This was our first time in Yosemite National Park. If you’re interested in reading about where we stayed and the local area, please read our post on Yosemite, California: Hotel & Area.
You may have read in our post about the hotel and local area, that the car ride from Oakhurst was around 20-30 minute drive to the park entrance. We had a few places written down which we wanted to see, and we also wanted to get a walk of some form in during our short stay.
When we arrived in Oakhurst, we decided we would go and check out the park entrance to see what it would be like the next day for our main adventure. When we got to the park entrance, we asked the ranger what time we should head in the next morning. What was the answer? 5:30…AM. OMG. We were not expecting that. Why? Because the park is popular and the queues can be a few hours long to get in at times. So, we decided to continue into the park instead of turning around and explore. We were not expecting the speed limit to be 35, which is why it takes around 90 minutes to get from the Southgate park entrance, up to Yosemite Falls. We were SO glad we had ventured into the park while we had the time.
We took the advice of the park ranger for day 2, and we got up and into the park for 5:30am, and it was an absolute breeze…straight in, no messing about. We opted to do the Mist Trail which had very mixed reviews online, some saying it should be closed because of safety, but we had no issues whatsoever.
We’re glad we did the trail as early as we did, the sun was low in the sky so it was quite cool and we beat the bigger crowds that we eventually faced when we got back to the trailhead.
After we spent a few hours walking through the park, we headed into Curry Village for breakfast. There’s a food court in the middle which had a coffee store and a breakfast buffet style area. It was early afternoon by the time we had finished in Yosemite, and after the 90 minute drive back to Oakhurst, we decided to make use of the hotel pool facilities, which were empty. It was lovely to be out relaxing in the sun after the morning walk up the mountain.
We did only have a short stay in Yosemite, our next stop was Las Vegas.
