Day 47 - Yosemite Valley

We are good at driving.  First thing, we jumped in the truck and started on the 1 and ½ hour drive to Yosemite Valley.  This is a really big park and the speed limit runs between 25-45 mph, which is fine because the scenery is gorgeous and you don’t want to miss it.  So it takes a while to get around.  This is the only day we plan to spend in the Valley.

We should have left earlier.  I meant to leave at 8, but we left at 9.  So arriving in the Valley at 10:30, there was a ton of traffic and the parking lot was almost full.  We did manage to find a spot.  We caught the shuttle to the Visitor’s Center.  They have a nice museum about the park.  It’s interesting that each visitor’s center seems to only have info about their area (i.e. Yosemite Valley only tells about the valley, not Tuolomne Meadows or Hetch-Hetchy, etc.)  Their orientation film was nice.  It told a bit about Clark and Muir’s relation to the park.  There was a nice Miwok Indian Village exhibit outside and another museum (about the history of the native Americans).

We decided we needed to eat before our hikes and the truck was too far away, so we bought sandwiches at the deli.  Then we hiked the Lower Yosemite Falls Trail, along with everyone else at Yosemite.  The next hike was called Cook’s Meadow and we never found a sign, but we found the trail.  It was a little less crowded.  It led out to the center of the valley for a nice view of Half Dome and Royal Arches.  I know we saw El Capitan at some point, but I’m not sure when.

After that we hopped a shuttle down to the Happy Isles Nature Center.  This one wasn’t as neat as some (no activities), but you never know till you get there.  We stopped by a bridge near Happy Isles and played around the water.  The girls were dying to get in, but we weren’t prepared for that.  Then we got on another shuttle to go back to the Visitor’s Center.  Here we went into the big grocery store and got a couple of things that the crazy expensive market did not have.  Then we got ice cream cones.  Then we bought a few postcards.  Then we headed back to the truck.

Traffic looked a bit backed up so Carmen and I decided to run down to Housekeeping Camp to grab a shower.  It was about a half-mile hike.  Once we got there, the camp host said there was a 15 minute wait and it was a walk to the office to buy a ticket and then a walk to the showers.  We walked back to the truck.  Traffic was better.  We stopped for some awesome sunset pictures on the way back to Tuolomne Meadows.

The valley has more dramatic views because you are at a lower elevation and the rocks are really high.  Yosemite Falls dries up by August so it wasn’t as huge as it is at times, but it is as tall as it ever is.  Everything is so high up.  Tuolomne has similar features, but it is at 8,000 ft, so the rocks and waterfalls are not quite as tall.  But it has its own beauty.  We are going to enjoy it tomorrow!
Yosemite Valley