As we continued to stretch our legs and explore other parts of the country and the world, we wanted to explore a bit of the west coast. With our nephew in San Diego, we thought a visit there, combined with some time in Yosemite might "tick a few of the boxes".
And tick it did - it turned out to be an amazing adventure, offering a bit of time to explore San Diego and experience the very "SoCal" vibe and the majestic beauty of Yosemite - sprinkled with a bit of San Francisco to sweeten the mix.
One surprise, and the learning benefit of travel, was on the drive from San Diego to Yosemite. On this 400mi drive, we passed through the San Joaquin Valley, one of the many California valleys, experiencing first hand where some of our food originates and magnitude of what it takes to keep us all abundantly fed. An eye opener.
In all, an amazing adventure.
Browse the blogs below to read about our adventures in San Diego and Yosemite.
Rain was predicted for thursday, so we didn’t plan on anything substantial. We’d hoped to see the Giant Sequoia’s for which Yosemite is famous though unfortunately, Mariposa Grove – home to Grizzly Giant, a tree thought to be more than 2000 years old – was closed for a renovation project until Spring 2017. We settled on Merced Grove, a quick out-and-back 1.5 miles with 500 foot elevation change to the Grove. Again, customary for Yosemite – the 10-12 miles to
The plan was to approach Clouds Rest from the north – accessing the Sunrise trail from Tioga Road near Tenaya lake. As the crow flies, the trailhead was only about 20 miles from the Condo, but Yosemite being what it is, it was nearly 60 miles and 1-1/2 hours drive time – we were up and out early, arriving at the trailhead shortly after 8am. It was a chilly morning, fortunately no snow or frost, but cold enough to
For our first full day in Yosemite – our plan was to follow the Panorama Trail – billed as one of the premier hikes in the park for both the view factor and, because of its length – 8.5 miles – and diminished crowds. Besides the wow factor, we chose this hike as a good intro/warm up – our plan for wednesday’s hike was a 14-miler. Panorama trail is typically done and we did it as a point-to-point hike,
Yosemite is one of those places which needs to be seen – words are just inadequate to describe the beauty and shear majesty of the mountains, the valley floor, the waterfalls, and just the beauty of nature. Thank goodness for our national parks – a resource to be preserved (at almost any cost!) – but I get ahead of myself. We departed San Diego early, not long after 6 am, hoping to get a jump on some of the traffic
The flight out was direct – long, but direct, touching down in San Diego shortly after 10pm. At that hour on a Thursday night, we sped through the car rental, choosing a convertible Ford Mustang over a fire-red, convertible Chevy Camaro (too easy to get a ticket) and didn’t hit any traffic, arriving our AirBnB studio apartment shortly after 11pm local time. The place was a cute studio, bed, kitchenette, and bath, with a roof deck over the garage, accessible
