Detour!!!! (Day 9)

Soooo, today was supposed to be a Yosemite day. After driving about 3 hours, we arrive at the last stretch for the hotel to Yosemite. We made a quick pitstop for some water and ice cream for Dre. That’s when disaster struck – ROAD CLOSED!!!

As we are turning around, we see a service truck and decide to ask what is going on. He then informs us that the road to Yosemite is closed and we are going to have to take an alternative route.

This means our drive went from an additional hour to an additional 6 hours!!! That’s right – we drove about 10 hours today. It was a LONG drive but the kids were excellent today. Owen took several naps and we had some fun conversations with Dre.

The positive side is that were able to see a lot more scenery….

Tip #9 – When traveling to Yosemite, understand that the main road to get there is closed for the winter when coming from the west and make sure to plan for an overnight stop along the way. We have planned each stop to be about 4-5 hours in-between to help the kids.

The plan today was to not use any technology to entertain the Dre and that worked till we hit our 6 hour detour. We made a few stops to look at scenery and to get some more groceries.

By the last hour, I was getting exhausted. I had been driving the entire time because I get car sick if I’m on mountain roads and not driving. My joints were aching and my eyes were feeling strained. I was seriously questioning if we should have added a stop. We didn’t because the hotel we were staying at (Yosemite View Lodge) was very expensive due to its location and the fact that we hadn’t planned this trip more than a month out.

Tip #10 – Try to book your National Park hotels out as early as possible. The major parks are booked up to a year in advance! Yosemite View Lodge was the closest hotel to the park, and only had more expensive rooms available.

And then we rounded a mountain corner and saw this….

I simply cannot describe the shear beauty of this view here. The picture does not do an ounce of justice because 1 – I am not a professional photographer and 2 – the size of these cliffs are breathtaking.

This made it all worth it. We were able to see Yosemite for the first time at sunset and listen to the rushing water with our windows down as we finally got to our destination. The room at the hotel was surprisingly amazing as well.

We were in a family suite that included a kitchen, living room and two bedrooms with 4 queen beds. We also had a balcony that overlooked the rushing creek that is currently a rapid due to the melting of the winter snow.

We ended the night with some exercise by taking the kids swimming in the indoor pool. Everyone went to bed beautifully.