Apr 21, 2019
Yosemite Valley
The Amtrak train departed Stockton on-time at 7:28 am and arrived at Merced about an hour later. The YARTS bus departs from Merced train station at 9:05 am. As an Amtrak ticket holder, I had priority boarding and was able to sit on the front seat for good views. The trip from Merced to Yosemite Valley takes about two and half hours and the second half of the journey runs along Merced River and is more Scenic. There are a couple of stops in Yosemite Valley. As a well planed traveler, I know Yosemite Valley Lodge is the best stop for me, as both the 2-hour Yosemite Valley Floor Tour and bike rental are from the lodge.
I have about five hours in Yosemite Valley, as the YARTS bus departs from the valley shortly after 5 pm. In order to maximize my experience in a relatively short amount of time, I decided to try three things - ride a bike, take a tour and have a hike.
Yosemite Valley Lodge has bike rentals for $12 an hour or $33.5 a day. I did a loop to Mirror Lake and stopped at Majestic Yosemite Hotel on the way back. It took me 1 hour and 20 minutes including a short walk to Lower Mirror Lake and Upper Mirror Lake - the later offers a classic view of Half Dome reflected in the lake, even at early afternoon. On returning the bike, they only charged me the one hour rate of $12 which is nice.
I grabbed some pizza at the Yosemite Valley Lodge Food Court, and it's time for the Yosemite Valley Floor Tour starting at 2 pm (though they have nearly hourly tours in summer, at other times they only run two tours daily at 10 am and 2 pm). I booked the 2 pm tour online in advance for $37. The tour does a loop of the valley and stops at Valley View and Tunnel View - the main reason to take the tour, as the free shuttle bus doesn't go to this part of the valley any more. Both Valley View and Tunnel View have El Capitan on the left and Bridalveil Fall on the right. The differences are that from Tunnel View you can also see Half Dome clearly in the middle, while in Valley View you have the Merced River as part of the "view". So both viewpoints are great. Unfortunately, the floor tour doesn't stop at Bridalveil Fall.
The tour finished even a few minutes before 4 pm, so there is plenty of time for my last activity in the valley - hiking to the Lower Yosemite Fall. Although Yosemite Falls can be seen from many parts of the valley, the best whole picture view of all the 3-tiers of Yosemite Falls is around Lower Yosemite Fall Picnic Area, just northeast of Yosemite Valley Lodge, from where it's a shirt hike to Lower Yosemite Fall - be ready to get some sprinkles. Spring is the best time to see waterfalls in Yosemite - by summer and fall there is no water at all.
The trail continues as a loop and eventually reaches the main road. There is a detour going to the Visitor Center and I decided to go with this path. The reason was that due to the Easter long weekend and with "free rides" the YARTS buses got very crowded. The Visitor Center stop is one stop before Yosemite Valley Lodge and there is a better chance for me to get a good seat even if I'm guaranteed boarding as an Amtrak ticket holder. As expected, the bus was very crowded and it couldn't take all the people waiting without reservations. Transferring to the Amtrak train at Merced was smooth and I arrived at Stockton at 9:27 pm.
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| Tunnel View |
Summary
Using public transportation is a fun and environment-friendly way to visit Yosemite Valley - year round. It's good to plan in advance to better use the limited time in Yosemite Valley. I did biking, floor tour and hiking in less than 5 hours and saw all the major sites in the valley. Using Stockton instead of San Francisco as the base turned to be less stressful - it makes the day trip shorter (still 14 hours!). Compared with other stops along the Amtrak line, Stockton offers more options to travel to/from San Francisco/Bay Area - train, long distance bus, or city bus No. 150 from downtown Stockton to Dublin/Pleasanton BART in the Bay Area.
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