Winter Activities in the Yosemite Valley

Snow dusting on Yosemite Falls. Photo by C.G.

The Yosemite National Park may not be high on the family fun radar for winter but it has way more to offer than a trip to the visitor center and drinks at the Ahwanee - however much we love them. It's an ironic contradiction that when the park dons its snow white cloak, snow enthusiasts flock to Tahoe and leave the Yosemite valley alone. The lowest visitor numbers are recorded in January and February each year. I say - their loss, your gain! After snow storms dust the Yosemite Valley with a fresh layer of white powder, the valley truly resembles the winter wonderland photographed by Ansel Adams. It's classic, it's picturesque, and it features the most jaw-dropping background for an ice skating afternoon al fresco. Here are activities to enjoy the Yosemite Valley with your family.

Sledding fun. Photo by C.G.

Sledding in the Meadows
Even a few inches of snow are enough to get the loudest giggles out of any child. Low tech and carbon-friendly, sledding is one of the first snow activities our girls enjoyed in the meadows. Now, the valley doesn't feature any major slopes to go downhill but you'll find a few bumps to justify a short thrill - and miles of flat terrain to pull your little ones as a good cardio exercise.

Details
On that trip, we were staying staying at the Yosemite Lodge and just needed to step outside and walk less than a half mile to find fun sledding spots by the river. However there is a free sledding site at Big Oak Flat Road on Hwy. 120 all winter.

Tubing is great for all ages. Photo by Frog Mom

Tubing at Badger Pass
If you're looking for an exciting sliding adventure, try the Badger Pass Ski Area where a tubing area is entirely dedicated to younger kids. Rent a tube for a couple hours, hop on board and slide away!

Since there is no minimum age for tubing, you can pretty much schlep your little ones as soon as they are snow-ready - meaning that they will keep all their winter gear on with a smile.

Details
Cost: $15/person, 2 hour sessions at 11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m, through April. (209) 372-8444. htpp://yosemitepark.com. For current Northern California snow tubing conditions and information, check the Daily Snow Report for Badger Pass.

Snowmen and Snow Angels
Talk about "leave no trace behind" - have I got the ideal activity! Building snowmen takes a little time but kids can't get enough provided you give them a hand. If you want them to be perfect, don't forget to pick up sticks for the arms and rocks for the eyes. As much as carrots are fun for noses, I'm afraid they would not be allowed in a national park. It might be considered feeding the wildlife! Nobody wants a ranger warning for a snowman.

As for snow angels, children are really the best at that sport. Who else would take such pleasure out of lying in the snow and waving arms and legs around? Any area works for both activities but the best time is the warmest afternoon after a fresh snowfall.

Yosemite ice skating rink. Photo by Yosemite National Park

Ice-Skating at Curry Village
I have this love/hate relationship with Curry Village because it is the biggest resort of the valley but I'll grant them that: they know how to entertain their guests.

Since the 1930s, Curry Village has managed an ice skating rink right under Half Dome and Glacier Point and what a lovely tradition that is. The only time we tried to go there it was closed because of warm temps so I suggest you call ahead and check.

Details

Badger Pass ski area. Photo by Yosemite National Park

From mid-November until early March, the Curry Village Ice Rink is open daily for several 2.5-hour skating sessions, conditions permitting. Call (209) 372-8319 for more information.

Skiing at Badger Pass
Friendly, small, no lines - Badger Pass is Yosemite National Park's ski resort and at 7,200 feet of elevation, it gets the same snow conditions as Bear Valley. Don't expect double black diamond runs but it's a great family experience. Sign up the kids at the ski school and hit the slopes! The added plus? Since you'll most likely be staying in the valley - unless you snow camp - you can simply take the shuttle bus from the valley to Badger Pass and leave your car behind. No parking hassle = happy skiers.

Details
You can find all about the downhill ski conditions here and all about the cross country ski here. The ski school program for 4 to 6 year olds is called the Badger Pup Program.

Hike to the Yosemite Falls
If this sounds like "been there, done that in the spring", reconsider with a fresh coating of snow. When I took my parents to the Yosemite Park in December, we were conveniently staying at the Yosemite Lodge at the Falls and were right on the short trail to the falls.

Walking under the majestic trees and watching snow dust the trees and reveal their bare skeleton in fluffy white was magical.

Snowshoe on the trails
Whether you join a full moon snowshoe walk or a nature snowshoewalk at Crane Flat, guided snowshoe walks are a fun way to discover the park and learn about the winter world.

Details
You can rent snowshoes at the Cross-Country Center as long as the Badger Pass resort is open and until march 9, 2012 at the Curry Village ice rink.

Crazy Winter Deals
Staying in the Yosemite Valley in the winter allows you to take advantage of some great winter deals but two particularly crazy deals stand out. As I said, it's the quietest months of the year and room prices drop significantly. For the adventurous, here goes:

• Temp-RATE-ture offer at Curry Village: it's crazy cheap but there's a reason. You stay in an unheated tent cabin! Let me repeat the interesting part: unheated. Bring your best long johns and sleeping bags folks, you're going to need them. The rate for an unheated tent cabin is based on the previous night’s low, in degrees Fahrenheit each night, with a maximum cost of $39 plus taxes and stuff. Check the monthly average temps and do your math - you could paid to stay in the Yosemite Valley! But then again, you could catch the century's biggest cold. Offer good until march 17, 2012. Blackout dates apply, including President's Day week.
• All You Can Heat Offer: for the squeamish amongst us. Same offer as above except you stay in a heated tent cabin. That's $20 extra for a chance not to get a nasty winter disease. Don't smile too fast though. I hear you'll still need your sleeping bag.

What else do you like to do in the winter in the Yosemite Valley?

Autumn Trails in the Yosemite Valley



Yosemite Falls seen from the Merced River trails



Catching the tail end of the fall in the Yosemite Valley is a wild weather roll of the dice. You can enjoy California's warm indian summer and winter's rains in a couple days, just before snow storms pound the Sierras. That's what we got and exactly why I love that time of the year - it's so unpredictable! When I planned this trip back in September for my family (husband, kids 5 and 7) and my mother, I wasn't sure whether the valley would be snowed in or not. In terms of lodging, that could change a lot of things for everybody's comfort. I came up with a practical compromise: my husband and I would stay at the Upper Pines campground and my mother and my girls would stay at the Ahwahnee Hotel. Guess who got the best of the valley?



Morning reflection of trees in the Merced River



We left the Bay Area at 2pm and arrived at the entrance of the valley at twillight on Friday. As we drove between thick stands of alders, bigleaf maples and black oaks, darkness engulfed the road and our hopes of pitching our tent in daylight too. Pitching in the dark is not fun. You don't see the tiny rock that will poke through the sleeping mat between your shoulder blades at 3am, you don't know if you're setting up on level terrain and won't slide at night, and you want to make sure you're far enough from the neighbors but still on your site. As it turned out, our campsite was so crappy and narrow anyway that we had just enough space for the tent (#106 for the record). Fifteen minutes later, the tent was up and we dropped off the rest of the family at their "rustic" five-star cottage. We enjoyed the cozy walk-in fireplaces of the beautiful Ahwanee Hotel before returning to mother nature at the campground.

Hey, we had new neighbors! Huh, a frat party of sorts. So much for quiet hours. The next morning, we knew everything about the frat party's wild nights, their boring day jobs and dancing skills. We felt enlightened in their ways and made it a duty to enlighten them in ours. See, I'm an early bird. We opened and shut the doors of the bear box as much and as loudly as was needed to recover our morning tea and toiletries. There, no sleeping in kiddos! Small revenge but sweet nonetheless.



Morning fog on the meadows east of Yosemite Village



We drove over to the Ahwahnee and caught the tranquil reflection of the trees on the Merced River. It was as perfect as a Vermeer painting and we jumped out of the car to capture the image before a jumping trout created ripples. Nearer the Yosemite Village, a fuzzy fog fleeted above the Indian Canyon Creek meadows while a shy sun and clear skies announced a glorious morning. The stars were well aligned for a great day out.

In terms of activities, we were limited by my mother's recent hip surgery. Still recovering, she couldn't walk more a mile, maybe 1.5 mile, over flat terrain. That ruled out any upwards rocky trails or steps but opened up vast scenic possibilities. We parked at the Yosemite Lodge at the Falls and rented bicycles there - even for my mother but that was short-lived since she hadn't ridden in 30 years. She cursed, I insisted; she insisted, I returned her bike.



Biking in the Yosemite Valley



After a quick look at the trail map, we opted for the easiest trail  across the lodge, along the river on a paved path towards the swinging bridge. It is my favorite discovery trail as you follow a tree-lined winding path until views open up on Leidig Meadow, and keep on to the Swinging Bridge where a little sandy cove offers a perfect splash spot for kids (and ducks).



Autumn foliage on maple trees 



The fall colors were amazing. Every step was as potential photo op for non-believers in the gospel of autumn foliage in California. Seriously, why do people gloat about the East coast without checking their Sierra backyards? If you want to know where to find fall colors in California, check out a website called Fall Color in California. You will find visitor reports of fall colors with exact locations, dates and photos. I read there a report about a magnificent bigleaf maple tree by the chapel in the Yosemite Valley so this was our destination today. 

When we arrived at the meadows, we were greeted by a nice line-up of rear-ends photographing the valley with more pro equipment than I've seen since Lady Di got married. OK, barely. If anything, this confirmed that it was definitely a good weekend to be around. We admired the view and found a comfortable stump for my mother to sit on while the girls rushed to the river to build sand castles. Once I even found an arrowhead along the edge.



Yellow leaves raining on Merced River by Swinging Bridge

 Imperceptibly, outside temps had dropped and skies darkened. Vivid gusts of wind shook the trees and much to our delight, they shook the trees until tempests of yellow leaves literally rained on the river in slow motion. Light and unaware of the weather change, the leaves blew with the pre-rain puffs and blanketed the shores of the river in golden hues of yellow. It was absolutely gorgeous and we couldn't get enough of it.



Yosemite Chapel seen from Upper Yosemite Falls trail



However it was clear that rain would be upon us fairly soon so while my mother rested by the bridge, our little family hopped on bikes to go find the Yosemite chapel. With its tall frame, wooden beams and shingle roof, the oldest structure of the valley could be a distant cousin of Scandinavian stave churches. Quaint and surrounded by tall granite walls, it is the site of many wedding ceremonies. 

Yes the bigleaf maple tree was there but we had seen more impressive ones by the Yosemite Falls so we turned around and rode back to the Yosemite Lodge. By then it was about 2pm and our girls were in dire neeed of quiet time. My left them with my mother to rest in their bedroom and took off with my husband. I wanted to see the valley from above to admire the colors of the fall and the only trail I kew for that was Upper Yosemite Falls trail.



Columbia Rock, Upper Yosemite Falls trail



This iconic Yosemite Valley hiking trail is also one of the oldest (it was built from 1873 to 1877) trails and rises 2,700 feet over 3.6 miles. With our late start, we knew that we wouldn't get to the top if we wanted to make it back down before dark. However we aimed for half of the trail, figuring we'd be way above the treeline with nice views of the valley. Our expectations were not disappointed.

In Tom Stienstra's words, this hike is a demanding climb. You bet! Both on the way up and down, we passed people holding their crooked backs or panting against rocks. Granted, some were poorly outfitted with flips-flops but most had good running shoes - which still doesn't beat real hiking boots. The trail is comparable to a never-ending staircase with flat respites on loose gravel.



Top of Yosemite Falls from the trail



During the first 1.2 miles, it's switchback after switchback until you surface on a hard slab at Columbia Rock. By the railing above the vertiginous drop (you're 1,200 vertical feet above the valley), it's a good idea to take a picture just to show you were there. We obliged, followed a flat stretch  and kept on until the trail dipped to a portion with views on the face of Upper Yosemite Falls. There are no words to describe this monstrous beauty except that you feel ridiculously small and vulnerable.



Rainbow on Half Dome



From the trail, we could follow the setting sun's shadows stretching farther in the valley and dark heavy clouds progressing in our direction. We still had an hour of daylight so turned around but of course, what we thought would happen happened. It started raining. Not hard, mind you, but a healthy soak nonetheless and it felt incredibly refreshing. Clever me, I was in short-sleeves and had left all other layers in the car. Since we had almost ran up the trail, I was still warm enough that I didn't get cold at all.

My husband was giddy with excitement for a different reason. He changed the lens on his camera and kept peeking left to catch a rainbow if any should appear. At a turn of the trail, the most beautiful surprise of the day awaited us: a giant rainbow sliced Half Dome in the middle, diving straight down to the valley's trails. We could see exactly where the pot of gold was burried. Hallelujah! 

The Great Sierra Mine: A Ghost Town in Yosemite's High Country

In 1859, George W. "Doc" Chase, a wayward dentist from Mariposa, arrived from the diggins in the Eastern Sierras, looking for a rich vein of silver. Making his way at high altitude, he followed a rugged trail along the high ridges of the Yosemite's high country, admired the icy silver waters of Ellery Lake, and scrambled his way up a crest near the western end of Tioga Lake.

There, he pulled his pick and shovel from his rucksack and worked at it, finding a promising lode. The next year he returned, dug some more and scratched a message in a tin can with the finest results of his excavations. He left it under a rock. That was as much as Chase did to stake his claim to The Sheepherder. His life went on and the can got all rusty.

For more than a decade, the tin can lay at the foot of Gaylor Peak where it had been placed and forgotten. In 1874, a young sheepherder going by the name of William Brusky stumbled about Chase's flattened can, his pick and his shovel. He unearthed a promising vein of silver. Word got around.

The Tioga Pass mining fever was born and that's how Tioga Pass, the eastern entrance to the Yosemite National Park, got its name from a mine. The Tioga Mine was a full-flown mining town, complete with an assay office, blacksmith shop, storehouse, boarding houses, workshops and cabins.

Though we did not push to the Tioga Mine, last week we took a trip back in time by hiking up to Gaylor Lakes from Tioga Pass and going to the remains of the Great Sierra Mine.

The trail starts right at the Tioga Pass at the elevation of 9,800', next to the rangers' kiosk. No sooner had we parked at the tiny lot that we realized our backpack full of food for the day was back at the Tuolumne Meadows campground! I drove fast and came back with our lunch and snacks, glad that a bear hadn't found it before me. The hike could start.

Having walked this path five years ago, we knew that the hardest part would be to get our girls over the hill. Gaylor Lakes trail starts with a steep 600' elevation gain over half a mile and from the ridge, is a breeze down to the lower lake where we planned to have lunch.

Lower Gaylor Lake is a stunning sierra lake, stretching along the plateau like a never-ending pool whose southern edge drops in the valley with  alpine peaks in the distance. It is simply gorgeous and the clear waters are a call to swim. However our goal was much higher that day so I waited. 

Refueled, we followed the lake's edges to walk up the feeder creek to its snowmelt source, Upper Gaylor Lake. Mosquitoes were few and far between at the windy top but very hungry closer to the bottom so we hastened our pace to reach the second lake.

Two families were picknicking at the lake - an unthinkable crowd by High Sierras standards - so rather than stopping for a break we just went on. We could already see the stone cabin that marks the ridge and the first of a few scattered buildings of the great Sierra Mine.

Finally we reached the top just below 11,000' and enjoyed the views before going "mine-hunting." The walls of the ridge cabin still stand pretty tall, showing the fireplace without any doubt but the wood and stone roof has collapsed, leaving a hazardous timber chaos inside the walls.

Our girls had fun waving at us from the window opening that still has a wooden frame but the novelty quickly wore off and we went away to explore the mountainsides.

Interestingly the trail we followed is called at Gaylor Lakes Trail but it goes all the way up to the mine at the place that seems to be called Tioga Hill. After the mine, no more trail. It's easy to get lost in this highly mineral world where to the non-geologist, rocks mostly look like rocks.

Trees have long disappeared and grasses are the only plants that grow at this altitude. Wildflowers enjoy their four months without snow at their fullest, coloring the rocky soils with vibrant patches of yellows, blues and pinks.

In the middle of all this, we saw a plump shape scamper away from a rock pile nearby. Yellow-bellied marmot! I grabbed my camera and chased the rambunctious rodent that kept escaping my best efforts. Finally I came to a boulder and looked down. The marmot was right below me, half brewing its next move. I was glad when I was able to shoot this close-up portrait.

Coming back to my family, I saw my husband pull back my girls by their pants. They found a mine shaft and were obviously standing too close to the edge. All vertical, these mine shafts were probably entered with a rope system and blown by dynamite.

They are now boarded up but the holes remain, transforming this ridge in a mining Swiss cheese. In the hour we stayed up there I counted four different shafts and we didn't go very far.

As we were about to turn around, my husband remembered we hiked to a third lake five years ago. Our eldest protested but she didn't have much choice so we moved on, now fraying our way on rocky slopes as we went.

Looking at the USGS map for the Tioga Pass Quadrant, I learned the name of that third lake or rather, I learned the name of the two peaks that tower above the snow lakes that melt in the summer. Prospects is marked twice on my map, referring once again to the mining history of the area.

At that point the girls had earned their ice cream back at the Tuolumne meadows store and I wanted to swim so we turned around and walked back. I stripped down to my swimsuit at the base of Upper Gaylor Lake and crossed it with a brisk breast stroke. It's an easy quarter miler whose main challenge lies as the cold water (high 40s?) and the thin air that you get at 10,600'. Next time I won't forget my swimming goggles - I'm not used to covering more than a few yards in breast stroke anymore.

This swimming episode concluded a beautiful hike and we hung out by the edge of the lake, now crowded only by us, until the ice cream call was unberable.

Now, if you want to discover more ghost towns in Northern California, check out Ghost Town Explorers, a well-documented website with photos of remote and not-so-remote ghost towns and a special Eastern Sierras page. And to learn more about the history of Yosemite's high country, check out Gene Rose's book "Yosemite's Tioga Country", a must-have for Yosemite lovers. I pulled out my historical information from that book, recommended by a ranger on our last visit.

Details of the hike: 4.5-5 miles. Elev. gain: 1,200'. Map: see below.

Saddlebag Lake: Twenty Lakes Basin Hike

Right outside of the Yosemite National Park's Tioga Pass entrance is one of my favorite Eastern Sierra hikes. With easy access off highway 120 going down towards Mono Lake, Saddlebag Lake offers a scenic 5.5-mile loop in the Twenty Lakes Basin featuring vibrant wildflowers, high altitude lakes and a mineral world of stern granite beauty. Saddlebag Lake is also the entrance way to the Hoover Wilderness in the Inyo National Forest, an incredibly rugged area of alpine landscapes featuring deep canyons and peaks reaching for the sky.

I first hiked at the loop at Saddlebag Lake in 2002 and remembered a smooth succession of pristine lakes, some sky blue some silver grey, with anglers catching trouts in half of them. That was before kids and my husband and I added 3 miles to the hike by walking along the edges of Saddlebag Lake to the trailhead, a rather boring narrow trail. Last weekend I was camping with my father and my kids at Tuolumne Meadows, a proximity too tempting to resist. I decided to hike at Saddlebag Lake again but in the spirit of survival of the youngest (5) and the wisest (70), we took the water taxi.

The water taxi runs every half hour so we didn't have to wait too long after we got our tickets at the store but since we got a late start, it was already 12.45pm when we got to the other side.

Our return tickets indicated 3.45pm which in theory was OK for 5 miles with 500 feet elevation gain except... snow-covered trails, tricky creek/rock crossings and a temporary off-routing through Lundy Canyon converted the last two miles into a rabbit race.

Starting off at the trailhead (altitude 10,000 feet) was straightforward. We saw two people walking with fishing poles and simply followed them. No, in fact I remembered doing the loop clockwise and the trail follows the north-western tip of Saddlebag Lake so we followed the people anyway. At the wooden sign, you officially enter the Hoover Wilderness - gotta love these retro wooden signs.

Visual rewards came almost right away much to my dad's satisfaction. The first lake appeared on our left 10 minutes into our hike. Greenstone Lake, a lake whose blue waters reflected cloudless skies, filled the bottom of a glacial circus towered by North Peak at 12,000 feet. A+ for the "wow" factor.

A hill above Greenstone Lake was filled with another smaller lake and the juxtaposition of the two lakes with Saddlebag made the photo at the top of this posting.  Three lakes on three levels, that's heaven for me. A trickle of a brook turned the trailside into an inviting bird bath and my girls changed into swimsuits to refresh their feet. Why did mosquitoes materialize out of nowhere? Nasty little blood suckers. Suffice to say, we didn't stay long.

Ahead of us were the long and lean Wasco Lake (angler's hangout) and bigger Steelhead Lake into which a waterfall gushed, fed by snowmelt coming from glaciers above. We saw people sitting on the shores of the lake. They were just enjoying the scenery. Blinding white under the sky, big patches of compacted snow looking like wet sugar appeared far from from the trail; then next to the trail (snowball fights); then on the trail.

Between Steelhead Lake and Shamrock Lake, the trail also disappeared in a pond and had us take the rocky route instead. Adventure was calling, we were now using hands and feet! By then we were still on the trail, easy backcountry crossing but my map did not show the trail heading north-east to Shamrock Lake. Too bad. We simply followed a well-marked path and missed a short steep section that could have led us to the abandoned Hess Mine.

Getting to Shamrock Lake required crossing the creek on a log, which added spice to the new lake discovery.

However right after the crossing, the trail rose and rose and rose until we were treading piled rocks. More spice! One fall. Ouch.

What a sheer delight Shamrock Lake was, though. With many nooks and crannies, the water occasionally encircles tiny rock islands dotted with gnarled whitebark pines and spreads into rough coves with weird shapes. The view from above (now the trail was definitely higher) was one of the best high sierras views ever.

From then on, the trail was visible on and off because of snowy patches but cairns guided us (roughly) through rocky slabs, meadows and ponds. Lake Helen came as a surprise to us. I know, it shouldn't have, but my map, well my map was incomplete. My USGS topo map of the Tioga Pass Quadrangle dates back to 1995 and doesn't have all the current trails. Also, the hike bites over another map in the top right corner so Lake Helen, the northernmost lake, is outside of my map. Bad luck. It could have been a minor detail since there's only one trail anyway but then we came to the marker "To Lake Helen." Whatta? Since we didn't see any other trail, we just kept on but my confidence in the map had been shaken - not stirred, just shaken. That's when I goofed up.

At the end of Lake Helen, we climbed down a big boulder (sort of not so safe for the kids but I couldn't see another way down) to cross Mill Creek on two logs. A wooden sign indicated Lundy Canyon on the left, Saddlebag Lake on the right. What was I thinking? We turned left and started going down towards Lundy Canyon. I knew that this was a Saddlebag Lake loop but I nonetheless led everybody left.

Now, Lundy Canyon is not the piece-of-cake of canyons. It's not a canyon for the preschool set.

It's a big deep canyon whose metamorphic rock walls dive down three thousand feet to the floor of the valley where beavers frantically build dams on the creek underneath aspens. It's BIG! Clearly, I didn't remember that part rom the previous hike.

That's when my dad, a geologist, turned to me: "Are you sure we climbed down that much?" Aha moment. We got the compass out, check the map (and the missing corner where we were standing). "Everybody turn around!" The girls didn't like that. We turned back anyway. Now the clock was seriously ticking. We had 45 minutes to make it to the boat, roughly 2 miles to cover up a narrow gorge, around two more lakes, in and out of hills until Saddlebag Lake. We ran!

After the little one tripped, I carried her on my shoulders for a while. The older one tripped too but she's an experienced hiker so could progress without help. 

After each new crest we thought we'd be there for sure but we weren't. In hindsight, doing the hike counterclockwise would get this section out of the way early and reserve the better sights for a smooth ending.

When finally we saw the big blue expanse of Saddlebag Lake, I made sure the boat was still there and shouted "The boat's still here!" Totally pumped up, my two girls, my dad and I ran to the boat. Right after we hopped aboard they revved up the engines and left. In the nick of time!

As a reward for everybody's efforts, we drove back to the campground through the Tuolumne Meadows store and treated everybody to ice cream. They even had my favorite, Haagen Dasz dark chocolate in and out. What a hike! We all slept very well that night.

Note on maps: The loop has only two markers along the route so an up-to-date map (like this one, with more topo detail) will come in handy.

Yosemite at Wawona, where the Giant Sequoias grow

"Where is the tree that you can drive through?" ask most visitors. Answer: at the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias in Yosemite National Park. However you and I can't drive through it. The tree fell in 1969 because the driving-through hole actually damaged the root system. There. You can enjoy giant sequoias up or down but no messin' up with our green friends these days. Just walk through, relax, and reflect on how small we are. You may even learn cool forest stuff along the way. Then you can call it a day at the terrace of the Victorian Wawona Hotel sipping your drink that night and marvel at the starry sky. Here is to Yosemite's forest monarchs. Respect.

As much as I love the Yosemite valley and its gorgeous granite waterfalls, it's no mystery that from spring to fall the valley attracts big crowds and even trafic jams. With almost 4 million visitors in 2009, the park is uber busy year round and the campgrounds' popularity results in rare spots to snatch up six months in advance.

Despite the numbers, all you need to do is to stray from the main trail a quarter mile to find peace and tranquility- or head to other parts of the park such as the high country of Tuolumne Meadows or the southernmost portion of the park, Wawona. Wawona is where the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias is located, home of the largest trees on earth and one of only 68 registered groves of these monster trees in California. How monster can they be? Not as tall as the coastal redwoods but if superlatives are you thing, giant sequoias are no less than the largest living beings on earth and can be as old as 3,000 years.

Kids will love that. Extreme old age, size, it's all cool stuff to impress. Plus, there might be an ice cream reward at the end so that's extra incentive to stick to the trails.

Your visit of the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias starts at the parking lot on a wide paved road that ascends this side of the mountain during roughly 2 miles and culminates around the Mariposa Grove Museum. Unfortunately the museum was closed over Memorial Day weekend when we visited but the upside of the winter lingering on was that we found sizable fields of snow on the ground. Snowball fights in groves of giant sequoias? Bring it on!

After the hike, we all caravaned to the Pioneer Yosemite Historical Museum at Wawona, a family favorite. Right at the entrance off the parking lot is a general store that sells strawberry slushies (amongst other wonderful things such as Yosemite key rings) and our kids didn't need to hear that twice. It was a hot day and the 5-mile hike was a lot for them.

Getting to the Pioneer Yosemite Historical Museum was easy since it starts at the end of the parking lot. That place really deserves a shout out. It's an outdoors museum consisting of several historical structures that were spread throughout the park and moved to this location in the 50s and 60s.

There, you will find a covered bridge (that reminded me of the one in Beetlejuice), a barn with old horse-drawn wagons, a powderhouse that doubled as a jail, a Wells Fargo office, a blacksmith shop, a ranger patrol cabin and of course, log cabins in the best pioneer tradition.

Walking around is lots of fun and you can peek through the windows - only to wonder where the furniture is gone before realizing that there wasn't much furniture at all back in the days. This historical interlude completely re-energized our junior troups and as a group, we walked over to the Wawona Hotel, just to check it out. The velvet-heavy Victorian style lobby was really a riot and some of us wished we were staying there, just because the Saturday barbecue menu looked amazing. We weren't though.

We were camping at the campground closest to the park's entrance, Summerdale, a place described as "pretty in its own right despite the proximity to the highway" by Tom Stientra's California Camping guidebook. Honestly the place deserved better than that. For our kids (12 total, 7 families), exploring the river sides, their fishing opportunities or hiding options, was the best vacation they could have had. We let them play, unsupervised and enjoyed adult time by the campfire. I couldn't resist a dip, as did two other friends. Sure it was snowmelt but it was still the best remedy after a hot hiking day under the giant sequoias.

Next time you go to the Yosemite in the summer and decide to go south, pack a swim suit. There are good swimming holes next to Summerdale and in Oakhurst along the Lewis Creek National Scenic Trail.