by Ljrack » Sat Jun 18, 2011 2:20 am
Ben,
Sorry for my late reply here, I almost forgot about it. I don't visit this forum on a daily basis.... I actually had a long, long reply going a few days ago, but I spent so much time composing it, my session timed out and somehow I lost all the text (not happy about that...) Anyway....
I think Dan provided some excellent suggestions to start with. Spending the morning/day in the Tuolomne meadows area, the Lembert Dome would be a nice little scamper. There's also the popular May Lakes hike. I personally don't have a lot of experience in hiking that area, but definitely spending a good portion of one of your days along the Tioga Pass road is recommended. Of course this year with some record snowfall, I'm guessing you will still see snow up there, although perhaps not around the meadows.
Back to the beginning. As I'm sure you might know, Death Valley in late July is going to be scorching. Some alternatives might be the Bristle Cones and White Mountains out of Big Pine I believe it is. At 11,000 feet you might be able to escape the heat. There's also the Alabama Hills, Devils Postpile in Mammoth and if you'd like a fairly easy 3-4 mile hike, try Little Lakes Valley. All this stuff you can Google of course for more info.
You mentioned staying in Lee Vining. Great spot to stay over. Bodie would be a definite visit as it's only about 45min from Lee Vining. Hopefully you have plans on visiting Mono Lake as well. Either a dawn or dusk visit would be the best. It's quite an experience walking among the tufa in the dark. And a sunrise at the South Tufa can be quite an experience if you get a great sky. You might consider the afternoon visit to Bodie and then do an early sunrise at Mono Lake before heading up the Tioga Pass in to Yosemite.
So, for the first day, Thursday, think about the sunrise at Mono Lake. You could still be at Tuolomne meadows early morning for some hiking and lunch around the meadows or one of the suggested hikes. After lunch and right along the way would be the Tuolomne Grove of Giant Sequoia. Might be the best bang for the buck as far as time goes since the Mariposa Grove is a bit remote relative to the Valley. Now depending on timing, you might consider making sure you've alerted the hotel to a late check in and not bother going there until after dark. Take the opportunity to hit the Valley on Thursday, that is if you haven't spent the entire day up in the higher country. Since you're only there two short nights, spend thursday evening around the valley and check out either Valley View or Tunnel View for sunset. There's a turn around in the Valley loop called the El Capitan crossover so you don't have to go all the way in to the valley to head back towards El Portal.
Friday, right back to the valley. I would also recommend the open air bus tour as your first thing Friday morning. Now it may not be something you or your party are interested, but for those who have never visited and perhaps may never return, you get a lot of sights AND information about the park in those 2 short hours. You can then spend the rest of the time concentrating on short hikes or other features you want to see more closely. Then again, lots of folks don't care to sit on a bus like this and become little tourist lemmings..... but for many it may be worth it. If you don't do that, make sure you do either the short walk to the Lower Yosemite Falls in the morning, Or some alternative easy walks would be: Mirror Lake or Happy Isles. A little more aggressive would be the full Yosemite Falls hike or the Vernal Falls and Mist trail hike out of Happy Isles.
That takes care of the morning pretty quickly. Now I try to avoid the main areas of YOsemite Village especially during this busy time, but if you're interested, you can visit the Ansel Adam's Gallery (glorified gift shop with a heavy lean towards photography and some other artwork,) or the Visitor's center, Indian stuff, etc. You can grab lunch at Degnan's Deli. Better yet though, pack a lunch which you can get from the store at Yosemite View Lodge or grab a sandwich from the deli at Yosemite Village and then make your way to El Capitan Meadow for a picnic. Relax, have lunch and watch the rock climbers on that big rock called El Capitan. You can't miss the meadow. A long meadow with cars and buses all pulled over on the left side of the road just a couple of miles from Yosemite Lodge.
So, by mid-late afternoon I would start heading out. As you make your way out of the Valley, you can return back to the valley by following the signs to return, or Highway 41 to Fresno. Make a stop at Bridal Veil falls. Late in the afternoon you can catch a rainbow at the base of the falls. I'm pretty sure that water will still be flowing nicely in July considering the record snowfall they had this year. From the Bridal Veil parking lot, head up the hill towards Fresno on Hw 41. Just a mile or so up the hill is the famous Tunnel View. Now if you hadn't been there the night before, then this is most definitely a spot to stop at. One of the most beautiful views in the world.
Now depending on how much time you've spent in the valley, I would highly recommend you spend your second sunset/evening at Glacier point. It's probably only about a 30 min drive or so from Tunnel View to Glacier Point. Time it to be up there in time for sunset which will be about 8:15pm. And if you're really ambitious, I'd recommend staying around till dark. I believe they still may have daily ranger talks about the night sky from Glacier Point. The moon will not be out so it should be nice and dark for great star watching. If you're up there early enough, there are short hikes to Sentinel dome and/or Taft Point also along the Glacier Point road.
Saturday morning, if you want to do something you couldn't get to the first two days, you have plenty of time to make an early morning run back to the valley before heading towards San Francisco. Go for it. The drive to SF will take you about 4 hours from the hotel in El Portal. Take the Highway 140 west that follows the Merced River Canyon. Not sure how picturesque it will be in July as most of the greenery will have browned by then. But's the river and canyon walls are fascinating themselves if you're in to geology or anything like that. I much prefer that drive over the alternate 120 (although 120 is about 10-15 miles shorter heading to SF.
As a side note, you can white-water raft anywhere... I'm not sure I'd spend a day doing that. If it's hot and you're interested in taking a dip in the Merced River. Check out Cathedral beach in the Valley. It's on the Southside drive heading towards Yosemite village. Check the maps and signs on the way in.
One tip I would mention. The valley loop without traffic may take about 30 min or so to drive all the way around. With traffic, bear and wildlife log jams and general crowding may easily take an hour or more. so as you're driving in for the first time and subsequent times, take advantage of each of the pullouts. There are some major ones that are obvious, but also some smaller ones. The smaller ones are places where you can actually get out of your car, walk for 2 minutes and get away from people. Even in the summer. But just be aware and ready to pull over so you can get out of the car and enjoy the views. Drive slow (the speed limit is 25mph in most places anyway, 35 max in the Valley) and you'll be sure not to miss much.
Even if you stay til after lunch time on Saturday, you'll still have plenty of time to reach San Fran before dark. Fisherman's wharf, the cable cars, all the usual stuff. Alcatraz is a great tour if you have the time. Head over the GG Bridge to the Marin Headlands for a terrific view of the city. Make sure you go on both sides of highway 101 for views.
Well, enough for now. Feel free to ask any more questions. Best of luck with your planning and I wish you a great, fun, and safe trip to the States. Welcome!
Lon