We were staying outside the park in a RV park named Yosemite
Lakes. The park was ok with reasonable facilities however it was past its prime
and the facilities looked tired. The place lacked both energy and, surprisingly
information about Yosemite NP, which I thought unusual.
Yosemite Valley was and is beautiful. Upon entering the park
you experience great views of iconic scenes. The fuss about protecting this
place from John Muir and indeed others was well warranted.
On our first day we walked the Lower Falls track in addition
to stopping for most view points and photo op sites [and sights] as possible.
Within Yosemite Valley we visited the museum and Visitor Centre and viewed a
short film obviously about Yosemite and its history made by celebrated
documentary maker, Ken Burns. It also featured its writer Dayton Duncan who
spoke about the importance of the National Park system and the beautiful idea
behind it. As you would expect it was very well done and a worthy advertisement
for their 10 hour TV show – America’s best idea – The National Parks - which is truly excellent!
We hopped a free shuttle back to our rv for lunch as the
rain started to fall. Before long the rain had intensified and cloud crowded
into the valley. We decided to head for the hills which, I’m happy to say, was
the way home.
The drive home to and from the Yosemite Valley was about an
hour but the drive was pretty nice.
Day two sadly had a similar forecast to our first day;
overcast for the morning before rain setting in in the afternoon. We did a
small hike to Mirror Lake on our first day in addition to a repeat of some of
the same photo opp sites from day 1.
Our third day in the valley was fine and sunny for the whole
day!! And, surprise, surprise it was even more crowded! Side note – any guide
book on Yosemite warns of the crowds but claims that despite the hassles of crowds
Yosemite is still very much worth it. I would echo that advice. Having said
that though, we did have a lot of people to contend with. One guy, who had been
coming to Yosemite for a couple of decades claimed it was the busiest non-summer
period that he had encountered and, to a degree put the blame on the heavier
than normal snow fall. Allow me to explain. Yosemite received some 150% its
annual snow fall over the past winter meaning that all of the water falls in
and around Yosemite are at the wettest best. This fact apparently had been
publicised. And the people, like the water, had flooded in.
On our last sunny day we did the Mist Fall hike and got
drenched – see paragraph above!!
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