Going to Yosemite

The drive from Pleasanton takes your through farm country. They grow peaches, apples, almonds, corn and other crops. This area supplies a lot of food to the rest of the country especially almonds, Blue Diamond. We had a very challenging drive over to Groveland, CA on HWY 120. The duramax had to really work as this highway has some of the steepest inclines that we had run into. The town of Groveland has a population of 1500 and has the Iron Door Saloon, the oldest, started in 1852, continuously operated saloon in California.

The biggest attraction to this area is Yosemite National Park. The park is very large and takes a lot of travel time just to get to certain areas. We had two great days in the park and enjoyed every minute. We visited the park on Friday and Saturday and were very surprised at the number of people visiting the park. All the lodging within the park was taken and all the campgrounds were full. To say there were a lot of people is an understatement The drive starts with a stop at Bridalveil Falls. It is a short hike with a great view of this beautiful fall. Waterfalls are always something I must see and that took us to our next hike. Vernal Fall can been seen from the footbridge but I always want to get closer and talked Suzanne to continue on to the top of the fall. To get to the top you must go up a very steep area which includes 600 steps. This is a very hard climb and going up the steps was difficult. Suzanne almost stopped several times but became determined to make it. She does not like heights and the steps seemed to go on for ever. The spray from the fall also wets the steps and makes them even harder to overcome. This again was a FREE Stress Test!! This is also the fall where 3 campers died this summer. They got to close to the fall and slipped on the rocks. We can see how that if you don't stay within the designated areas this could happen. The view from this fall is spectacular!! The effort to get to the top is worth the time and pain:) The sure power of the water going over the fall is amazing and to hear it hit the bottom is really cool. We did not see many people our age or older doing this hike. So we felt pretty good about ourselves for doing this hike. If you ever get a chance to visit Yosemite make sure you do this hike.

The parking is at a premium so taking the free shuttles is the way to get from place to place. I will give you a tip on parking, when getting to the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center instead of going to the main area, to the right, got to the stop sign and go left. There is a big parking lot right by the store.

Bridalveil Fall

El Capitan

Vernal Fall and we must get to the top:)

steps

not there yet!