Yosemite National Park... Not!

A lesson learned during this past weekend was that a trip can be fun even when you never make it to the intended destination! Since it was a long weekend and my brother was stopping over on his way back to India, I had booked a trip to Yosemite National Park for 2 days. I booked it a couple of weeks ago when it seemed like spring had arrived prematurely in the Bay Area. But that was not to be. After a week of spring-like weather, winter came back with a vengeance.

Fully aware of forecasts of rain and snow over at Yosemite, we left yesterday morning. But the dreaded "Chains Required" board stopped me 4 hours later, about 10 miles outside the park. I wasn't about to attempt driving with chains for the first time with 2 kids on board and so I turned around.

The amount of snow in the area almost made us think we had driven to Lake Tahoe by mistake. But this also meant that there were a bunch of places by the roadside with freshly fallen snow. So we stopped at a couple of these. Kavya had a whale of a time playing around in the snow, trying to build a snowman and having snowball-fights with us.




We then decided to drive to Bass Lake. That turned out to be a really beautiful drive. With trees coated with snow lining both sides of an empty, smooth road, it was a sight to behold.







But then it started snowing and within a couple of minutes, started coming down real hard. The road became wet and in what was becoming a familiar routine, we decided to turn around again. But driving back in the snowfall was an exhilarating experience. The falling snowflakes were sheets of pretty dots all around us before they zoomed in and smashed on the windshield. So we simply ended up stopping at a couple of more snowfields for more fun for Kavya.



Today morning was warm and sunny and we drove again to Yosemite but the chains requirement still stopped us a few miles outside the park. So we again drove to Bass lake and with the weather helping, managed to make it to the lake this time. The sparkling blue lake looked heavenly.





We then stopped by a cute little town called Pines Village. A typical seaside town, it had a number of houses right by the lake.








We took a walk down the snow-covered docks right upto the lake.










So I would say our trip to Yosemite National Park was great... except for the tiny fact that we never went into Yosemite National Park :-)