"Yosemite National Park" a Yosemite National Park Travel Page by bee77

You can't describe the feeling when you drive through the tunnel and behold the view of Yosemite Valley. It is breath-taking! I'm pretty much an urban brat and always imagined the outdoors through books and movies. Seeing it with my own eyes is something I'll never forget. It was love at first sight!

Standing at the bottom of El Capitan, stretched above me, all I could think about was how insignificant am I, in the scheme of things. These rocks and trees towering over me have existed for hundreds of years...and hopefully will be around for years longer.

My bestfriend originally suggested the Yosemite trip at the beginning of 2003. We hoped to get several friends together to go white water rafting in Yosemite. Everyone flaked, so it was left to my brother (username: joits), my friend Glenn and me. I didn't care. They were missing out! We booked our stay at Housekeeping Camp and our rafting trip with Sierra Mac.

Our trip took about 6 hours from Los Angeles. The hard part was the drive getting to Yosemite Valley. Once we entered the park, the roads were windy and you had to drive carefully. It was a sigh of relief to finally arrive at Housekeeping Camp.

Being the urbanite we were, we realized that how pityfully unprepared we were for this trip. All we bought were our clothes. Although we didn't need tents or any camping gear, it would have been extremely handy for us to bring camping chairs, pots and pans, some food, s'mores ingredients, beverages...we ended up buying all this just because WE HAD to cook over the fire ring located outside our camp. Next time around, we'll be more prepared!

The best times to visit the park is over the summer in May, June, and July. We came in August and it was just as beautiful. The Tuolumne River was a little low, waterfalls weak and the park a little maxed out but it was pretty much in full swing.

Another tip: don't bother with cell phones. Signals were weak throughout the valley.

1. Glacier point - awesome view of the whole valley. Didn't get to hike up...but amazing views.

2.White Water Rafting - recommend Zephyr/Sierra Mac. They treated us great and our guide Tim, was superb. He regaled us with tales of his adventurous life.

3. Hikes - http://www.yosemitefun.com/yosemite_day_hikes.htm

4. Make S'mores under the night sky.

5. There are several Guided Tours which are a good bet. You can rent bikes or horseride. If that's not your thing, explore Yosemite solo. Just try to make it back before sunset.

I would definitely like to be more adventurous on my next trip here. Perhaps, see more of the sights, do some of the hikes....just enjoy the beauty of Yosemite. The main goal of our trip was to do the white water rafting, so we didn't leave much time to do anything else during our three day weekend. So if you do visit, then I would recommend staying a least several days, a week if you can spare it. Yosemite is amazing. I didn't want to leave!!!

Please check out my brother, Jon's pages on Yosemite...he had the rest of the photos and a diff perspective: Jon's Yosemite Page