A couple of months back (Jul 16/17) we had gone to Yosemite National Park. I had been to Yosemite twice before but this time was the most fun. This is because we managed to stay overnight this time. Earlier trips were one day trips starting early morning from home and returning home late the same day.
Uptil now I had the misconception that lodging in Yosemite is hard to find since reservations open up 1 year in advance and get filled up quickly too. Well, the early reservation part is still unchanged but I found that you can keep checking the online website for daily cancellations and then quickly grab one when found. Of course that means that you probably need to be ready to leave in a day’s notice to spend the weekend there whenever there is availability.
The other thing I realized is Yosemite has a variety of accomodations to offer inside the park. Just checkout their website http://www.yosemitepark.com for details on the accomodations. We got a beautiful place in what is known as “Housekeeping Camp”. As their website says “This is ideal for those who like to camp outdoors without bother of setting up a tent”. Each unit in this camp consists of 3 concrete walls, a concrete floor, double canvas roof and a fourth curtain wall. They have 2 single bunk beds, a double bed and limited electricity too. Each unit has a covered patio which has picnic table and food storage bins. Somehow Reminded me a bit of Kutch.
And to top it, this unit was right along the river side. Whoa. Talk about a Lucky day. The river was in full flow even in July since there was plenty of snow melting in the mountains. All the waterfalls had good flow too. Its so much fun to try to go as close to the waterfall as possible by climbing the rocks. Dimple’s dad was also enthusiastic about climbing rocks and together we all had fun. Reminded me of water falls of Lonavala.
Some activities which we missed out on due to lack of time were biking and boating (using the rafts). But all the more reason to go back soon there now. :-). I think the best time would be somewhere between April – July when the waterfall flow is good. This trip just refreshed my memory about how much Yosemite has to offer. Now that we had so much fun, I think Yosemite would make the cut regularly in our yearly vacation plan for a couple of years at least. :-).
It will be double great if the kutchi gang lands there together but due to advance reservations, etc I doubt whether we can do our Kutchvalley camping there. But definitely something to think about doing on an additional basis (Maybe reserving independantly on a predecided date).
Just writing this article so that if there is some poor soul out there who is unaware of the Yosemite riches (like me) then this may motivate them. Sometimes beauty in a particular thing is staring at us right in the eye and goes unnoticed till the right moment. That moment for me was July 16. 😉