The kids have a two week fall break from school, so we took the opportunity to head to Yosemite for a week of camping and enjoying the outdoors. I really like going to the valley in the fall (after Labor Day weekend). Yes, Yosemite is still busy, but only on the weekends, and still much much less so than the height of summer. It's one of the best times to visit in my opinion.
We took a detour to stop by GoWesty in Los Osos, CA. The Syncro needed some maintenance items done, so it fit in the schedule. Jaden got his first visit/look ever at the beach and the ocean with a quick run up to Montana de Oro state park.
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| Smells like saltwater and fish! :) |
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| Heavy surf! |
From there, we headed up highway 101 and cut across to Fresno at Paso Robles. Stopped off in Oakhurst, CA for final fuel and firewood and pulled into Yosemite valley just around sunset.
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| The view coming out of the Wawona Hwy Tunnel |
Things were pretty soaked. Evidently the previous two days saw some *huge* rainstorms. We totally missed those, but would have a couple days of on/off rain and cloudy weather. It finally cleared toward the end of the week. The positive side was that they boys got to see the waterfalls actually running. Usually, they're dried up to a trickle this time of year.
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| Hiking to Upper Yosemite Falls |
We had a great time hanging out in Upper Pines campground, doing some day hikes to Upper Yosemite Falls, Mirror Lake and the Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoia trees. The fall colors haven't really arrived yet (probably this week or next?) If you've never had the chance to visit, you should! The rest of the trip photos are posted to this flickr photostream
Logistics: It's pretty easy to get campsites during the week, and especially easy if you do it online via the recreation.gov website. They release campsites on the 15th of every month, with a sliding 5 month window. At $20 per night, it's cheaper than any motel/hotel and you can use the shower facilities at Camp Curry (which is about a 1/4 mile walk from the campground)
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