Yosemite was magical

Each time we see a National Park we have been so impressed and not sure how the next can be better than what we are seeing. Then, we are in awe again.

I guess we chose the right order to see the parks in. Yosemite was definitely our favorite we have seen so far.

We headed to the Yosemite area last Sunday and boy was the drive in a scary one! The last hour before we arrived we had to go up and down a mountain with nothing but steep switch backs for a good 45 minutes. It was slightly terrifying pulling a 30 foot trailer through that. Dean acted like it was no big deal and was totally calm. I, on the other-hand, was a nervous wreck. I was SO relieved when we made it to our campground. We stayed at Yosemite Lakes RV park. It was only about 8 miles from the Yosemite gate. It was a beautiful area, but had ZERO cell service. I guess if you are vacationing to Yosemite, that is a good thing and how it should be. However, for me, needing to work ... It was a little stressful. The park says they offer wifi that you have to pay for, but it doesn't work, at all. You can get their wifi at one little spot outside a building at the park OR drive about 10 minutes down the road and sit along a pull off overlook on the side of a cliff. Another interesting part about this campground was the spots were first come first serve, even when you have a reservation. So, you have to drive around and find a spot, and this park was pretty busy. It t00k us a bit to find a spot, but we finally did and started setting up. Afterwards, we decided to go for a bike ride around the area to check it out.

Monday morning I woke up at 4:30am PST to head over to the only little spot with wifi at the campground. It was still dark, 45 degrees out and I was convinced I was going to be attacked by a bear! 😆 After about an hour I decided that it was a better idea to drive the truck 10 minutes down the road and work on the edge of a cliff . At least inside the truck I felt a little protected from a bear attack AND I had a great signal!

Real Remote work at its finest:

Monday afternoon we went into Yosemite. The moment you get into the valley and see the huge granite mountains all around you and waterfalls. 😍 It is just so beautiful. We stopped at the first falls, bridalview. This trail was closed for restoration, but we were able to get close enough to see it. We thought that was impressive until we headed over to Yosemite falls ( the tallest fall in north america) and hiked around- wow.

We met our "neighbors" Hannah & Evin, who were camping right next to us. They were nice enough to let me use their Starlink, satellite wifi. Game changer. This gives you internet ( and fast speeds) from anywhere you are. 🤯 ( I was SO grateful for this. No more early morning cold, bear attacks. Yes!! ) They are full-time RVers and it was so nice getting to know them throughout the week. We shared a few dinners together, stories, campfires and Dean went for a hike with them one day while I was working and hung with their dog, Lenny. It was so nice meeting some new friends. We will definitely be staying in touch and hopefully meeting again somewhere along the way. ☺️

Tuesday afternoon we went to check out Hetch Hetchy, which is an area of Yosemite that is not in the main valley. There is a Dam, Lake, and waterfalls. We walked around but didn't have enough time to do the full hike, so Dean went the next day with Hannah and Evin while I worked to do the falls hike.

One cool thing about Yosemite Valley is they have a lot of bike trails, so Thursday we decided to to take our bikes to ride around and see Yosemite from that prospective. We biked probably over 10 miles that day. It was beautiful. Also, an old family/friend, Craig met up with us for some biking and lunch. He moved back to California from Florida a few years back. It was really nice to see him and catch up. After biking we hiked around Mirror Lake before heading back to the campsite.

Friday was our last day, and I took the day off so we can get into the park extra early. We did not realize that reservations to enter the park started that day, and we didn't have them. When we checked, it was already sold out for the day. One of the park rangers told us if we arrive before 6am we could get in without the reservation. So, we got up early ( which really is the same time I always get up to work eastern time) and headed into the park. We got to see the sunrise over the valley as we drove in. Then, we started our hike up to Vernal Falls and John Muir Trail. It was a total of 16,771 steps, 7 miles, 118 flights of stairs, 1500 foot elevation climb and descend, and 4 hours. Are my legs still feeling it today? Maybe. Were the views spectacular and was it worth it? YES!

Something interesting that we learned as we were here is that Yosemite is a huge rock climbers destination. Fun Fact: The sport of rock climbing actually started at Yosemite. As we were in the park during the week, we would always see people along the valley looking up at El Capitan, and I would look up and see nothing. We decided to stop on the way out on our last day to take a better look. We got our binoculars and went over to a group of people with chairs and a scope in the valley all set up, and looking up. They looked like they knew what they were doing, lol. They let us take a look up on to the massive rock through the scope, and right as we were looking a woman was about to reach the summit of the cliff. It was pretty amazing, and apparently not an often thing to be able to see. As we looked around through binoculars we saw at least a dozen more climbers. We learned from the group that it takes 1-3 days to climb to the top and the climbers sleep along the wall (crazy). We chatted with the group for bit and they were asking where we were from, and about the trip. We told them a bit about our story, and in the group was another cancer survivor. Scott had stage 4 melanoma and was given weeks to live and doctors told him to say his goodbyes, write letters and records videos for his kids and grandchildren. That was over 10 years ago now. He is still NED( no evidence of disease). As he told his story I, of course, started crying in the middle of Yosemite valley. He told us that we were inspiring, and thought it was so cool what we were doing. No, Scott- YOU are inspiring. I am so happy we met you and thank you so much for sharing your story with us. It was really nice meeting and chatting with that entire group. Thanks for teaching us a bit about rock climbing in Yosemite, and following us along our journey now! 😉

Friday night we made tacos for us, Evin and Hannah and had some drinks and laughs around the campfire. We are going to miss Yosemite! ♡