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Trip Reports

That's what turned me on to CR in the 1st place. Watched the movie "Endless Summer" and one of their stops was CR. Put it on my bucket list to take a surf lesson which I did. My ribs were sore for like 4 days. Even though I am a pretty good snow skier/water skier, I was not a natural at surfing.
ditto on the ribs, ditto on not being a natural surfer. The wife though, crushed it from the first wave. As it turns out, she very much enjoys doing things I'm not better than her at.
 
Time to resurrect this thread!

As the wife and I and my entire family are fully vaccinated, we decided to rent a house together in Yosemite for a little socially distanced vacation. First time on a plane in 13 months. Was there the last week of April for a little last minute shoulder season fun.

Flew united. They canceled our initially 1 stop itinerary and made it a 2 stop plan, which sucked. They sold out those planes, no empty seats. Fortunately, no one decided to make one of our flights their anti-mask alamo and everything proceeded without incident.

We stayed in a house we rented on VRBO in a town called Foresta within the park boundary. I 100% recommend going this route as it saves significant driving time from staying outside the park and is substantially cheaper than hotels in the valley itself.

Flew into Fresno for $330 per ticket from Rochester, absolute steal. The wife and I drove over to sequoia national park for a brief visit prior to heading up to Yosemite. It was snowing in Sequoia and we had to rent chains - 50 bucks and an hour of my time. Absolute rip off, but they won't let you in without them if its snowing at elevation. We did not use them. Ugh.

Of note: they are not screwing around with the tire chain requirements. Up to $5k fine if you a driving without them when required. They set up roadblocks. On our way in to Yosemite, we were stopped in a chaining area and not allowed to proceed due to a late April snow storm above 6k feet. Our options were go back (3 hours) or wait for someone to come sell us chains roadside. Fortunately, after half a hour of waiting for the mobile chain sales truck, conditions improved enough for us to proceed without chains.

Yosemite is really a park for hikers, if you're not into that, its really a 1-2 day trip. You can get a few great views from road stops, like Glacier point (opened our last day there) and tunnel view. After that, its all on foot.

End April/Early may is prime waterfall time. They were FLOWING

I'll let the pics do the talking.

-Selfie with the wife at the General Sherman, largest tree on earth by volume
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View of Half-Dome from Glacier Point
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Upper Yosemite Falls from Yosemite Falls Trail
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Upper Falls with Half Dome in Background from Falls Trail
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Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls from Valley floor
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View from Tunnel View. El Capitan on the left, Bridevail falls on the right and Half Dome in the center.
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Yosemite Falls. I believe this was taken from Sentinel Dome
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Half Dome from Yosemite Point
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Half Dome and Nevada Falls from Glacier Point
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Nevada Falls from the John Muir Trail
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I have a friend who has traveled extensively and visited many national and state parks. He says in his opinion Yosemite is the most spectacular.
In terms of ones I have seen, for single best view:
1) Tunnel View at Yosemite (may be some recency bias here)
2) South Rim of Grand Canyon
3) I can't remember the name Overlook of Denali Mountain in Denali NP
4) Snake River Overlook of Grand Teton

But I haven't been to the Utah parks yet, so..
 
In terms of ones I have seen, for single best view:
1) Tunnel View at Yosemite (may be some recency bias here)
2) South Rim of Grand Canyon
3) I can't remember the name Overlook of Denali Mountain in Denali NP
4) Snake River Overlook of Grand Teton

But I haven't been to the Utah parks yet, so..
Zion is ridiculous
 
Returned from a trip to Uganda and Kenya for my wife and I's 10th anniversary. Flew into Entebbe, Uganda and then on to Kahihi from which we were driven to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. We did a couple days of Gorilla trekking there, which involves hikes with guides into the Forest to find some families of Mountain Gorillas which have been generally habituated to human presence. It was a remarkable experience and one that I would recommend to anyone that can make it.

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From Uganda, we moved over to Kenya, where we visited several conservancies outside the Masai Mara. Morning & evening game drives were the norm for these visits. Around the Masai Mara, big cats were plentiful and we got to spend a lot of time with Lions & cheetahs. We were extremely fortunate to have a number of really, really good leopard experiences.

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From Uganda, we moved over to Kenya, where we visited several conservancies outside the Masai Mara. Morning & evening game drives were the norm for these visits. Around the Masai Mara, big cats were plentiful and we got to spend a lot of time with Lions & cheetahs. We were extremely fortunate to have a number of really, really good leopard experiences.

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Humblebrag but I've had some pretty good cougar experiences in my day.

Seriously though, those are some great pictures.
 
To be fair, if you shoot any of the big views in Yosemite in black and white, it looks like Ansel Adams.
Those are all great pictures of your trips. Glad you posted. So we are at the Cape and yesterday went into a gallery and saw a B&W photo for sale for $850. I had taken a similar photo from my phone and converted it to B&W. Not sure anyone would pay me $850, let alone $8.50. However I do like it and would consider framing it. Yours, however, are gallery worthy where people would pay money for .
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I hope to get to a safari one day. My B-in-L will be hiking Kilamonjaro later this year.
my wife and I, and our best friends, are on our way to JFK to fly to Rome. We will spend a week in Italy, culminating with 2 nights at an AifrBnB in Lake Como, then to Paris for a week. Looking forward to the sites, if not the heat.
 
I hope to get to a safari one day. My B-in-L will be hiking Kilamonjaro later this year.
my wife and I, and our best friends, are on our way to JFK to fly to Rome. We will spend a week in Italy, culminating with 2 nights at an AifrBnB in Lake Como, then to Paris for a week. Looking forward to the sites, if not the heat.
Loved Italy. If you go to Florence get the steak, it's sublime.
 
Returned from a trip to Uganda and Kenya for my wife and I's 10th anniversary. Flew into Entebbe, Uganda and then on to Kahihi from which we were driven to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. We did a couple days of Gorilla trekking there, which involves hikes with guides into the Forest to find some families of Mountain Gorillas which have been generally habituated to human presence. It was a remarkable experience and one that I would recommend to anyone that can make it.

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Every single photo in each post is incredible. You won the trip reports with this. Thanks so much for sharing.
 
I hope to get to a safari one day. My B-in-L will be hiking Kilamonjaro later this year.
my wife and I, and our best friends, are on our way to JFK to fly to Rome. We will spend a week in Italy, culminating with 2 nights at an AifrBnB in Lake Como, then to Paris for a week. Looking forward to the sites, if not the heat.

I love a great hotel bar for a pre-dinner or afternoon cocktail, if you and your companions do as well and are in Rome for a bit, the bar at the St. Regis is stunning.
 
So, just got back from Hawaii. As always, started on the Big Island, Kona then to Hilo, then island hopped to Kauai.
Kona side;
Did my first helicopter ever (Blue Hawaiian) with my cousins, from Waikoloa (northwest side) across the island to the Pololu Valley and down the coast to Waipio. Phenomenal trip.

Waikoloa area has some great beaches, Hapuna always a top rated beach, good for families and swimming but like a lot of places in HI, you still have to be careful and don't go too far out. Just south of that is one of the great beaches to watch turtles, they're everywhere, it's just south of the Lava Lava Beach Club.

We had a great road trip to the north end of the island through the little town of Hawi, on our way to hike down the Pololu trail to the beach. It's got stunning views all the way around. At the top of the trail, you can see the valley and ocean coast below, and the black sand beach. This is water you don't want to go in past your waist, it's very dangerous, plus this time we were warned of jellyfish, although no one saw any. As we left Pololu, right up the road we found what became one of the talks of the trip. A little food stand called, Fresh Off the Grid, great poke bowls, ice cream, shave ice, the best banana bread I've had in life. This all sits in a really big fine grass field, crazy as it sounds, they have live music daily and it's all high above, and overlooking the ocean. Can't believe this setting, views and the food and desserts, true BI gem.

Snorkeled at my favorite place on the Kona side, Two Step (Honaunau Bay), also just north of that, kayaked across that bay to Capt. Cooks monument where he was killed.

Hilo side;
Making our transition over to the Hilo side, we went the long way around (instead of the Saddle Road) and stopped down to another great turtle spot and black sand beach, Punalu'u. Saw a lot of giant green sea turtles.

Stopped at a great little coffee shop and got more banana bread and pineapple bread.

We went to our families place in Hilo Bay and met up with relatives and spread my grandmother's ashes, that my uncle flew from Syracuse. Talk started among our resident cousins about Kilauea and seeing lava closer than the tourists get to, then pics came out, I was sold. Now I just wanted to see who wanted to go with me. Everyone opted out, except my one cousin who also flew out there from Syracuse and is always been down for a good adventure.

Next morning we all go down to the Hilo Farmers market, my grandmothers favorite thing to do. We get a bunch of fresh fruits, juices etc.
We wait until night time, then head to VNP and Kilauea. Like instructed got to the parking lot not before 9pm. Him and I with flashlights and headlamps followed the directions I had put in my notes on my phone. We had to navigate some giant cracks from previous eruptions. At last I saw live lava better than I've ever seen. My cousin, as most of my relatives have seen it just a few feet away flowing or dumping into the ocean etc. This wasn't anywhere near that, but it was still one of the best things I've ever witnessed.
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