The following morning, before leaving Kings Canyon, we stopped at Grant Grove to see some large Sequoia trees.
After that quick visit we proceeded to drive on to Yosemite National Park, about 4 hours north. Actually much of the drive was backtracking the way we had came back through Fresno. Once we got closer to Yosemite the scenery became much nicer. We had booked four nights at a Thousand Trails / Encore park just a few miles outside the park entrance. We didn’t really realize before our arrival however that the entrance was actually 45 minutes away from the ‘Yosemite Village’, meaning we had quite a long commute into the park each day.
The first day in Yosemite we decided after speaking the to the ranger to head to the Glacier Point area, due to it being Sunday they advised it would be less busy than the village. This was another 45 minutes ride in each direction. The ride was very nice, but long. When we got close to Glacier Point we stopped to climb to the top of Sentinel Dome.
When we left there to head down to Glacier Point we couldn’t believe the traffic heading down to the parking lot, so we gave up and parked at the side of the road and walked down. From Glacier Point there was an excellent view of the Yosemite Valley & village below.
On the way back we stopped at the Bridal Veil falls for a short walk to check out the falls.
On our second day we opted to stick to the village. By the time we arrived around noon the parking lots were already filling up, but we did manage to find a spot for the bike. We decided to stop for a pizza lunch in the Half Dome Village before heading up the Mist Trail to the Vernal falls. We didn’t make it the whole way up as we didn’t want to get soaking wet. We walked over to Mirror Lake before heading back to the bike and making our way back to the campground.
The next morning we got an earlier start and were in the park by around 9am. We headed straight for the Yosemite Falls trail. We did the short, easy walk around the lower falls view, and then decided to walk part of the way up the Upper Falls trail. The entire trail took 6 to 8 hours but we knew we weren’t up for that. We got as far as Columbia Rock which provided excellent view of the valley before turning around. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the valley enjoying the scenery.
The next day it was time to pack up and head to our next destination, Lake Tahoe. We had originally planned to drive through the eastern half of Yosemite and up the 395 through Nevada, but we had found out that the Tioga Pass still hadn’t opened due to the long winter and snow pack. We weren’t sure which route to take, and at first planned to take the next road north the 108 until we saw all the warning signs telling us that it wasn’t a good route for RVs and trailers. We switched at the last minute and took the 88 instead. We made a couple short stops, at a lake around lunchtime to take a swim and in the mountains at a lookout. We arrived fairly late in the afternoon and relaxed at the campground, another Thousand Trails property.
We got a late start the following day, but used the morning to get some work done and stock up on groceries in town. After lunch we headed out on the motorcycle to circle the lake. We stopped for an hour or so at Sand Harbour state park where they had a nice little beach and some cool rocks and of course amazing view of the lake and snow capped peaks surrounding it. We stopped again in Tahoe City for some Thai food which we had been craving.
The next day we didn’t do a whole lot other than hang around the campground, play some tennis and swim in the pool. Later in the evening we rode our bicycles along the bicycle path along the lake up to Tallac Point. Unfortunately as we were making our way back we discovered that Gareth had a flat tire so we could walk about 90 minutes back with the dog or try to get a ride back. Our cell phone signals were weak but we were able to get a ride with ride-sharing and as a bonus the car had a bike rack.
