Weekend round-up: Camping in Yosemite

What a lovely weekend! On Friday night, Rob and I drove out to Yosemite with Rich’s soon to be sister-in-law Michelle. We arrived around 11:00 pm to a clear night and three feet of snow. After setting up the tent, we all crashed for the night. Rich and Margaret didn’t arrive until about 4:30 am with the brand new RV.

The next morning, we were woken up by clumps of snow falling from the trees onto our tent. A wolf was patrolling the campgrounds looking for unsuspecting ravens. After a hearty breakfast of biscuits, bacon, provolone and chai, we caught the valley shuttle to the Ahwahnee Hotel. We ran around the meadow behind the hotel making snow angels and taking photos.

After this the group decided to hike from Yosemite lodge to El Capitan Meadows. It’s about an eight mile hike, much easier when the trails aren’t completely snowed over. By the time we made it to El Cap it had started to rain and the crabby Hungarian in our group was getting pushy. We hustled back to Yosemite falls in the snow and took some brilliant photos in front of the falls (please email them to me!). Around 5 it started to snow quite hard and we headed back to the RV to dry out our socks and eat pasta, sweets and beer.

The next morning, a screaming toddler brouhaha in the next campsite over woke us up in our tent around 7:30 am. It took about a half hour to thaw out my now completely frozen hiking boots enough so I could put them back on. After another hearty breakfast we went to Curry Village for a little exploration. And then back to the Ahwahnee hotel for some cards before parting ways and heading back to San Francisco. After a late pie-and-veggie-burger lunch at Nation’s Giant Hamburgers, we dropped Michelle off and went home for some much needed showers.

This weekend was supposed to be Rob’s annual birthday camping bonanza with about 40 people but the snow made almost everyone stay home. Instead, we got a cozy and relaxing trip with a few close friends and a few new buddies!

(Jean and Trent: Thanks for letting us use the car again! We owe you a car wash and an oil change. It’s parked in a spot on the corner of 14th and Castro that is good through Thursday.)