Winter trip to Yosemite

Hello readers, I love writing travel posts as traveling brings so much joy and reminisces. Whether it is the anticipation of the trip, exploration and site seeing, or looking back at the beautiful memories made during the trip, traveling brings family time and so much enjoyment that I cannot wait to travel again. We are a family of four and would consider ourselves travel enthusiasts and take any opportunity to travel far and wide (or near!).

This post is part two of my travel post about our winter trip to California. In December 2021, we took a vacation from Texas to California. In my first post, I wrote about visiting San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge, Union Square, Coit Tower, Lombard Street, Ghiradelli Square, Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf. You can read about our winter trip to California here. In today’s post I am writing about our visit to Yosemite State Park and Napa Valley, where we traveled on the second leg of the trip.

Background

According to the official website Yosemite.com, the Yosemite National Park is home to soaring granite icons such as Half Dome, El Capitan and Yosemite Falls, and some of the world’s biggest and oldest trees- the giant sequoias- as well as a wide range of native American and gold rush history that can be learned about in more than a half dozen museums. According to nps.gov, Yosemite National Park was first protected in 1864, and is best known for its waterfalls, but within its nearly 1,200 square miles, you can find deep valleys, grand meadows, ancient giant sequoias, a vast wilderness area, and much more.

We have heard that Yosemite is breathtaking any time of the year. We planned our trip in winter, as we love visiting snowy places in December and Yosemite did not fail us! There was snow everywhere to play and enjoy, but no snowfall or snow storm during the drive which made our trip perfect! You can do camping, lodging, overnight hikes with wilderness permit, tours, rangers and interpretive programs, and so much more there. You can learn more about things to do in Yosemite during winter here. Read on about our wonderful winter trip to Yosemite.

Day Trip

If you have read my earlier post, you may know that the first five days of our December vacation were spent in and around San Francisco. We fell in love with the city, although it was very cold and windy for the entire duration we were there. We plan to visit San Francisco another time in the summer, to see the difference of the weather experience. Our recommendations are the Big Sur drive, Golden Gate Bridge, Union Square, Ghiradelli’s and the Lombard street. For more information about our SFO trip, please read here.

We made the booking for the Yosemite National Park on day 2 after we reached California, the 26th, and the day trip was planned for the 29th of December. The tour company called us a day before to inform that they were canceling the trip due to the snow fall in that area. They moved our trip to the next day and it was a perfect day to visit Yosemite! On the day of the re-scheduled tour on the 30th, the roads were all clear with snow on the sides, snow on the trees as we entered the Park, and on the majestic beautiful mountain peaks, but there were no hindrances or obstacles on the drive. It was picturesque and breathtaking!

The tour started at 6:45 am. We left our Hilton Hotel just before 6:30 am and took the 10 minute walk to the place where the tour van was ready for us. There were 13 people in our tour van and it was a comfortable drive. The drive was about 4 hours. The tour guide was experienced and informative. We took a half way stop at Safeway for anyone to pick an early lunch, and we reached Yosemite National Park at around 12:30 pm. See the pictures below for our transition from green mountains to snowy trees within an hour of the last leg of drive.

We ate lunch at the Yosemite Valley Lodge. There were not many tourists. The day was beautiful- sunny and accumulated snow all around. Yosemite Falls is the highest waterfall in Yosemite National Park, dropping a total of 2,425 feet from the top of the upper fall to the base of the lower fall. Yosemite is home to countless water falls and we were fortunate to be able to view a few of them through the trail with spectacular views of both upper and lower Yosemite falls. Did you know that Yosemite Falls, one of the world’s tallest falls, is actually made up of three separate falls? Upper Yosemite Fall (1,430 feet), the middle cascades (675 feet), and Lower Yosemite Fall (320 feet). We saw the Yosemite Falls from numerous places around Yosemite Valley, especially around Yosemite Village and Yosemite Valley Lodge. A one-mile loop trail leads to the base of Lower Yosemite Fall, which we walked on.

We started our return from Yosemite around 5 pm, and were back in our Hilton hotel by 9 pm. We ordered pizza, ate, and slept, tired but content after the day trip to Yosemite.

Napa valley

Next day on December 31st, we drove to Napa valley. It is only about 50 miles from San Francisco and it took us an hour to reach from Hilton. Napa Valley is one of the world’s famous wine regions, with stunning landscapes and exceptional vines. According to visitnapavalley.com, Napa valley has more than 375 wineries open for tastings and 90 urban tasting rooms. Napa Valley is known for world-class wine, as well as beautiful countryside and near perfect weather year-round. It is also known for Michelin-star restaurants and luxurious accommodations and spas. You can find more information about things to do in Napa valley here. We had lunch at the small town and took some pictures in front of the decorated Christmas trees, getting ready to welcome New Year 2022.

Conclusion

We ended our 8 days winter trip to California after celebrating New Year’s eve in SFO and flying back to Houston on January 1st. In this travel post, I wrote about the two places we visited in the last leg of our winter trip to Yosemite and Napa valley. We had a wonderful December trip and ended 2021 strong with two trips to three states- PA and NY in summer, and CA in winter.

Dear readers, we would love to hear from you. Have you visited or heard about Yosemite and Napa valley? Do share your travel ideas for this year or any travel experience from last year.

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