Bonus Chapter 8: This Is Why We Travel
There are currently 61 National Parks in the United States. Every single one of them is worth visiting (ok, except maybe
Hot Springs National Park). Some of them are ridiculously inaccessible, to the point where I’m fairly certain I will never see them. The
National Park of American Samoa is on a tiny island in the South Pacific. Some parks in Alaska, such as the
Kobuk Valley or
Lake Clark or
Gates of the Arctic, have no roads leading to them and are only reachable by small charter planes. Unless you want to spend 6 months hiking to them. Others, such as the
Great Smoky Mountains, are easy day trips from well-populated areas. But no matter where they are located, the national parks always reward you for the effort it took to get there (except maybe Hot Springs). You’ll almost always see something there that you wouldn’t have been able to see anywhere else (except maybe
Joshua Tree National Park).
It seems like there’s a hierarchy within the parks, though. You have the ones nobody has ever heard of (such as
Pinnacles or
Congaree) and the ones nobody makes much of an effort to see (like
Saguaro or
Indiana Dunes). You might even have parks you visit once and never want to return to again (looking at you,
Everglades).
There would only be a few parks that reside in those categories. You could certainly make an “inaccessible” category as well. But once you eliminate those, everything else would fall to subjective tastes based on your personal preferences when ranking favorites.
But there always seem to be three parks that stand out in everyone’s mind—the ones that everyone feels they must see. They’re some of the oldest national parks in the nation (and the world), the “Granddaddies of Them All”. Even foreigners all over the world know of them and want to visit: the
Grand Canyon,
Yellowstone, and
Yosemite National Parks.
I’d seen the first two multiple times. But up until this past spring, I’d never seen Yosemite. Given its stature and reputation, that was the biggest item on our wish list when we put together our itinerary. As I’ll explain later, the entire trip was planned around this park.
We left Kings Canyon in the early afternoon, heading west and slowly making our way out of the Sierra Nevada and back down into the… (yawn)…
Zzzzzzzz….
Huh? Oh, sorry. We were in the Central Valley again.
We made it to the city of Fresno, stopped for gas and some McDonald’s fries to munch on, and then turned north on route 41. From there, it was roughly two hours to reach the park boundary.
It was obvious that this was the “back entrance” to the park, as we almost missed the entrance sign and had to turn around just to take a photo of it. They saved the nice signs for the other roads into the park.
It was another 45 minutes of driving (behind a very slow old-timer in a convertible who apparently wasn’t aware of the pull-offs to allow others to pass) before we drew near to the famed Yosemite Valley. Along the way, we drove through an area that had been hit by the wildfires that surrounded the park last summer.
I had a very specific reason for entering the park on Rt. 41, coming up from the south. When driving in that direction, you reach the valley by driving through a tunnel through the mountain that is about a mile long. Upon emerging from the tunnel, there’s an observation point/lookout immediately to the left called Tunnel View, which gives visitors an amazing view of the entire valley below. I wanted this to be our very first view of the Yosemite Valley.
And we just so happened to be arriving late in the day, when the sun would be behind us, giving perfect light.
Look, I know I’ve screwed up a trip plan or two in my time, but when I’m on my game, I’m cooking with gas.
We rounded a bend, high up in the Sierra Nevada range once more. We entered the tunnel, knowing we were about to see the valley for the first time. And yet, I still don’t think we were quite ready for it. We could see the end of the tunnel approaching—at first, just a tiny point of light ahead. Gradually, that opening began to widen and then, right in the center of our view in a feat of perfect engineering, a roaring waterfall appeared. Another second or two and we burst out of the tunnel. Immediately, everyone in the car let out an involuntary “WHOA…..” Julie later said she felt her eyes tear up.
I pulled over into the parking lot at the overlook. It was as though we had entered a completely different world.
The view from here was indescribably beautiful. It’s one of the most jaw-droppingly glorious sights I’ve ever seen in my life. If we had done nothing else on this trip, it still would have been worth the cost and effort to get here.
Just look.
Dude, seriously? You’re facing the wrong way. That’s the tunnel. You have to turn around and look east.
Let’s try again. Close your eyes and turn around. Ready?
Now open them.
I was mesmerized. To the left, the vertical rock face is the famous El Capitan. It’s a 3,000-foot (914 m) sheer wall of granite that is popular with rock climbers all over the world. You might have chewed off a few fingernails watching a guy climb it bare-handed without ropes or equipment in
Free Solo.
The other famous rock formation, Half Dome, is visible in the background further to the east of the valley. Now to get a set of scale, look at the “carpet” of trees. Those are not just scrub trees. Those are lodgepole pines, which typically grow to 150 ft (45 m or so) in height. And they look tiny.
We stood here a very long time, just taking it in. It’s a special place. We took a lot of photos, and I’ll try not to torture you with too many of them. We couldn’t help ourselves—this looked like the Gateway to Heaven.
This is Bridal Veil Falls. As you can see, it was roaring full of water. This was a major reason for visiting in the spring. The snow is still melting, causing all of the waterfalls to be at peak flow. Later in the summer, this and many of the other waterfalls in the valley will slow to a trickle, or even dry up altogether.
We tried some family photos, but it was hard to get the lighting right. They would either come out too dark, or, when we used the flash, it looked like we were standing in front of a fake backdrop.
My phone wasn’t much better:
We waited for a while as the sun set and the shadows crept up the rock faces. We finally decided to leave when two busloads of tourists showed up to watch the sunset.
We drove down into the valley. Now the granite cliffs surrounded us, and we were still overwhelmed with the beauty of Yosemite. It was easy to see why John Muir had argued so passionately for its protection with Theodore Roosevelt.
Yosemite Falls came into view after we drove past El Capitan. It’s actually a triple-decker falls—three different tiers dropping over 2,400 ft. to the valley floor. This is another waterfall that will completely dry up over the course of the summer.
The sun was now dropping quickly behind the mountains.
We saw several people gathered on a bridge, watching the sunset reflect off of Half Dome. So we got out and watched it, too.
We moved on and finally checked into our hotel for the next two nights. We were staying at the place formerly known as the Yosemite Lodge at the Falls, but due to a lawsuit over trademarks was now being called the
Yosemite Valley Lodge. Now, as of this writing, the lawsuit has been settled and it will now be known as the Yosemite Lodge at the Falls once again. Got all that?
It’s always a treat to stay at a National Park lodge. Yes, they’re often very rustic (i.e. no air conditioning, no TV, no phone). Yes, the accommodations are often old and in need of updating. But you can never beat the location. Especially if the nearest place to stay outside the park is 50 miles away.
This was the reason the whole trip had been planned around Yosemite. Reservations open 366 days in advance for accommodations inside the park. And as with all national park lodges, it’s wise to book it as far in advance as possible. Especially if, like me, you would like to stay in one of the 6 family suites in the Yosemite Lodge that actually can hold a family of 6.
I ended up trying for 3 days before I finally found an availability for a family suite for two nights. Since we were arriving on a Tuesday, I grabbed those dates and then planned the rest of the trip so that those dates would work for us.
This room cost in the neighborhood of $300/night. And yes, that’s steep. But given the location and the needs of my family, it was worth it. This was the best room we’ve ever had in a national park. Look at this space! It was like having our own clubhouse:
This sofa was in a little TV alcove. It pulled out into a bed.
After cramming ourselves into various Hampton Inns, this felt like the lap of luxury. We loved it there.
We had a late dinner in the food court at the lodge. If there’s a downside to staying inside a national park, it’s that the food options are generally lousy. We could either eat at the high-end dining room (and order everyone $35 steaks) or slum it at the food court. We got pizzas and calzones from the food court which were thoroughly mediocre. Which is actually a big win for a national park food court.
We turned in for the night in our clubhouse. We had a full day of exploring the valley ahead.
Coming Up Next: A lot of hiking and exploring. If the bus ever shows up.
Driving map for the day: