Day 18: Yosemite and Oakhurst
We drove in from Mariposa and headed straight to Yosemite Valley. It was a very different experience from any other National Park experience we had. First, we had to park in huge parking lots... which reminded us very much of trying to park at NMU when class is about to start. People were stalking each other for parking spots.. etc... Then from the parking lot, we were bussed to the visitor's center... where we were told that we could catch a bus to all of the major attractions... buses in the National Park???? taking you from site to site... we were very surprised.
We spent some time at the visitor's center and Dane started his junior ranger, "little cub" activity book. We explored the native american village and the museum, watching a weaving demonstration... etc.
Then we caught the shuttle bus to the lodge for a bite to eat. From the lodge, we went to the lower falls. The waterfall was gorgeous, but again there was a huge walkway leading to it... and people were so focused on the waterfall... that they missed the buck mule deer polishing his antlers on the tree just to the side of the walkway. We caught lots of photos of birds and ground squirrels. Dane was quite amused.
We attempted to visit the nature center, but found it to be closed upon our arrival. We talked about spending the night right in the park, but opted not to after the concern for bears in the park. They have been breaking into vehicles regularly, and the staff at the lodge mentioned taking everything out of your vehicle. That seemed like way too much work for us, considering that we have been living out of our van for so long! So we decided to look elsewhere for lodging... We found a nice hotel in Oakhurst, California for the night.
We spent some time at the visitor's center and Dane started his junior ranger, "little cub" activity book. We explored the native american village and the museum, watching a weaving demonstration... etc.
Then we caught the shuttle bus to the lodge for a bite to eat. From the lodge, we went to the lower falls. The waterfall was gorgeous, but again there was a huge walkway leading to it... and people were so focused on the waterfall... that they missed the buck mule deer polishing his antlers on the tree just to the side of the walkway. We caught lots of photos of birds and ground squirrels. Dane was quite amused.
We attempted to visit the nature center, but found it to be closed upon our arrival. We talked about spending the night right in the park, but opted not to after the concern for bears in the park. They have been breaking into vehicles regularly, and the staff at the lodge mentioned taking everything out of your vehicle. That seemed like way too much work for us, considering that we have been living out of our van for so long! So we decided to look elsewhere for lodging... We found a nice hotel in Oakhurst, California for the night.
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