I know its late:) but what the heck... I am a lazy blogger and an even lazier photo uploader!. We went to Yosemite during this thanksgiving weekend and I must say it was an interesting weekend.
We left for yosemite around friday afternoon after standing 9 hrs in the cold for the black friday sale and came home empty handed as the thing we wanted got over before we could get it:(. We reached yosemite around 6 in the evening and checked into our tented non heated cabins. It was pretty cold and we were hungry thankfully we had packed food from Madras cafe and all of us literally jumped on the food. After that we headed into the main dining area where there was a grand fireplace and comfortable couches around it and we proceeded to laze around a bit and warm our cold bodies.
After some time we decided to hit the bed and thats when the fun started. None of realized how cold one can feel in a non heated cabin till we started tucking ourselves in and realized the blankets were damp and the cold was literally seeping in and despite wearing jackets etc we were freezing. Fast forward 30 minutes and we decided we need dry blankets and a trip to the reception was needed. Me/Raghav/Sudhir headed to the reception and got a bunch of dry blankets. Well as it happens even dry blankets didnt help as the night proceeded the dew settled onto the blankets inside the tented cabins and we suffered a cold damp night despite wearing multiple layers of clothing.
By morning all of us had hardly slept and we decided unless we could get an upgrade to a heated cabin we would head back home rather than sleep another day like this. Luckily we got heated cabins later in the morning and we decided to head out to toulumne meadows and tioga pass and time permitting further into the sierra nevada.
I must say it was one heck of a beautiful drive. We started with heading out towards toulumne meadows and saw some very very beautiful sights along the way.
We hit toulumne meadows by noon or so. The meadows look pretty though I hear during spring it looks amazing when the plants here flower for a short time.
We spent some time hiking around and climbing up the small hilltop in the meadows. Its a beautiful place and the views from there are just amazing.
After Toulumne meadows we decided to drive upto to tioga pass and beyond into the Sierra Nevada. I am so happy we decided to do that ... As we drove past tioga we came across a frozen lake and much fun was had at the banks of the lake playing on the ice.
After the lake we drove up a little more into the sierra nevada and saw some sights like the following before we decided to turn back and head to the valley. Someday we hope to do a drive down the Sierra nevada. It has some of the most amazing sights.
The next day was a drive upto glacier point for breathtaking views of the valley and Half dome. We spent a good amount of time there taking snaps from various angles before heading out.
A couple of snaps of the famous Ahawanee hotel one from right next to the hotel and the other as seen from glacier point.
Next stop was Mariposa grove near wawona. The grove has about 500 Giant Sequoias these are the largest living things on the planet and can live for about 3200 years. The trees just look fantastic and are about as huge as a small trailer at the base. A few snaps of the sequoias to give a perspective :)
This last snap was Aruna's idea and it cleary gives one an idea of the size of these trees. Spot us if you can:).
Overall a really wonderful and amazing trip. We got to see more of the beautiful Yosemite National park but a lot more remains to be seen. Next trip shall be in early spring/summer to see the falls in full flow and the tuolumne meadows.
