Well, we could put it off no longer. It was time to leave our wonderful hotel and head off into the wilderness that is camping. The drive was lovely, taking us away from the pacific and through the valley between the coast and the Sierras. We stopped at a reservoir for a potty break, and ended up taking in the spectacular view of the lake. It is the water that mainly feeds San Francisco!
Anyway, once past the valley of amazing fruits and vegetables, we began our ascent towards Yosemite. It was at this time that I looked at the reservations I had made. Now, mind you, I made these in March when they first went on sale. That experience was a nightmare (kind of like trying to get a major rock concert ticket the day of sale) with all campsites selling out within a minute of them going on sale! At the time, I had been able to get a campsite only outside the valley at Hodgkins Meadow, but when I went back and attempted another try at the valley about twenty minutes later, I was able to get a spot on the valley floor. I had assumed someone had removed a campsite from their “cart” and I was able to pick it up! So, we were headed into Yosemite with me figuring I had TWO campsites booked…the one I really wanted, and the backup in Hodgkins Meadow. Well, as I reviewed my papers I realized that I had booked the valley for APRIL 27-29, not JULY 27-29. So, I looked at Steve and said, well, I hope we still have the Hodgkin Meadow campsite, because I just realized we DON’T have the valley one! I am so glad I kept the backup.
We arrived at the campsite around 3:30 and the ranger said that since we didn’t show up last night, he was going to give away our campsite by 4pm that day, so we made it just in time! We got the tent set up quickly and headed back to see the ranger about locations for dinner. Because we weren’t in the valley, we were not going to have easy access to showers, a camp store or restaurants. Ugh. This is roughing it! There was a sign about a night hike at our campground at 7pm, so I had wanted to get back in time for that.
The ranger pointed us in the direction of a resort off property which took about 15 minutes to get to. The food there was very good, and as I looked at the resort, I was wondering why this hadn’t popped up on my radar before! Oh well, it’s a tent, right? It’s good for us. Build’s character!
We ate and got some s’mores ingredients at their little camp store, plus some firewood (they didn’t sell it, but they told us we could pick up whatever we could find on the ground!) and we headed back to camp. It was 6:57…we were going to make it in time for the hike! At the ranger station we asked where the hike was going to begin, and he looked at the sign and said “Oh, that was last night. Did they forget to take that down? You don’t want to do it anyway, the mosquitoes are horrible!”
Great. So, we went back to the campsite, and I grabbed a flashlight and told everyone I was going to go on my own hike. They all got their hiking shoes on and followed me to a beautiful meadow. It really wasn’t far, and the mosquitoes really weren’t that bad. We walked through a bit of the meadow, and with all the signs warning about bears and mountain lions, Steve felt a bit like a sitting duck (we were the only ones in the meadow). So, we headed back to the campsite to start up a fire and cook our marshmallows.
It was a nice evening, and soon we were in the tent ready to sleep. Tomorrow is our big sightseeing day, so we need our rest!
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