A day walking through Yosemite National Park
Summary
One of the most intensely beautiful spots in the world, with scenery as jaw-dropping as it is compact. The drive along Yosemite Valley has you straining your neck to look up out the window at the likes of the colossal Half Dome and El Capitan, whilst also enjoying the tranquil, picture perfect forests and streams on the valley floor. Picturesque doesn’t quite do it – this really is vistas on steroids, and that’s before you’ve even started hiking
As we were on a turbo charged road trip around the Western States (Rapid 2 week roadtrip around the US West Coast States), we only had a day for this magnificent place and so had to pick which hikes to do. Other than generally wandering around the valley and soaking it all up, I would recommend the Four Mile Trail towards Glacier Point (centre of the south side of Yosemite valley) – you don’t have to walk the whole way up, the views after only after a short walk up are spectacular of El Capitan, Yosemite Falls and generally across the valley
Wish I’d had a week
highlights
#1 Yellowstone Valley - sensational views just about everywhere
#2 The waterfalls that come gushing down the impossibly steep sides
#3 Walking up towards Glacier Point for magical views out across the valley
#4 Wandering along the valley floor. Like something from a fairytale
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other Wonderful National Park Experiences
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone