We're combining our three days in Yosemite National Park into one post due to a severe shortage of adequate WiFi for blogging!!
We were originally planning to enjoy a scenic drive through Big Sur before heading towards Yosemite on Day 11 but awoke to reports of increasing wildfires in northern Los Angeles County and the Big Sur area. We knew the wind was bringing smoke north due to the haze we encountered in Pinnacles National Park but didn't imagine that we'd go outside to our car covered in ash in the morning!
We decided to head towards Yosemite National Park early instead of braving the fires and got checked into our rustic mountain accommodations at White Chief Mountain Lodge in Fish Camp, CA, about 1 hour drive to Yosemite Valley. We took an evening drive into the valley to get acquainted with the park and take in some sights including Tunnel View (views of El Capitan, Bridalveil Fall, and Half Dome) and Glacier Point (views of Yosemite Falls, Half Dome, Nevada Fall and Vernal Fall).
Day 12 was our big hiking adventure day! We headed to Yosemite Valley at about 7am for a target hike start of 9am to try to beat some of the days expected highs in the mid-90s. We had decided to tackle the 1.8 mile hike up to the bottom of Upper Yosemite Fall in the morning and then a rather easy 2 mile hike in the afternoon to Mirror Lake below Half Dome.
We reached the bottom of Upper Yosemite Fall in about 2 hours and decided to change our plans to continue to the top of Upper Yosemite Fall, an additional 1.8 miles up the mountain. We successfully reached the summit and top of the falls in 3 hours 20 minutes and were greeted by some amazing views of the valley below!
We realized on our descent that we were not properly stocked with food and water as we had originally planned for a much shorter hike. The trip down the mountain was very difficult with steep, sandy, rocky steps along precarious cliffs. We ran out of water halfway down and the promise of water at the bottom may have been the only reason Ryan made it! Overall our hiking statistics were 3:20 up, 2:40 down for a total of 6 hours, 2800 feet in elevation, and 7.2 miles round trip!! Laura was a champ and took over the job of scouting on the way down without hardly breaking a sweat. Ryan was ecstatic and proud as can clearly be seen in the picture below.
We reached the bottom at 3pm and proceeded to drink enough water to fill a bathtub. After regaining our strength and our wits we decided to order a pizza and head back to our lodging to recover and rest.
Day 13 began with another trek into the valley to visit the Ansel Adams photography gallery and purchase our souvenir centennial National Park T-shirts. After a quick stop in the valley and some lunch we continued through Yosemite to Tuolumne Meadows to take in views of Cathedral Peak and Lembert Dome in the High Sierras. It was amazing to see this giant meadow among the mountains at such a high elevation, 9000 feet!!
We exited Yosemite National Park in mid-afternoon through the Tioga Pass at nearly 10,000 feet elevation and continued down nearly 7000 feet into Lone Pine, CA for a quick Supercharge and nights stay at the Best Western Plus.
We have driven through many small towns thus far, many of which seem long dead, but Lone Pine was not one of them. We were incredibly impressed with how well this old mining city has maintained itself with a beautiful main street and many updated accommodations and dining options. We ate some fantastic BBQ at the Lone Pine Smokehouse... better than most BBQ options we have at home in the Twin Cities, but found in a city with a population of less than 3,000!! Definitely worthy of a stop on your next trip (we've even tagged them to make it easy for you!!)
