The trip and our tour guide, Randall were awesome. The bus was terrible. First off, the bathroom on board hadn’t been pumped, so it was “emergency use only”. Then, on the way back from the park, the a/c died and it was stifling on board the bus. The only saving grace was that it got cooler outside as we approached San Francisco and the outside air being blown in was cooler.
This is an ALL DAY trip. We were told to meet the bus at 6:30am. The bus actually arrived at 7am and we were NOT the 1st stop for pick-up. We were originally booked for a small group trip to Yosemite, but there was some sort of issue with the transportation, so we were called the day before and told we’d been upgraded to Yosemite and the Sequoia Trees trip.
We picked up 2 more sets of people along the way, then stopped in Oakdale for snacks & bathroom stop (bus had to re-fuel).
We arrived at the park around 11:30 am. We drove around the park a bit and stopped for pictures that included El Capitan, Bridal Veil Falls and Half Dome in the distance. We were dropped off at the Yosemite Lodge to explore on our own for 3 hours. This gave us time to eat, use the rest rooms, visit the gift shop, visit Yosemite Falls, put our feet in Mercer River and walk to Coombs Meadow. We took TONS of photos, because there were beautiful sights everywhere! When we got back to the bus, we drove a little closer to El Capitan to see if we could spot climbers and to take more pictures.
Next we drove to the a Toumey Grove where there were a handful of old growth Sequoia trees. It’s a 20-30 min walk down a fairly steep grade to the trees. To the right there is a loop to see a “tunnel” cut through the base of a giant Sequoia. The top of the tree had burned recently. There were several burnt trees or downed trees in the area (assume they were from forest fires and disease). Next, there is that same 20-30 minute climb back UP the steep grade you came down. There is no water there and the toilets are primitive (think outhouse). The elevation is around 7,000 ft, so hydrate and take it easy if you’re susceptible to elevation sickness.
We were running late getting back to San Francisco. Originally we were set to arrive back at the pick up point at 9pm, but because of the air conditioning issue and the driver stopping to buy a couple cases of bottled water for us (I, personally, drank all 3 500 ml bottles I brought and 1 I bought at the snack stop, then 2.5 more before making it back to San Fran & our hotel). We walked over 6 miles on this trip.
If it hadn’t been for the larger group (29 people) and the bus being less than awesome, it would have been a 5 star trip. We booked through Viator and I felt like they kept us informed and the tour company was a good one. Our tour director didn’t talk our ears off and answered questions and gave us suggestions for our free time.