Life's Short! Go RVing!: Yosemite National Park

We were able to spend a total of 4 days in Yosemite National Park. I took the girls into the park one day while Joe worked, which was actually about 2 hours away from where we parked the RV near La Grange, CA by Don Pedro Lake. Despite all odds, I actually got the kids up early and went!

Loralai and I flipped when we saw the huge waterfalls driving in!!! We found out later that we were in Yosemite during “Peak Waterfall Week” and seeing the most water fall for the year. Awesome!

The first thing we did when we got there was to find a shady spot to eat our lunch. A hungry, plague carrying squirrel quickly found us there. Loralai loved him until he snuck up behind her and got a little too close. LOL…you should have heard her scream! And then laugh! J

After that the girls and I walked around the park, rode the free shuttle buses, went to the Visitor Center to get Loralai’s Jr Ranger workbook, toured the free museums about Native American life in the Valley, and watched the Yosemite movie. We also visited the oldest hotel in Yosemite where the rooms are a minimum of $400 a night. Gorgeous…..but no air conditioning. They did have a sweet shop though and you better believe we didn't pass that up! The girls were really well behaved, probably much due to the fact that I had lots of bribes and food to keep them happy. We were really there with a mission to collect info and scout it out for our up coming weekend when Daddy could come! We were all super excited to return for the weekend just a couple of days later!

One of many bear statues at Cedar Ridge

First decision made was that we would NOT drive the RV up those whindy, steep roads! And the whole place was booked up anyways on such short notice. So we got a motel room at Cedar Ridge, just 15 mins outside of the park. Loralai LOVES motels! Evidently they are very exciting for a 4 year old! It was plenty nice, with an indoor, heated pool that we never swam in. They had a cute "Bear" theme. Recommended. It being peek season and the weekend and us booking it the day before, we paid $100+ a night, but it’s YOSEMITE right!?

Friday comes and as soon as Joe’s off work (2pm CA time), we hop in the truck and book it to Yosemite. I get car sick with him driving up the whindy roads and we switch so I can drive. We stop at some view points and just ogle at all the beauty! We go straight to the valley and visit Yosemite Lodge and get some dinner as we are all starving. I see there’s a Ranger Night walk for kids at 8:30pm and sign us up! We ride the shuttles, walk around, and wait for the Ranger walk. We learned a few things that night….1. The shuttles only run every 30 mins after 7pm, instead of every 10-15 mins. 2. It gets COLD at night. 3. It’s blindingly DARK once the sun goes down in Yosemite. So we ended up missing the walk, mostly because of the shuttle thing. L In good news, L made a friend on the bus and it was so late when we got back to our motel, we just laid both girls on the bed and they stayed asleep.

Saturday.

Ranger Talk Time!

Holding sleeping Bean on the Tram Tour

We go to a Ranger Talk for kids and learn about the trees and animals in the park. Yosemite has 200-300 black bears, although we did not see any during our time there. After the talk we got lunch and went on a tour around the park on a tram thing being pulled by a greener version of an 18 wheeler. It was a paid tour that cost us $50 ($25pp, kids free). It was led by a ranger and we learned a lot about the park, its history, even rock climbing. It was worth it and Bean slept the whole time. Loralai ended up asleep too before it was over. After the tram, we were itching to go on a hike! The kids were “iffy” behavior wise though, so we chose a super easy hike to Lower Yosemite Falls. 20 minutes and we were there. Gorgeous! And BUSY! That's the thing about "easy" hikes, everyone can do them, so they are swarming with people!

On the walk back out, there was this rock that kids were climbing up and then sliding down. Loralai couldn’t resist, so we watched her play and make friends on the rock for about an hour. It was fun to see kids make a playground and secrete hide-out, out of a rock. Kids are rad like that!

Bean had to get in on the action too!

So next we decided to pick up some dinner and sit out at Sentinel Falls in the meadow and watch the sun set on Half Dome. We got some crappy cold sandwiches from The Village Store, a couple of beers, and a new Yosemite hoodie on clearance for me, as it was getting cooler and I had forgotten to bring anything warm for the weekend.

Half Dome

Our last day in Yosemite, we were determined to get a cool hike in! I had heard about The Giant Sequoias (largest tree in America) tree grove and really wanted to see it, but it was an hour+ drive away from the village area of the park, so I didn't think we would. Well luck had it, that Bean fell asleep right as we drove into the park, and so on a whim, we put on a movie for L, and took a right and drove to see the trees at the south end of the park. The trees were cool, but the best part was that L met a friend around her age, who was visiting for the day with her mom. We all hit it off as we rode the bus together and even hiked for much of the walk together. It was sweet! If you’re reading this Mia, Loralai says “Hi” and she misses you!

These trees can live to be 2000 years old! This one has survived numerous fires in its lifetime.

Friends

Yosemite has 3 groves of Sequoias, but the one at the south entrance was the only one available to see, since one of the main roads in Yosemite was still closed for the winter during our time there (scheduled to open the day after we left). This particular grove we visited had a lower and an upper grove. The lower grove was great, but we would have liked to have seen the upper grove as well, as it appeared to have several more trees and a nice lookout point. But the kids, particularly Loralai, weren’t up to long walks that day! Next time. We drove the hour drive back to the village with plans to do a hike that started by the Nature Center, but gave that up after having to practically drag L back on the Sequoia hike. Instead we got sandwiches, and found what is possibly the best place to eat in Yosemite….The Sandwich Café next to the Village Grocery Store. Well priced and decent tasting sandwiches made to order. That’s the best you can hope for when it comes to food in National Parks. Then we went to The Visitor Center to have L sworn in as a Jr Ranger. Yay Loralai! 7 badges now and she's learnd so much! While we did that, I also put in a report for my lost hiking hat. :(

And with that, we headed back “home” for another week of living at Don Pedro Lake, before making the 8 hour drive to Ashland, OR.

Yosemite was beautiful. We really wished we had been able to do more strenuous hiking, with less people around though. I would have loved to have seen more of the back country and its wild life, as it makes up 94% of the park. It's also a great park to biycyle and on our next visit we will definitely remember to bring our bikes! It seems to book up faster then other parks as well, so making reservations in advance is recommended more so then the other parks we have been to.