Thursday – May 25th, 2023
Leaving Napa Valley
We have had a wonderful few days in Napa Valley. This part of the trip is definitely going down as one of the real highlights of our travels. Wherever we go in the world we always look to visit a Winery even when we are not in traditional Wine Areas (Maui, San Diego, Virginia), and these are always real highs, so to head to the heart of wine country was always going to e really special. In the end, our time here was better than we imagined.
We really relaxed into the lifestyle and took some time out from our hectic normal traveling style to just lay back soak up the scenery and just enjoy everything the Valley has to offer. One thing we really learned from this trip was how little there is to do in the Valley. There is a lot to see and do, but it is all quite similar, and basically always involves drinking wine. So it’s fair to say we really got into the swing of things!
Our last morning once again dawned with a grey overcast sky. As we said unless you are sipping fermented grape juice, there really isn’t much to do in the Valley, so with a long drive ahead of us, wine drinking was not really on the cards, so this morning we simply packed up, had breakfast, and hit the road.
Napa to Yosemite Valley
233 miles
For the last few months, we have been intently monitoring the Weather and Road condition in the Yosemite Area, and on the whole, things have gone from bad to worse, to terrible. There are so many road closures in the area it’s almost impossible to get around, and with just a week r so to go, another road was closed after a landslip cracked the actual roadway on the Bi Oak Flat road (H-120) which is the fastest route into the park for us, and the fastest way out too. Instead, we needed to detour around by El Portal and the H-140, and then again on the way out which makes the long drive out of the ark even longer, but more on that later.
The initial part of the drive was pretty uneventful and dull. It mainly followed the Freeway – 680 580 – 205 – 5 – H120 – H99 – as we hit Modesto, there was a large hold-up due to an accident and Goodle peeled us off and around the areas Walnut tree fields which cost us some time but a lot less than sitting in the Freeway Standstill.
We rejoined around Merced which is where we peeled off and headed for Yosemite along the H-140. Here the roads get a little more exciting. This is the Thursday before Memorial weekend and we were kind of expecting some pretty hellish traffic. But apart from the one hold-up, the traffic was really light. On the H-140 we pretty much had a free reign down the highway. We were in no rush but it was just so nice to have clear road in front of us.
At Mariposa, the road starts heading upwards into the Redwoods, and things really start to get remote and rural, there were a few Gas Stations here so we made sure we headed into the valley with the tank brimmed. At Bear Creek, you drop down into Briceburg and pick up the Merced River and start following the Valley floor. The Walls of Yosemite Valley starting to really rise up around you.
The winter had been a real Record breaker and the Snowpack was 240% greater than usual and despite it being 90°C in the valley there was still an awful lot of snow at higher elevations. This meant the Merced River was in full flow, and we MEAN FULL FLOW. It was absolutely raging.
As we followed the road along the river, the valley walls getting steeper and steeper we eventually hit the tiny little settlement of El-Portal. The East Gate is just a mile or two further onwards, but we pulled up here as we had booked the Yosemite View Lodge for two nights.
Yosemite View Lodge
Finding accommodation at Yosemite is a real challenge. Anything inside the Valley is really expensive and books up months, sometimes years in advance. While most of the cheaper accommodation is pretty far out of the actual park, meaning quite a bit of commuting each day, which is no fun. Yosemite View Lodge is the outlier here. It’s only a couple of miles to the Entrance and 8-12 miles into the park proper, depending on which part of the valley you are visiting.
We arrived a little early, as we said, we had expected heavy traffic but had a pretty event-free drive. We headed to the reception and our room was ready so we headed straight there.
We had booked a River View and our 2nd floor Room indeed looked right out over the river. Due to the fairly low cost, we didn’t expect too much but were really happy with our rustic Lodge Accommodation.
It had a really rustic feel, but there were two beds, and a huge balcony overlooking the river. Excellent Living space, Huge bathroom with Jacuzzi Spa Tub, basic Kitchen Facilities, and even a Fireplace! Honestly, considering the time of year, the location, and the price it was pretty amazing, it’s not 5-star, probably not even two, but we are in the middle of Yosemite and we like it a little rustic out here. And compared to our last trip where we had to camp, it’s pure luxury.
There were just two complaints. One, the Wifi was not FREE! We have not had charged Wifi for around 10 years and pretty much expect it to be inclusive, but due to the remote location there was a charge and a warning it might not be up to much! at $9.99 per 24 hours it was not too bad, but why not just tag it onto the room and charge $10 a night more?
The other problem was the River View. Ok this is not really the Lodge’s fault, and we are totally fine with it as we asked for a river view, but as we said, the river was RAGING! To put it in context. If we both stood outside on the balcony, with slightly raised voices, we were not able to hear each other! Seriously it was a thundering torrent of white water. As we said, it’s no one’s fault and we only mention it for completeness. However, even with the door closed it was seriously loud. Fortunately, it was very white noise. A consistent whirring sound, a bit like a noisy AC unit. This is the sort of sound that does not affect sleep as the brain gets used to it and filters it out. And besides, after what we had planned we would sleep like the dead.
Yosemite Falls Trail
It was around 3 pm now and we had been a little unsure of what we would do the first afternoon as we really hadn’t expected to be here so early. But with bags of time to spare, we hit the park and headed for our first Hike, the Yosemite Falls Trail.
Heading into the Park the Queue at the gate was pretty light. It was a fairly steady stream out of the park, but as we were late the inbound traffic was light. In the park and the sun was shining and the crowds were pretty low for the season. We think the Closed roads and heavy snow put a lot of people off. We stopped at a few of the pull-outs along the way to get some shots of the exceptionally Heavy flowing Bridalveil Falls and Yosemite Falls.
As we followed the loop road around the valley the water levels were very high, only a week ago the park had been largely closed due to flooding, and a lot of the meadows were still underwater. It may be inconvenient but it was VERY pretty.
The Parking lot at the Trailhead was fairly full, but a lot more people were leaving than arriving and we got a spot easily. The tail is pretty steep and winds up the rock face at the foot of Yosemite Falls. It’s a lot rougher underfoot than we had envisioned and the first sections are a lot steeper than we thought. For a warm-up hike, it was probably a bit savage. But we made a steady pace, distinctly going against the tide as most people were coming down. The opening Salvoes were shaded, but had no views and were very humid, and also filled with Mosquitos!
Every time we stopped to let a group of hikers pass on a narrow section, we were attacked and eaten alive. It really was very unpleasant. We must have got over a hundred bites each and by the end, my head had swollen up in various places making me appear quite disfigured.
After the initial climb, the Trail flattened out and opens up, things were much easier here. It was far cooler, the breeze kept the Mosies off and there were extensive views of the valley opening up. Just before Columbia Rock the trail tilts up again and there is a last push to the Rock and its staggering views of the Valley. It’s incredible how much height you have gained in such a short climb.
From here the trail drops down a little until you get fantastic views of the waterfall. At this point, we decided to turn around. We did not have time to reach the top of the trail before dark and any further along the trail and the spray from the falls would drench us. The falls were absolutely thunderings, large booms could constantly be heard and felt as the water billowed over the falls. It was incredibly magnificent. Even from our fairly distant vantage, we were still being sprayed.
After grabbing some shots we started making our way down. Once in the wooded area, the mosquitos were even more violent. It was later on, and Mosies are nocturnal and there were fewer victims as we were quite alone on the trials y now. By the bottom, I was literally covered in Mosquito guts where I had been swatting them on the way down!
Back at the car, we checked the stats and realized the Hike had been a lot more significant than we expected. Over 1500ft of climbing in only 2 miles, giving a hike of 4.6 miles in total. Not a huge hike, but it was just supposed to be a warm-up for tomorrow’s main event.
Pizza and Early Night
We headed back to the Lodge and headed quickly over to the Onsite Pizza Restaurant. There are pretty limited options in the park and large, hot Pizza felt just the ticket right now. The restaurant closed in around 30mins so we were curring it fine, but we ordered the biggest pie they did and then devoured it back at the room.
We then had showers to remove the Mosquito remnants before checking the damage in the mirror. It was not going to win any beauty contests for a good few days! Well, I am not likely to ever but still. Then it was off to bed. 250 Miles of driving and 7.4 miles of hiking taking their toll. Plus I had a pretty early start tomorrow. Kate could have a lie-in, but I was to start the day at 3 AM!
Check out tomorrow’s entry to see why…
Walking Total – 14,269 Steps – 7.4 Miles
Overall this was a light day, the step count was vastly swollen by the hiking miles we did in Yosemite.
