Yosemite National Park: Day One at Upper Pines Campground

Camping Yosemite Day One

We got in at Upper Pines Campground just minutes after leaving Curry Village. We found our campsite (#4) with ease and I began unloading what I had only minutes before packed up. Alysa put Rem in his stroller and entertained him while I set up our tent.

Once camp was set Lys and I loaded the boy back in the car and made our way back towards the central of the Valley Floor to take in the sites. We made a day of it. It wasn't a hard way to spend the day. It was the week before several of the other park locations opened up for the season so we stayed in the valley.

We decided to try for an easy-ish stroll and made our way over to Bridal Veil Falls. It'd been over ten years since I was last in Yosemite. I forgot certain things. I didn't forget the focal points of the destinations, but I did forget the "lesser" details. I will always remember the falls, but I will now remember the light jaunt up to the viewing spot. With an aching back, two aching knees and two aching ankles on the fritz the light 1/4 mile walk was made a little more difficult. Especially when pushing a thirty pound kid in a twenty-five pound stroller up a slope. Even still the waterfall was amazing and Rem enjoyed himself too. He didn't really care about the waterfall though... His eyes were locked on the dogs people had brought along.

On the way back we enjoyed more views of the high rocky walls of the valley and the old chapel the front doors of which open up to an amazing view of Yosemite Falls. I enjoy and love our church family back home in Riverside, but I wouldn't mind our church's front doors opening up to that view.

View from the chapel's front steps

Once we got back to camp we set Rem's pack n' play up and let him play around for a bit. Once he was bored of his confinement I put him up on my shoulders and walked over to the river. Rem and I walked up a good ways and found a nice spot with a little beach. I decided this would be a good spot for us to come back to the next day. I walked back to camp feeling completely blessed to have gotten to do so much with my wife and son. Usually I feel so beat at the end of the day... and that is with a very limited amount of physical activity. When I am more physical I am often in a very uncomfortable state in the evenings. Today, however, was one of the first days in quite a while where I was able to be active with out suffering through consequences. Praise God!

The day ended back at camp where we enjoyed some black bean chili and a warm fire before turning in for the night. The Temps in the day were in the mid to high fifties, but after the sun set the temperatures dropped well into the thirties. We tucked the little guy in with several blankets and then did the same for ourselves not long after. When we had arrived earlier in the day there was pretty much no one at the campground and it was very quiet. At night the campground came alive with conversation, laughter and distant music. I usually prefer solitude and silence when camping, but it was nice to hear other people and know that we all had a good day experiencing creation.

Yosemite National Park: Curry Village

Alysa and I have been talking about Yosemite for the last 7 years. The opportunity to go presented itself and we took advantage of it. I managed to get us a tent cabin at Curry Village for a night, followed by two nights at the neighboring Upper Pines Campground. This post will focus mainly on our stay at old Camp Curry.

Stretching the legs after a long day of driving.

Alysa, our 10 month old Remington and I left Riverside around 8:30am and drove through pretty much every landscape Southern California has to offer (except for the coast). We stopped for lunch in Fresno and finally made it into Yosemite around 4:00pm.  I felt so excited anticipating the Tunnel View. After the hour long drive through the southern part of the park we finally reached the tunnel. It was a long... dark... but at the end... a light. Exiting the darkness to a view of the valley is such an amazing contrast.  In my own opinion Tunnel View is, by itself, worth the long, mostly boring drive with an intermittently cranky infant. It had been so long since I had been to that spot and I guess I had forgotten how wonderful the view is.

Tunnel View at its finest.

We drove down into the Valley and took in all the sights as we made our way to Curry Village. We arrived around 5:30pm and checked-in. What followed is the second most unpleasant part of our vacation. I didn't really think about the presence of bears in the park. Lys and I don't really pack light when we go camping. We enjoy being comfortable when tent camping which is what four out of the five days would be consisting of. Lys and Rem hung out in the tent cabin as I made the multiple trips to and from the car with our luggage, blankets, pillows, food and any possibly food- scented objects in the car including Rem's car seat. I crammed all of the food and food-scented items into the provided bear box and was finally able to enjoy where I was. Right then a guy walked by using his kids stroller as a luggage cart. I was so mad at myself for not thinking of doing the same that I had to laugh. It definitely would have saved me a couple trips.

The meadow at the entrance of Curry Village.

Half Dome

Looking up at Glacier Point

We sat on the deck of the pizza bar on the side of the lodge and enjoyed a pretty good dinner. But even better was the view of the valley walls. All of that rock standing against a sky of blue dotted with fluffy, white clouds. Trees permitting, Half Dome is very easily seen towering above the camp. Best dinner time view I've had in a good while. I pointed out the slabs of granite on the massive walls around us and told Lys a story I had heard about a big plate of rock breaking off to come crashing on the valley floor beneath obliterating what ever it hit. She was not amused.  We walked Remington around the camp and read some of the interpretive signs... I pointed out some house sized chunks of rock that looked like they had once resided on the side of the rock wall of glacier point some thousand feet above...  Then we made our way back to the tent cabin since it was getting dark.

Getting Rem down was a little bit trickier than usual. He had slept so much in the car that sleeping seemed the furthest thing from his mind. We played with him though until he started getting drowsy and by 8:00pm both he and Lys were out. I stayed up for another hour doing my stretches and reading a bit. I laid down around 9:00pm and was soon asleep... the busy day was over and it was time for a night of rest before starting fresh in the morning. NOT!!!

 I woke up delirious to Alysa shaking me but her voice sounded muffled in all of the noise. It was loud all around us, very loud. A mess of rumbling and crashing sounds. It felt as if the air was shaking. At least to my half awake mind. Alysa was terrified and all I could make out of her was "The rocks are falling... the rocks are falling". I told her everything was okay and I made my way for the door. When I opened it I was greeted with a flash of bright light which silhouetted the trees in front of me. A loud rumbling followed. I started laughing and told Alysa what was going on. Going to sleep at this point was not an option though. We needed to find a restroom and with it being the middle of the night the restroom was to be a family affair. We bundled up since it was cold and we made our way to the nearest bathroom which was closed for cleaning. It started to barely sprinkle. We made our way across the camp towards another restroom. The lightning and thunder continued. We made it to the restroom only to discover that we needed a code to get in. The code was all the way back on the tent cabin. As we made our way back to our tent cabin yet to be relieved the rain began to come down and Rem began to shiver. By the time we reached the tent cabin Lys and I were wet, but our little boy was dry thanks to the fact that I was wearing my old fat winter jacket. We didn't even care about our bladders anymore and good thing because it RAINED  for the rest of the night. Really rained. We got out of our wet clothes and into dry ones, cuddled up with Rem between us and laughed at how we couldn't hear each other talk.  The noise as loud as it was lulled us and our wide-eyed little boy back to sleep.

By morning the rain had stopped so we made our way to the lodge's coffee bar and enjoyed a little breakfast. Our short stay at Curry Village ended with me lugging everything back to the car just to load it and soon unload it at our next campsite at Upper Pines Campground which was no more than a half-mile away. Fortunately, I remembered to use Remington's stroller in a more practical fashion and saved my self the extra tiring trips between the tent cabin and the car.
 

 It really is a nice place and I think I would enjoy it better if we stayed there longer. There were multiple housing options, nice bathrooms with hot showers, and a store with a gift shop is stocked well with essentials. There are a couple good eating options and a nice clubhouse with wi-fi. But I was in Yosemite and I didn't drive all the way there to sit in doors and enjoy all the comforts of home.

Tunnel View made even grander!

Blue Jay Campground

Unfortunately It has been sometime since my last camping trip. It is a strong desire of mine to get outside as much as possible, but life happens and sometimes an overnighter seems so unrealistic. So when the opportunity presents itself I must pursue it. Valentines day weekend seemed like the perfect weekend to get away.

My wife and I have gone on a couple of dates since our boy, Remington Cash, was born 9 months ago, but we have yet to spend a night away from him. Getting my wife to agree to a weekend away and leaving our little sand bag of joy (he is really big) with family was a lot easier than I thought. The camping trips I typically plan involve being out in a remote area, down back roads and Jeep trails and at least an hour and a half drive away from home. My wife, though she enjoys these type of trips, would probably be a little nervous about leaving Rem for such isolated destinations for our first trip away from him so I planned something a little closer, a little more accessible and much easier for family to find us in the event of an emergency. Blue Jay Campground in the Cleveland National Forest ended up being the perfect pick.

I rounded up a coworker, Irma and her spouse, Isaac, to join us for the weekend and after work on Friday we headed out. Irma and Isaac got off earlier in the day so they had already secured a spot for us. We arrived right after the sun had gone down and we made quick work of setting up our tried and true (and notably aging) tent. This was followed by cooking up some chili and enjoying some good fireside conversations. The campground was at capacity since it was a holiday weekend and as a result the noise level was much louder than I prefer. To add to our entertainment was a group of boy scouts in a neighboring campsite. Even with the elevated noise and activity all around sleep came easy thanks to such a busy, tiring week... and ear plugs, very big ear plugs.


I woke before everyone else and enjoyed the sunrise. I walked around the campground and found a spot where I could easily see Catalina Island off the coast catching the first rays of the day. Everyone else was awake soon and after a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage and blueberry pancakes we got ready for the day's activities.

Stopped at a pull off along the Main Divide Truck Trail to take in the views. In the distance Catalina Island can be seen.

View of Lake Elsinore from the Main Divide Truck Trail

We took the top off of the Jeep and began the drive up Main Divide Truck Trail. There was a trail run event going on so we made pretty slow work of reaching the ridge, but once we did we found ourselves on a mountain island surrounded in all directions by amazing views of the coast, the Inland Empire and the high peaks of  Southern California (the San Gabriel, the San Bernardino and The San Jacinto Mountain ranges). One of my favorite things about being on the ridge is the breathtaking view of the ocean, Catalina and San Clemente Islands.

Chaparral, Oak, Pine and Fir dominate the slopes and canyons of the Santa Ana Mountains



Rock Climbers doing their thing at a very dry Ortega Falls

After eating a quick lunch we hopped back in the Jeep and headed down to the nearby Ortega Hwy to explore the area. I took the group through El Carisso Village and down the road a few miles to a turn out where one can find a series of short trails leading to Ortega Falls. We made the very short hike down to the falls area. Due to the very drought we have been in the waterfall was dry as a bone, but the large boulders and rock climbers were still fun to look at. I have come to this spot in wetter seasons and have seen this waterfall in all its splendor. I would strongly recommend people checking this place out. It is definitely one of the easiest accessible waterfalls in Southern California.

I then took the group to the Ortega Oaks Candy Store where we stocked up on candy and some other supplies. This small shop right along the Highway really has quite a bit and should be a definite stopping point if you ever drive the Ortega.

The day ended with us back at camp, enjoying a fun game of Carcassonne. As the sun set Alysa and I made our way down to the meadow near the entrance to the campground. We enjoyed the changing of colors of the tall grass, oaks and pines. As we watched the sun drop behind the large old growth oak trees I also took advantage of the opportunity to get some nice pictures.

The meadow near the entrance to Blue Jay Campground



That night we enjoyed some flame licked brats, s'mores and more good conversations. The scouts had left at some point earlier in the day and the crowed campground had thinned out after the trail run event was over. This made for a much quieter night. After attempting some stargazing (kind of difficult due to the white of the city lights seen over the ridgelines) we hit the sack. As I fell asleep I found myself reflecting on everything in my life that I have been blessed with. Moments of silence in nature, even though aided by very big ear plugs, are always perfect for personal reflection.
In the morning we ate some bomb breakfast burritos, broke camp and said our good-byes. The weekend away was fun and relaxing, but we were definitely missing our big, little boy. And judging by the expression on his face when he saw us after coming home from visiting Great Grandma Dee with his grandparents he missed us as well.

Campground Profile:
Blue Jay Campground is easily the best campground with in an hour drive from Riverside and is only 3 miles down a paved road from Highway 74 (Ortega Hwy). Very accessible, but still in a beautiful part of the Cleveland National Forest. It sits around 3,000 ft in the Santa Ana Mountains and the projected high and low temperatures seemed very comfortable for February. There are around fifty sites at the campground, but currently only 39 are open. The campsites are situated beneath the California Live Oaks and amidst the chaparral (and poison oak) that dominate the area's terrain.

Watch out for Poison Oak

Being so close to major suburban areas would easily lead one to the conclusion that there is not much to do in the area. False... The Main Divide Truck Trail climb the slope to the ridge of the Santa Anas and provide access to forests of pine, fir and oak. From these ridges one some of the best views of Orange and Riverside Counties at hand. Also close at hand are several hiking trails that lead to mountain peaks, rock climbing opportunities, swimming holes and even waterfalls. Stargazing definitely is not the best because of the proximity of major metropolitan areas, but even still the night sky provides much enjoyment.

Activities:
- Bird Watching
- Hiking
    - San Juan Trail (Chiquito and San Juan Falls, swimming holes)
    - Bear Canyon Trail
    - Los Pinos Trail
    - Tenaja Falls (waterfall, swimming hole)
    - Hot Springs Canyon (waterfall, swimming hole)

-Driving
    - Ortega Highway
    - Main Divide Truck Trail (North and South)
    - Indian Truck Trail
    - Silverado Truck Trail
   


Playing board games

   

So thankful that Isaac and Irma joined us on this trip.