Yosemite National Park

Monday, October 3

We got moving the next morning, took care of a few errands and then headed the few miles north into Yosemite National Park.

I hadn’t really felt a huge pull to come and visit this National Park – I had heard from some fellow travelers earlier in the summer that Yosemite can be like a parking lot in full summer. There are so many visitors to the park that it gets really hard to even move. Ick.

But in early October on a Monday morning, it was a beautiful time to go, and we were awestruck yet again with some gorgeous territory! Holey moley.

Along the popular road on the floor of the Yosemite Valley, we got out and took the short walk up to Bridalveil Fall, which was fairly dry and only a trickle this time of year.

We then parked the van and took a nice walk through Curry Village to stretch our legs, poke around and get some exercise. After that, it was on to walk up to Yosemite Falls, which were also a mere trickle of their springtime selves. 

Then we drove farther along the Valley Road to El Capitan, another massive granite cliff that is apparently a popular rock-climbing destination.

Since we were headed east out of Yosemite after our sightseeing, we took Highway 120/Tioga Road, which led us across the top half of the park. This road offered more fabulous scenery that I’m betting most visitors to Yosemite don’t get to see. I felt so lucky to have been driving this road – it was gorgeous!

Here’s a look along Yosemite Valley as we climbed.

Here are some vistas from Olmstead Point.

Here is lovely Tenaya Lake.

And here is a view across the beautiful Tuolumne Meadows.

And then as we got ready to exit the park, we crossed over the Tioga Pass, at an elevation of 9,945 feet. There were more spectacular views on the other side of that pass … as well as some snow and lots of cold weather! 

When we got to the small town of Lee Vining, we were treated to this pretty rainbow.

It was getting cold and dark, so we got gas in Lee Vining and continued our drive a bit farther south to Mammoth Lakes in the rain. We heard on the radio, though, that there was SNOW at 8,400 feet and above. We were at just over 7,000, so we had only (cold!) rain, but wow – how’s that for a shift? And a bit of a shock, to be honest.

I had packed hats, gloves and my warm tights into the van before I left Silver Spring, and I tell you, I was sooooo glad to have them. I never expected to be still on the road for winter weather, but it was here.

We spent a wet, chilly night on the campground in Mammoth Lakes and went to sleep reading more Potter.