BHPian sid18 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:Prologue:2025 has been one of the most eventful years for me on the work front. From rapidly changing OKRs, frequent re-orgs to figuring out ways to embrace AI, I have seen these all from a rather close. These had kept me on my toes for most of first half of the year. By June, I was tired and was looking for a weeklong vacation or a road trip to clear my mind. However, as luck had it, my boss asked me if I could make a quick trip to Seattle to meet our partner. She had taken up some new charters, and some new teams had started reporting into her. We wanted to meet for a quick re-planning for the semester, and given all of them were in the US, it made sense to have those meetings during US office hours. My wife also had a hectic summer at her workplace and was looking for the road trips I was planning. I asked her if she could take a week off and would like to travel with me to Seattle. She could spend some time roaming around the city during my workdays and we could go to some nearby places during the weekend. She was game, and came up with a better plan to extend our stay by an extra week and visit friends and family in Mountainview, California after my work commitments were over. We did not have much time to plan and had to travel within 15 days.The Plan:With everything done we reached Seattle on the 6th of June. Plan was to leave Seattle on the 15th and head to San Franciso to meet our friends, spent a couple of days with them and head to New York for another 3 days before heading back to India. Though the plan looked good, somewhere I was still searching for some long road trip and maybe a short hike in the woods. With California in the itinerary, I started looking for the National Parks nearby that we can go to on a short 1- or 2-days trip. With some searching on the internet, I came across this travel company in SFO, Extranomical Tours (https://www.extranomical.com/), which conducts 1 day trip to Yosemite from San Francisco, daily. The trips started early in the morning, and they had around 5 to 6 pick-up and drop off points across downtown SFO that was at a walkable distance from my hotel near Union Square. A little more search on Google revealed a good rating and overall positive feedback about the tour program and the company. Without wasting any time, I booked two seats for us on a Monday for $200 per person. The fare includes to-from transfers, some refreshments, as many as water bottles as you want and passes to enter the National Park. With all the bookings done, I was waiting for the trip as a kidThe day in action:The day began before dawn in San Francisco, the city’s early morning chill buzzing with anticipation. I chose JW Marriot SFO as my pickup point and it was around 4 minutes walk from my hotel. The pickup was scheduled at 5:45 in the morning and we were there by 5:30. There were a couple of groups of young college kids as well as a couple of solo travelers waiting for the coach to arrive. We said hello to each other and had a quick chat on what to expect in the day. The coach arrived at 5:50 and it was like a school bus like they have in the US. We hopped in and took our seats which was followed by a roll call and a quick intro. We met our driver cum tour guide, a lovely lady named Sharon, in her 40s, brimming with energy who welcomed us onboard with a smile. Distance to Yosemite was around 170 miles and would take us around 4 hours with a break for breakfast and a quick restroom stop thereafter. This was the plan for the day – 05:20 AM to 10:30 AM – Hotel Pickup, Head to Yosemite 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM – Admire Views of Yosemite Valley 12:30 PM to 2:30 PM – Explore the Valley on Your Own 2:30 PM to 3:15 PM – Stops at El Capitan and Valley View 3:15 PM to 5:00 PM – Hike to Giant Sequoia Redwoods 5:00 PM to 9:30 PM – Return to San FranciscoThe journey:As we started from SFO, our driver-guide set the tone for the journey with stories about the region’s history, and before long, the cityscape gave way to rolling hills and sun-kissed vineyards. We reached the breakfast spot around 8 AM. It was one of those typical stops along the US highways with a Target, Grocery Store, Starbucks etc. We took a Latte and a Tuna sandwich from Starbucks and decided to pack our lunch from the grocery store to save some time buying lunch at the park. This proved to be a good idea as the cafeteria in Yosemite village was crowded and would have taken a lot of time to get lunch there. The drive through the California countryside was scenic, with vineyards and farms spanning over acres. Here are some pictures taken enroute – Beautiful lush green meadows along the highway In and around the Yosemite National Park:After a scenic drive that included a quick rest stop, we entered the Sierra Nevada foothills. The approach to Yosemite Valley was nothing short of breathtaking; craggy granite cliffs and towering pines framed every view from the window. However, given that it was peak summer in the US and schools were closed, there was a long queue of cars at the gate and at the pass counter. As our passes were already booked by the tour organizers, we only had to wait at the car/bus entry point. Still, it was 11:15 by the time we entered the park and were at the drop off point after making a quick stop at the Tunnel View for a photo-op. This is one of the hot places in Yosemite where everyone tumbled out, cameras in hand, to capture a perfect postcard panorama of the valley. The valley with all the main peaks as seen from the Tunnel view viewpoint. Us, at the tunnel view Our guide pointed out landmarks like Half Dome and El Capitan, their silhouettes familiar yet awe-inspiring in person. From here, we headed to Yosemite Village drop off point, private vehicles and coaches are allowed till this point. One can park their cars here and take the trails on foot or move around the park in electric hop-on hop-off buses to reach the other parts of the park. At the drop off point. In Yosemite Village, we had some free time to choose our own adventure. Some set off on short hikes to Lower Yosemite Falls, while others explored the visitor center and Ansel Adams Gallery. We opted for a gentle walk to the base of the lower Yosemite falls, where a refreshing spray filled the air and the thunder of water echoed through the trees before coming back to the village and had a quick lunch under the shade of the massive trees. At the lower Yosemite falls Post lunch, our guide joined us and offered to take us on the trail towards the upper Yosemite falls, valley behind El Capitan and the surrounding areas. This was a refreshing trail walk, with sunny clear sky and cold breeze coming from the mountain side. I will let the following photos tell you the story. View of the mountains with a lush green valley along the trail. Another view from the trail. There were families chilling around the waterbody, kayaking and swimming. You can see the upper Yosemite falls at the top of the mountain at a distance. After taking a trail walk we went back to the village parking area and boarded the coach to head to The Mariposa Grove. Enroute, we stopped to take a look at the majestic El Capitan from the valleys behind and this is how it looked – This is one of the most shout after spot in the park. There are lots of rock-climbing events that take place here during the summer. Our coach can be seen here (bottom right). Post this, we head to the Mariposa grove which took us around 40 minutes. Once we reach there, we were allowed to take the trail for 1.5 hours and check out the massive California redwood and the giant Sequoias. The Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, near Yosemite’s south entrance, has more than 500 mature giant sequoia trees and the following trails to go on – We took the Mariposa trail all the way up to the Mariposa tree and back. There are other trails like Grizzly trail and as the name suggests, there are possibilities of Grizzlies roaming around. To our amusement, we saw one big Grizzly roaming near the parking lot while everyone looked quite chilled around it. At the start of the trail. California redwood trees The famous tunnel tree, specifically a giant sequoia with a carved passage through its trunk (image courtesy – Shutterstock). We could not reach till here as we were pretty much exhausted by then. We started our journey back to SFO at around 5:30 PM and took a break at a food plaza after an hour into the journey. We grabbed some coffee and Tacos for dinner and settled back in the coach for the final leg of the journey. The rest of the journey was uneventful, and we reached our drop off point in SFO at 11 PM. We both felt the trip was bang for the buck and a great option for someone who doesn’t want to stay overnight at the park. This is all for now, thank you for reading this far. Check outBHPian commentsfor more insights and information.
