So we backtracked a bit South on Hwy 1 and then started to head East towards Yosemite. We drove right through a low cloud!
We were ready for lunch, and we lucked upon a lovely winery called Kickass! They had an old kitty named Max that would hang out with everyone. What a sweetheart! There were also twin white Corvettes in the parking lot. LOL
Lovely scenery on the road to Yosemite. And a windy road it was!
And finally, the entrance to the park. It starts to look very lush immediately!
We decided to actually put down and stay in the park for a number of days. We found a really nice place to stay called Rush Creek Lodge. We really took it easy and dedicated one day to just hang out at the spa.
Cute room too!
In the morning we went on a run together on the trails around the Rush Creek Hotel. We took the longer loop trail and we missed our exit getting back, so we had to turn around and retrace a bit at the end. It was very hilly but extremely enjoyable.
Then… spa day. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah There was a steam room, a Himalayan sea salt sauna, a cold mist area, heated loungers, and just a beautiful relaxing area.
Some nice dinners, cozy fires and evening activities too. And yes, we roasted marshmellows again!
Another Plot Twist!
Now for another plot twist. We’re ready to go out on the trails and see Yosemite Valley, and we find out that the road through Yosemite is closed!!! This time, it was due to too much snow, making several of the east-west roads impassable. This means that instead of a 30 minute drive to the valley, it’s 2 hours each way because we have to go around. It also means that after our stay, we will need to go back again, and down around the park to the south to get back to Las Vegas, or back and around the park to the North if we want to see new places.
So instead of the extra 4 hours of driving, we decided to drive to a closer waterfall, which was less than 30 minutes away called Hetch Hetchy. It’s on a beautiful lake. A few lookouts on the way there…
First you cross a dam – complete with rainbow, then walk through a tunnel, and then hike along the far shore of the lake to the waterfall – it’s the right-most one that reaches down to the water.
We weren’t able to make it all the way there, because the smaller streams and waterfalls were blocking the trail. We crossed many, but near the end, we encountered one that was just too dangerous to cross. And that’s even after I gave up keeping my feet dry, and started just walking through all the water. LOL That was really fun, and the water was really cold!
Heading back
We stopped for lunch at nearby sister resort.
On the way back, we did a second hike called Upper Carlon. This is uphill along a river with a waterfall at the top. Whew!
