Day 34 - Yosemite Valley

Today, we went into Yosemite Valley. Not really crowded but many parking areas were still full. Not packed as when we were here last year. We walked up to lower Yosemite Falls and it was just a trickle. If you look really closely at the picture, you can see some wet rocks. That's the waterfall. The last time I was here was around 1980 and water was pouring down from the cliff. I don't remember the time of year but I think Spring because I also remember needing klister for x-country skiing.

At the intersection of the road and the trail, there was something I hadn't seen for quite a while. A pay phone. I'm not sure why as there was great Verizon signal inside of the valley. Here at the campground, no cell signal, and very slow Internet but it was good enough for this post so I'm not complaining. I should have brought my laptop and done the post while still in the valley.

We ventured much further into the park this time. I was just so fed up with traffic last year and not being able to find parking that I just wanted to leave. Too many people. That wasn't the case this time. We got some nice views of half dome while walking on the trails around the parking lot.

After lunch, we walked up to the Majestic Hotel formerly known as the Ahwahnee Hotel. Pretty nice but less impressive than the Old Faithful Lodge in Yellowstone. This is one of three fireplaces. The hotel was built in 1927 and it really is a grand place. Valet parking, fancy restaurants and all.

From the hotel, we took the shuttle bus. Very crowded as a lot of people got on at the hotel which was stop number 3 of 20. The parking lot where we parked was stop number 1. So we got a nice tour of the valley floor.

It is about a 45-minute drive from the campground to the parking lot. A little further than I thought given that the campground was only five miles from the entrance gate. BTW, this was my first opportunity to use my lifetime senior pass for admission to the park. You just present the pass and your ID so they can see that they match, We arrived back around 4pm.