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OK, here is the long promised extended coverage blog posting of the Yosemite snowshoeing. First, here are the photos from the trip. Now the trip can be broken into parts:
The Trip to Yosemite
On our way to Yosemite we stopped at Chukchansi Gold for the awesome $10 lunch buffet. They have just about everything from traditional American comfort food (fried chicken, mashed potatoes, etc...) to mongolian bbq to Mexican to Italian and Chinese. We tried not to eat too much. :-) Overall I would say that it is still one of the best buffets for the money anywhere.
First Wintertime Trip Inside Yosemite
This was my first time wintertime trip inside Yosemite. We came in via the southern entrance (highway 41), and right after the gate we saw that the road to Mariposa Grove was closed and had snow on it. There were people snowshoeing to the grove. As we got deeper into the park it was easy to tell which hillsides were facing north for the ones that were facing south because the south facing slopes had very little or no snow while the north facing slopes had lots of snow. Once we got to the Wawona hotel we checked to see if we could check in, but our room wasn't ready yet, so we departed for Badger Pass.
Badger Pass
Badger Pass is located along the Glacier Point road, and it is coincidentally closing for the season at the end of this month, so hurry if you want to get there before they close. There was a ton of snow at Badger Pass. We checked out the lodge and the slopes and also talked to a guy at the cross country ski rental center to find out what routes he recommended. He recommended the Dewey Point trail because in his words, it is the quintisential Yosemite snowshoe hike. The lodge itself was a little old and cramped, but it had the same feel that some of the smaller Tahoe resorts still have, and I used to get the small resort vibe when I went to NorthStar, but that is no longer the case.
Swinging Bridge
On our way back to the hotel from Badger Pass, we stopped at the swinging bridge which spans the Merced River close to the Wawona Hotel. After parking it was a short walk to get to the bridge, and it is very short in length, maybe 20 feet or so. It also had tons of reinforcement and cabling to keep it from collapsing. Personally I didn't find it all that interesting, but Timber wanted to check it out, so I humored her. :-)
The Wawona Hotel
Before booking our stay at the Wawona Hotel I read lots of reviews about it. They ranged in criticism from it being a marvelous old time hotel to it being a decrepid, dissapointing place to stay. Most of the negative comments ranged around the fact that some of the rooms had shared bathrooms and that it was old (no central heating, television, phones, etc...). My experience was a very good one. First, the staff were very friendly and knowledgable. They also had a good sense of humor. I had some difficulties booking our stay via Hotels.com, and I was a little worried that our reservation would not show up in the system, but sure enough it was there. We got a room with a private bathroom, and when we got our keys and went to put our stuff in the room I found it to be very comfortable. The bed was large and comfortable, there is a good sized closet, there was a chair next to the bed, and the bathroom had everything that we needed. And just outside our room, on the patio, we had two chairs and a table in case we want to sit outside and read. It was too cold for that, but it was a nice touch and would really come in handy in the summer. We ate two meals in the hotel dining room, dinner and breakfast. The dinner was reasonably priced (for Yosemite) and had pretty good quality. I would eat dinner there agin. Breakfast was included in the room fee, and it was better than I expected. It included eggs benedict, scrambled eggs, waffles, hash browns, sausage, corned beef & hash, bagels, muffins, yogurt, granola, orange juice, coffee, etc... Overall I would say that the Wawona Hotel exceeded my expectations and I would definitely stay there again and recommend it.
Dewey Point Snowshoe Hike
The Dewey Point snowshoe hike was 7 miles round trip. The conditions were clear skies and hard packed snow, and the trail was well marked. We brought a map with us just in case. Along the way we had to do quite a bit of uphill and downhill hiking, so it definitely didn't go as quickly as we expected. There were also lots of other people on the trail, so you won't have to worry about getting lost. I even gave directions to a couple of guys that were trying to find their way to Dewey Point. Once we made it to Dewey Point we stayed there for literally 5 minutes to take some photos and look around because it was very windy and cold there. After we retreated back to the forest for a quick lunch we were back on the trail heading back toward Badger Pass. Along the trail we saw several people that had taken off their skis and snowshoes and elected to simply hike in their ski boots or hiking boots. They seemed to go much faster than the rest of us. And a dirty little secret of snowshoeing that not many people will tell you is that even if you have really comfortable boots, the walking action in snowshoes will cause your heels to continually rub which could eventually cause blisters. My heels and Timber's heels were developing blisters, and we eventually got the point were we decided to take off our snowshoes and hike the rest of the way back. So the last mile to mile and a half was hiking on hard packed snow. It was much faster and much more comfortable. Snowshoes are extremely valuable in powder, but they are a slow way to get around in hard packed snow. Eventually we made it back to where I parked at Badger Pass, and were on our way back home. I would definitely recommend Dewey Point in the winter. The view of El Capitan, Half Dome, the valley, and the rest of the mountains is just simply amazing. I think the next time we go back to Badger Pass we'll try a different trail and I will teach Timber both styles of cross country skiiing (classic and skating) so we can cover larger distances in a shorter amount of time.
