I’m not usually one to rave about hiking. After a series of gruelling Duke of Edinburgh experiences in high school, this taught me repeatedly that cheap boots aren’t worth the scarring blisters. But hiking Yosemite National Park was worth a new experience.
Let’s face it, I’m impulsive and proud. So after very little consideration, I told Jon (my boyfriend) that I was throwing a little Yosemite National Park detour into our laid-back six-week trip of the US. Surprisingly, all it took was tag spamming him in Yosemite photographs on Instagram and he was eventually excited too.
Being young travellers, we had some initial concerns. After booking a Heated Tent in winter, the conversation circled around the whole, ‘where will we charge the GoPro?’ And, ‘will this be exactly like The Revenant?’. Luckily for the bears and their luscious fur, our down jackets were enough to keep us warm at night.
No matter how much research we did, we could NOT find enough information. Especially on the things we deemed vital to us for a Yosemite National Park winter. This included exploring, food and most importantly, free Wi-Fi!
How to get to Yosemite National Park via public transport from San Francisco
Being young Australian tourists and having a fear of driving in anything more severe than rain, we opted for Amtrak to take us safely all the way there – and back. Leaving from Trans Bay Terminal in San Francisco, the bus-train-bus trip takes just under seven hours each way in winter. A great surprise to us was that the final bus drops you at the doorstep to your accommodation – bargain.
Cost
$100AUD per person return (booked November, 2016 at the then current exchange rate).
Accommodation
Budget – Heated Tent at Half Dome Village, but great for the price.
Formerly known as Curry Village, Half Dome is a great place if you want to explore from the moment you step outside your cabin or tent. I don’t deal well with the Sydney winters. So trust me when I say that this tent is WARM. You’ve got communal bathrooms with hot showers within 30 metres of your tent. A handy power point is also provided inside the tent for charging your iPhone or other electronic devices with mediocre battery life.
I feel like I could write a whole post just on the bear lockers, just because we don’t have anything like that in Australia. The bottom line is that if you have anything scented in your bag, such as toiletries and snacks, it’s better to go in the locker than have an unexpected hairy visitor at 3am (I’m not talking about Jon either).
Exploring Yosemite National Park
When you first get to your “village” within Yosemite National Park, you’re provided with a basic hiking map of all the surrounding trails. Keep in mind that in Winter, the sun starts to set at 3:30pm so getting out and about early is so important (hard thing for us young folks).
Jon and I hiked the Mirror Lake trail from our tent, which ended up taking almost six hours, as we were eager to explore beyond the main area. If you want to just follow the trail loop, it’ll take you three hours and is a leisurely hike. If you are coming from another village, the shuttle bus drops you conveniently at the start of the trail (stop #17).
On a whim, we agreed that there was no way we could come all this way without seeing the ‘MacBook desktop background’ in person. El Capitan was everything we hoped for and more. As the free shuttle bus doesn’t run to the El Capitan area, we hopped off the bus near Yosemite Falls (stop #7) and followed the trail all the way down to the majestic rock. We took roughly two hours getting there (the surroundings were beautifully distracting) and had a gourmet picnic under El Capitan consisting of Saltine crackers and Kind bars.
Insights
- If you are desperate to climb Half Dome in winter, check the National Parks website for weather updates (https://www.nps.gov). There’s a high chance that the trail will be closed and unfortunately for us, it was.
- Complimentary Wi-Fi access is available throughout the Yosemite valley in all communal areas i.e. the lounges and cafeterias. Don’t expect lightning-fast Internet but it’s enough to send a Facebook message to say that a coyote or bear hasn’t eaten you just yet!
- Whilst they do serve breakfast at Half Dome, we planned ahead and packed instant oatmeal sachets that we filled with hot water provided. Just remember to pack your own cups and spoons as we learnt the hard way by ‘borrowing’ utensils from the cafeteria every morning.
- In winter, there isn’t much in the way of dinner choices at Half Dome. Unless you want to take the free shuttle bus to another village’s restaurant, prepare to have a carb-loaded pizza dinner every night (this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for us).
- Keep an ear out for the singing bus driver. Expect to hear a lot of ‘croony’ ballads and American folk songs (he’s pretty versatile, you know).
Briony
Read more about adventures in North America here.
