Yosemite National Park (and San Francisco) – USA

 

Me standing in the foreground facing away with my hands in the air looking over snowy El Capitan and Yosemite National Park on a beautiful blue sky winter day

Starting in San Francisco, I planned to visit the usual hot spots like Alcatraz Island, the Painted Ladies, crooked Lombard Street, and the Golden Gate Bridge. I decided to walk everywhere as my 40min airport transfer with SuperShuttle turned into a 2hr sightseeing tour of the city. Not really, but I was the very last drop off, and therefore we drove around the city a hundred times first. I actually felt lucky to have this “tour” as I got to see everything lit up at night and drove up the ridiculously steep streets of San Francisco. After all this driving, it was definitely time to do some walking; about 10km actually! Starting with an early morning walk from my hotel in Union Square to Fisherman’s Wharf, I boarded the Alcatraz Island Ferry at Pier 33 and got a pretty view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Alcatraz was surprisingly good. Although I’d heard great reviews, this sort of attraction isn’t really my thing. But the audio tour (included) is fantastic, as it explains the history and is partly narrated by previous inmates and guards.

View of the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance beyond a pier with mountains in the background on a bright blue sky day
Golden Gate Bridge
View of Alcatraz Island from the ferry
Alcatraz Island

Next up was a huge walk to see the famous crooked Lombard Street with its 8 hairpin bends. Holy wow it was a hike to get there, perhaps catch the tram next time! Then another big walk to see the beautiful architecture of the Painted Ladies and Mrs. Doubtfire’s house! I’m not really a big city traveller, but the architecture and colours of the buildings here is stunning.

View from the bottom of crooked Lombard Street in San Francisco with coloured houses and lots of greenery
Crooked Lombard Street
5 beautiful, almost identical houses, side by side, all in different colours, known at the Painted Ladies in San Francisco
Painted Ladies

At last, it was time to head back to my natural habitat and visit the jaw-dropping Yosemite National Park! Here’s a short video, and see below for some amazing photos!

I was picked up at 6am on the tour bus with Extranomical Tours and we made a couple of stops on the way out to Yosemite, which took about 5 hours.

The grand Upper Yosemite Falls from the ground view with a blue sky and white fluffy clouds
Upper Yosemite Falls
Perfect view of El Capital looking proud over Yosemite National Park on a perfect blue sky winter day
El Capitan

Seeing El Capitan in person for the first time was breathtaking. it literally looks like the photos! With 100% picture perfect weather at a chilly 4 degrees Celsius, the photos actually do this magnificent wonder justice.

Trying to take in the enormity of Yosemite Falls is a real challenge. There is a “lower” and “upper” section of the falls, and it’s SO high, it’s hard to capture both in one photo. The photo below shows the upper falls at the centre top, and lower falls (looking deceptively tiny!) towards the bottom left. The photo below that, is of just the lower falls, with a man in a red jacket at the bottom left to show scale!

Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls against a blue sky background with snow covered brown logs and sticks in the foreground
Upper & Lower Yosemite Falls

 

Perfect view of Half Dome looking proud over Yosemite National Park with a stream edged by snow on a perfect blue sky winter day

By this time, the day tour had left to head back to San Francisco, however I was just getting ready for a night among the stars! I caught the free Yosemite Loop Shuttle to Curry Village, where my canvas tent-cabin awaited me. To my surprise, the heater inside was switched on… but it did basically nothing **HOT TIP: In winter, bring an epic sleeping bag!** It got down to -5 degrees Celsius that night. Wearing everything in my suitcase and the two thin provided blankets over my face, I was still cold! Anyway, it certainly was an experience and although it was ridiculous cold, being out in nature and having the ice from the enormous sequoia tree branches falling on the canvas tent all night was relaxing; like rain on a tin roof.

During the night I ventured outside with the coyotes, deer and (hopefully hibernating) bears to look at the stars and admire the old sequoia trees. With camera in hand, of course, I snapped some of my favourite starry sky photos to date.

Starry skies and a giant sequoia tree in the foreground looking up the trunk to the golden leaves lit up
Starry skies & giant sequoias
The starry night sky in Yosemite National park with giant sequoia trees and their golden leaves lit up
Shooting the night sky – my favourite 🙂
My tent-cabin for the night in the foreground, surrounded by giant sequoia trees with their golden leaves lit up and a starry sky in the background
My tent-cabin for the night

Waking up surrounded by a fresh layer of snow, a brilliant blue sky and a crisp cold breeze, I was ready to go exploring. The free Yosemite Loop Shuttle runs about every 20mins in winter (more often in summer), and is the perfect way to visit scenic spots all over the National Park.

Perfect view of Half Dome looking proud over Yosemite National Park with a stream edged by snow on a perfect blue sky winter day

 

Beautiful view of Upper Yosemite Falls looking proud over Yosemite National Park with a stream edged by snow on a perfect blue sky winter day

I did not want to leave this beautiful place. It is so grand, and I found my eyes just could not adjust to comprehend the sheer scale of the enormous peaks surrounding me.

Me wearing a red jacket standing in a dried up river of stones and rocks covered in snow with green and orange trees lining the sides during Winter in Yosemite National Park
Take the path less travelled…

Although you can visit Yosemite National Park in a 16hr day trip from San Francisco, I would absolutely recommend staying overnight. That way you will have much more time to see the park and, my favourite, the brilliant starry skies at night due to very little light pollution.

If and when I visit again, i would stay in the lodge during winter and the tent-cabin during summer (or bring my -30 degree sleeping bag!)

A truly amazing experience, and one I would definitely recommend to everyone! Any questions, let me know on Facebook or comment below.

xxbry

Extranomical 2 day tour: From US$220 +15% tip
Curry Village tent-cabin: From AU$180 per tent per night
Yosemite Loop Shuttle: FREE
Airport SuperShuttle: US$20 + tip

Beautiful orange sunset on the drive home from Yosemite National Park
Sunset on the drive home from Yosemite National Park

4 Comments

  1. Stacey
    January 11, 2016 / 8:40 am

    Love all your photos! Yosemite is my new favourite place on Earth! Though i would love to visit in Winter, Summer was lovely too!

  2. January 12, 2016 / 1:57 pm

    WOW! I love Yosemite. I think it is possibly the most jaw-dropping place I have ever been. It tops the USA national parks for me for views and you have captured them so well. Fantastic!

    • January 13, 2016 / 10:25 pm

      Thanks! There’s so much more I wanted to explore – never enough time! Next time I’m back in the USA I’ll have to check out some other parks, have you got any suggestions? 😀

      • January 14, 2016 / 3:47 am

        On the same holiday as I saw Yosemite, I also went to Sequoia, Death Valley and the Grand Canyon (it was an awesome holiday!)…I loved them all. The trees at Sequoia were huge, the hostile environment in Death Valley is incredible and flying into the Grand Canyon by helicopter from Las Vegas gives you a real sense of how vast it is.

        I would like to go to Yellowstone and the Glaciers national park in Montana one day but one step at a time. There are so many amazing places to visit in America…you would need a long time to see them all.

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