Yosemite NP, CA

#118 (November 26, 2022): Today we drove 3.5 hours north to Yosemite National Park. Again, we are thankful that Mawmo and Dado can drive in front of us as our scouts to alert us of oncoming cars on the narrow, windy roads as we descended the mountains. We can smell our brakes! Yikes!

When we were about 15 minutes away from our campground in El Portal, we pulled over on the side of the road because of road signs warning “Vehicle Length Limit 45 Ft.” Unfortunately, we had zero cell signal at this point, so we couldn’t call the campground for help, guidance, or clarification. Oh please, not another multi-hour detour like we had in Zion! Thankfully, Chris hopped in the car with Mawmo and Dado (leaving Emily and the kids behind to stay with the truck and rig) and drove the rest of the road to the campground, confirming with the campground that it was safe to pass on the temporary bridge that prompted the warning signs. They returned several minutes later; we were all relieved that we could proceed and that we didn’t have a major detour.

Unfortunately, our woes weren’t over after we arrived at Indian Flat Campground. Based on our online research and reviews, we knew we needed to arrive with low expectations, but we didn’t know how low! For whatever reason, the RV spot that we had reserved was occupied, so we were given the one next to it at check-in. Let’s just say, we are thankful we don’t plan to spend much time here! Thank goodness Mawmo and Dado are staying inside Yosemite National Park (and not here!), where we will spend all our daylight hours, and some of the kids can even stay with them at night! Because of barriers on both sides of our RV (a tree, grill, and electrical column on one side and a retaining wall on the other), we couldn’t pull out our bunk slide fully nor our front steps to get into our RV. Thankfully, we have a second entrance that we rarely use; it rescued us in this circumstance. This place is unbelievable! Because this site is only 30 amp (not 50 amp), we can’t run all the heaters to heat the whole rig either. Gracious! On the bright side, this is the closest campground to Yosemite Valley, so we will make it work!

Alas, yet another unexpected for today! Because this is the last day of a holiday weekend, there was a mass exodus of people leaving the park at sunset and thus a major traffic jam. It took us about an hour to “crawl” to Yosemite Valley Lodge. Emily sped-walked to the visitor center for maps and info on trails and shuttles before it closed. Once checked-in, we ate homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner in the room. We laughed as Mawmo told us how the park ranger at the entrance station spotted Dado wearing his Junior Ranger badge and replied, “I see you have a proud Junior Ranger with you today!” as Dado beamed in delight! Yep, he was a proud Junior Ranger! He wore his badge the rest of the trip! LOL!

#119 (November 27, 2022): It doesn’t take one long to see why the beauty of the Sierra Nevada has warranted three national parks, the most iconic of which being Yosemite National Park. Even though Yosemite is a huge national park with many different areas to explore, Yosemite Valley is the most popular and the busiest part of the park because it is home to multiple waterfalls including Yosemite Falls (the tallest waterfall in North America) and two of the most infamous granite cliff faces in the world—El Capitan and Half Dome.

We started our day by hopping on the park’s shuttle through the valley and then hiking to Mirror Lake, which yielded a very different perspective of Half Dome as we now stood at its base looking up. It was super cold on the 2-mile Mirror Lake hike, but thankfully it warmed up a little bit as the day progressed. Next, we hiked 1-mile to Lower Yosemite Falls, which is the lowest of the 3 tiers of the 2,425-foot-tall waterfall.

Later, as we tried to climb to Colombia Rock for a better view of the Falls and of the Valley, Mawmo realized that she didn’t have her cellphone; she remembered setting it down on the toilet paper holder inside a nearby bathroom. Thankfully, we hadn’t made it too far up this strenuous hike with lots of switchbacks before she remembered and we turned around. Unfortunately, when we got back to the bathroom, her phone wasn’t there. We checked at the visitor center, but it hadn’t been turned in. Emily called the phone hoping someone would pick up, but no answer. She tried again about 20 minutes later, and this time someone actually answered! Thankfully, the kind lady was able to meet us back at the bathroom where Mawmo had left it. Needless to say, we were relieved and very thankful to have found the phone!

We learned about Yosemite’s rock climbing in the visitor center by watching the park’s movie and looking at its exhibits before eating dinner at Base Camp Eatery near the Lodge. The kids enjoyed spending the night again, playing Spades and listening to stories til bedtime.

#120 (November 28, 2022): To our delight, GuideAlong’s Mr. Dave has an audio tour of Yosemite. While yesterday we explored the Valley by shuttle and on foot, today we want to drive and see other parts of the park. Mr. Dave makes driving in any national park so much more interesting. Wanting Mawmo and Dado to get the same enjoyment out of today’s drive as us, we decided to all squeeze into our 6-passenger truck. With 4 people in the front seat and 4 in the back, we drove Big Oak Flat Road to Tuolumne Grove and hiked 2.5 miles on snow and ice, which was risky. Thankfully, we didn’t have any injuries. We took it slow and used walking sticks to steady us. On the hike, we walked through Dead Giant, a carved out dead sequoia for wagons to pass through back in the day (it’s too small for cars), and the kids loved crawling through and climbing on Dead Fred, a dead, hollowed-out sequoia.

When we loaded back into the truck, this time the kids thought we needed a rearrangement. The front seat was too tight, Joanna and Bethany said. So, this time, we drove 3 boys in the front and 5 girls in the back (the girls just a’gigglin’ all the way)! It seems impossible in hindsight. LOL! All I can say is, where there’s a will, there’s a way! We drove to Oak Flat Entrance and decided we better turn around. Emily had really hoped to make it all the way to Hetch Hetchy, but that will have to be saved (along with Glacier Point and Tioga Passwhich are closed for the season) for another visit with more daylight.

The drive back offered fantastic overlooks and more of an aerial view of Yosemite Valley. We spotted Bridal Falls, Cascade Falls, Elephant Rock (our third elephant-inspired rock so far out west). We drove to Tunnel View, which offered us our best view of the Valley, where El Capitan and Half Dome were now more at eye-level, so it seemed. Dado wanted to practice his newly acquired iPhone-picture-taking and video-taking skills. He was so proud of the photos and video that he took at this most picturesque point in Yosemite. He declared them “epic,” a new word he learned from the kids this week.

That evening, the girls enjoyed ice skating at Curry Village. Since this is only their third time ice skating, they started off quite wobbly, but they ended the evening much more confident on their skates. We ate dinner again at Base Camp Eatery and then said our goodbyes to Mawmo and Dado; they need to leave early in the morning to make their flight out of Fresno. We are so thankful to have shared these 9 days, 4 national parks, and Thanksgiving with them here in the Golden State!