Mariposa Grove & on to Kings Canyon

Since we were heading south out of Yosemite, we stopped in Mariposa Grove to see the giant Sequoias. Honestly, they were pretty anticlimactic and the kids were saying "uh I sure hope Sequoia is more impressive than this..." so unless you've never seen a sequoia before and won't again, I think you can skip Mariposa. (Sorry.) 

I mean, they are big trees, but...they're not *huge* and there's a ton of fire damage so they're pretty sparse and many are burnt. 

Then we stopped at Trader Joe's to stock up on groceries again and let me tell you, the hack of buying TJ's salads for everyone vs. fast food is soooo much better. 

Ah yes! The other trees in California! 

The drive into Kings Canyon (all the way to the back of the canyon) is so incredibly gorgeous. Also! Another death zone! We kept trying to guess exactly which hairpin curve it is that people keep driving off of and plummeting into the Kings River below. (Lots and lots and lots of options.) 

Made dinner and set up camp to the dulcet sounds of rangers firing at bears wandering through the camp, nothing like the woods to relax. 

Neil and I did a little flashlight exploring to find a good place for our river dips, I miss those so much now that we are home! 

And I can't remember why I took this photo, but this was our deluxe setup this time; we had just the little boys with us in our giant tent. Neil and I switched to cots last summer to see if it would help us feel less achy (yay getting old!) and then this summer we added some really outstanding backpacking air mattresses and let me tell you, it's a pretty top-tier car camping setup. 

 

Yosemite day 4: Mirror Lake & Tuolumne Meadows

On our last full day in Yosemite, Neil joined me for my early-morning run up to & around Mirror Lake. Poor guy, this reaffirmed his worst fears about how oblivious I am to everything when I'm running since I literally almost ran into a bear that I didn't notice and thankfully he did. 

Again, if not friend, why friend-shaped?!

We stepped off the trail so the bear could mosey past and I don't think it even blinked at us. 




And the requisite post-run dip in the Merced, of course! (Not here but further down where the water was slower.) 


Then we drove the 2 hours over to the Tioga Road area and Tuolumne Meadows; we considered doing a big hike here but given the length of the drive decided that we didn't want to get up at 4 am to be hiking by 6 am (catch ya another time, Clouds Rest and North Dome). So we compromised with the early-morning run for parents and kids getting to sleep in. 

Anyway--we explored the Soda Springs area, which was really beautiful. 

We spent quite awhile in the Sierra Club cabin exploring all the guidebooks; some super cool hiking info and I took a lot of photos of out of print guidebooks for later reference! 

Kind of akin to Yellowstone with the geothermal activity and coloration! 

We had planned to picnic at Tenaya Lake & maybe swim or raft, but when we got there it was so insanely cold (much higher elevation than the valley area) that we ended up eating super fast and booking it back to the car. We had stopped at Olmstead Point on our way in (whoops, didn't put those pictures in anywhere) so we ended up just driving back to the valley to go explore around the base of El Capitan, which--wouldn't you know it--was so blisteringly blazingly hot that we were all wishing for Tenaya Lake back again. 




We went up to the base and Matthew lived out his dreams of scrambling around "free soloing" El Cap. Just like Alex Honnold. ;-) 



And then back to the Curry Village area for one last beautiful sunset over the meadow! 


 

Yosemite day 3: Taft Point & Sentinel Dome

On our third day in Yosemite, we opted to drive up the Glacier Point road instead of hiking it--haha! There were a few places I'd been wanting to explore but knew we couldn't tack them on to the end of our mega hike day earlier in the week. We made the requisite stop at Tunnel View on both the way up (too hazy) and the way down (too many influencers). I realize it sounds like I'm gatekeeping the national parks, but oh my gosh it bugs me soooo much when people block everyone else's view for an extended photoshoot (especially when I see them putting on brand-new hiking gear that has obviously only been worn for the photo op. Don't even get me started on the outfit changes). 

Anyway--no influencers spotted on Sentinel Dome! Which would actually be a phenomenal photoshoot point because the views are INCREDIBLE and it's such a low-effort hike to get there (literally a mile from the parking lot). 





I seriously thought this was the best viewpoint in Yosemite; you have sweeping 360 degree views and can see so many incredible sights. I was really surprised by how few people were up there. 

Both Sentinel Dome & Taft Point trails leave from the same parking area, but in different directions; you can put together a 5-mile loop that includes both but skirts the rim of the valley instead of returning to the parking lot and then starting out again, which I highly recommend--the views along the valley were beautiful. 

Before you get to Taft Point you cross near all of these extremely deep fissures in the rock; you can look down and see the valley below you. It's a little vertiginous. 

Apparently I took more videos than photos of Taft Point (which may be ringing a bell for you because of this story). So here are some photos down to the side where we ate lunch and texted my dad some napping photos to let him know we were thinking of him. 

Pretty incredible views though! 

Then we went back to Yosemite Village and went to the Exploration Center to see the park film; they also had some really cool exhibits. Matthew loved this one showing all the named routes on El Capitan (we watched Alex Honnold's Free Solo the week before we left). 

And then we bought some very overpriced but delicious ice cream at the Village Grill before heading back to camp for Merced dips & dinner; I think maybe we also got tshirts & souvenirs this night but that may have been the next night. 

Yosemite: Floating the Merced

 

On our second morning in Yosemite, I got up early and went for a run around the Valley. I had a few agenda items for the run: find a spot with service so I could log on to my email & course website to grade some urgent stuff that had to be flipped around within 12 hours (we were doing client outreach that week), double-check on access point for the Merced, and get in a good run. I had eight gorgeous miles around the valley that checked all those boxes, and perhaps one of the most gorgeous photos I've ever taken at the top of this post when I was crossing Swinging Bridge early early before the tourist hordes were out (it was absolute insanity there later in the day when we went by again). Sidenote: yes, Yosemite Valley is just as crowded and touristy as they say, but it is also really easy to get away from all the people, who mostly seem to stay on the bike paths and near the restaurants. 

Anyway, this is what the valley looks like just after dawn--you have it to yourself. 

Sheer heaven. 

Looking down the Merced--I ran about half of the Valley loop from Happy Isles to Yosemite Falls to Swinging Bridge and back up through Curry Village. 

Then I did a quick cold plunge in the river to rinse away the sweat before going back and changing into my swimsuit. Sidenote: I loved those cold plunges so, so, so much. I've never experienced utter euphoria like that and it was incredible; I think the contrast between being so hot post-run and then immediately cold just does something wild to my synapses and it was legitimately one of my favorite parts of the trip. Hard to beat seeing Half Dome over your toes while you're singing John Denver songs to yourself in utter solitude and all you can hear is the water rushing over rocks and you just had one of the best runs of your life. 

I had gone back and forth before we left about whether we should do rafts or tubes and we ended up with enough rafts for everyone but some accessory tubes. Overall, I was really glad we had the rafts because Neil and Isaac were the only ones who could comfortably tolerate the cold of the river in the tubes (Juliet, Luke, and I tried them later and were shivering uncontrollably). 

We put in at the bridge at the Pines campgrounds and took out at Cathedral Beach; in hindsight I would get out at Swinging Bridge because the stretch past that to Cathedral Beach was very shady and we were all so cold and tired by the time we got there, since we were having to paddle a ton with the slower river and we were pretty tired at that point (probably 4 pm by the time we got out?). 

But gosh--have you ever seen anything more beautiful than this?! 

We had the best day--we pulled our rafts out a couple times at particularly good beaches and ate & swam and just had such a good time. 

Truly one of the best days and I highly highly recommend a day floating the Merced if you're in Yosemite! A couple tips: you can rent rafts at Curry Village but they don't take reservations so I'd just bring your own. The NPS requires life jackets (lots of people don't wear them but I would because there are tons of drownings) and you can only float the river at specific times if the flow rate is ideal; generally in spring the river is way too strong and by mid-July it's too low to float. We were there the first week of July and it was perfect after the first mile or so, when the lower water meant we bumped over a few really painful rocks (Matty called them "butt-breakers").