Yosemite Vacation

This weekend the husband and I took a little vacation up to Yosemite Valley for a few days of hiking and enjoying nature.  We left early on Friday morning hitting the road at 6am.  We got to Oakhurst, CA which is close to the entrance to the National Park at about 10:30 and ate brunch at a cute little local place before heading into the park.  We got up there at about noon and checked into our "tent" at Curry Village.  Our tent was really a canvass sided cabin with beds and a lock box for food.


The "tent" was pretty nice, the only real problem was that the temperatures were down in the 30's at night and our sleeping bags are most certainly not rated for temperatures that low!  Once we got the blanket situation figured out it was just fine.  A lot more convenient than bringing our own tent and easier to make last minute reservations but you don't get to have a campfire, ah, the trade offs.



After getting checked in we took our first hike up to Mirror Lake.  We missed the road and ended up going an extra mile but it was all nice and pretty flat.  We got there and it was absolutely breathtaking, the perfect introduction to Yosemite.

After our trip to Mirror Lake we went back to camp and ate dinner at the buffet before heading to bed and nearly freezing to death :)

On Saturday morning we really wanted to hike to the top of Yosemite Falls and while it was labeled as "Very Strenuous" but we figured we would try to make it as far as we could.  They weren't joking with that label.  The trail was ridiculous!  We made it until we could see the upper falls and it was totally worth it!  We hung out there for a little bit before my horrible back ache and overwhelming feeling that I was going to be sick made us turn around and head down.

That night we decided to eat at the Yosemite Lodge and enjoyed a nice dinner and dessert that was about 100x better than the Curry Village buffet.  We also went over the Awahnee Lodge to check out the oldest hotel in Yosemite Valley, pretty impressive although I could never justify spending $500 a night to stay there.


On Sunday we woke up and decided to try a hike up to Vernal Falls and if we made it up there we would see about continuing on to Nevada Falls.  This was an amazing hike.  Nearly 600 granite stairs to get up to Vernal Falls and then what felt like a million more to get up to Nevada Falls.  It was all completely worth it.  It took us 5 hours to make the 7 mile trek which included a nice little lunch at the top.  The most amazing thing I've done!  At the top it really felt like I'd just finished a half marathon or other big race.  Truly amazing!  After our hike we ate lunch at the grill and began the 6 hour journey home.  It felt good to be back in our bed last night but I really wish I were back at Yosemite right now!