Hi friends, welcome back to the last post of the honeymoon series (*insert my sad face*)! I hope you’ve enjoyed the series as much as I have! It’s crazy that our honeymoon was over two months ago, it feels like yesterday and forever ago at the same time. Anyways, after Jon and I finished our hike to see Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls, we headed over to see the iconic El Capitan up close.
I’d HIGHLY recommend watching Free Solo before you go to Yosemite so you can get a teaser for the park and realize what a monster El Cap truly is! Have you seen anything more majestic than this?
I was surprised we had to hike a short way through dense vegetation and on extremely unclear paths to get to the base of El Cap. I genuinely thought you could just park and walk right up to it, but that definitely wasn’t the case! We struggled to find the route to El Cap while we were already exhausted from our hike, but hey, at least we didn’t have to carry climbing gear.
Jon and I persevered and eventually made our way made to the base of El Cap. A rope dangled down near us and we thought it belonged to the group of climbers, but after an extremely thorough investigation it didn’t, so we attempted to climb. Sadly, the rope had so much stretch that we weren’t able to climb, but that didn’t stop us from pretending 🙂
Across the street from El Cap, people closely watched a group of three climbers about two thirds of the way up the mountain. We overheard where the guys were located and I could just barely spot them with my zoom lens. They had bright gear bags for their three-day climb, so that helped me find them easier. The guys looked like ants up there! Fun fact, the dad of the kids I used to nanny climbed El Cap back in the day, pretty neat!
After spending time with El Capitan, Jon and I stopped at one more beautiful spot to take some closer pictures of Bridalveil Falls. The entrance has been closed for construction since 2019, but should open in the fall of this year. The waterfall spans 620 feet, so it would’ve been challenging to take a full picture up close anyways.
Jon and I headed back to our Airbnb for the night, made burgers, and crashed hard from all the fresh air and hiking! My watch said we walked 24,500 steps, 9.87 miles, and climbed 174 flights. Wow!
We stayed at an Airbnb in Yosemite West, and I’d recommend this location. From here, the drive took about thirty minutes to Yosemite Valley and twenty five minutes to Glacier Point. The space was a bit outdated and lacked a/c, but it had a fully stocked kitchen, grill, two bathrooms, cable, wifi, and provided a comfortable stay inside the park. Also by booking this, we received automatic entrance into the park without needing an overnight permit.
On our last morning in Yosemite, Jon and I stopped at Tunnel View one last time to soak in the beautiful views and say goodbye. We made one final loop through the valley, checked in on the climbers on El Cap, and then headed back to San Francisco. I definitely felt sad leaving Yosemite, but I felt good knowing we saw everything we wanted to see. We stayed in the park for three nights, 4 days, and I felt like that was the perfect amount of time. If we had more time, I would’ve spent a day exploring Tuolumne Meadows on the eastern side of the park. We did see glimpses of Tuolumne Meadows on our drive in from Lake Tahoe and it was absolutely gorgeous!
The drive to our hotel at the San Francisco airport took us about four and a half hours. We quickly dropped off our bags and then headed to the Golden Gate Bridge. This was my first trip to California and I just couldn’t leave San Francisco without visiting the famous bridge I grew up seeing on Full House!
We were so used to the beautiful weather in Lake Tahoe and Yosemite that I forgot all about the chilly, foggy Bay Area weather.
I also couldn’t leave California without trying In-N-Out, so this is what we had for dinner to end the honeymoon ha! I let Jon do the ordering and we got two burgers, fries, and a vanilla milkshake. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I thought it tasted good, but not life changing.
Jon and I returned the rental car and hung out at the hotel the rest of the night. We had a 6am flight the next morning and I’d highly recommend staying at The Grand Hyatt at SFO. The rooms were recently renovated, extremely clean, comfy, and connected to the free airport tram that took us right to our terminal. We were both happily exhausted from the last two and a half weeks at this point.
The wedding and honeymoon was such a wonderful whirl wind and we felt so lucky to be able to safely have our wedding and go on a honeymoon. Thank you all for following along and I hope you enjoyed reading this series as much as I enjoyed writing and reliving our honeymoon. Now that this series is ending, I better start planning a new trip 😉
I do agree that El Capitan does not look that big from a distance. It is when you get closer or see the climbers on it that you get the true sense of scale. When we were thee, some climbers had set up their bivouac for the night in a hanging bed. Not for the faint of heart or for me for that matter. Yes, the temperature difference between Yosemite and San Francisco by the water is huge. The area around the GG bridge and the beach areas is pretty much always cool and breezy. Glad you had a good time on your honeymoon. Stay well. Allan
I’m with you, you’d have to pay me an infinite amount to sleep up there, especially in a hanging bed I would have to secure 😂 we went from about 100 degrees to 60, quite a difference. Thank you!! ☺️
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t get the whole In-n-Out craze. A couple opened here in Denver last year and to this day the drive thru lines are at least an hour long most times. I can’t fathom waiting over an hour for a fast food burger.
I enjoyed following along on your honeymoon adventures, and you’ve made me really enthusiastic about planning a future trip to Yosemite and Tahoe!
I can’t imagine waiting an hour either!! That’s crazy!
I’m so happy you enjoyed the series ☺️thanks for reading! I’m so excited to encourage you to visit Yosemite and Tahoe, they’re both so amazing!!
It’s been an enjoyable journey! Thank you for sharing!!
Thank you!!! Glad you enjoyed ☺️
You are welcome and yes, definitely! Even if you cheated on pizza with a burger 😉
Thank you for taking us along on your amazing adventures!! I saw Free Solo. That someone who try to climb El Capitan without ropes or anything astonishes me. I’m glad your wedding and honeymoon turned out so well with weather, sights, accommodations and everything.
Thank you!!! Everything turned out better than expected 😀 it’s almost suicidal to climb without ropes. I’m not that big a daredevil!
I was wondering if there were any warnings about rockfall at El Capitan or elsewhere in the park.
None that I recall. I looked it up just now and it said 2020 was a mild year for rockfall because of the low precipitation so maybe the same is true for this year. There was a large one in 2008 that generated the equivalent of a 2.4 magnitude earthquake. Glad we didn’t experience any of that, but it’s very interesting!
I got a smile out of “El Capitan” and “Golden Gate Bridge” in the same title, as if they’re not 4.5 hours apart. Glad you saw both – surely among the best California has to offer. Free Solo is absolutely worth the watch. I remember thinking the cameraperson was also up there on that sheer mountain face so credit to him/her as well (though secured by ropes, no doubt). You and Jon are much better foodies than In-N-Out fare, so I was glad to read your honest opinion. Tried it myself once; still don’t understand all the fuss. Our local franchise has dozens of cars in the drive-thru morning, noon, and night. It’s an obsession for many, many people.
Haha the last day was a bit of a catch-all for us 🙂 My hands were sweaty the whole movie even though I knew how it would end. The camera people did an amazing job, very dedicated to their work, that’s for sure! That is true Jon and I stay away from “fast” food. I mostly see drive through lines for chick-fil-a that are pretty long, but that’s somewhat healthy.
What a great vacation and a wonderful area to see. Years ago walked across the Golden Gate Bridge …brings back memories.
That must’ve been a windy walk! I’d love to walk across one day.
😀😀
The pictures of Yosemite are perfect and will leave you with beautiful memories! The weather was overcast during my visit and the relief was even less visible. Great thanks for sharing this special moment.
Ok Yosemite is def on my to-do list! Thanks for sharing! Now I just can’t wait to do the same as you haha
You’ll LOVE Yosemite!!! I can’t wait for you to go! 🙂
Thank you for sharing your amazing honeymoon with us, it looks to have been an incredible adventure. Hope you’re OK in the floods at the moment and that all your friends and family are too x
Thanks Hannah! It was a blast! I think we got lucky and Henri missed our area, just a lot of rain and a gloomy day from what I saw. Just glad I didn’t have to be anywhere 🙂
Awesome scenery and it looks like you had a great time!
Such an amazing trip!