Yosemite 2026

[Greg]

Time to revel in my Christmas present. We are heading out Wednesday to stay in the Awahnee for two nights. We will just be doing day hikes around the valley.

In order to guarantee we don't see any snow, I put chains on the Starship to make sure the chains fit.

[Drunk Monk]

Yay! Yose!!!

[Greg]

I have purchased my NPS Senior Lifetime pass. It does not have a picture of the Orange Shitgibbon on it. I actually have the digital pass in my Apple Wallet plus I've ordered the physical copy.

[Drunk Monk]

 a picture of the Orange Shitgibbon on it

gross

[Greg]

I have packed too much crap for a two day trip.

[Greg]

The trip has started. First stop, breakfast in Oakhurst.

[Drunk Monk]

lLooking forward to fresh pix...

Beware of mountain lions...

[Greg]

We stood at the base of Yosemite Falls by ourselves, no one else, for ten minutes.

[Drunk Monk]

Sweet!

The rest were probably eaten by mountain lions.

[Greg]

Same thing happened at Vernal Falls Bridge and Swinging Bridge. Lots of fat mountain lions this winter.

[Greg]

What a fabulous day. There is no one here. It boggles the mind. There is no snow on the ground so it's easy to go around. Usually there would be a couple of feet, but not this year. We hit all the Valley hot spots. We went to the base of Yosemite Falls. We found Galen Clark's bench which had a heretofore unseen by me view of the falls. We did the climb to Vernal Falls bridge. We were going to turn around because we didn't have any water and all the faucets had been shut down for the winter. Then we learned the gate that blocks the Mist Trail was opened. So on we went to the base of Vernal for some nice shots. But those stairs suck. I was 4 pointing it on the way down through some sections.

We traveled around the valley after that. We stopped at two spots to view Bridalveil Falls. Because of the suns arc it won't be illuminated, but we did our best.

Now we are in our suite at the Awahnee on the 6th Floor. We have a whole living room to ourselves along with our bedroom. If we peek out the windows, we can see Half Dome. We ate dinner in the dining room which is always good. Now, we are going to collapse from too much food and too much exercise.

Fun fact, the 6th floor of the Awahnee started out as a ballroom then became the living quarters for the Tressider family. The Tressider family at one point owned all the concessions in the Valley. It was only in the late 1970s that they divided the floor into suites. However, rumor has it that when the President of Delaware North came through he had the whole suite reserved for his use. He also had the entire staff line up outside the building for inspection.

Tomorrow, we climb up to Columbia Rock and OMG point. It's at the top of lower Yosemite Falls.

[Drunk Monk]

Yay for fat mountain lions!

Such a treat to have the park to yourselves. Enjoy!

[Greg]

Scapino can't read maps is why he decided to pop over from Mammoth. He was chaperoning his boy part of the week while doing a cross-country running camp. He didn't realize it was a 4 hour drive from Mammoth to Yosemite until I mentioned it to him. He drove over anyway on Thursday night. He linked me to his Apple Map so I could tell where he was the entire trip.

I took him up to the Mariposa grove because he wanted a hike and that the was the closest area with the most bang for the buck. We took the shuttle from the parking lot to the trail head. We could have hiked from the parking lot 2 miles to the trail head but that is a dull uphill trail. The shuttle is right there. Since it's the summer and Friday, the place was packed. Loads of people make the .6 of a mile hike to the Grizzly Giant. Scapino wanted more because he is on a diet and exercise plan. I figured we could hike to Galen Clarke's cabin which was another couple of miles up the trail.

As soon as we left the vicinity of the Grizzly Giants, the crowds vanished. We saw maybe four other people on the hike up and about ten on the way down. Scapino kept up a non-stop narration for the hike. I chimed back a few times. It was lovely. Great trees near the Mariposa Cabin. Clark's cabin is long gone but a new hut is in its place.

The saddest moment for our egos came on the way back to the Grizzly Giant when a woman looked at the pair of us and said, "Don't worry. You're almost there" Seriously? I don't think we looked that out of shape. I wasn't sucking wind.

I did do my one good deed for the day. Scapino needed more steps so we opted to walk back to the parking lot rather than take the shuttle. It's a bit up and down in elevation but mostly down. We passed one couple who didn't know how to read a map and wanted to know why they weren't at the Grizzly Giant already. They had mistaken the shuttle pick-up lot on their map for the shuttle drop-off point. Oops.

My good deed came near the end of the trail. I saw some parents with their three under six years old children on the trail. The were probably a quarter mile from the lot. The sun was just starting to bake the area. They didn't look like they had any water and they had about two miles of an uphill climb before they even got to the good point. It looked like a disaster in the making. I stopped them and explained what was ahead of them and urged them to go back and get the shuttle. I left it up to them before continuing on.

As we pulled out of the lot, I saw the family heading for the shuttle bus.

All told a pretty good day.