Yosemite Village and Yosemite Falls

Tunnel into Yosemite

It's Spring Break and we have finally managed to fit in a long overdue trip to Yosemite. We arrived at noon to a traffic jam.  Even in April, Yosemite is busy.  Everyone is jockeying for a position to see Half Dome and Yosemite Waterfall.  On the other hand, half of Yosemite is closed due to inclement weather and there is a lot of construction in the park.   Mariposa Grove, the home of the giant Sequoia, is closed for renovation as well.  Nonetheless, the park has a full roster of activity, centered mostly around Yosemite Valley.  Luckily, that was just where we were headed, as we’d reserved a cottage adjacent to the Majestic Hotel.  (Steven had the foresight to reserve our room a year in advance.)

Yosemite Valley Visitor Center. 

We wove our way past Yosemite Village to the Majestic Hotel, and managed to find one vacant parking spot.  Following appetizers in the Majestic’s lounge, we hoofed it up the road to the Village, where we dodged cyclists and hikers and found ourselves at the Village Store, a massive grocery store/souvenir shop.  It was sufficiently busy that we decided to keep exploring.  The village also has a medical clinic, post office, Ansel Adams Gallery, art center, visitor center, bookstore, museum, hair salon, and theater.  Oh, and a court.  The court is for all those people that speed in the park, I presume.  (Every year, 15 bears are struck by cars so it's no joking matter.) 

Steven admires a meadow near Majestic Hotel. Not pictured: deer in the distance.

We caught a movie before we left the Village, a 21-minute documentary by Ken Burns, the master of documentaries.  I learned that in the middle of the Civil War, Lincoln dedicated portions of Yosemite as a preserve.  Lincoln had never seen the land, but was inspired by photos and paintings of the iconic Half Dome and Hetch Hetchy Valley.  Subsequent presidents expanded the park,  most notably Teddy Roosevelt.  Teddy spent a few days camping with the naturalist John Muir, who viewed nature as a religion.  Muir founded the Sierra Club, and can be considered the father of the national parks movement.  But more on Muir later, after we attend the “Conversations with a Tramp” live presentation on John Muir in two days time.

See the upper and lower Yosemite Falls?
Also the location of John Muir's cabin.

On the way back from the Village we took our first hike, and easy mile through the woods and old snow to the lower Yosemite Falls.  The spray comes across in sheets as you cross the bridge at the foot of the falls.  Yosemite Falls is the tallest waterfall in North America.  So tall in fact, that it is two levels, an upper and lower.  Partially buried in snow we also found the meadow where John Muir built a cabin in 1869.  He lived in the cabin for two years, waking up to awe inspiring view every morning.

The site of John Muir's cabin at the base of Yosemite Falls