The Blanch Herd: Spring Break Road Trip {Yosemite}

Yes, we did have to postpone our road trip to California, and yes, we weren't there on my birthday like we originally planned, but luckily we were there a week later . . . and it was totally worth the wait! We drove a TON, hiked a bunch, skied (IN a National Park!!!), picnicked, played on the beach, swam in hotel pools, listened to audiobooks, saw lots of orange groves . . . and had the best time! Here's the run down:

Day 1 (Wednesday, 16 March): We picked Gregg up from track practice at the jr. high and headed off into the sunset (aka the West Desert) toward Winnemucca, NV, where we stayed the night in a little motel (with the fanciest curtains you ever did see) off the main drag.

Driving through the Bonneville Salt Flats and what do we see?

It's the Tree of Life!
(Actually, its official title, which I just learned,
is Metaphor: The Tree of Utah.)

Looks like we're ready to watch a show . . . but all you'll
see when the curtains rise is our car parked outside the window.

Day 2 (Thursday, 17 March): We hit the road early and continued our journey westward. We opted for the route around Tahoe, instead of up and over, which was a new road to us and quite a pretty drive. Then we went through Kirkwood, CA, down and around through Groveland, CA, up and over the windiest road ever (!!) and into the Big Oak Flat Entrance of Yosemite National Park. We needed gas, and luckily (?) there was a station just inside the entrance, where we filled up for $5.99 a gallon (yowza!) But we quickly forgot about gas prices when we first spotted the Yosemite Valley. Incredible!

Our route - due to winter road closures, this is what
we had to work with, but it worked out fine.

For reference - this is actually really handy - we used three of the four
shown entrances during our day and a half in and out of the park.

Callie's poetry while we drove through Nevada.
(This is a cinquain poem, fyi.)

Such a windy road - this pic doesn't do it justice!
I need to add a screenshot of the map.

I mean - holy smokes!!

Another view from the top.

Pretty steep - but not the highest gas we saw on the trip!
(Just you wait!)

First glimpse of the valley.

We continued on into the valley and just soaked up the magnificence and grandeur. We gawked at El Capitan and Bridalveil Fall, played on the beach of the Merced River at Hanging Bridge (with views of Yosemite Falls), oohed and ahhed at Half Dome, wandered through the campground, and eventually ended up at our hotel (Cedar Lodge) in El Portal, out the Arch Rock Entrance of Yosemite, where we swam in the hot-tub-level warmth swimming pool (awesome!) and crashed for the night.

El Cap! In real life!

Bridalveil Fall just across the street!

Here's Yosemite Falls from Hanging Bridge.

Isn't that water color unreal? Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This sandbar in the river was a most excellent spot to play
and soak up the sun and the views.

Sentinel Rock

Not sure the name of this one but it's just opposite
Half Dome, which you'll see below.

Face off.

We saw a boardwalk through the meadow
and decided to see where it took us.

Cue angels singing.

Ultra green trees for St. Paddy's Day.

Ultra tall trees in the campground.

Back on the boardwalk across the meadow
to the car.

El Capitan at sunset.

We walked up the trail that Alex Honnold
uses to approach his climb in Free Solo. We wanted
to touch the mountain, but this is as close as we could
get because the base area was closed to protect
peregrine falcons during nesting season.

It's still so amazing.

The hot tub at the pool was out of order but the giant pool
was actually heated to nearly hot tub temps. It was marvelous!

Day 3 (Friday, 18 Mar): We ate a quick breakfast in the hotel room then headed back up the road into the park. We wanted to hike! We drove into the valley, all the way to the end campground/parking lot and made our way up the trail to Vernal Falls. Only when we got to the top did we realize that we had hiked up the horse trail (which technically wasn't supposed to be for people). Whoops! But it sure was a nice route, much less steep that the real trail that we took down.

Dawn Wall livin' up to its name.

The smoky valley floor gave things a rather eerie feel.
(They were doing a prescribed burn down along the river.)

The Three Brothers

We thought this was the falls. Ha!

The we thought this was the falls.

(Spoiler alert: this wasn't it.)

I love this bark!

Here we are! Back on the real trail, with the real falls
back there behind us. Lots more people around here. I
prefer the horse trail!

The color! Couldn't get enough.

I think that's Yosemite Falls yonder.

After our hike we made our way to the visitors center in the village, where we camped out on a bench in the sunshine with a view (and the roar) of Yosemite Falls while Callie worked on her Jr. Ranger booklet and earned her badge (plus bonus patches!). The visitors center was not open due to covid, but we wandered around the outside displays and found ourselves in a little cemetery nearby. After we had our fill there, we made our way back down the valley, stopping at a picnic area with a great view of El Capitan (and the activists camped out in portaledges on the wall) to eat our lunch.

Not a bad place to play wordle. ;)

Gregg snapped this pic of the protesters/activists
with his phone through binoculars. The banner hanging
between the two portaledges said "war should be against
climate change".

This is the spot that Teddy Roosevelt
and John Muir camped and talked about
preserving the wilderness in America.

After lunch, our next activity was skiing! Yes, skiing! We brought all our gear and skis/snowboard all the way here to ski at Badger Pass, located inside Yosemite National Park. We had a blast on the slush on this chill little mountain in the sunshine. Spring skiing at its finest!

It's it cute?!

No need for beanies or coats today! It was warm up on top
of the mountain!

On our way back down to the valley floor after our ski afternoon, we stopped at tunnel view to check out the view. One word: epic! We made our way back to Hanging Bridge picnic area to spend another lovely hour or so in the sunshine on the banks of the river. We ate our dinner a bit further down the road in front of the cute little church. And we finished off our marvelous day in the park with a walk up to the base of Lower Yosemite Falls. As the sun was setting we headed out of the park via the south entrance toward Oakhurst, and on to Fresno where we spent the night.