Waking up in the quiet of Yosemite, we did see the benefits of the Cabins, even with our less than ideal location. After getting up slowly we headed over to the main building for breakfast. Again the food was ok, but the buffet was overpriced with only a few options, but fed we headed to the bus stop to get a bus to the Lodge where the Valley tour would start.
At this morning time, we were at the Bus stop at 9am, there was a bit of a crowd and the bus was crowded having come from the public car park, just before our stop, but we managed to get on and the bus cleared out at the next stop as we reached Yosemite village and even more at the bottom of Yosemite falls.
The Lodge looked like a nice hotel but the rooms did seem to be very spread out, the reception area was nice and the dining options seemed to be better than those at the Ahwahnee, so we thought that it would be a better option for lunch after the tour. The tour picked us up from in front of the lodge it was a sort of truck with a long set of seats behind, with a guide up front who talked us through what we were seeing.
The tour took us along the valley, past Camp 4 which is the main camp for the climbers heading up El Capitan. We paused just at the foot of El Capitan as our driver was also a climber and he came out of his cab to give us an explanation on the history of climbing and answered questions on climbing El Capitan, which takes 3-5 days and is the height of 3 Empire state buildings.
These photos of Yosemite do not really show the wonder and magnificence of the beauty of this place.
Our first full stop, where we could get off the ride was at Valley View, which had a great view back up the valley.
and also contained a sign showing the worst flood of the valley in recorded history.
From the Valley floor we headed up to Tunnel view, passing Fern Springs, the smallest waterfall in Yosemite. It is difficult to see in the picture but is is no more than 2 feet tall.
Tunnel view has the most classic views of the Yosemite valley, and helps to show that man's intervention in this valley is insignificant compared to the size and scale of the valley as a whole.
From Tunnel view we headed back around the south side of the valley, the talk turned more animals especially bears and the old act of firerain where ashes from fires would be pushed of the side of the cliffs so that the lit up the sky from the valley below.
The tour was a great sampler of what is in Yosemite valley and we arrived back at the lodge just less than 2 hours after we started at 11am. As that was to early for lunch we walked back towards the village from the lodge passing the start of the short walk to Yosemite falls.
We arrived in the village and had a look at all the lunch options and a quick look in some of the shops, deciding to have sandwiches from Degan's Deli as they also do Gluten free sandwiches which meant that Celia could also have one. Lunch finished, post card sent to friend from the post office and more water collected, we grabbed the bus to Stop 16 which is the start of the Mist trail, as our afternoon target was to be the 1 mile walk up to Vernon Falls.
We had thought that this was going to be an easy hike, but had miss understood something and so going up 400ft in 1 mile, meant that our normal pace which would have resulting in this being a 20 min walk turned into a 45 min walk with a couple of stops on the way up, but the views on the walk and at the top were worth it.
The walk down was much easier but I am glad we were fit as it had still be an exhausting afternoon, We grabbed the bus back to the village and stopped at the main store to get some water and gifts, and walked back to the Ahwahnee for a break before getting the bus back to the Lodge for dinner in the Mountain View room. Dinner here was more basic but nicer than the Ahwahnee. Celia had a Gluten Free Quinoa and lentil burger, I can't remember my choice.
After a long day with lots of walking we were exhausted so got an early night as tomorrow we had the long drive back to San Francisco.
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