out really works, you have the Yosemite valley which is center, has the lakes, waterfalls and gorgeous views. The west entrance has a section called Mariposa grove which has Sequoia trees, but the shuttles were down because of the road and it would have been a 5 mile walk, so I skipped. The eastern part of the park is closed. They were repairing roads and the campgrounds did open in the valley, were closed a week ago. The valley itself has lots of water so many trails were under water. Still had a great day and got my 1st decent campsite that night just outside the park in the national forest on a old logging road?? I think. I decided to stay an extra day just to veg a little. early last night it was 72 at my site and in Fresno it was 92(an hour away), so glad to get out of the heat for a little while. I did try to find Sam but he must not been at the park.
The valley is so cool, mountains all around you, beautiful. You have El Capitan and of course the Yosemite water fall and they are outstanding. the falls are running fast and large from the winter snow melt. Yosemite Falls is a cascade, so an upper and a lower. The hike(climb) to the upper is strenuous so I skipped. You pretty much got a COLD shower trying to take a pic of the lower falls, the mist was intense, tried to take a picture of that but didn’t work. I do have a video below. There are free shuttles to take to all the main points of interest, but I chose to walk, only moved the van 3 times. I must have walked 6-8 miles, was little sore, but felt great. The walk to Mirror lake was the longest around 6 miles round trip. I could have used the shuttle for 4 of those miles, but I didn’t. The craziest thing is I realized that you can pretty much get anywhere in the valley by bike, but I was already on my way to Mirror lake and my bike was on the back of my van. Just such an amazing park and the drive through the park is great also with plenty of vistas a long the way. The 2 pics, my great camping spot in the wilderness.
