Yosemite Blog

Kim writes in:

“My boyfriend and I are planning a trip up North to Yosemite in August. We would like to stop in mid-week (Tue/Wed) and stay a couple of nights til Thur. As you probably know, reservations by now are impossible to obtain. It’s probably a blessing, for we’d rather avoid the high-traffic, crowded, locations. Neither of us are familiar with the area, but I’ve done some research of campsites online. It’s clear to us we will be looking for a first come, first served site, but not sure what the odds of finding a place to stay will be. From what I’ve researched, I’ve found BridalVeil and Tuolume Meadows as good options. We’d like a tent site with plenty of trees and within a decent distance to things within Yosemite. Although, we don’t mind driving a bit to some great hike/falls locations.

If we make the long drive up what do you think our odds are of finding a site available at either, BridalVeil or Tuolume Meadows? Of the two, which would you recommend? If neither, any other suggestions?”

I think a lot of people would stand behind me when I say Tuolumne Meadows is by far not only your best bet to get a camp site but also a great place to be in August.

I like Tuolumne Meadows because it’s 1) much less crowded than the Valley 2) excessively beautiful 3) a lot cooler than the lower elevations in the middle of summer and 4) close to a lot of cool places to go and photograph.

Close to Tuolumne Meadows you’ve got Tioga Pass and all the lakes, Mono Lake just down the hill, Tenaya Lake, Olmsted Point, Bodie (down the hill and up 395 - yes, it’s a real ghost town), Cathedral Lakes, Mount Dana and Tuolumne Meadows itself. All are EXCELLENT day hikes/trips that put you in some of the most scenic parts of Yosemite. I’m personally a big fan of Olmsted at sunset in the summer. It’s a great place to catch the last rays of the sun on the face of Half Dome.

In the summer the rangers have a nightly campfire story/sing along at Tuolumne Meadows which is very cool and quite fun for everyone. The river is very close to camp so if either of you fish, or just want to take a quick dip it’s not too far.

Don’t worry about missing the waterfalls in the Valley in August, they’re usually long since dried up by August. So, stay in Tuolumne Meadows, enjoy the Yosemite high country and have a great time.

Today’s Photo of the Day is actually another one of my photos that I took last week. This one is a nice shot of Upper Yosemite Fall. There was a little bit of upper atmosphere clouds early in the morning so it made a nice even light on the fall that really brought out the color of the surrounding granite.

Photo by Loyd Schutte

The Dogwoods are probably one of my favorite things about Yosemite and something I don’t like to miss. Here’s a photo taken just the other day for all of you that can’t make it out to see the beautiful display they’re putting on right now. For those of you that can, hurry. A few of the trees we came across were already starting to dry out.

Photo by Loyd Schutte.

Rick writes in:

“Going up for my second time and staying at house keeping for the first…. Is fishing in the merced allowed? are there fish? Just curious, friend wants to take gear and I dont want to lug it around for naught.”

Actually fishing in the Merced is allowed and you’d think, for the amount of people visiting the park, that there’d be more fishing pressure in the valley but that seems to hold true for mostly the higher elevations.

The Merced in Yosemite opened the last saturday in April but a current California Sport Fishing License is required. No special tags, just the regular CA license.

Runoff is really high right now so now isn’t the best time to fish but in a month or so it should have slowed down a bit. The water is clear, and very cold.

You can read all the rules and regulations by visiting the California Department of Fish and Game website or by downloading the PDF. Just scroll down to the name of the water you want to fish in.

Any fishing questions you have try giving Bob Nakagawa a call at Sierra Anglers Fly Shop in Modesto. He can be reached at (209) 572-2212.

I almost wrote about this a couple days ago but decided the dogwoods were still not really in nice bloom. Yesterday, though, it seemed explosive after Tuesday’s warm weather. I ran the Mirror Lake Loop this morning and the dogwoods are starting to come out pretty much everywhere (they’ve been slowly showing out there for about a week). Another couple of days of warm weather and I imagine they’ll really be near peak and that should last a few weeks. It will still be a while until they turn up in the Yosemite West area.

By the way, the white “petals” you see on dogwoods are really petaloid bracts and the actual flowers are the tiny little flowers within the white blossoms, which start out green and then lose their color. Dogwood petals are in fact tiny. And of course, as our friend Doug says, the definitive way to identify a dogwood is by its bark.