The four of us just returned from a 3 day stay in the Yosemite area. Rather than stay in the valley, for which we would have needed to reserve about 9 months ago, we stayed in a lodge just outside of the park entrance, Evergreen Lodge. The lodge has a variety of well spaced cabins in all different sizes – ours was a 1 bedroom with a small deck. There were hammocks throughout the property and lots of different play areas. Cole and Lena went berserk in the games area until finally settling on pool (Cole) and ping pong (Lena). Note: Cole wasn’t too shabby by the end of our stay there. It was a nice setup – the lodge is small enough that the kids could play in the games area without us having to supervise them constantly. They also made lots of new friends that they would arrange to meet up with at the games area after dinner, say. In fact, they would be (mostly) done with their meal and then bolt out of their chairs to go to the game room, allowing Rob and i to enjoy a nice glass of wine after dinner.
However, the first night we went straight into Yosemite Valley before going to the lodge. We headed for Glacier Point, a valley overlook which was much further than i realized. Added to the distance was the fact that there was much road work and trail maintenance happening in Yosemite due to the rains we’ve been having all winter. We waited 15 minutes for road work on the way up. We ended up getting to the lodge for dinner by 6:45 with 2 ravenous kids and 2 (very tired) adults. But we got some good pictures:
Bridal Veil Falls was also amazing – i have no pictures because by the time it came into view on the short trail, we were basically standing in the equivalent of a drenching shower from the waterfall’s spray. Several (foolish? brave?) souls were taking pictures into the spray. I really wonder how their photos turned out.
Day 1
The weather was fantastic – upper 80s throughout our stay. Good for scenery, but a little hard for hiking. The first day I attempted to get all four of us to go on the upper Yosemite Falls hike. Of course, that hike, a deceptively short 3.6 miles, was one switchback after another. Rob intelligently gave up with Lena down at the bottom. Cole and I soldiered on. Here are some photos from the hike:
The base of the upper falls of Yosemite falls.
The hike was hard going. We were plagued by mosquitoes at the bottom of the trail (which was in shade) and by scorching sun and not enough water at the top. Still the views were amazing and the wildflowers and mini falls along the way were just lovely. We gave up about a mile from the top. During that part of the hike, the valley goes out of view and there isn’t much to be seen from the trail, at least nothing new. Time was getting on, it was 2 pm and we had parted from Rob and Lena at 11 am, so we turned around. We reached the bottom at 3:30 and grabbed some refreshments at Yosemite Lodge. By this time of the day the Valley was packed. There were nary a parking spot to be had, so we headed back to the lodge, a 40 minute drive from the valley.
Day 2
Yosemite Valley was just too crowded and we had already been there twice, so for a change we went to Hetch Hetchy to do the Wapoma Falls hike. Hetch Hetchy is very close to where we were staying and i’m so glad we went. As you know, Hetch Hetchy supplies San Francisco with much of its water and electricity. The dam was very cool – we walked across it to go on the hike. I’m sorry to say i don’t have any good pictures of it. On the way in, we pulled over so that Rob and Cole could ride their bicycles down into the valley to the start of the hike. A ranger was there attempting to get a baby bear out of a tree and away from the road (by throwing rocks in its direction). The bear seemed quite unfazed by her efforts, though after a few minutes, it got bored, climbed down and loped off. It was very cute, but no pictures for the lack of a good zoom lens (Rob: hint, hint).
Hetch Hetchy is an amazingly beautiful valley. It gave me the feeling of being at a European lake for some reason i can’t identify. You’ll have to be the judge of that assessment from the pictures i took. One thing that was striking about hiking in this valley vs. Yosemite (although Hetch Hetchy is in Yosemite National Park) were the profusion of butterflies and wildflowers. Lena and Rob also saw a rattlesnake on the trail. There just seemed to be more NATURE in Hetch Hetchy. I think a hike from Hetch Hetchy to Yosemite Valley (a mere 70 miles!) would be an amazing back country hike to do. We came across several people with backpacks and bedrolls who were doing just that.
Here are some pictures:
The dam. The trail goes through a tunnel at one end.
You can see Wapoma Falls here.
Aah the beauty. So calm, so few people, so lovely.
Rob and the kids on the trail. We all had walkie talkies and at one point i had to turn mine off. Too much chatter!
Some wildflowers. Also, there were many lupines and shasta daisies (yellow).
A little bit of Europe? Or maybe New Zealand?
Wapoma Falls
Apparently Wapoma Falls has the most volume of water of any waterfall in the Yosemite Park. I believe it. There are 5 bridges that traverse the lower part of the falls. During this time of year and with the heavy rains/snowfall, Wapoma Falls was gushing. Walking across the bridges was a bit like sitting in the Splash Zone at the Shamu show at SeaWorld. Here we are drenched (and i mean DRENCHED) after crossing the bridges. It was so cold and wet we all ran screaming across the bridges. Great Fun.
The upper bridges, away from the waterfall. The lower bridges, which you can’t see in the picture go across
the lower portion of the falls.
Cole gave Wapoma Falls a thumbs up. I think the whole trip was pretty terrific.