7 day Yosemite and lake tahoe- part 1

With Brother in Law and his family with 2 kids 4 year and 8 year old visiting us from Dubai, we spent 7 days between Yosemite and lake Tahoe. Following is the trip report. It is appropriate for families with little kids and visiting parents. For kids older that 9-10, you may be able to do more physically demanding activities.

Overview:
Plan was to stay for three full days at Yosemite, do one day-trip each at the Yosemite valley, glacier point and Tioga pass road. Then, take the Tioga pass road to Mono Lake, en-route to Lake Tahoe and spend 3 days in Lake Tahoe. We went on the week following the July 4th long weekend, so didn’t face a lot of crowds or traffic.

Part 1 @ Yosemite:
Accommodations:
We decided against in-park camping/lodging opting instead to rent an entire house.
Since there are no affordable accommodations inside the park, we had a choice to rent at Maripossa or Groveland, two communities that are closest to Yosemite valley and with the largest variety of accommodations. Other locations of Ahwane and Oakhurst are further south and add about ½ hour additional to the valley.
Mariposa offers an advantage of being close to mariposa grove, but to get to Tioga Pass, one needs to go through the valley, an additional 30 minute drive that can be avoided if you are in Groveland, on route 120.
Some places advertise that they are just 15 minutes from Yosemite. This is a gimmick. They may be 15 minutes from the park entrance but getting to the valley floor from the entrance is about half an hour. The drive to the entrance is the easy one with a better part on a 55mph road. It is the last segment that is slow. So paying a premium for being close to the entrance doesn’t make much sense.
At Groveland, we had been to the pine mountain lake community during our last visit. Based on the past experience we realized that with little children, one can only spend about half a day in Yosemite. To spend the rest of the day at leisure the lake is the perfect solution. This was the motivation this time around too and it worked very well. When we had nothing to do, we would just drive to the lake and spend couple of hours in the water, tiring the kids.
Pine mountain lake:
This is a gated community and bookings for houses are via realtors. We went through Yosemite Re-max gold. Their website lists all the accommodations they manage and offers good details. Other companies and VRBO has listings as well.
PML has three beaches. The water is calm and not very deep. In summer, the water is actually warm.
Of the three beaches, the one at the pine mountain marina is clearly the best. It has two water trampolines for public use. You need to be able to swim half a lap to get there so non swimmers may have a bit of difficulty. For those who are comfortable with a little swim, or if the kids are in life-vests, this is a heaven.
The beach at the Pine mountain lodge is small and pebbly instead of sandy and can be passed.
Being closer to the beach helps but the units get expensive proportionally. IMHO, getting a rental close to any beach other than marina is a waste.
The houses themselves are very well maintained with stocked up kitchens.
There is a super-market right outside PML and is very well stocked
There is no pharmacy though the supermarket carries basic medicines and not sure of any medical facility close-by
PML is about one hour drive to the Yosemite valley.
There aren’t any many vegetarian friendly restaurants . Best is to make use of the kitchens and cook(besides tugging along a load of thepla-chunda-khakra).
Suggested itenary:
Begin early in the morning, drive to Maripossa grove, take a lunch and a walk around the grove. Drive back to groveland by mid-afternoon and spend the evening at the PML beach.
Yosemite Valley:
On day 2 we drove to Yosemite valley. Past the entrance the road is curvy, so be prepared for motion sickness. It is uphill for most part.
It helps to orient to the key attraction of the valley. Get familiar with the various peaks, their geology, the waterfalls and the general layout.
Plan on hiking. Use www.yosemitehikes.com .They are right on spot with their estimates of difficulty levels and views.
This summer was hot. Hot as in 85 hot. We planned on doing two hikes. But managed to do just one before the heat got on to us.
Sentinel beach/Cooks meadow loop + lower Yosemite falls:
This is a flat trail, suitable for parents. It is partly shaded, though the exposed sections get hot.
This take you through the heart of the valley floor and gets you 360 degree view of the valley.
Tiny beach(s) along the Merced river are nice places to cool off. Keep kids in swim wear.
The Merced river itself is turquoise and green. In spring it should be torrent and the meadow full of wild flowers
Begin at the swinging bridge on the Southside drive. Parking at the swinging bridge parking lot may become full fast. However, all along the south-side drive you will find parking as people keep moving on. From wherever you park on the south , there will be a tiny path across the meadow, and over the river.
Add a ½ mile hike to the lower Yosemite falls. The water at the falls is chilly but it is hard to resist the classical waterfall experience-jumping over rocks and dipping the feet in ice cold water. Kids have a blast.
If possible, bike this hike.

Mirror lake- we did this on last visit. It is a flat hike. Along the way, there is little to see. At the end, it does get pretty scenic.

Per Yosemite hikes, other suggested hikes include Bridelveil falls (a very short hike) and the mist trail- because it is misty. We didn’t do any.

To end the day (or begin) drive up to the inspiration point. Mid-morning through late afternoon, the summer haze makes the view a tad bit less grander. With the sun shining bright over the valley and behind you, good luck taking say cheese pictures. If possible time it for dusk. Parking gets full but as with rest of valley, most are say cheeser’s and move on fast.

Day 2:
Glacier point: Glacier point opens seasonally, so check before you go. This is drive up a winding road. The views from the top are stupendous. Parking may become tricky if you reach later than 10AM. We did not go this year. The last time we went on memorial day weekend, the snow cover was so thick, even with ambient temperatures of 70 degrees, there is a pile of snow. We were in our summer wear, and playing in snow.

Day 3:
Tioga pass road onto Lake tahoe, via Mono Lake.
First Tioga road:
Tioga pass road is totally unlike Yosemite valley. It is much less popular and much more wilder. It is a very beautiful drive, from west to east on route 120,all the way to the town of lee vining.
Our first stop was the Tuolumne grove. A 1 mile downhill hike gets you to the grove. The number of large trees is few but there is one alive and standing, through which you could walk and get a nice say-cheese. There is another one, fallen and innards burnt. One walk through its bark like walking through a tube! The mile back is a steep one. Kids can pull it off but maybe parents cannot. One could skip it in favor of local favorites of Muir woods/Big basin.

Tioga pass is at a higher altitude than Yosemite valley and be prepared for a temperature differential of 10 degress
Our next stop was Olmstead point. The views from this point promise to overwhelm you. Across the parking lot of olmstead point is a little hill with barren rock slopes. If it is dry, climb up the hill. It is way easier than it looks, ~ 10 minutes climb. It is not a marked hike. I think the reason is that it becomes extremely dangerous with rain fall. From the top of the hill you get a 360 view of the Yioga pass.

Further down Olmstead point is Tenaya lake. We had a very brief stop but we saw many beaches around the lake with picnic tables. There was no one at the beach and it can be a perfect place for lunch.

Past tenaya lake are the Tuolumne meadows. The scenery is just spectacular. Spring blooms as well as fall colors should be marvelous. There are simple hikes around this area. We didn’t do any but they looked very appealing.

From Tuolumne meadows all the way to end of 120, the drive is very beautiful with rapid changes in the geography. Take time to drive and stop often.

Mono Lake:
Lee Vining is the launching point for mono lake. We timed our scheduled to reach mono lake at 6.30 PM to catch sun set. But unfortunately it turned cloudy. Fortunately, mono lake looks even more dread-full on a cloudy day. If you wish to go to the moon, but don’t have the money, just visit the mono lake. The water is saltier than the sea. Swimming is allowed and we were told at the information booth that one can feel the higher buoyancy, much like the Dead sea. I have seen pictures of people kayaking. But Most of the tufa is close to the beach, so I wonder what is the motivation for kayaking. There are picnic tables and we ate dinner-the eeriest dinner ever. If it is a full moon, you should stay till it is night.

From mono Lake we took 395 to North lake Tahoe. More on Lake Tahoe in part 2.