First off, I want to say thanks for all the advice and recommendations for my trip before we went! We were in Yosemite this past weekend, 9/5-9/7. Left El Dorado Hills (by Sacramento) at about 9.15am Friday 9/5. Drove down 49 then took 120 into the park. No problems on the drive, no fires, smoke, traffic, etc. Just a lot of foothills and grassland. Got to the park and stopped at the Camp Curry reservation office because I was told I needed to check in there by a ranger over the phone when I called in advance with some questions. We had reservations in the Upper Pines campground by the way(side note....got lucky and kept checking recreation.gov and one site out of the 240 there opened up about 2 weeks before we went, someone must have cancelled). Was told in the camp curry reservation office that we didn%26#39;t need to check in there and we should check in in this little camping registration office in the back corner of the main parking lot for camp curry. When we went there we were told we didn%26#39;t need to check in there we just needed to check in at the kiosk at the upper pines campground. I wasn%26#39;t upset or anything about this errors, just want to let the next people know what to do. Got to the campground around 12.30 and set up camp then at about 1.30 loaded up the backpack and walked to the Vernal Falls, Nevada falls hike. The trail starts about 500 yards from the end of the Upper pines campground which is where our campsite was. Hiked up to Vernal and then Nevada Falls. It was a hot day so we drank a lot of water and ate all the snacks we brought. Tough hike but definitely worth it even though I%26#39;d call the falls a trickle of what they are in the spring. Walked down the John Muir trail instead of back down the mist trail just to see something different. Got back to camp around 7pm and got our stuff for the showers. We showered in Camp curry. They felt great after a day of hot, very dirty hiking. The $5 per person was definitely worth it. Got back to camp and heated up dinner. Should have went to bed earlier but didn%26#39;t. The upper pines campground was packed. Very few of the 240 sites were empty on the days we were there. Also, they are on top of one another. Our neighbor%26#39;s food locker was about 5 ft from our tent. And the doors on those are loud. With so many people so close by sleeping is tough. Some people stay up late and talk and some get up early the next day to hike so it was noisy until about midnight and then started again at about 6am. We didn%26#39;t sleep well overall for the trip. The only reason that didn%26#39;t completely ruin our trip is that we were so tired from the hard hikes during the hot days that our bodies slept through things we wouldn%26#39;t normally have. Next day, saturday the 6th, woke up and cooked breakfast. A lot of yellowjackets showed up and were a pain. Drove to Glacier point, then sentinel dome and tafts point. Sentinel dome was great for the 360 degree view but the walk to taft point was better. Plus taft point has the fissures right before it and the scariest single place in the whole park. I couldn%26#39;t walk to the edge of the rail at taft point. I%26#39;m scared of heights so I just got near the edge. But it was a spectacular view. Was disappointed we didn%26#39;t see a bear the entire time in Yosemite but someone about 5 minutes ahead of us on the trail back to the parking lot from sentinel dome said a bear crossed the trail right in front of them. Drove to Mariposa grove from there to see the big trees. We were very tired by that time, mainly from the first day%26#39;s hike so we only walked a little and didn%26#39;t see all of the grove. Drove back to our campsite that night and then showered again in curry village and this time ate pizza for dinner at the dc in curry village. It was about 10pm and there was a huge line for pizza. Why is there a bar there? Right when we were wondering that we saw policement talking to a group of guys, one was passed out drunk in his own vomit and it seemed like they were all involved in a fight. Again, why is there a bar there? Went back to our campsite and went to sleep. The last day we woke up and cooked breakfast then stayed in the valley. We walked around the ahwahnee hotel and the yosemite lodge and checked prices there so maybe we could stay there next time. The ahwahnee rates(even their dinner menu) were very high. The yosemite lodge seems more practical. We drove around the valley a little then left around 1pm for the drive back home. Again, no problem on the drive. Got home around 5pm and immediately took good, long showers. Wanted to take a nap but didn%26#39;t. Some observations........very hot when we were there. I slept on top of my sleeping bag both nights with just shorts on. Tons of people there. I knew this would be the case but still was amazed by it. It probably made it worse that I was in the largest, most cramped campground...upper pines. Of course with large groups of people there will always be inconsiderate ones that stay up late drinking and making noise that bothers everyone. Lots of foreign tourists especially europeans. More than I%26#39;ve seen before. Doesn%26#39;t matter to me at all just an observation. Maybe the euro doing so good against the dollar is the reason. Good for them. I%26#39;d love it in the reverse case. Overall I had a great time. We could have done a few little things differently to make the trip better but I%26#39;d still rate it an A. I know I%26#39;m forgetting to put a lot of things in my report, if you have any questions about anything just ask. Thanks again to everyone.
Dan
My trip report 9/5-9/7I%26#39;m glad you had fun in Yosemite, it was fun reading about your trip. :)
My trip report 9/5-9/7Thanks for posting about your trip. We found many of the same things you did with regard to noise and crowds when we were there in July. Interestingly, the high country was completely different, the two nights we stayed in the tent cabins at Tuolomne Meadows Lodge were the most peaceful of our entire trip, still a lot of people, but everyone was very quiet and seemed to be a lot of hikers/backpackers who were there to experience the beauty of the park. It was our favorite part of the trip.
Glad you had a good trip. Too bad a few rude people can make things difficult like that, but glad that you were able to appreciate the beauty of Yosemite despite the noise and crowds. Try winter next time, its nice and quiet.
I%26#39;m finding it harder and harder to camp in a campground where people are quiet at night.(It%26#39;s impossible in upper pines). It doesn%26#39;t matter where. I can be in a campground of 100 spots and only have one other party in the campground and invariably they will be noisy, mostly with music from a car , or a generator. I%26#39;d really like to see campgrounds designate some loops as non generator loops. Coulter Bay in the Tetons does that. A generator is the most obnoxious and unnecessary annoyance around.
Campground hosts should do their job and walk the campgrounds after dinner time and ask people to turn their music down to the point it can%26#39;t be heard in the next campsite. If people want to party at night they should go camp out in the middle of the desert and then they can make all the noise they want. It%26#39;s getting to be the exception to find a quiet campground. I find myself almost every night I%26#39;m camping asking someone to turn their music down, or be quiet after 10pm. I always try to camp as far away from a motorhome as possible because invariably they%26#39;ll run their genrator 4 to 6 hours a day, which is absolutely not needed unless they are watching tv or running a microwave.(You call that camping?).
I make it a point if I%26#39;m kept awake at night by loud people to make sure I awaken them at 6am by ';accidently'; being noisy right near their campsite,(without disturbing others). Asking to borrow a can opener at 6am from people who were up til 2am usually works. Another interesting trick is to walk up to campers who have their music up loud and hand them a cd and ask them to play it. When they give you a dumb look just say ';If I have to listen to music I%26#39;d like to listen to something I like'; They usually take the hint then.
The last time we had noisy neighbors, they were too scary to visit personally when they were still partying at 2 am. But we informed the ranger first thing the next morning, and they were escorted out of the campground.
Many campgrounds have a ';generators allowed only in these hours'; policy and/or quiet hours. Walk-in or bicycling sites tend to be quieter. But National Parks are the busiest and often have inexperienced campers.
Camping or just staying in Yosemite Valley has its trials, but it is certainly lovely!
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