A Weekend in Yosemite National Park

Since moving to Reno last year, Dan and I have been wanting to make a trip out to Yosemite National Park. Although it is only a 3-3.5 hour drive, it is often difficult to find a date that works. Since it is such a sought-after national park, reservations are required during peak season. We purchased tickets over the summer for the first weekend in October. We were so excited when the weekend finally arrived!

We left around 8am on Saturday, October 5th. Once we got closer to the park, we stopped at a gas station and I was bewildered by the crazy Californian gas prices!

Here's a picture we took while driving into the park. We were so excited! It cost $5 to get the ticket in advance and then $30 at the entrance. Once we got in, we drove to the location of our first hike we planned- Cathedral Lakes. This is a 9.5 mile hike that reaches the destination of Cathedral Lakes. The hike was gorgeous! There were parts of it through the forest, views of the incredible rock formations, and of course the gorgeous, Cathedral Lakes. There was a lot of elevation gain particularly in the first half of the hike but it was the perfect hike to do on our first day. We finished in about 4 hours.

After the hike, we had a 1.5 drive to our campsite. One thing about Yosemite is that the campgrounds are always reserved very far in advance. Although I was able to get entrance tickets a few months in advance, none of the campgrounds were available. We ended up camping outside of the park at Lost Claim Campground in the Stanislaus National Forest, only 15 miles from one of the entrances of Yosemite. We set up camp, Dan made a fire, we made and ate dinner, and called it a night.

The next morning, we drove into the park once again for our full day! We tried getting permits for the infamous Half-Dome hike but did not win the lottery. However, we had another hike planned for the day- the Yosemite Falls Trail. The Yosemite Falls Trail is about 7.2 miles with over 2,700 feet of elevation gain.

This was one of the hardest trails I have ever hiked before. It took us several hours to complete but we did it! The views were gorgeous. This hike took place in the valley so as we went up, we were able to see more and more of the valley. This hike kicked my ass. I had to take some breaks as we made our way up but the top was beautiful and worth the journey. We did not see much water from the waterfall because it has been drier. If you want to see more of a waterfall, I would recommend going in the Spring once the snow melts.

After the hike, we drove over to watch the sunset at El Capitan. It was stunning! There were lots of people there doing the same.

This is a picture from the El Capitan meadow.

Once we drove back to camp, we made another fire, cooked some dinner, and enjoyed our final night in the wilderness.

We woke up around 8am on Monday, October 7th and began to pack up. Although this was the start of my fall break and I did not have work, I had grad school and Dan had work and grad school as well. Overall, we had an amazing trip to Yosemite and will definitely be back there. We are hoping to enter some of their lotteries in 2025 and hopefully be successful! Yosemite is one of the most grand and beautiful places I've ever been, I highly recommend visiting there!

We ended up having to get our brakes replaced in Sonora, California so we spent a few hours there on the way home. We didn't plan for this but at least we got home safely later in the day!