Memorial Day Weekend Planning

My buddy Tyler and I have been eyeing Memorial Day to go to Pismo Beach. What's so special about Pismo is that it's the only beach that has a designated highway. Not only that, you can literally drive on to the beach and camp. Away from the beach are some amazing sand dunes. You're allowed to take off road vehicles and dirt bikes into the sand dunes. I most likely would rent an ATV. They're actually pretty easy since it's semi automatic. Sounds really fun huh. But today I came across some disappointing news. I called to make reservations for the weekend and it turns out they're fully booked. It's only 30 days away and they're booked for the whole weekend!!!

Well we decided to go with plan B and move foward with our yearly Yosemite backpacking trip for memorial day weekend. Every year we spend a few days back packing through Yosemites vast forests and encounter some of it's largest and spectacular water falls(Vernal Falls Mist trail probably the best water fall I've seen). We also take on the strenous challenge to climb Half Dome.


I'm thinking this time around I'll change the plan. I'm thinking to leave one car in Yosemite Valley and the other car at the top of Glacier Point. We'll start our trip decending from Galcier Point towards Little Yosemite back packers camp site. We'll spend the night at the back packers campsite. At the campsite we will have the ability to use the restrooms, pump/filter water from the near by river, and enjoy the late night breeze in front of a campfire...and then go bear hunting.


When I say bear hunting I mean I want to capture some nice pictures of these curious beasts. They say there are lots of black bears all over Yosemite...yet I have never had the opporunity to encounter one. There was this one time when my buddy Tyler and I left our packs and sleeping pads outside. When we returned Tylers sleeping pad had a huge claw mark left by a curious mother bear. That's probably been the closest we've been to an encounter.

We'll all I have to do is wait to see if the rangers will grant me my permits for Memorial Day Week

I heard Pat's going to be in Yosemite as well and has no excuse for not being in shape for the hike up to Half Dome since he's running the Bay to Breakers!