The BEST 4 days in Yosemite National Park!

The BEST 4 days in Yosemite National Park!

with almost 4 million visitors a year yosd is the sixth most visited national park in the US and it is easy to see why with towering Granite Peaks and sheer Cliffs impressive waterfalls Wildlife oh my God there’s a bear giant aoas scenic drives and stunning Lakes the park is considered by many to be the most beautiful in the country it’s just like a dream here magical it’s magical we first visited yosan back in 2017 and it was love at first sight we will never forget the feeling of seeing the Lush Yos Valley or onping half doome for the very first time and we are so excited to spend the next 4 days revisiting some of our favorite spots plus exploring a few new [Music] ones to kick off our time here in yosity we’re heading to Tunnel view for Sunrise this is one of the best views you can drive to in in the park and it’s the first view we ever got of the park many years ago so it’s only fitting that we start our time here in the same spot as last [Music] time sometimes when we revisit places they’re not as exciting the second time but this is just as exciting it is impossible to not smile or feel Joy when looking at this View [Music] located in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains Yos has been enjoyed by many groups of people for thousands of years starting with Native Americans like the Awan Ichi before the area was discovered by Europeans and gold miners it also began to gain the interest of people wanting to preserve it like gayen Clark and John M leading to it becoming a national park in 1890 and after Mir showed the park to Teddy Roosevelt in 1903 it prompted even further Federal Protection of yosity as well as inspired Roosevelt to create five additional national parks 18 national monuments and 150 national forests today yosity National Park encompasses 12200 square miles but without a doubt the most iconic area of the park is yosity Valley a valley carved by glaciers over many years and is where we’re heading [Music] first there are many striking features in yosity National Park but one of the most impressive is yosity Falls this towering waterfall is one of the tallest in all of North America at 2,425 FT and can be seen from many parts of the valley and to see part of it up close we’re going to hike the short lower Yos Falls Trail and since it’s paved Kona gets to come with [Music] [Music] us ah it’s so Misty now that we’ve seen the falls from below we’re going to hike up the mega steep Upper yosity Falls Trail which will take us all the way to the top however in order to film this video today we had to get a commercial filming permit from the park and one of the many rules is that we cannot film in Wilderness areas which unfortunately a handful of things that we want to do in the park are in including this hike so we won’t be able to bring you along on the hike but we’ll share our thoughts when we’re [Music] done that was a doozy of a hike I don’t think I’ve sweat that much in a really long time I was absolutely drenched basically from 5 minutes in the entire time time so gross it was a very challenging hike if you look at the all Trails map and you zoom in you just see all these tiny switchbacks just basically the entire way it’s kind of split up into a couple different sections you have this first incline and once you get to the end of that you get to oh my gosh point which we did say oh my gosh when we saw it and you have an amazing view of the waterfall kind of headon but higher up than the lower yosity Falls and then from there you have another big climb and once you get to the top of that that’s when you get to the top of upper yos Falls and from up there you actually don’t see the waterfall cuz you’re at the top of it so you can see the river and you can kind of see it going over but the view from up there is more about just the views of the valley and then if you really want to torture yourselves like apparently we like to you can continue on which was not the original plan but if you go about a mile each way extra you can get to yosity point and we had heard it was worth it so we went and it was worth it you have incredible views of half doome and just the mountains off in the distance so I’m really glad we did it but it made it a even more tiring experience than we thought it would be it was one of those type two funds where it’s like uh not that fun in the moment but once you get up there oh it feels so good just very very very rewarding yeah but our plan for the rest of the day is to explore a bit more of the valley but instead of on foot we’re going to ride our bikes which uh sounded like a better idea before we did this hike like oh that’d be so fun so I think it’s going to end up being just a really short and easy ride so the parking fills pretty early here at Yos so our tip is to one arrive here early and then two just find a parking spot and keep your car there all day and then to get around to either the shuttle or ride a bike they do have bike rentals here in the park if you don’t have a bike of your own and during the summer they have this program where you can rent a bike for free for shorter trips up to 2 [Music] [Music] hours it is unbelievably beautiful here I mean just look at this how is this even a real place one of my favorite things was when we were up on the hike you could look down into the valley and see these super green Lush Meadows and then you can see the river just gently flowing through it’s just like a dream here magical it’s magical [Music] [Music] oh that nice [Music] cold woo so they have a store here that’s basically a grocery store they have so many things in there and I went in there to get Snickers ice cream bars which is kind of like our unofficial treat after doing a big hike at a national park but didn’t have any Snickers ice cream bars but found something that’s almost as good or maybe better this jol oh okay and then I saw chips and salsa and that sounded good too so I got that also they must have a Snickers ice cream bar shortage in California they didn’t have them at the Sequoia National Park either the entire hike I just kept saying to myself Snickers ice cream bar Snickers ice cream bar so next time I see one I’m getting one even if I have not hiked recently oh look at that Berry swirl it looks very good oh it looks very good good one that was very that was a very good joke get in there m yeah yeah ooh that is really good but is it very good it’s very good the berry Jam swirl is so just fresh and M and the ice cream has a nice cheesy flavor to [Music] [Applause] it we’re now on our way out of the park back to our campsite but along the way there’s a couple iconic viewpoints we want to check out that’s one thing that’s great about yosity is while the hikes are epic there are tons of amazing views that do not require a lot of effort [Music] this Behemoth right behind me is the famous elcap baton a 3,000ft tall vertical rock face that is world famous with rock climbers if you haven’t seen the movie free solo it documents Alex honnold’s attempt to be the first to free solo climb this which means he had no harness no ropes he only used his hands and his fingers to get up this bad boy nothing nothing attaching him to the wall it is one of the wildest movies I’ve ever seen and even though I knew he survived I still had so much anxiety watching it but I do highly highly recommend it I can see two climbers up there this morning when it was dark we can see their lights because they Camp up there on the side of the wall they just camp and sleep on the side this massive Cliff face no you got to be some kind of crazy to do that no way [Music] yede national park has 13 different campgrounds which basically book up instantly so we decided to just Boondock instead there are a handful of free camping areas near the park and we’ve been staying at a spot just south of the park entrance which is pretty convenient although we will say you’re staying in yosity Valley itself you should expect to have a decent drive to get into yosity Valley even though we’re staying just minutes from the park entrance we still had a little over an hour drive each way today [Music] we woke up very very very bright and early this morning and drove about an hour onto Glacier Point Road to hike the very short ta Point Trail for [Music] Sunrise this is pretty wild if you look over this railing it is a massive drop thousands and thousands of feet woo it’s kind of scary to look down I’m having like a hard time just standing here man oh I don’t like it [Music] no ta point is a very popular Sunset spot but we have other Sunset plans tonight and unfortunately just didn’t have a free Sunset to come here but Sunrise is still so beautiful we’re getting to watch the valley wake up for the day and just lighten up from the darkness and we’ve had this beautiful pink sky and quite possibly the best part is that there is no one else here which feels like a completely rare experience in yos [Music] [Music] we just hiked the incredible Sentinel Dome trail from Taft point which we highly recommend and now we’re about to make it to Glacier Point which is one of the most epic spots in the entire fire park with a head-on view of half [Music] doome half doome Rises 4,737 ft above the valley floor and is famous for its shape with a sheer cliff on one side and three sides that are smooth and rounded plus it’s Infamous cables to climb to the top and it is a sight to behold [Music] since you can drive to Glacier Point it can get pretty busy but we still think it is totally worth checking out I mean just look at this crazy view however if you can we highly suggest hiking to it that way you can see more scenery along the way you can hike to it on the Four Mile Trail which we did last time we were here or from the Taff Point trail head and follow the Sentinel Dome Trail like we just did this morning which honestly had just as good a views of half doome with less people we plan to come back to Glacier Point for Sunset but in the meantime we’re going to head about an hour south to Mariposa Grove to see some giant Seas giant seas are the largest trees in the world by volume and we just visited seoa and King’s Canyon National Parks in our last video which is home to some of the largest of them all but the maraposa Grove here in Yos has over 500 mature giant aoas as well this is an area of the park that we have never been to before and our plan is to hike the grizzly giant Loop but one very important thing to know about visiting the Mariposa Grove is that you can can not park at the trail head you have to park at the Welcome Center and then either walk 2 miles one way Bike 2 miles one way or take the free shuttle to get the rest of the way and we are doing the free shuttle because we are so so so exhausted right now our legs are like give us a break please [Music] Mariposa Grove is home to Grizzly giant the most famous Giant seoa in the park it has a volume of 34,5 cubic feet making it the 26th largest tree in the world it’s roughly 2 million lbs in weight which is as heavy as 145 elephants on top of each other I just can’t get over how thick some of these branches are there is a branch up there that is thicker than most of the trees here in this Grove and I think this is purely just a coincidence but on the front of the tree at the bottom it kind of looks like a bear just clawed right through it oh my God there’s a bear Le any bears my heart stopped that’s my favorite joke when we get into places in Bear Country he does that all the time but my heart seriously stopped meating I like we actually do think we saw I think I saw a bear earlier today crossing the road but I caught literally the tail end of it as it was about to go up into a hill into the trees but it was kind of it it was black and it looked like I don’t know what else it could have been so I think it was a bear but by the time we slowed down and got by it we couldn’t see it anymore so we’re not counting it but I was starting to believe there were barely any bears in this park did I do a good acting job I still I still am struggling to breathe a little bit the whole drive over here I was planning on doing that and I was just hoping that I would like do a good acting job wow wow I actually have been planning to do it too but really yeah I thought about it a few [Music] times we all bear from the bus just barely I don’t think I got him on camera because it happened so fast and this bus is but it was a cinnamon black bear oh my gosh it was that was so cool [Music] after the excitement of our bear encounter we headed back up to Glacier Point and there’s a reason that we came to this spot twice in one day this view is easily one of our favorites in the entire park and getting to watch the sun illuminate the Striking Rock and surrounding mountains with golden Hues before turning to a pink Alin glow is quite possibly one of the most magical ways to end another beautiful day in this park [Music] [Music] one very important thing to know about visiting yoses that from April to October you need a reservation to enter the park mine is the hedgy area from 5:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on specific days depending on the month we are exploring the park on weekdays in early June and right now you only need a reservation on the weekend so we’re able to just come and go as we please but we still recommend coming very very early even if reservations are not required because this is a super busy Park [Music] this morning we’re back in the valley and our plan today is to hike the Mist Trail which was one of our favorite hikes from our last trip to [Music] Yos so the reason this is called the Mist Trail is because you get absolutely blasted with [Music] mist that is cold this is massively kneed after two sweaty days of hiking this is our [Music] shower oh my God we are in a cloud of mist oh it’s so much fun it just makes the trail even more of an adventure absolutely there is zero inch of me that is not completely soaked right now definitely bring a pack cover if you don’t want the stuff in your backpack to get wet and a lot of people had rain jackets on to kind of help with the cold but we just embraced it and it was amazing that’ll wake you up I am completely dripping my nose my chin I am just soaked love it it’s the first time in days we’re not just dripping from sweat we’re dripping from cold refreshing water now that they say that I can taste the sunscreen and the bug spray dripping down my my nose y this Trail is like a giant stair Master it is [Music] steep this is an insane amount of water it is just rising down this River and then plunging over the sides this is one of the best times to be here at y0 in the spring early summer when the snow melts all happening and the waterfalls are just exploding with water [Music] it’s crazy just 12 hours ago we were across the valley at Glacier Point watching Sunset and we could see these waterfalls and now we’re sitting on top of them [Music] there are a few places to eat in the park but we really haven’t heard that many good things about them plus we have our own kitchen so why wouldn’t we cook and you’re never going to guess never going to guess while we’re eating yeah oh you might have guessed it tacos oh oh no no no no no no no off off what your face face [Music] do you want to go for a hike so as you can probably imagine the last few days here in the park have not been very exciting for Kona dogs are only allowed in campgrounds on the road and then on some paved Trails here in the park so there’s really not much that they can do here we’ve been trying to spread out our hikes more than we normally would that way we have plenty of time during the day to hang out with her but before we go on a short Sunset hike tonight we’re going to take her on a walk along a pave road to Mirror Lake [Music] to end another amazing day here in Yos we’re doing a short hike up to artist point for sunset this hike starts right across from tunnel view which is where we started this video but we should be even higher up [Music] the view from up here is even better than tunnel view like Catherine mentioned you’re a few hundred feet higher up and you just have a clear unobstructed view right down home plate of the valley and I don’t know how we did it this is the second time that we’ve gotten lucky where there is no one else here to be honest over the last couple days the crowds have been a bit much here and we’re here like midweek and it’s still been crazy busy so it’s nice to be here and some [Music] [Music] Solitude it turns out we are not alone up here there are lots of mosquitoes oh [Music] after spending a few days in Yus Valley we’re spending our final day in the park along tyoga Road this highway was first completed in 1915 and spans from crane flat all the way to leev Vining in the Eastern Sierra through yoses High Country it reaches an elevation of 9,945 Ft making it the highest highway pass in California and because of this it is only open in the summer with its opening date differing year to year and we lucked out that it just opened up today for vehicles so we’re hitting the road and starting at Olstead [Music] point this Viewpoint has amazing views of the Yos Valley including half doome and a bunch of the other domes all around here but from a completely different Vantage Point than we’ve had so far and it’s named after Frederick Law omstead who is best known for Designing New York City’s Central Park but he also played an important role at yosee as well by helping yane Valley and Mariposa Grove become public land in the 1860s before their National Park status [Music] Yus is home to 2,000 Lakes but the majority of them are pretty difficult to get to Tanaya lake is not only one of the easiest to access but it is also the largest front country Lake in the park it’s absolutely gorgeous with crystal clear waters surrounded by gray Granite domes and deep green trees and to experience it we’re taking out the kayak [Music] and we’re [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] in we are feeling so grateful to be out here we got so lucky with the road opening today because this was our one day to be out here on our filming permit and we got an absolutely perfect day the temperature is spot on there’s a light Breeze and it is just so easy to paddle this thing it’s just so relaxing right now this area of the park is definitely a bit underrated it gets a good amount of traffic but it’s nowhere near the madness of yosity Valley and there’s just so much to see and do out here there’s so many incredible hikes other Lakes you can hike to overlooks we highly recommend spending at least a full day out here [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] last time we were here we only went as far as Taya lake so we’re going to continue down the road a bit further to see some all new scenery to us [Music] we are walking through talami Meadows and this may be one of my new favorite areas of the park it is just straight out of a postcard out here it is so Lush here and there’s this beautiful stream running through with all these Creeks running to it and I saw tons of fish in there so you know we’re coming back the only downside is that this area is completely infested with mosquito so it’s going to have to be a very very quick stop we are lathered in bug spray and it’s not it’s not enough nothing is [Music] helping just got to say it again and I am so happy they opened the road today it is freaking gorgeous out [Music] here Yos is one of our favorite national parks in the US and we are so happy we were able to come back and explore more there’s a ton more we were wanting to share in this video but as we mentioned we couldn’t film everything that we did so to see everything we got up to in yosity plus all of our tips for the park head over to our website we have a handful of guides to hopefully help you plan your own trip but we have some very special visitors my parents arriving from Texas in a couple hours and we’re going to spend the next couple days showing them the park for the first time and then we are heading back to the Eastern Sierra to do some epic hikes backpacking and check out a bunch of cool spots it is what we have been most excited for this entire summer in California and we cannot wait [Music]

💻 To learn more about Yosemite National Park and get ALL of our tips + top things to do, check out our website: https://adventuresofaplusk.com/yosemite/

We first visited Yosemite National Park in 2017 and it was love at first sight! And almost 7 years later, we’re back to revisit some of our favorite spots, plus explore some new ones. Over 4 days we checked out some of the park’s best waterfalls, epic views and hikes, Giant Sequoias, peaceful kayaking, and so much more!

📅 This video was filmed in early June 2024

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📍Locations in this video
Tunnel View: https://maps.app.goo.gl/rCJmTjXaHqEcwpQ77
Lower Yosemite Falls: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/lower-yosemite-falls-trail
Upper Yosemite Falls + Yosemite Point: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/yosemite-point
Swinging Bridge: https://maps.app.goo.gl/sFvsqWhTLwhEFKbe7
Village Store: https://maps.app.goo.gl/KNKYn26isDqs7rVx8
El Capitan Meadow: https://maps.app.goo.gl/hGGQHC5zzLscvGvG8
Yosemite Valley View: https://maps.app.goo.gl/TWQHbnN3P7kLgH4Q7
FREE camping outside of Yosemite: https://maps.app.goo.gl/SsPHo46cLW6FBCMv9
Taft Point, Sentinel Dome, & Glacier Point Loop: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/sentinel-dome-and-taft-point-loop
Grizzly Giant Trail: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/grizzly-giant-loop-trail
Glacier Point: https://maps.app.goo.gl/58AwQCi1a6Q7Qaga8
Mist Trail: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/vernal-and-nevada-falls-via-the-mist-trail
Artist Point: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/artist-point-trail
Olmsted Point: https://maps.app.goo.gl/YZKs5miy8BGRZ8FA7
Tenaya Lake: https://maps.app.goo.gl/yN87sPc5XsgezUUn8
Tuolumne Meadows: https://maps.app.goo.gl/gS7HLxKn9PmWrefc8

⌚Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
00:50 Tunnel View
01:48 History of Yosemite National Park
02:38 Lower Yosemite Falls
03:43 Upper Yosemite Falls + Yosemite Point
06:05 Biking around Yosemite Valley
09:28 El Capitan
10:44 FREE camping near Yosemite
11:28 Sunrise at Taft Point
13:20 Sentinel Dome Trail to Glacier Point
14:35 Mariposa Grove
16:05 We saw a BEAR!
17:28 Glacier Point sunset
18:27 You may need a RESERVATION to visit Yosemite
18:56 Mist Trail
23:03 Dogs in Yosemite National Park
23:42 Sunset at Artist Point
25:04 Tioga Road
25:43 Olmsted Point
26:31 Kayaking at Tenaya Lake
28:54 Tuolumne Meadows
30:18 What’s next?!
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👋🏼 About us
Hi y’all! We’re Adam, Kathryn, and Kona, an adventurous married couple (+ pup!) living on the road in our self-converted sprinter van! You can often find us driving all around the US and Canada, scoping out the best coffee shops, eating tacos and ice cream (we’re a 5+ taco and 2+ scoop household), and enjoying nature.

We help travelers spend less time (and stress!) planning their trip and more time enjoying it! Our detailed travel guides, YouTube videos, and travel resources share the must-visit local eats, popular and off the beaten path sights, and tons of tips to make planning your next adventure a whole lot easier.

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