We ended up waking up naturally at around 5:15am, unable to sleep anymore. The room wasn’t the cleanest, and we had the fan running all night to keep us sufficiently cool. So getting up early was also a nice way to say goodbye to this hotel. We stopped by Starbucks to get some food and drinks to go, and headed out to Yosemite.

Just after 7:30am we were already at the east entrance to the park. Shortly thereafter, we stopped and saw Bridalveil Falls. It was an amazing 600+ ft drop and we got sprayed a bit trying to get close to it. I also thought the little brook flowing down below the fall was beautiful.

Unable to drive up the mountain to see Glacier Point, we drove further into Yosemite Valley to see more. Fairly quickly, we realized there was much to see and many stops to take. In a combination of short (0.5 – 2 mile) hikes and drives, we saw El Capitan, Swinging Bridges, and Yosemite Falls.

Determined to see Half Dome, we moved on and pulled into the Curry Village parking lot. It was roughly 10am at this point and the park was starting to fill up pretty badly. This was most evident in the shuttle bus that picked us up. It was standing room only and the bus driver was really upset and annoyed by heavy crowds. We got off at Happy Isles and walked around, hoping to get a glimpse of Half Dome. We didn’t see Half Dome, but we did see another beautiful stream.

From there it was off to a proper parking lot, and it was a good thing too, because by the time we walked out of it, the lot was full and closed off. There was a great little picnic area within quick walking distance, and from that area there were great views of Half Dome.

Hungry early and wanting to avoid massive lunch crowds, we ate at the Yosemite store in the area, took a bus, and ended up in Cook’s Meadow. The view of Yosemite Falls from there was really nice:

Walking across Cook’s Meadow, we ended up at Sentinel Bridge. Again, the views continued to amaze me:

One of the rangers I spoke to at lunch mentioned that Glacier Point had just opened up about an hour earlier, and he suggested going to Tunnel View as well as Glacier Point to get great views of the valley.

So we hopped into our car and headed up the mountain, just past Bridalveil Fall this time. Traffic was pretty bad and parking even worse, but it was worth dealing with the masses to see this:

Further up the mountain, about an hour later, we ended up at Washburn Point, just shy of Glacier Point. We were able to see some falls from above that we had decided (on account of them being strenuous hikes) to skip out on- specifically Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls.

Just further down the road, we finally reached Glacier Point. Traffic heading down there was literally stop and go, with more emphasis on stop than go, but definitely not something I was prepared to miss.

As we prepared to leave the parking lot, two guys were hitckhiking, so we gave them a lift back down the mountain. They were two older gentlemen from Australia, here in the country on a 7 week Southwest trip. We had a nice conversation with them on the way down. Eventually we dropped them off at the village and took about an hour and a quarter to cover a mile and a half of Yosemite, just to attempt to leave the park.

When we finally got out of the park, we drove out to Mariposa, where we had dinner and spent the night. We had learned the Tioga Pass would not open until Mid-June, so had to cancel our plans to continue on to Mono Lake the next day.

For Memorial Day this year, we decided to drive out to Yosemite National Park.

In typical Arnon style, I planned for us to drive half way there on Friday night before Memorial Day, and we will continue to Yosemite tomorrow morning. We left the Bay Area in the afternoon and made it out to Oakdale in the evening. Thankfully traffic was not terrible.

Dinner was at House of Beef, where, if not for the salad bar and soup, I would not have eaten much. Thankfully the food I had was really good.

The plan for tomorrow is to wake up really early, and try to beat the crazy Memorial Day crowd, as well as enjoy the morning at Yosemite. We are roughly 2 hours away from the the park. Part of the trip was to include Mono Lake, but it appears the Tioga Pass Road will be closed during our visit. However, I expect to be able to reach Mariposa Grove to see the giant Sequoias.

I’m excited to check out the hiking trails, nice views, and the waterfalls, which should be in full flow this time of year.