Yosemite Valley

A few things we learned about Yosemite Valley during our weekend there included just how crowded it can get in the parking lots. We arrived to the Visitor Center parking lot around 9:00am and had no trouble finding a parking space, but there were quite a few cars there already. Although you can drive to the different trail heads, there is a free shuttle throughout the park as well. This cut out us having to worry about finding parking everywhere we went. The shuttle was very quick, coming by every 5-10 minutes. There’s also a store near the visitor center where you can buy some basic food items though be prepared to pay top dollar for them. And if you really want you can also eat at the deli or couple other restaurants there as well. The store closes at 10:00pm and I’m assuming the other restaurants are about the same.

I had really wanted to do the Upper Yosemite Falls hike which is around 7 miles and supposed to be pretty strenuous. However, upon arrival and speaking with the ranger we learned that the Falls were in fact dry; so we would be hiking the whole way to not see any water. We decided that was not worth it and headed out to Mirror Lake instead via shuttle.

This was another disappointment as we quickly completed the 1 mile hike to Mirror Lake to find it completely dry without any water in sight. This was quite a bummer so we turned around to catch the shuttle back to our car and decided to head to Sentinel Dome instead. The main shuttle does not go there and it took close to an hour for us to drive there due to crazy traffic in the park around the visitor center. (I do believe there is a less frequent shuttle that goes there, but it ends around 6:00pm and we wanted to stay later than that to see the sunset).

The hike up Sentinel was great! Only a mile long, but the views from the top were still excellent. It was warm hiking up, but chilly at the top with the wind. I would definitely recommend this hike if you want killer views and not a long way to hike. Driving from the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center to get there was probably just under an hour, with a little traffic around the Visitor Center included.

Just 2 miles further down the road is also Glacier Point which has a reputation for fantastic sunset views. When we spoke with the ranger that morning she told us this was a very popular spot to hit and the parking lot tends to fill up throughout the day. If we were to reach it and it was already full a ranger would be there to direct us to an alternative parking lot where we would then catch a shuttle over. However, she did add that by sunset (which was at 7:20pm) it started to clear out a bit so we may have some luck just finding a spot. She recommended we try to be there by about 6:00pm to ensure we could find a spot and get settled in prior to the actual sunset.

When we showed up right around 6:00pm, the line of cars trying to get into the lot to find parking was super long. We waited there for a bit but eventually gave up as it was just taking way too long. I’m still not sure why this was the case as we could see several open spots from where we were but regardless we back tracked up the road about a quarter mile to where there was another look out point with parking available. After parking there and checking out that view for a bit we just walked the 10-15 minutes down to Glacier Point.

There were definitely plenty of people there, many with tripods already in place to catch the perfect shot. Several gentlemen also had giant telescopes they had brought to view the top of Half Dome and were happy to share with all the visitors and explain how they worked. One could zoom in so close we could actually see a person standing on the top of Half Dome, far far in the distance. There was also a gift shop center of some kind there attached to a small museum but it was already closed by the time we arrived.

There were a lot of good vantage points there to watch the sunset and Pablo captured quite a few good angles. It was definitely chilly by this time of the evening so make sure you have some layers to bundle up in- I was glad to have my buff, long pants and fleece jacket to wear. The only downside of this stop was the long drive back to camp afterwards, a little over an hour to get back. We were exhausted by the time we arrived and didn’t even feel like making dinner, but with our plan of getting up very early for our big Half Dome hike the next morning we knew we needed to eat something so we whipped up some quick pasta. Day one complete!]