In Yosemite, we joined a family for a couple of days. A super nice family – Dad, Mom, and 2 awesome little girls.
How does one just come to join a previously completely unknown family? It was all thanks to Yosemite’s crazy lottery system.
You see, getting reservations for a campsite within Yosemite’s Valley Floor is a lot like getting reservations for the French Laundry. People make their reservations months in advance – usually about six months – and within a finite period of time. Slots opens online and they’re gone minutes later. One large family that holds a reunion there every summer told us that they conduct a strategic multipronged attack. They coordinate as many family members as possible in different households to go online the day their desired dates opens up, in hopes that they will get enough slots to fit the extended family.
Greg and I didn’t know when we’d be going on our road trip, so we couldn’t really plan for it all. Thus, we definitely did not have a reservation. Yosemite has a system for non-planners like us . . . but they don’t make it easy. They have a lottery system that involves putting your name on a list early in the morning – and people line up for this prior to opening as if it were a rock concert. Then at exactly 3 pm, they start calling off names until all the sites that have become available during that day are gone. If you’re not there when your name is called, you loose your spot. We saw one very angry Frenchman who arrived 2 minutes after his name was called and lost his spot and had to go back to the end of the line. If you want to stay more than one night, you have to get up early the next day and do it all over again.
Greg and I arrived at exactly 3 p.m. and somehow we got the very last spot available that day. While we were standing in line, the gentleman behind me told me he had his family with him and if I managed to get a spot, would I mind terribly sharing with them? These sites are so close together anyways that it’s not like we’d be giving up any real privacy, so I agreed and thus we became site-mates. The next day, they in turn helped us out by sharing the spot they scored. And so it turned out, that we got a new family for two days. We’d go on our explorations during the day, and then we’d come back and have dinner and hang out by the campfire with the fam in the evening. We ended up having a really wonderful time with them all due to this happy accident.
Yosemite really is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. It is truly awe-inspiring. There are also a billion other people wanting to see it at any given time during the summer. It’s a lot like the Disney World of natural wonders -- Lines EVERYWHERE. I never knew it was possible to get claustrophobic outside; but then you come back to how spectacularly beautiful it is and you have admit it’s worth it.
Given our limited time – especially with all the restrictions on us due to having to be in place for the lottery and having moving sites during the day – we tried the best we could to pack in our time. As soon was we got our tent set-up on the first afternoon, we took off for a hike. We decided to tackle Vernal Falls. This is also the first leg of one of the main routes to Half Dome.
My fear of heights nearly paralyzed me again. But I had come all that way! Moreover, I was already upset at myself for letting myself be defeated the day before at Moro Rock. I was determined it wasn’t going to happen again. Plus, just as I was debating the situation at the base of that last bit of stone staircase, a mentally “handi-capable” woman was making her way back down. This steeled my resolve. I was inspired. If she could do it, surely I could get over a little fear of heights. Slowly but surely, I made it up to the top, and the view was definitely worth it.
The only problem with going up, is that you have to come back down. It took me about half an hour to get back down that little section of staircase. Greg kindly kept offering to help, and I’d snap back to please not break my concentration. I allowed everyone else to pass me and basically climbed down mountain climber style – hugging the cliff all the way down. I did not trust that rail.
Some of our friends in San Francisco make it seem like climbing Half Dome is a normal, everyday occurrence. I think that might be one I’ll have to pass on. This challenge was enough for me, but well worth it. I felt like I’d redeemed myself a little bit from the day before.
The rest of our time in Yosemite we spent exploring the Valley Floor. We rented bikes and pleasantly looped the sites, stopping for mini-hikes, wading in lagoons, and spotting the wildlife.
On our final night there, we had another bear encounter. We were sitting around with the fam after dinner by the campfire chatting. We had not yet piled everything back into the bear box because we were still having s’mores. The picnic table with all our food and leftover trash was about ten feet behind us. Out of nowhere, we heard a little rustle by the table. The bear had made it almost all the way up to the table silent and undetected. The campground was full of people and there were even a couple of big dogs at the site next to us. No one had caught him! This bear was practiced.
Greg bravely yelled “Bear” at the bear -- in case he had any doubts as to what he was – and he turned in his tracks. The bear was so stealthy that I only caught the slightest glimpse of him. However, the way Greg describes it, he was much like a cartoon bandit focused on his goal: “Sweet, sweet garbage! Sweet, sweet garbage!” When he got caught he shrugged, said to himself, “Shucks! Foiled Again!” and skulked away. It was exactly like a Yogi Bear cartoon.
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