Dog-friendly Yosemite adventures

We were blown away by Yosemite National Park. The Merced River was flowing wildly, allowing the park's waterfalls to put on a show. Seasonal waterfalls streamed over the cliffs, and the year-round waterfalls cascaded with intensity so strong that mist hung in the air around Yosemite Valley. We couldn't look in any direction without seeing views that made our jaws drop. We had dome-shaped rock formations, snow-capped mountains, and blooming dogwoods and lupines. The park wasn't just a feast for the eyes, either. The white noise of rushing water accompanied our excursions. Redwood and evergreen trees filled the forest with an aroma that was only topped by the smell of the river, which I told Anthony is "the smell the candle companies wish they could jar up for springtime."

Everything was wonderful, except for one nagging issue. We wanted to spend more time in the park! Traveling to Yosemite Valley took us over an hour each way, which only gave us a handful of hours to explore before we needed to get back to our RV for Tanner. Other parts of the park were either still closed for the season or way too far for them to be worth our time.

It was clear that we'd desperately need a return visit here, but with the time we had left, we knew what we needed to do. We needed to wake Tanner up from his slumber and force him to tap into his sense of adventure!

Yosemite, like most national parks, has strict limits on where dogs can go. Dogs are allowed in developed areas like campgrounds and picnic areas, paved roads and parking lots, and select other areas when specified. The rules are strongly enforced in order to preserve the wilderness and to keep dogs and wildlife safe from each other. Much of Yosemite Valley has paved trails, so we planned to hike the 1-mile Lower Yosemite Falls Loop and then have a picnic. Once again, we headed in early to ensure we'd get a parking spot near the start of the trail. We wouldn't have the option of taking the shuttle this time because dogs aren't allowed.

We found parking on the far end of the Yosemite Lodge lot. Dogs aren't allowed in and around the lodges, but we assumed the parking lot was fair game. We crossed the street and already had a wonderful view of Yosemite Falls. This waterfall is the tallest in North America, dropping 2425ft. (This can technically be refuted, as another waterfall in Washington often holds this accolade and is statistically taller. Either way, it's still impressive). The falls consist of 3 sections: upper falls, middle cascades, and lower falls. While this trail is called Lower Yosemite Falls, you get a view of the entire waterfall from many parts of the trail. Despite its size and prominence in the park, Yosemite Falls does dry up in the late summer. When we saw it in the spring, it was roaring.

The trail was better than expected. In addition to having several vantage points of the falls, we also got to cross a bridge and get misted by the river. Then we ventured over a series of boardwalks and into the forest, with more falls viewpoints along the way.

Tanner did great. We never know what energy level we'll get with him, but he seemed to take to Yosemite just as much as we did.

Because our first walk was such a success, we decided to push our luck and see if Tanner would do another paved trail with us. Mirror Lake is a small seasonal lake, named for the reflections of the granite rocks in the calm waters. There is a small beach and dirt trail around the lake, but dogs are only allowed on the road leading to the lake. The road is only open to official vehicles and cars with handicapped placards, so we didn't need to worry about much road traffic. For the most part, we shared the road with other pedestrians and some cyclists.

We read that the road was 2 miles total, but unlike Lower Yosemite Falls, there was no parking near the start of the road. We needed to park a half-mile away. When we got to the start, signs stated that we had 1.6 miles to go. All Trails and the official signage contradicted each other! We highly doubted Tanner would make it 4.2 miles, in addition the mile he had already walked! His walking has improved tremendously this year, but his longest walk so far has been a little over 1.9mi at Bryce Canyon. 5.2 miles would be way too much of a leap. Still, we pressed on, thinking that maybe All Trails had the correct distance, and either way, just walking until we thought we needed to turn around.

Besides walking along the river for part of the time, there really wasn't anything to see until we reached the lake. Tanner started slowing down, especially on the final incline to the lake, but we made it! Turns out All Trails was accurate, as it was only counting the distance on the paved road. The official park signs added a little distance beyond the end of the road. Still, we'd be asking over 4 miles out of Tanner now, and there was no way out of it. We walked the whole way there and would need to walk the whole way back.

Mirror Lake was lovely, but if we didn't have a dog, we would have opted for a different trail. We didn't spend much time there, only enough to take some pictures, including the most adorable photo shoot of me and Tanner during one of the only times he allows me to love on him. We need to get him right at the point of anxiousness where he listens to everything we say. Otherwise, he's just stubborn and standoffish. I seize the moments when I can.

We took our time heading back to the truck, commending Tanner on his amazing feat. He ended up hiking 4.1mi that morning! It was time to take a much needed rest and head to a picnic spot.

Yosemite Valley has some incredible picnic areas. We chose El Capitan picnic area because it was the first one we passed and we saw that it wasn't crowded. We'll never complain about picnicking with views of El Cap! We shared the parking lot with several climbers harnessing up for their ascent. The sheer cliff draws tens of thousands of climbers annually, some even choosing to bevy climb, in which they anchor their tents and spend the night camping on the side of the rock.

We had a much less adrenaline-fueled experience.

We could have called it a day, but instead we decided to drive to some of the overlooks. Glacier Point Road, which closes for the winter, reopened on May 10, the day we arrived to our Yosemite-area campsite. We took it as a sign to drive to Glacier Point, which we heard is a favorite overlook of many because it offers a straight view of Half Dome with Cloud's Rest behind it.

To get there, we needed to take Wawona Road out of Yosemite Valley and turn onto Glacier Point Road. Those roads increase to elevations over 7000ft. The drive took us about an hour and a half, but the views were gorgeous.

Before reaching Glacier Point, the final overlook on its namesake road, we passed by Washburn Point and decided to stop. This is where we got our first direct view of Half Dome and also saw several waterfalls in the distance, including Vernal and Nevada Falls. We felt proud to be able to point them out and say "we hiked down there!"

Glacier Point has an overlook near the parking lot, which dogs are able to do, as well as a short path to a couple of other overlooks. Tanner was exhausted, so we switched off staying in the truck with him while we each went to the overlooks. To be completely honest, we thought the view from Washburn Point was just as fantastic as Glacier. You can't go wrong with either overlook, but since they're right up the street from one another, you can get double the beauty by going to both!

We made our way back to Yosemite Village, making one last stop along the way. Tunnel View is famous for giving visitors a wonderful welcome gift as they make their way into the park via Wawona Road. After driving through a mountainside tunnel, Yosemite reveals itself in all its splendor. We hoped to stop at the Tunnel View Overlook on our way out to Glacier Point, but it was too crowded. Turns out, saving it until the end worked even better because we could take Mr. Sleepy Pants out for a few minutes to get his blood flowing before our long drive back to camp. We needed to be very careful to keep him moving occasionally so he wouldn't get too stiff.

And with that, our big day in Yosemite was complete. Despite the national parks often allowing dogs in some places, the NPS typically advises that people leave their dogs home if possible. This is to cut down on incidents where people break the rules, disturb wildlife, or leave their dogs in hot cars. We, however, very much enjoyed having Tanner along for our excursion because we purposely centered our activities around him. Whenever we have memorable days like these, we feel extra blessed. Tanner is 13 years old and we don't know how many more experiences we'll get like this. We certainly don't take them for granted. Plus, taking Tanner with us let us have a full day of exploring in the park, as opposed to the half-days we're limited to when he stays home.

This also marked our final trip into Yosemite. After two weeks of back-to-back-to-back National Park visits, all of which required long drives, we knew our limits. We had two amazing days in Yosemite and felt like that was a huge win. There is still much more we want to do in the park, but we are happy saving those for next time. The rest of the week, we enjoyed our quiet national forest campsite, which was also a welcome way to spend our time. We had a couple of patio days and a campfire. For us, it was a week well balanced and well spent!

There might have been one more reason we needed to pace ourselves, and it might include adding a 4th National Park to this extravaganza. But you'll need to wait until the next blog post to see what that's all about. Until then, we hope we depicted even a semblance of what makes Yosemite so special. The beauty and spirit of this place are undeniable. We feel very lucky that our travels brought us here this year. This was exactly what we needed to remind us of how awesome our life of travel is.