Yosemite National Park – The Green Lung of California
In the last blog post, I was talking to you about San Francisco, so now it’s time to tell you everything about the following stop on the road trip: Yosemite National Park. While another blog post about all the key facts of visiting several national parks will follow later on, today, I’ll focus on the best spots in this Californian national park.
We departed from San Francisco in the morning, and after about 4 hours, we entered the national park. While the main spots and most impressive views were located deep inside the national park, already the way in via Big Oak Flat entrance was impressive. Cruising along narrow mountain roads, the views were impressive, but sadly we could see how much of the forests have been destroyed by wildfires. We were staying a bit outside of the national park, so we would enter and exit daily via the South Entrance. The main tip I can give you is that on weekends you have to enter the park early and try to drive as little as possible inside the park, as traffic is going to get crazier than you can imagine during the afternoon.
One of the obligatory stops is:
Tunnel View
From Tunnel View, you have a fantastic view through the valley and can see both El Capitan and the Half Dome. While the view of the both might not be the best or closest, it may be one of the few places in the park where you can get a picture of both at the same time. And honestly, this view is pretty impressive, isn’t it?
From Tunnel View, we decided to head south and followed the long winding roads onto the top. After a while, there’s a little intersection, and we headed up the mountain, and after another half an hour, we arrived at the parking area of
Glacier Point
This is one of the most famous places in the whole national park, and if talking about national parks in general, pictures of this place come up quite often. From Glacier Point, you have some of the best views of both Half Dome and Nevada Falls. Regarding the Half Dome, I might have to add that the Dome looks way bigger when seeing it in real life, compared to pictures (not only the photos I took but pictures in general!).
I might have to add that we were quite lucky when it comes to waterfalls, as they usually are quite dry during summer. However, this year, there was still some snow up in the mountains, which is why they were that visible and impressive. This may sound really cool, but we also heard that there was still some ice around and just a day before our visit, someone slipped and fell near Nevada Falls and died.
Yosemite Village
This is the village located right in the middle of the national park. Honestly, this is one of the worst places to be as here you realize how many people are visiting the national park with you. It is also nearly the only place in the national park where you have a connection on your phone, so it is used as a meetup for lots of people. Here you can find the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center, souvenir shops, a restaurant, lots of campsites and all combined it’s just a horrible amount of people crammed into a single place. Everyone has to come here to buy food or use showers and do their laundry, so you can imagine how this place is. Right next to it there’s also Half Dome Village, another little village filled with camp sides, at the time of our visit it was accessible only with campsite reservations.
While leaving the village, on the way we found
Valley View
This is one other major viewpoint of the national park. While you can’t see the Half Dome from there, you have a pretty fantastic view that shows the wideness of the whole valley, El Capitan and Merced River, the river that flows through the national park. The river adds to the scenery as you can see a bit of the reflection of the mountains. This viewpoint is located right on the main road of the national park, so it’s filled with people too. Still, if you are patient, you can easily take pictures without other people in your frame.
Four Mile Trail (Glacier Point)
Of course, you should not only drive through the national park but hike there as well. We decided to hike the Four Mile Trail. This one starts at Glacier Point and ends a mile west of Yosemite Village. Keep in mind that you’d have to take a shuttle back to Glacier Point once you get to the end of the trail, that’s’ why we decided to do it half and then turn back around. This is one of the harder ones, and I can tell you that the sandy pavement really makes breathing quite hard, as the air you breathe in is really dry. But I’m glad we made that hike, as we saw Sentinel Dome from there, and we thought it’s sad it’s always overlooked as it’s at least as impressive as Half Dome and the other mountains.
Driving through the valley left me speechless most of the time. Those mountains look as if they were painted and really smooth, which undoubtedly was caused by the glaciers that formed the mountains many many years ago. While those are certainly simply the most famous spots, I have to add that we stopped along the road many more times, simply because the view was so impressive.
A few things to notice that I realized:
• Way too many people hike in shoes that are definitely not made for hiking – honestly, this is so dangerous I really can’t understand the mentality,
• Traffic can get REALLY crazy, and if a park ranger tells you to drive or park a certain way, DO NOT argue with them! They are simply people doing their jobs, and they know the area way better than you do!
• Campsites are fully booked months in advance if you visit during high season. Still, if you get lucky and don’t visit during the weekend, you might find a camp that has vacancy, if not, stay in a village close by, but keep in mind that there are lots of people leaving the park in the late afternoon.
• Bear spray is not allowed in this national park. While there are other national parks where you should carry it with you, in Yosemite the use of it is forbidden.
I hope you enjoyed this, really lengthy, blog post about this famous national park, and I hope I was able to put in everything I’ve learned and seen there. If you plan on going to Yosemite, I really recommend checking out the official website of the national park too, so you also receive the latest information. I hope to see again you on the blog next week when I’ll be talking about one of the most famous American cities – Los Angeles.
