It is time to go get Emersyn from camp. She has been gone for two weeks and we all miss her…probably more than she misses us. Skylake Camp is located about 45 minutes outside of Yosemite National Park. We haven’t been to Yosemite since Emersyn was 18 months old when we went for a Lyon family celebration of Mimi and Papa’s 50th anniversary.
Terri and Andy joined us on our road trip to “get Emmy”. The road trip plan is to drive to Yosemite today to play in the park. Then tonight, we will drive to Oakhurst, the closest town to Skylake Camp. Tomorrow, we will get Emmy at camp. Then, we will drive to Lake Tahoe. Games, entertainment and food was packed and ready to go.
We got a bit later start than planned. Eleri had gone to the farm with the girls across the street, Izzy & Sophie. They have an organic farm in the Santa Cruz mountains. Carla, their mom, called at 10pm to tell me they were stopped in traffic. She called again at 10:15pm to clarify her point…she didn’t want to give me the impression they were moving as they were not. Cars were parked, engines shut off and people out of their cars. She called again at midnight, they had not moved. A fatal car crash had occurred on the freeway. All cars were being backed down the freeway to the nearest exit which is not close on hwy 17 over the mountains. I stayed up waiting for Elle when she finally arrived home at 1:30am. Carla had said the girls were great and played in the car. Elle was asleep by the time they arrived.
On the way to Yosemite, we stopped in Merced, the last big town, before heading into the Park. We were hoping for some kind of fast food to fill our tummies and were pleasantly surprised to find an “In & Out” burger.
Next stop, the beauty of Yosemite. The park covers an area of 761, 268 acres (3, 080.74 km2) which is roughly the size of the U.S. state of Rhode Island and contains thousands of lakes and ponds, 1, 600 miles (2, 600 km) of streams, 800 miles (1, 300 km) of hiking trails, and 350 miles (560 km) of roads. It reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain. The park has an elevation range from 2, 127 to 13, 114 feet (648 to 3, 997 m). Almost 95% of the park is designated wilderness.
When we pulled into the park, we all comment that we forget how beautiful it is here. We should come more often since it is in our “backyard”. We did add we would come AFTER all the tourist went home as the park was busy.
We hiked the Mist Trail which leads to the top of Vernal Falls. Emersyn had hiked this same route with her cabin during her stay at Camp – we saw the photos on the web. The trial is paved and uphill all the way. Elle was dragging behind, but we just needed to get her to the lower bridge at .8 miles. Then, we could work on the next part to the top of Vernal Falls for a total hike of 3 miles (4.8 km) round-trip from the Valley floor.
Vernal Fall Bridge over the Merced River has a spectacular view of Vernal Falls…but, we wanted to go to the top. We let Elle play around the river before we suggest seeing what was around the corner.
Just .3 miles to the top of Vernal Falls along the Mist Trail…
The fun part is the Mist Trial to the top of the falls and we just needed to get Elle there. The Mist Trail gets it’s name from the water coming down off the side of the mountain and hitting the granite walls. As it hits the granite rocks, the water bounces off and explodes into particles of water. This causes a mist to form around the falls. The Mist Trail 0.5 mile (0.8 km) up a steep granite stairway of over 600 steps with 1, 000 feet (366m) elevation gain. Once Elle hit the steps, she was ready to go. She loved climbing the granite steps and loved the wet mist falling on her.
We didn’t make it ALL the way to the top. Once the mist stopped, Elle was done and ready to go back down to play in the mist again. Good enough for an almost 6-year old! The way down is always fast!
At the bottom of the trail, we found these rocks – they had been in photos on the website of Emmy with her cabin mates on her Yosemite hike day.
It was getting late and was time to find some dinner. As we drove through the Valley floor, Jim got this photo of Half dome with the evening light.
Our first stop for food was Curry village, but the restaurants were CLOSED. We drove to Yosemite Lodge village in search of food for the hungry hikers. At the Lodge, there were a variety of food choices. We decide the food court would be the best and fastest. It wasn’t fast food, but we ate pizza and pasta before getting on the road to Oakhurst. Jim and I had comment how it was odd being on a family trip without Emersyn.
After we worked our way out of the Park south to the Wawona gate, we came to stopped traffic. Stopped engines, people out of their cars…not a good sign. We were beginning to think Elle was jinked. Andy walked up the long line of traffic to see what he could find. It was construction traffic for the new road. To turn around would require to go back through the park and the long way around through Merced to Oakhurst. We decided to wait it out. We finally moved after about 30 minutes. We arrived at the Best Western in Oakhurst around 11:00pm. Time for bed!