Oh holy hell! I started this blog post back in October and then who knows what happened. Part of it is that I had just gotten a new camera, this trip was the first time I was using it, and I'm not really happy with the photos. Part of it is just that I've been busy doing all kinds of random things and haven't had as much time to blog. In any event, I haven't been able to get back to editing photos until now! I'm determined to get through them though because I love having a catalog of our experiences and I so rarely print out any photos that I take, so at least I have them here! So, back to our 2017 summer vacation ....
I think that the best worst part of planning any vacation is trying to parcel out where and how to spend each day. We allotted four days for our excursion to Yosemite and we could have just as easily spent an entire week there -- especially since it's a bit of a trek from San Francisco and we spent the better part of two days traveling there and back.
Joel had a bunch of work to do in the a.m. before we hit the road, so I took the kids to La Boulangerie on Pine for breakfast. By the time we got back, the car was packed and we ready to go (thanks to Joel's brother for letting us borrow his car for the Yosemite trip!). The kids were exhausted and slept a lot of the ride out but they woke up right as the twisty mountain ride started. We hadn't spent a lot of time planning on where to stop for lunch because we wanted to get as far as we could first. But the kids needed a break from the car and Priest Station Cafe seemed like our best bet. It was fine -- nothing fancy. But the view is pretty.
It wasn't too long after lunch that we arrived at our lodging location. If you talk to anyone about going to Yosemite, they'll tell you that you need to book everything far in advance. And they are right. And we didn't. I went to book an in-the-park stay a few months ahead of our trip and the annoying park system (it is SO annoying - you select something to book and then a person emails you back saying what they actually have available. And back and forth. And back and forth) basically laughed at me. But what was available turned out to be one of the best surprises of our trip. We booked a Hillside Villa at Rush Creek Lodge. It was an incredibly family-friendly lodge that reminded me of what I think an upscale Wolf Creek Lodge would be like (I haven't been). The villa was roomy and nice, but still woodsy. We checked in and the kids booked it to the amazing pool before we had chance to do much else. As Joel and I settled in with drinks from the pool bar, Joel remarked that this was the kinds of "camping" he could get into. Ha!
When the kids tired of swimming, we checked out all of the games they lodge had to offer. There are a few different restaurants at the lodge, but the kids weren't in the mood to sit down and I was kind of sick of eating huge meals. So we chose to hit up the general store for sandwiches and chips and we picnicked outside. Btw, we hit up the general store HEAVY over our stay there. It had everything, but as you would expect, was expensive. Next time we'd definitely stop at a grocery store first to stock up. The villa had a fridge so we bought things for breakfast the next morning. After din we hit up the nightly s'mores station -- the kids were thrilled! They got back in the pool while Joel and I cozied up to a fire pit and hit up the bar again. The sunset was gorgeous!
We all slept HARD that night, which was a good because I woke everyone up super early to get into the park. I smelled what I thought was campfire and told the kids it must be the wood-burning furnaces that are in the villas (it gets cold at night!). But then we started our drive into the park (the entrance is only 1/2 mile from the park's 120 west entrance) and it got cloudier and cloudier. And our eyes burned a bit. I pulled up the park's website in the one spot the internet worked and BAM, forest fire mania in the park. It appeared that there were two pretty serious forest fires burning in Yosemite, but the park was still open. On our drive in, I read to the kids from a great guide to Yosemite for kids -- it helped me plan our trip there quite a bit too. It happened to include some good info about the role of fire in the park and that helped lay a good foundation for our trip there.
We stopped at the typical vantage points on the way down to Yosemite Valley. My plan was to stop at the visitor center there and confirm the hike I wanted to do was going to work out.
We dressed in lots of layers knowing that it would be cool when we arrived down in the valley but as we hiked throughout the day, it would get warmer. I didn't want to waste much time at the visitor center -- I heard the trails get really crowded unless you get moving in the morning. I was a little worried about the air quality and hiking with the kids, but Joel and I figured we'd see how it went and we could always turn around. So we confirmed our hiking plan with a ranger and hit the trail!
Joel and I decided to try an ambitious hike: Vernal + Nevada Falls. A 5.4 mile, 5-6 hour hike round trip. You take the mist trail up to Vernal Fall and then keep climbing up to reach Nevada Falls. We did a loop and took the John Muir Trail back down and I was SO happy -- the way up was super slippery. I'm going to put this not-so-humble brag out there: our kids rocked it. This was a HARD hike (I had a harder time coming down than going up -- my knees!). It was hard for most adults. But our kids persisted without much whining. And it was an amazing thing to do together.
The falls were insanely beautiful and every turn revealed new mountains of rocks jutting up higher and higher. And when you turned around to see from where you climbed -- WOW. Everyone was into it and I was happy that I hadn't applied for a permit to hike to Half Dome because I think the kids would have pushed for it (it wouldn't have been a good idea) given the chance.
The hike up to Nevada Fall was steep and didn't have any of the same mist sprays onto the trail that Vernal Fall had. There was a little more complaining this length of the hike, but we eventually made it up! And we had lunch sitting basically on top of a waterfall (we'd packed bread, cheese, fruit, and some goodies from our lodge's general store and everyone ate with no complaints).
We had a long hike back down and I didn't get a ton of photos because I was trying to deal with my old knees. But we loved feeling the runoff spray coming off the mountains as we wound our way down. We returned to the Yosemite Valley visitor center with not much time left before closing. But the kids were dead set on getting their junior ranger pin so we picked up the packets and got to work. One of the tasks was to learn something new from a park ranger. With time dwindling, we headed over to the Indian Cultural Exhibit and Village at the Yosemite Museum. The kids beelined for a ranger demonstrating Indian instruments. We stood listening to an eagle bone flute and I had total deja vu. I knew this guy. HOW did I know this guy? Lightbulb. It was Park Ranger Shelton Johnson featured in our kids guide I mentioned above. He started out as a ranger in DC and then ended up in Yosemite -- fate!
The kids got his signature on their ranger packets and we hightailed it back to the visitor center to collect their badges. They were SO excited. And we were SO tired. We headed back to the lodge, ate at at the nightly poolside barbecue (I've never seen the kids eat so much barbecued fish), and crawled to bed!!
