by baseline bum » Thu Jan 14, 2010 9:28 pm
I stayed at Cedar Lodge in August, and liked it. The room was nice and cheaper than most of the other places reasonably close to the park. The restaurant in it is amazingly bad though, and quite expensive. On a positive note, they have a bar in the restaurant that serves Sierra Nevada and also a very nice selection of beers in the store lobby.
In addition to the tram tour in Yosemite Valley, you can do one in Mariposa Grove to see the Giant Sequioas. Of course, you could just do the trip through Mariposa Grove as a gentle hike too, and get to see all the spectacular trees close-up. Plus, there's tons of shade, so you should keep pretty cool on it. It's about 6 or 7 miles roundtrip with about 1500 feet of elevation gain if I remember right. Another cool thing about Mariposa Grove is that both times I hiked it, I saw some huge bucks at the parking lot there near dusk.
The tram in Yosemite Valley sounds like a lot of fun. I have never had time for it when I have gone, but man, seeing how enormous El Capitan is when you're driving in the valley is CRAZY!! No picture you see will EVER do it justice!
Glacier Point is really cool that time of year, because all the waterfalls should be roaring in July, and you have great views of Yosemite Falls, Vernal Falls, and Nevada Falls. Washburn Point on the way up the road to Glacier Point is really cool too. Washburn Point has my favorite view in the park that doesn't require any kind of hiking (you have a nice side view of Half Dome and can see Mount Starr King too).
If I had to pick one short hike though, the Mist Trail to Vernal and Nevada Falls would easily be my #1 recommendation. There's lots of shade until you climb up Nevada, and in July the mist as you hike up Vernal is incredibly refreshing. I did the hike once on July 3rd or 4th, and the mist was so thick it was like taking a shower out in the sun. Just come back down the John Muir Trail from Nevada back to Happy Isles (Mist Trail and JMT run roughly in parallel between Happy Isles and Nevada Falls), because coming down the Mist Trail near Vernal Falls when it's really wet is a bitch because it's very slippery (going up it is no problem though). I don't remember how long the round-trip was between Happy Isles and the top of Nevada Falls, but I don't think it's any longer than about 6 miles. (someone please correct me if I'm wrong)
You could go get a picture at Tunnel View. I'm not sure if that would be part of the Valley tram tour or not, but it's probably the most famous spot in the entire park, and gives a really amazing view of El Capitan, Clouds Rest, Half Dome, Cathedral Rocks (I think), and Bridalveil Falls. Speaking of Bridalveil Falls, it's really cool in July and definitely worth checking out.
There's tons of other things to do too, such as seeing Half Dome, Clouds Rest, and Tenaya Peak from Olmsted Point on Tioga Pass Road, or seeing all the cool boulders brought down by glaciers at Dana Meadows, or seeing a really amazing alpine lake in Ellery Lake (just outside of the park, a few miles past Dana Meadows on Tioga Pass Road). Tioga Pass Road is an absolutely jaw-dropping drive through the high-country of Yosemite, and it has a good chance of being open by mid July. You might even see a little snow too (when I went in early July 2006, there was some snow on the ground at the Tioga Pass entrance to the park, and lots of it on Mount Dana if you want to hike a couple of miles to it).