The National Parks are beautiful, and one of the most beautiful is undeniably Yosemite National Park. I had been to Yosemite twice before this trip. Once was a pass-through on a road trip with my kids, when they were in high school. We were between looking at colleges in San Francisco for the oldest and going to a Volleyball tournament in Los Angeles for the youngest, and just “stopped by” Yosemite on the way between. We should have planned differently and stayed longer than a few hours!

My second trip to Yosemite was on my 50th birthday with my son. By that time, he was in school in San Francisco, and agreed to head to Yosemite to try to climb Half Dome. You can read about that amazing trip here… https://www.mtnestwanderer.com/single-post/2016/08/21/California---Yosemite-National-Park

So, when in early 2020 my friend Andrea asked me to come out to San Francisco and do some exploring while she was house sitting for

her brother, I jumped at the chance. She had never been to Yosemite and wanted to go! This trip was way different than my quest to climb half dome – only 3 years later, but I’m not as ready to do that right now. (Maybe for my 60th?) Regardless, Andrea and I got to the park in mid-afternoon on a weekday in February. There were SO few people there! It was strange, but so beautiful. We watched the light on el Capitan for a bit and were in awe of the enormity of the face.

We did a little hiking around the valley since we got there relatively late in the day, then took a tour of the Ahwahnee Hotel. I would suggest this tour to anyone, it was a great mix of learning about the hotel and learning about some of the people that worked there. The guide was perfect – his parents had worked at the hotel, and he sprinkled in some first-hand stories of the hotel from over the years.

We stayed at the Yosemite Valley Lodge, which was great! The room was clean, and large, and it was close to a cafeteria style dining hall that serve

d a variety of different foods. As I said, there were NO crowds, and really, hardly any people, so it was super nice!

In the morning, we took in the views of Yosemite Falls from the trail that literally ran up to our building. Then, off to Vernal Falls. There was still some snow on the ground, but the going was very clear until we got to the few hundred feet of steps just before the falls. There was a LOT of ice, and it was rather treacherous. We slowly picked our way up, but it was tough, and rather dangerous. Once at the falls, I stayed behind while Andrea – who is in MUCH better shape than I, went ahead to Nevada Falls. As I waited, I tried to sit in the sun as much as possible, but it was moving behind the mountain pretty fast, so I texted Andrea and told her I would meet her at the bottom. The way through that ice was even MORE difficult going down, and I was happy when I got through that part. Just before getting to the bridge at the bottom, I passed a gate, that on the other side said, “TRAIL CLOSED”. I guess they closed it after we had gone through the first time.

Andrea wasn’t far behind, and we made our way out of the park. What a beautiful place, and an awesome day!

#California