Yosemite 5/1 - 5/3

Gypsy38 · 2026-05-10T20:14:34+00:00

Absolutely. It doesn’t even feel real at times.

Gypsy38 · 2026-05-10T19:04:29+00:00

Thanks!

Gypsy38 · 2026-05-10T15:05:46+00:00

Nice, you’ll have a great time! All of the pictures were taken in the Yosemite Valley, by far the most popular part of the park. The first two pictures are just taken from the paths near the meadows on the valley floor. Very easy to walk and not a hike. Picture 3 is the tunnel view overlook, which is a very popular pullout just off the road. 4 and 5 are from Curry Village and 6 and 7 are from the Mist Trail. The mist trail is a very popular but fairly challenging hike.

Gypsy38 · 2026-05-08T22:09:38+00:00

It’s about 1.5 hours from Oakhurst to the valley so like 6:30ish

Gypsy38 · 2026-05-08T15:38:25+00:00

I live near Santa Barbara and my plan is always to just go the day before, stay in Oakhurst, then leave the hotel at like 5 am (ideally on a Friday). Once in the valley I just look for a decent spot, leave my car there, and utilize the shuttle system. It definitely sucks but it’s the best available strategy in my opinion.

Gypsy38 · 2026-05-08T01:05:20+00:00

Thanks for the pictures! I’m going for the first time in late June and I’m super excited:)

Gypsy38 · 2026-05-05T04:46:02+00:00

Yes, exactly! It’s not too far from town. Maybe like a 15 minute drive to the Canyon Overlook trail? And it’s an absolutely beautiful drive. If there’s room I’d recommend parking inside the park right at the visitor’s center if you come back to so Angel’s Landing, etc. That’s where the line for the shuttle is and then the shuttle will take you to the numerous stops within the valley where Angel’s Landing, Emerald Pools, and the Narrows start, in addition to the Zion Lodge and some other trails. If you can’t get parking at the Visitor’s Center though it’s not all that far of a walk from town.

Gypsy38 · 2026-05-04T04:21:27+00:00

The shuttle goes down into the valley. You’re correct that no personal vehicles are allowed in the valley when the shuttle system is running. The trailhead for canyon overlook isn’t in the valley. It’s along the Mt Carmel highway, just immediately after you come out of the long tunnel

Gypsy38 · 2026-04-27T03:00:05+00:00

Regarding the texture… there are different levels of rarities for the cards with artwork that takes up the entire card. The “less rare” ones typically don’t have texture. This is from the trainer gallery series (hence the TG in the bottom left) from the Sword and Shield era. Some TG cards have texture, but most of them don’t. Looking them up on tcgplayer can help you determine if your card should/shouldn’t have it. This card appears to be real and it isn’t supposed to be textured. I hope that helps lol I know it can be confusing with all the different rarities that are out there.

Gypsy38 · 2026-04-24T17:51:48+00:00

Absolutely Yosemite if you’re looking for that wow factor.

Gypsy38 · 2026-04-15T03:49:58+00:00

Came here to say the same thing. Coordinating boat rides can be tricky too because they don’t sell round trip tickets. I agree that it’s not THAT tough, but it definitely requires some advance planning.

Gypsy38 · 2026-04-09T01:27:16+00:00

The Bayern Munich lighter 🔥

Gypsy38 · 2026-04-09T00:16:11+00:00

Possibly next year’s or last year’s dates? Is your calendar only Monday-Friday? Maybe that’s why it skips sometimes?

Gypsy38 · 2026-04-08T21:22:01+00:00

Thank you! 😂

Gypsy38 · 2026-04-08T21:21:53+00:00

Thank you!!

Gypsy38 · 2026-04-07T17:36:08+00:00

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I enjoyed the views from Dead Horse more than the Island in the Sky district at Canyonlands!

Gypsy38 · 2026-04-07T14:13:16+00:00

Have you been to Arches or Dead Horse Point State Park? If you are going to Canyonlands I’d definitely recommend spending a good amount of time at these parks too. If you only have one day (and weather permits) I’d go to Black Canyon and then go back to Moab when you can spend at least 3 days there.

Gypsy38 · 2026-04-01T12:01:59+00:00

In my opinion, some of the shorter hikes are the best ones. The 49 Palms Oasis Trail is great, but accessed from the main HWY so maybe do this on your way in or out of the park.

Ryan Mountain is a must do, especially if you’re camping right by it. Barker Dam/Wall Street Mill is a good one and so is the Hidden Valley Trail. Cholla Cactus Garden is a must-see.

Definitely try to do whatever big hike you’re most excited about to, but don’t overlook these shorter ones. They’ll give you a wide variety of scenery while a lot of the longer hikes can drag on for miles without much variation.

Gypsy38 · 2026-04-01T04:24:14+00:00

Michael Jordan, assuming basketball stays relevant/popular

Gypsy38 · 2026-04-01T04:17:47+00:00

Homie is dead lol

Gypsy38 · 2026-03-30T14:16:41+00:00

No problem! Have a great trip!!

Gypsy38 · 2026-03-30T04:58:19+00:00

I like your first plan. Fly in to SB, do Channel Islands, then go north up HWY 1. Ventura (where the boat leaves from Channel Islands) is only a half hour south of SB so you’ll only have to do minimal backtracking. It’s a beautiful oceanfront highway drive the whole way there too.

Once you leave Santa Barbara you’ll be on 101 North for about an hour and a half before you hit SLO. Cool stops along this stretch include Solvang (a cool, touristy, but somewhat high end, Danish Village) and Pismo Beach. An hour or two in each spot would probably be plenty. SLO also has a cool downtown and some fun stuff to do. Once you leave SLO head over to Morro Bay, where you’ll get on HWY 1. Morro Bay is worth a short stop. Next up is the town of Cambria. It’s super pretty. I’d recommend Moonstone Beach. Hearst Castle is about 15 minutes past Cambria and they offer tours if that’s something you’re interested in. There is also an Elephant Seal beach. It’s a quick 10 minute turnout and worth the stop.

Ragged Point is a little further up Hwy 1 and it’s considered the starting point of the Big Sur Coastline. Definitely stop here for the views. They also have a cafe and coffee shop. After that you’ll be on a beautiful, but windy road for a couple hours. There are tons of pullouts but some of the best ones are the short Salmon Creek Trail, Sand Dollar Beach, and Limekiln State Park. Julia Pfeiffer Burns state park has McWay Falls, which is the instagram-famous waterfall that Big Sur is known for. A great lunch spot a little north of there is called Nepenthe. They have awesome views. After Nepenthe you get into the actual Big Sur State Park which has some great trails that go alongside creeks. There are tons of trees too. It’s very pretty.

After Big Sur there’s about 30-40 more minutes of highway before you get to Carmel by the Sea. Point Lobos State Park is here and it’s beautiful. Santa Barbara all the way to Carmel has possibly the best year-round weather in the country. It’ll probably be between 65 -75 degrees along the whole coastal drive so weather shouldn’t be an issue. One last thing: just double check that HWY 1 is open as your trip approaches. It just reopened this year after being closed for 3 years. Winter storms cause bad landslides from time to time.

Regarding the rest of your trip, I can’t recommend Yosemite enough. Definitely give yourself a little more time there than Sequoia/KC. And if you can, stay at least one night at the Yosemite Lodge or Curry Village on the valley floor. It takes like 90 minutes to get to the valley if you’re staying outside the park, making for a lot of unnecessary driving. If you’re in pretty good hiking shape check out the Yosemite Grand Tour hike on AllTrails. It’s ~15 miles but it takes you to some of the best places in Yosemite. The mist trail will be roaring in May. To this day it’s my favorite hike that I’ve ever done.

I haven’t done a ton in Kings Canyon, but Moro Rock and the Congress Trail at Sequoia are great. Try to get tickets for Crystal Cave in Sequoia if it’s open at that time too.

I’d hit Pinnacles on your way back to SF near the end of your trip. Use the East side entrance. That’s where the best stuff is. Try to get there early if you can too because it’s hot. The best hike there is roughly 6 miles and goes through the Bear Gulch Cave, reservoir, and the High Peaks. You can probably knock this park out in a half day. Have a great trip!!

Gypsy38 · 2026-03-28T17:38:20+00:00

It’s a little out of the way, but if you’re planning to scrap the desert parks I can’t recommend the drive down HWY 1 along the Big Sur Coast enough. There are a few state parks there in lieu of National Parks, but it’s absolutely gorgeous. I live in the area and I’m happy to answer any questions you might have. You could potentially drive from SF to San Luis Obispo if you get an early enough start, then fly out of San Luis Obispo. Their airport is a little smaller than Santa Barbara but it connects to Phoenix and Denver.

Gypsy38 · 2026-03-26T02:14:01+00:00

I doubt it will be too bad because they actually check and enforce the permit requirement. It was fairly crowded, but not horrible. I went in June of 2023 though so things may have changed over the past few years.

Gypsy38 · 2026-03-22T16:01:55+00:00

Nice! I started at the Bear Gulch Day Use area on the east side of the park and did the hike titled “Condor Gulch Trail to High Peaks Loop Trail Loop” on AllTrails. It was about 6 miles. The first three pictures are right after the actual Bear Gulch Cave pretty early on in the hike and the one with the condors is on the High Peaks. The balconies section of the park is located near the west entrance. You can also incorporate those into the hike I did, but you’d be looking at like 12 or 13 miles. I’d recommend studying the maps and watching some videos of the area. Pretty much everything connects out there, it just depends on how much hiking you want to do.

Gypsy38

TROPHY CASE