National Parks: Yosemite Honeymoon
Have you ever had to cancel a vacation you were really looking forward to? Did you end up planning something that was almost more fun? This is what happened to my husband and I. To add insult to injury the plans that were canceled was our honeymoon and it was two weeks before we were supposed to leave.
A little background, my husband and I got engaged in March of 2021. The pandemic was still in effect, but things were slowly starting to open. We got married in September of that same year and prior to get engaged starting planning a trip to Maui. Timing was just right for us to call it our honeymoon so we went with it. We had everything booked and planned. From snorkeling to flights, hotel, car rental to our luau. I even had a list of everywhere we were going to eat. We were so excited and then two weeks before we were going to leave, Maui had a spike in Covid and tourists were asked to reschedule their travel. My husband (or soon to be at that time) and I talked about it at length and ultimately decided to reschedule. So now we had to decided, what were we going to do with two weeks of PTO? The decision? Lets go on a road trip to Yosemite National Park.
Thats right we decided to go from a tropical, luxury trip to camping. Our itinerary was pretty straight forward. We left Seattle, spent our first night near Mt. St. Helens. From there we headed south to Carter Lake with a stop in Bend, OR to see friends. We cut our stay in Crater Lake short because it was so cold that first night and I was ready to be warm so we stayed the night in a hotel about 3 hours from Yosemite and then continued on to Yosemite. I will say if you chose to do a similar road trip a night in a hotel is pretty nice. At this time showers were closed at campgrounds due to Covid so we were going on day 3 of no showers. A nice shower and comfy bed before continuing our journey was a luxury.
Yosemite was the highlight of the trip for us. My husband and I were excited to hit a couple National Parks and do some camping. It really was a blast, but Yosemite was the real goal. I had been to Yosemite once in college, but that was for a class so a majority of the time we were outside the valley collecting data. It was an amazing experience and I still got to enjoy the wonder of being in Yosemite, but it wasn't the same as staying in the valley. I think Yosemite was the only place I was nervous about finding a place to stay. Being such a popular National Park camping sites go quick and being Covid things were limited. I was able to get us a canvas tent at Curry Village and it was a great experience. There was a bear box outside of the tent so we placed all our food there. A bed and bedding were provided, though we did choose to use our sleeping bag. There were also showers available. The only thing that we did not plan on and was not clear until we got there, is that there is no cooking allowed inside the village so our plans to use our camping grill was out. Restaurant options were also very limited, but we did get lucky with two buffets.
Curry Village is located right in Yosemite Valley near the base of Half Dome and Sentinel Peak at the east end of the valley. We had amazing views the entire time and easy access to hiking trails. Because we got in to Yosemite earlier than planned, our tent was not quite ready and we had some time to burn. So we rented bikes! It was by far one of the best decision we made. We were able to park at Curry Village, jump on the rented bikes and bike around the Valley loop. It was beautiful and such a unique way to experience the area, plus it gave us a chance to get our bearings and do some light exploring before diving into more the next few days. I highly recommend bringing or renting a bike in Yosemite. The valley floor is nice a flat so it was very easy for us to get around and we loved getting to move a bit after being in the car and seeing all the highlights.
The next day we drove out to Tolumie Meadows and hiked around, again just enjoying the sites and adventure. That evening we decided to watch the sunset on Half Dome and El Capitan. This was probably one of my favorite nights of the trip because it was so relaxing and magical. We found an old, closed off road not far from Curry Village, set up our chairs and sat down to watch. We had a JetBoil with us so we heated up water, enjoyed some backpacking meals and a bottle of wine while watching the sunset and taking pictures. It was perfect. We headed back to the tent, grabbed our cribbage board and went to the community area were we played games for a bit before heading to bed.
For me, the trip was not going to be complete without seeing the giant sequoias. Mariposa Groove is about an hour from Curry Village so we jumped in our car and took off. We stopped near the Wawona house on our way out and explored a little of the historic area that they had there and then continued on to Mariposa. Be aware that the welcome center is about a mile from the first of the large trees, Bachelor and the Three Graces. While there are plenty of sequoias in the area, the large ancient giants are a little bit of a hike. There are several loop hikes to choose from when you are in Mariposa. We chose to do the Grizzly Giant Loop which is about 2 miles long and hit the highlights, including the California Tunnel tree. We did see a deer on our hike and plenty of birds. It was hot so be sure you have water and snacks with you if you go in early September. We did stop back at the Wawona house on our way back to camp and enjoyed their buffet, which was delicious.
We then had to start packing up and began our drive home. We went along the coast and got to stay in the California Redwoods on our way home and the last night was spent in Canyon Beach at the Hallmark Hotel. It was the perfect way to wrap up our honeymoon and I cannot wait to do this trip again when our son is a little older. There is so much to do in Yosemite and we barely scratched the surface. Although it wasn't the Hawaii trip we wanted, it was still such a memorable and unique honeymoon. We did get our Hawaii trip about 18 months later.
A couple thoughts if you are going to do a similar trip. 1) Pick a good audio book series. We chose to restart the Harry Potter series and had a blast remembering the books and sharing memories that the books brought up. We both started the series when we were young and read them with our parents. 2) Bike in Yosemite! 3) Plan a hotel night. Just treat yourself. Camping is hard and so is driving so a night or two of comfort is needed. 4) A travel advisor can help with this type of trip! We can recommend hotels to stay in, things to do, routes to take and more. If you have a destination in mind, reach out and they could even create the entire itinerary so you just have to jump in the car and go.
