Many people consider Yosemite National Park to be one of the best parks in the United States, and it’s not hard to see why. This park is huge (it takes roughly 35-45 minutes to get from the entrance gate of the park to Yosemite Valley, where the majority of the visitors go to), full of ancient sequoia trees, lakes and streams, hiking trails, and basically everything you wish for when you want to delve into nature. Currently, this park is #3 of the Most Visited Park list.
My friends and I stayed there for a handful of days over Labor Day weekend, and I wanted to show you some of the view you may see if / when you make a visit to Yosemite. Keep in mind, we only went to a small percentage of what the park offers because it’s that huge O_O)
The photo above is of Half Dome, one of Yosemite’s more popular feature. Many people associate that rock with rock climbing, as I hear a lot of climbers make it their goal to climb up to the top. Others choose to hike it. We had planned on hiking Half Dome towards the end of our trip but, haha, we chickened out. 12 miles roundtrip! And it’s a steep hike. Another day though, we will conquer it!
When we hiked the steep Glacier Point trail (10 miles round trip), we were able to get a great view of the Yosemite Valley.
We walked around the Yosemite Valley’s beautiful and open meadows with wooden pathways leading into pockets of forests and streams. Some people rented bikes from a nearby bike rental store, and we tried to do just that, but we got there too late in the day! Super bummed about that.
Deers! We saw a doe and its mother wandering close to a stream, and they seemed so comfortable being around people. I got really close to it, and the deer just continued munching on grass. At one point, we saw as much as five deers wandering in a quiet meadow. Those deers had huge antlers though, so we just watched from afar.
There are so many views still waiting to be witnessed in Yosemite, like the view from Half Dome, the running waterfalls, the snow-covered Yosemite Valley, or the frozen streams. Looking forward to future visits.