Yosemite National Park

 

                                 

Nov 8, 2025 - We have a 4 day weekend after our first week of work, so we decided to spend the weekend at Yosemite, which is not quite a 5 hour drive from Los Osos.  It looks like it's going to be a beautiful weekend there with highs in the low 70's so we decided to bring our e-bikes to get around the valley.  We left early Saturday morning and made it to the Yosemite Valley Welcome Center before noon.  

The view of half dome and El Capitan as we come through the tunnel.

beautiful view!

El Cap

Sentinel Rock

closer up of half dome

There are over 12 miles of bike trails in the Yosemite Valley, the Valley Loop Trail, so we headed off to explore and see what hikes we could find.

Our first hike, was the 1 mile round trip to the bottom of lower Yosemite Falls.

Nice bench on the way back

Pretty Fall trees

Next a mile mile loop through Cook's Meadow

Swinging Bridge (which is non-swinging)  The 1964 flood damaged the original swinging bridge and it was replaced with a non-swaying bridge for stability.

A view of the Merced River (and half dome) from the Swinging Bridge

more pretty Fall trees

Upper falls from Cook's Meadow.  Yosemite Falls is the tallest falls in North America at 2425 ft.  It is a 3 tiered falls with Upper Fall, Middle Cascades and Lower Fall

the happy bikers

such a wonderful bike trail

Upper Falls through Fall trees

I've taken a lot of pics of Half Dome

After hiking and biking, all afternoon we headed to our hotel in El Portal.  On the way we stopped in the El Capitan Meadow.

 

And we found a few climbers on the 3,000 foot cliff

Nov 9, 2025 - Today it was an early morning in the park.  The government shutdown doesn't seem to have affected Yosemite, except at the entrance gates, which are closed so entrance is free (not that it matters to us, because we have the senior lifetime pass, which always gets us in free).  

Just past the El Portal entrance is this cool Arch Rock Entrance.

which doesn't look all that tall, but we actually saw a Yosemite bus fit through (without a whole lot to spare)

We went over to the tunnel view, since we weren't able to get into the parking lot yesterday.

It was 8:30 in the morning when we got there, and the light was quite nice on El Cap

We had to take a pic of Rocky with the nice view in the background

Now we're off to Bridal Veil Falls

It's a .5 mile round trip hike to Bridal Veil

Bridal Veil Falls is 620 ft

This picture puts the falls into perspective

Today's pic of Yosemite Falls with fog over Cook's Meadow

Next we decided to hike to Vernal Falls.  We parked at Curry Village and for some reason didn't realize that we would save 1.5 miles by riding our bikes to the trailhead...oops.  Pretty crazy X in the sky!

From Happy Isles trailhead we took the John Muir Trail to the Vernal Fall Footbridge (1.6 miles).  Then we took the Mist Trail to the bottom of Vernal Fall (another .5 miles and a total of 600 ft elevation).

Vernal Fall

Most of the hike was pretty easy hiking except for the 600 elevation on top of being at an elevation of 4000 ft.

After our hike we enjoyed the Valley Trail on our bikes

It was a perfect day for a bike ride

Jennifer in her natural state

love our e-bikes

such a great bike ride!

We stopped in the meadow to watch the climbers on El Cap again

It was a lot busier today

more Fall trees

we pass this rock hanging over the road every day on our way to the hotel

more trees

There are lots of bear carvings at Cedars Lodge

We walked across the street from our lodge to hang out on the banks of the Merced River

Nice spot after a day of hiking and biking

cheers

pretty view of the Merced

a bear bench

more carved bears

Nov 10, 2025 - Today is our last day in Yosemite.  We're leaving early and headed to the Mariposa Grove on the south side of Yosemite.  Mariposa has its own Welcome Center, since it's an hour away from the Yosemite Valley Welcome Center.  We parked at the Welcome Center and then took the Yosemite bus out to the trailhead (no cars allowed).  This grove is the largest grove of sequoias in Yosemite.  There are over 500 giant sequoias including some of the oldest.  

Good bye Cedars Lodge

We took the Big Trees Loop Trail

The Fallen Monarch

Roots of the Fallen Monarch

those are some big trees

Next we took the Grizzly Giant Loop Trail (2 miles round trip).  These are the Bachelor & Three Graces

pretty light coming through the trees

This is the Grizzly Giant, which is 209 feet tall, has a base diameter of 29 feet and is between 1800-2900 years old

And this is the California Tunnel Tree which is 274 ft tall

It was cut in 1895 to allow horse drawn stages to go through.  It is the last standing sequoia tunnel tree.

Sequoias are only found on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in California

We were happy to get "home" to Los Osos (which was only a 3 hour 45 minute drive from Mariposa).  The Osos Bear greeted us in the fog.

Broderson Trail and Our First Week of Work

 

                                 

Nov 2, 2025 - This morning we were up early so we decided to try the 2.5 mile round trip Broderson Peak Trail.  The trailhead is just down the street from us.  It was a beautiful partly foggy morning and we mostly had the trail to ourselves.  The views were amazing and I have a feeling we'll be doing this hike pretty regularly.

There is Broderson Peak ahead of us.

Hollister Peak in the distance, poking out above the fog

another Broderson shot

the happy hikers

As we got higher we could see houses below the fog and Hollister above the fog

parts of the hike are pretty sandy

and there are some deep ruts, I'm assuming from water runoff and hiker use

in some spots it took a bit of climbing

more views of Los Osos

The side of the hike that we came up was rather steep towards the top, with views down into the canyon on the right

From here we could see Morro Rock sticking out of the fog and the iconic Morro Bay 3 stacks (if you look closely on the right side of the pic!)

 

We made it to the top (elevation gain for the hike is 636 feet) and we were happy to find a bench with a view since our legs were feeling the elevation.

great spot for a rest

It looked like the fog was lifting a bit and we could see the waves crashing on Sandspit Beach

One more pic before we head down

We ran into someone on the trail and asked if there was another way down and she pointed us in the right direction.  It was a much less steep section and made for a nice loop.

Perfect Sunday morning hike

In the afternoon, we spent a few hours with Elaine and Ian...they made yummy nachos for football Sunday

Nov 3, 2025 - Our first day of work!

We were out the door a little before 7:00 and ready for our first day back to work since we retired almost 9 years ago!

First day back to work for Elaine too

Bye Mom!  I'll be fine!

who doesn't love naps on a shoulder

are they both sleeping?

I think they both love tummy time

 

Nov 4 -7, 2025  It was a great week of work and nice we could share babysitting duties

We forgot our lunch on Tuesday, so we drove over and ate at our apartment

more naps

trying out the swing

and a quick nap in the bouncy chair

a bottle with Grandpa

We all made it through the first week

so we celebrated at High St happy hour