Yosemite National Park

Upon arriving in Houston in February, we have been at a standstill due to my pending medical treatment and now, the Covid-19 virus. But, we set out on our trip approximately three months prior to my starting this blog. With that said, I will do some backtracking and share about our earlier adventures. We departed on June 23 from Las Vegas. Our first stop was to one of the most popular national parks in the country: Yosemite, California.

We opted to stay at a KOA on the east side of Northern California. Our plans were also to visit Virginia City, NV, so this campground was centrally located. This decision lead to some inconveniences we were not expecting. As this was our first stop, we were a little concerned that the issues we started experiencing would foresee our trip.

First, due to a late snow thaw, the park had problems with the restroom facilities on the east side of the park so the gate was only open for entry from 10-11 a.m. and 3-4 p.m. Upon entry from the east gate, it is approximately one hour drive to Yosemite Valley and we were not permitted to stop along the route. Next, we had decided we didn’t want to leave as early as 4 p.m. and would depart a west gate which is a long way around. It took us six hours to get back to the RV park!

Our second day visiting Yosemite was on a weekend. We already were aware of the drive to the east gate and how long it would take to get to the Valley. But unlike two days prior, we could not find a place to park anywhere. The plan was to go for a hike, but it was not looking very good for us at this point. We spent two hours just driving around the park looking for a place to park. Eventually, a spot opened up but it was not in a very scenic location nor was it a very challenging walk. This day, however, we departed the east gate by 4 p.m. to avoid the long drive. My advice, stay on the west side of Yosemite!