Camping in Yosemite

Di Yin and I went camping in Yosemite from Friday, September 25, 2009, through Sunday, September 27. The daytime weather was great--sunny and comfortably warm (70s)--where we hiked. I'm glad we didn't go to Yosemite Valley itself, as it was in the 90s over the weekend. The warm days made the cold night-time temperatures take us a bit by surprise.

I took only a few pictures, instead letting Di Yin take a good number. Her pictures record my memories of the trip. My main memory is the obvious: Yosemite is pretty.

After fighting Friday afternoon traffic (grrrr), we arrived too late on Friday to get a campsite in Tuolumne Meadows. Instead, we camped at Bridalveil Creek, south of Yosemite Valley itself.

Hiking
On Saturday, we stuck with our plan to sightsee and hike near Tuolumne Meadows. (I'd never seen it before and so couldn't be persuaded to do something else.) We drove the 1.5 hours (at least) clear across the park to it, stopped by the visitor center, and decided to pass Tuolumne Meadows and instead hiked at the secluded Gaylor Lakes, within spitting distance of the far entrance to Yosemite. The lower Gaylor Lake was pretty, aquamarine, shallow, clear, and cold, and with a nice color gradient in the water near the shore. We also spotted funky fishermen, one of whom we talked to. We also hiked to the upper Gaylor Lake, found it similarly pretty, and contemplated hiking to an old mineshaft and abandoned buildings that some hikers who we met mentioned, but decided not to.

On the long drive back to our campsite, we stopped near Tuolumne Meadows to stroll near Tenaya Lake. We wanted to complete the drive across Yosemite in the daylight so, rather than do the 2.5 mile hike around the lake, we spent a bit less time and went wading. I was surprised to find the water was a comfortable temperature. Some currents were warm, some cold: how odd.

Oh, and of course we saw quite a bit of Tuolumne Meadows from the car as we drove past.

On Sunday, we did a short hike up to Sentinel Dome, then drove home early. The top of Sentinel Dome has an amazing panoramic view of Yosemite -- I think it's the best view and hike I've done in Yosemite. It reminded me of my religious experience at the top of a mountain in Spain.

When we drove out of Yosemite, we detoured to loop through the Yosemite Valley and stop at various pretty spots.

Camping
As when we camped at Acadia in Maine, we once again forgot a lantern. (Worse, we arrived after dark.) Luckily, I had a flashlight in the trunk, which helped us assemble our tent, but it's not so easy to sit down and have a comfortable meal together in the dark using a flashlight.

In brighter news (heh), we learned we can now start a fire easily, or so I thought when I wrote that in my notebook. Later I wrote "or not." The first few times we needed to start a fire went great, but the later attempts were more difficult. Maybe we need yet more practice. Incidentally, as in Maine, we didn't think of bringing firewood or kindling, but this turned out not to be a problem: we collected kindling on the ground, and Yosemite provided firewood.

Food
For food, we brought the same easy-to-prepare foods that feel like camping to us: potatoes, mushrooms, and ham (roasted together in the fire), corn on the cob (similarly roasted), sandwiches (ham and cheese), and a variety of fruits (tomatoes, pears, apples, etc.). It's satisfying to prepare a simple meal over a fire.

Misc
Incidentally, unlike in Maine, we didn't have a mosquito problem (yay!), though we did have bees at breakfast.