We had the opportunity to visit Yosemite National Park with friends visiting from Singapore. We live about a three-hour drive from the park and have been there several times. I was surprised to see only one pin in this area on WorldMapPin.
This was our first time riding bicycles through the park and it was an incredible experience! For anyone that has an opportunity to visit, I strongly recommend taking time to view the park by bicycle, especially the Yosemite Valley area. There are many paved trails that make it easy to get around the park.
Driving into Yosemite Valley and Tunnel View
The drive into Yosemite Valley from the west offers many spectacular views. One of the most famous is the Tunnel View. Here is the Wikipedia article and the Google Maps location.
From the Tunnel View stop, you can see El Capitan on the left, Bridalveil Fall on the right, and Half Dome off in the distance. It's quite a breathtaking scene.
El Capitán
I didn't get any great pictures of El Capitan to post, you can see a lot of good ones on Google Maps. Here is a Wikipedia article about the location.
If you've never seen the movie Free Solo, it's a documentary about rock climber Alex Honnold doing the first-ever free solo climb on El Capitain. It's a fascinating documentary. If you like the outdoors, I recommend watching it.
Bridalveil Falls
Bridalveil Falls (google maps link) is one of the first waterfalls you can stop and see on the drive into Yosemite. It's a popular spot with parking nearby and it's not far of a walk.
Half Dome
Half Dome is another popular spot and a well known hike in Yosemite. I got a couple of pictures from a distance but there are many pictures of Half Dome on Google Maps if you want some closer shots.
🚲 Riding Bikes 🚲
Just behind the Yosemite Valley Welcome Center, you can rent bicycles. It was about $30 for 5 hours or $40 for a full day. As I said at the start of my post, this was a fantastic way to see the Yosemite Valley and I can't recommend it enough. Please do yourself a favor and try it if you ever have the opportunity.
This photo of the Welcome Center is not mine, it is from Google Maps from the link above.
This is a photo of our group that my friend took. You can see the nicely paved paths beneath. That's me and my family in the back.
Here is another shot with a close-up of our family. My friend did a much better job of framing Yosemite Fall in the background.
Lower Yosemite Fall
Lower Yosemite Fall is another waterfall that is easily accessible to everyone and has parking nearby for both cars and bicycles.
The pictures don't do the scene justice and can't really capture how incredible the sight and sound is at this location. You can hear the roaring of the water and, depending on the wind, often get a nice mist of water on your face as you get closer.
On the left you can see others climbing the rocks for a closer view. The bottom of waterfall is just on the right of this picture. This is Yosemite Creek which continues the waterflow from Yosemite Fall.
Here are more pictures of Lower Yosemite Fall from Google Maps.
Here is a picture from farther back which is the upper portion of Yosemite Fall. One day I'd like to take the full hike on Upper Yosemite Falls Trail, but I have yet to do that.
Closing
I hope you enjoyed the photos from our day trip to Yosemite. You can see all my travel posts and photos at https://travelfeed.com/@unitmaster or https://worldmappin.com/@unitmaster if you want to check out some others.