Yosemite is truly beautiful, it is without a doubt one of the most incredible places I have ever visited!
We drove from San Francisco to our campsite, which took around 4 hours. Our site was just outside of Coarsegold, we did attempt to stay closer to Yosemite but all that was left were places that we didn't fancy. That being said, book early, we booked ours a couple months before we arrived and there was not a lot of choices left.
Yosemite RV Resort was pretty well located and the facilities were really good. There was a pool, laundry services and each camp had a fire pit. We actually stayed in a yurt, that was pretty cool - it was perfect for 5 of us.
There are a few shops and a couple places to eat in Coarsegold but not a lot, I'd advise driving a little bit further to Oakhurst. Here there are a few supermarkets to get supplies and a bit more going on.
For our day in Yosemite, we were up by 5am and left by 5:30 - we were told to leave early to beat the traffic, apparently it starts to jam up from about 7:30 am. There is a Starbucks on route which is perfect for a caffeine hit at that time in the morning. The journey was around 1.5 hours and parking was easy to find at that time.
The Yosemite Valley Visitors Centre doesn't open till 8am but again, there is a store where you can buy supplies/souvenirs, If you are after souvenirs, get them early; it gets ridiculously busy!
Being unprepared, we checked which trails to do when we arrived.
The Mirror Lake Trail seemed like the best option for us, it was a 2 mile round trip hike.
There are so many photo opportunities on the trail, it really is beautiful.
After reaching the lake, we decided to carry on our trail and start the Snow Creek Trail; this is a further 9.4 mile round trip. With it being so hot (37 degrees or 98 fahrenhiet), and there being no water fountains we decided to turn back - like I said, we weren't the most prepared! On the Snow Creek trail, there was not a lot of shade, while we were on the walk back it was around 1pm and very hot.
In total, we probably hiked for around 4 - 5 hours with lots of breaks for photographs. We arrived back at the visitors centre at about 2, it was crazily busy! Crowds don't really bother me too much but you really had to fight your way through to get to places, even to get to the water fountain. Since it was so touristy and kind of killed the chilled, peaceful vibes we hopped in the car. It took us almost an hour to leave the parking area. We were hoping to drive to Mariposa Grove and drive through the gigantic trees (literally); unfortunately this was closed for restoration.
The drive back to Coarsegold took around 2.5 hours due to traffic, we did make sure to stop off for some frozen yoghurt at Big Kahuna Frozen Yogurt, in Oakhurst.
I wish we could have stayed in Yosemite for longer - I know for sure that I can't wait to go back and explore the rest of the park. It is magnificent! Next time, I'd make sure I was more prepared and stay in the park for longer.
Our next destination was Venice Beach.
