My whole body is sore. My toes are covered in blisters. I’m slightly sunburned. I’m hungry. I can literally smell the dry sweat on my body. And I’m absolutely exhausted. But it was a perfect day. I’ll get to today in just a bit, but let me recap yesterday since we didn’t have wifi to write.
Yesterday was mostly a waste of a day. There were a mere 36 miles between our starting destination and our ending point. Unfortunately, somewhere along those 36 miles there was an active avalanche making the road not passable. So we had to drive over 300 miles in some ridiculous number of hours. It was long and boring and we were all annoyed.
After sitting all those hours in the car we finally arrived at Yosemite at 4ish. It was over 100 degrees in the valley and fairly miserable.
Months ago I noticed on the spreadsheet that this night was marked “glamping at Yosemite” and I got reasonably excited. I know the Pinterest version of glamping and it looks delightful. Turns out that Zak hasn’t searched glamping on Pinterest and his version included a lot less champagne, candles, Italian lights, white fluffy robes, and facial masks than I was expecting. Turns out that getting a place to sleep for a night is ridiculously difficult and expensive. Zak “lucked” into this so-called glamping situation and jumped on the opportunity. We arrived at our site, that consisted of a platform with a steel frame and canvas creating walls and a ceiling. The inside held two twin and a double metal bed frame, storage shelves, and an extremely bulky heater that has been turned off since the Friday before Memorial Day. There was a pile of folded sheets and barf colored blankets on each bed. There was a large bear proof locker right outside that we needed to fill with EVERY food and toiletry item from our car and belongings. We sweat through our clothes making trips from the car to the bear locker with armfuls of beef jerky, twizzlers, Cheetos, and Cliff bars. It was clear that I needed to lower my glamping expectations.
We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around the Valley and stopping for some of the more touristy sites. Zak must of known that we would need a pick me up and surprised us with dinner reservations at the Majestic Yosemite Lodge. There even a dress code so we put on our fanciest clothes that we brought along and our nicest flip flops.
The dinner will go down as one of my favorite family evenings ever. Every aspect was superb. We spent a long time reflecting on the first fourth of the trip as we sipped wine. We nibbled at a delightful cheese platter as we discussed to upcoming weeks. Our dinners were ridiculous. Full of flavor as we admired the historic lodge dining room. Our server, Dale, was exactly what we needed. Funny, generous, and totally okay with us spending hours talking and laughing.
The sleeping part of the night went as I had expected. I want a second chance at legit glamping.
Then today. Ahh. Today. My favorite day of the the trip thus far. While Zak plans these hikes in the winter, I don’t usually have much of a preference. (Note to self: Care come next January and February to avoid uphill hikes.) Yosemite was different though. I was determined to do this hike and have been looking forward to it for months. We did the same hike two years ago and I had heat sickness quite severely. I left my pride, dignity, and whole lot of vomit on this trail. It was important for me to finish this hike and actually be able to enjoy it. Also, it was almost all downhill. This hike was made for me.
We took an early bus up to Glacier Point and hiked around Half Dome while keeping an eye on Yosemite Falls. We hiked down to the Valley past several waterfalls. The waterfalls were fast, powerful, and swelling beyond their normal boundaries. At two different points we got drenched from the mist that created downpour like situations. We hiked 12 miles and they were each tough, but the rewards were plentiful. Each glance away from our upcoming steps were met with stunning views. I was able to gather my pride and dignity and make really good memories.
We had planning on only hiking eight miles, but added in four extra to make sure we didn’t miss a single waterfall. This set our departure time from Yosemite a few hours later than we had planned, but as we were leaving the park we saw a black bear eating dinner in a meadow. I’m so glad we saw another bear and equally thrilled we didn’t need to use bear spray.
Believe it or not, this day is going to get even better yet! We are on our way to Lathrop and will get In-N-Out for a late dinner. Life is good.
(We are hoping for excellent wifi tonight, so will add another post of the pictures and videos from the past few days.)
