Yosemite Sunrise Day Tripper

Written By Christina Re
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Glacier Point, Yosemite National Park

This photo was taken on August 30th, 2020- Just days before the Creek Fire- The smoke you see here is from the SCU Lighting Complex Fire that was started on August 16, 2020.

HELLO! I know you are thinking to yourself right now, “FINALLY.. geez.. I’ve been waiting for years for these ladies to have a Blog.” Then our planned work, we wanted to just build that anticipation, “You’re Welcome.” Okay, so maybe that is not exactly how it happened, but none the less, we are very excited to be here, with our beautiful new website (thank youPolygon Market.) Christina and I have so much fun together doing everything and we decided that some of it is too fun not to share. We’ve become close with many of our clients and are excited to be able to share a bit more of us with all of you.

This blog is about our favorite DAY TRIP TO YOSEMITE, we are taking it back to this trip because it was very important to us this past August 2020. During this time, we were evacuated from our new home because of the CZU Lighting Complex Fire. It felt like all of CA was on fire at this time as there were fires in every direction. Where we were staying in San Jose (with my parents, Thank you so much Mom & Dad) and as everyone in the Bay Area already knows, the air quality was HORRIBLE, it was raining ash and everything was orange'; it basically felt like we were living in a zombie land. Shit was intense and we couldn’t get our mind off of everything, so I had a genius idea (which if you ask me, is quite a common occurrence), and said “Let’s take a sunrise day trip to Yosemite and find a secret swimming hole I found on youtube.” This was not very hard to convince my beauty (aka Christina, as most of you know her), she immediately responded with and “Okay, let’s do it.” And boom, we high fived like we usually do after I have a genius plan (okay okay, Christina will have some from time to time too) and we will high five after her genius plans as well.

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I mapped out our route and we were on the road 2 days later. We are early birds and pretty extra when it comes to mornings and always have been. We have an energy in the mornings like most people have not seen and as we love it, a lot of people frown upon it. That being said, we woke up at 2:00am and were on the road by 2:30am. It is only a 3 hour 45 minute trip from San Jose to Yosemite. (When you say it like that, it makes you think why haven’t you done this, am I right?)

HOW WE STARTED: We entered in on Hwy 120 through the Hetch Hetchy Entrance heading toward Yosemite Village at the lower Yosemite Falls Trail Head. The drive in itself had the most EPIC views once the sunrise slowly made its way up. The drive went by fast as we talked and sang the whole way. FIRST STOP: LOWER YOSEMITE FALLS: That time of year there is no water and we knew that going in, but we still wanted to check it out since we were not there to hike this trip, we did the easy walk to lower Yosemite Falls as we watched the sun peak over the ridge. Great start to the day. We followed it by stopping along the MERCED RIVER and and enjoying some breakfast we packed for ourselves. (If you know us a little, you know we are always prepared with food, ALWAYS- key to having energy btw-That’s a whole other blog for a whole other day!)

Next Stop: TUNNEL VIEW on the way to GLACIER POINT: After that we headed towards Glacier Point which is about an hour drive the the Yosemite Valley. We stopped at Tunnel View which is an easy pull over spot for some nice stretches, snacks (duh!), reflection on life (as long as not too many people are there) and a great photo opp of course. Onto Glacier Point, over 7,000 ft in elevation (about 3,000 higher than Half Dome). It is an absolute incredible view of many peaks and the valley. GP is open during certain times of the year because of snow so check before you go; although you are able to hike from Four Mile Trailhead along Southside Drive in Yosemite Valley all year. I will do that hike one day and let you know, but apparently it is a four mile hike incline most of way to Glacier point; 8 Miles round trip. Who’s in with me? It amazes Christina and I how there are so many people in the world and even at an iconic place, yet no-one to be found. CRAZY! You cannot beat the morning light, it’s my absolute favorite light of the day!! We had the place to ourselves; it was awesome and probably about 8:30am.

 
 

Next Stop: MARIPOSA GROVE: Made some scenic drives and took about 1 hour 30 minute drive to our last stop inside the park. We are suckers for giant Redwood Trees, so we had to stop and do an easy hike (about 5 miles round trip) from the Mariposa welcome center to the Mariposa Grove of the Giant Sequoias, walked the loop and saw some famous trees like the Fallen Monarch. Have you seen a redwood tree from inside of the roots?! I had not and the trippier part is this tree had been estimated to be there for centuries without decaying or even many plants growing on it. Seriously! Mother Nature always continues to blow my mind! :) BLOWS MY MIND!!!

You can take this trail all the way to the Wawona Point which would be about 11 miles total from where we parked, but we still had our last destination to get to, which is the one I was most excited about; Fish Camp Falls! FINAL STOP: SECRET FALLS IN FISH CAMP: These secret swimming holes are not technically in Yosemite National Park, rather about 20 minutes after you exit out of the South Entrance, Hwy 41 into Fish Camp.

HOW WE GOT TO FISH CAMP FALLS: I follow Jesse St Louis youtube channel and came across this place and kind of planned our day trip around getting here. We had trouble finding the trailhead at first, but we got it. Beautiful trail with wild berries growing. We met a fellow hiker along the trail that was also following the same guy and just left the location we were looking for and told us some good tips. Hikers and Adventure people are my people! Mainly because they are so nice and friendly across the board. Does anyone else agree with me? We wore our mask on these trails when we did see people because hello! we are in the middle of a Pandemic people! (and that is what you do when you’re around other people!!)

BEHOLD! Fish camp falls! Everything I hoped for and more! There are 3 different falls and the 3rd one takes a little scrambling to get to, but all of them are worth it. The top falls are known as Skinny Dip Falls and most popular, the middle one is called Arrowhead (a bit colder than the top because it’s shadier). I was so hot all day I could not wait to get in the water!! Once I did, it was some quick dips, dives and floats and I was good. That water was cold, but felt amazing and was so clear. It spent several hours here and decided to continue our journey to end our favorite day trip of all time! We watched the sunset as we drove home and got back to my parents about 8:30pm. Although it was a little smoky in Yosemite, it was a perfect day to get are mind off of real life that was being extra at the moment and were really able to enjoy mother nature; which is our favorite thing to do! <3

OUR YOSEMITE DAY TRIP :

STARTING FROM HETCHY HETCHY ENTRANCE, LOOPING AROUND AND EXITING OUT OF THE SOUTH ENTRANCE TO HQY 41

  1. LOWER YOSEMITE FALLS

  2. MERCED RIVER LUNCH BREAK

  3. TUNNEL VIEW

  4. GLACIER POINT

  5. MARIPOSA GROVE

  6. FISH CAMP FALLS (SECRET)

In the words of John Muir (who you will see that I quote a lot!!, but he said some pretty good shit!),

“Going to the mountains is going home.”

 
“This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.”
— John Muir
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FISH CAMP FALLS, FISH CAMP

Check out Jesse St Louis youtube channel on how to get here and many other great hidden places!

Find these hidden Swimming Holes
 
Christina Re
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