Our 3 day camping trip with Incredible Adventures was a highlight of our 3 week holiday in the USA. Yosemite is an amazing place and being just 4 hours from San Francisco, it is truly worth the side trip for nature lovers. The Incredible Adventures offering was what we had hoped for, a small group tour focused on enjoying all the key areas of Yosemite Valley and a fun, short, camping experience to really be part of the great outdoors. We were so lucky to share the time with a great group of like-minded people. Our family of 4 (with 2 teenage boys aged 16 and 19) spent the 3 days with our guide and 4 other young men from NZ, Australia, Ireland and China. We enjoyed each other’s company on the bus and walks and happily worked together back at camp to make light work of setting up and taking down the tents as well as preparing meals. Our Guide Lisa was super enthusiastic and really went above and beyond our expectations in her efforts to provide a wonderful experience. She was a new guide for Incredible Adventures (early July) and was still learning about the best way to manage time in the park and her workload so she didn’t wear herself out. As per the Incredible Adventures information, what each group does In Yosemite is dependent on the group. Our group was able to do a number of longer, fairly difficult, vertical walks of 3-4 hours: Upper Yosemite Fall and the Mist Trail and shorter ones: Tuolumne Grove and Mirror Lake. On the day that our guide dropped us off to do our own thing we chose to stay together as a group and hung out by the river in the afternoon after our morning hike. Whilst it is meant to be a flexible, I would like to suggest that the guides do have clear ideas and basic plans for the days (for different levels) as most visitors do not know what is available and what they can do and would be happy for the guide to suggest the itinerary.
The honest review of the camping is that the camping ground is about 20-30 minutes outside the park, which is just fine. In peak season it takes longer to get out of the park than to drive to the campground but once you are in the mini bus it doesn’t matter while you chat on and listen to music or continue to take in the magnificence around you. The campsite is rocky but set up of the tents is easy. It would be a terrible experience in the rain if the ground turned to mud and without shelter over the tables. We had great weather but it could be very different. The food was excellent. Lisa did a great job of planning and shopping to ensure we were all happily fed. Plenty of options for breakfast and lunch (which you pack for yourself). We had a delicious pasta dinner night one, made together, while night two was a pizza at your own expense in the park. The washing up facilities are very basic (cold water only which was a bit dodgy). The Showers where hot but very basic and toilets not particularly well kept so don’t expect 4 star amenities. All that said you are at the campground for a very short time, just to sleep really as most groups would be up early at 7am to get back to the Park. We were back to the campground late both days, everyone tired after all the walking and fresh air and happy to go to bed by 9.30-10pm. The sleeping mats provided were adequate and the hired sleeping bags very clean. I just wish a pillow was provided or perhaps that a list was provided a few days before departure suggesting or reminding of things to pack, including maybe a small pillow to make sleeping just that bit more comfortable. I did have to initiate confirmation of the tour with the Incredible Adventures so perhaps some extra communication from the office in general would be appreciated by future travellers, especially those travelling from overseas.
Overall, so happy to have had this experience. Thank you Lisa and Incredible Adventures.