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Although my visit to Yosemite Valley in 1995 was part of my inspiration for
creating this web site, I hadn't actually been in the valley since 1997. I'd
been to Yosemite three times since then, but always to Tuolumne Meadows. As I
mentioned earlier, I'm not a huge big-waterfall person. But it was still
great just driving along the valley floor looking up at the huge granite
walls. Which is a good thing, since this was a drought year and the waterfalls
were a fraction of what they are in a wet year. Still, this was the first time
I'd ever been in the valley early enough in the year to actually see Yosemite
Falls before they dried up.
After breakfast, we made the half hour drive down to the valley and started
our day in the valley by doing the short walk to the base of
Bridalveil Falls.
After seeing the falls, we made the short drive to the Sentinel Beach picnic area.
I was surprised to find that there were only a half dozen picnic tables set up
here. Even more surprising is that half of them were unused. We grabbed one
and ate lunch in the shade, trying to avoid the sun on this hot day.
After lunch we decided to try to find access to the Merced River for the kids
to play in. We drove around and around trying to find parking to no avail.
I stopped for 15 seconds on a side road so that I could talk to Marisa and Brian in
the other car (we were caravanning) to find out what they wanted to do. Even
though we weren't blocking traffic, a ranger immediately pulled up and told us
we had to move. When we asked for suggestions on where to park, he said he
couldn't help us -- "Your guess is as good as mine -- it's a Saturday." Thanks
for nothing. Let this be a lesson - if you want to visit the valley, park your
car as soon as you can and use the free shuttle buses the rest of the day.
Eventually we found a couple parking spots on the shoulder near Yosemite Village.
We walked over to the store and bought ice cream, then took the shuttle bus
over to the Yosemite Falls trailhead. Then we made the short hike to the base of
Yosemite Falls.
After the falls we returned to our cars and drove to the El Capitan picnic area.
This is a much nicer picnic area than the Sentinel Beach one. It has a
lot more tables and a view of the granite walls above. We brought out the stove
and cooked up dinner.
After dinner, Brian and Marisa headed back to the Bay Area while we headed back
to the Bridalveil Creek campground for one more night. Thankfully it was a bit
warmer than the previous night.
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