breathtaking yosemite – and how to enjoy road trips with little kids

 

I recently read that doctors have started to prescribe family time together outdoors as many families seem to get stuck indoors and spend no time doing things together. We certainly like to enjoy the outdoors as much as possible and have been making little trips here and there as often as possible.

Travelling with little kids, especially if you got three (or more) can be hard sometimes. We have made few rather successful trips lately with our three little ones, and a good planning certainly was a key to success and avoiding stress. I had a list of drinks, snacks, utensils, toys, medicine, clothes, nap mats, blankets… – you name it, and it was probably on my packing list in case we got stranded in the desert or something.

As we left for Yosemite park – one of the latest trip around 5 am, we just quickly gave breakfast for miss A. and then whisked the sleeping twins to the car in their pajamas. That way we had pretty happy and well-rested kids (despite some car sickness for the youngest one) by the time we arrived in Yosemite, and were ready to start our tour. Obviously the hiking part is rather limited if you plan to have your little ones walking, so we first had a pancake brunch at the park’s restaurant and then took a two-hour open-air tour of the park. That was just about right duration and lot of fun for all, especially as the kids managed to spot some animals too (no black bears though).

As the weather was reaching to high nineties (35c+) it’s important to have hats, sun lotion, snacks and lots of (cool) drinks on the go. The other key thing is not to plan to do too much, as everything takes so much longer with kids and stress is the last thing needed on these “mini-vacations”. After the tour we did a little hike by the river and splashed in the water too (very cold but refreshing).

We had booked a hotel in the Mammoth Lakes area (well known for skiing) and as we wanted to avoid the rush hour park traffic we headed there late afternoon and made some little pit stops on the way when we spotted so nice views or other things to soo. A little evening swim outdoors surrounded by the snow-capped mountains and fresh, pine-scented air guaranteed well-sleeping kids. A great start for this adventure!

Key items to pack: cooler bags and ice packs (we have also this larger one from California Innovations, and even in this heat drinks easily stayed there cool around 8 hours or so), sun screen, bandages, torch, lots of water and snacks (we always try to get a hotel with a kitchen and I pack some noodles and things to cook in case we miss the stores and kids don’t like the restaurant/room service menu)

Snack box has water, milk, juice, cookies, raisins, oatmeal, fruit cups, nutella – things that don’t go bad and are easy to prepare. For adults I normally pack some miso soup packs to go also

After a little drive we saw the first colours of the rising sun around 5.45 or so

Green meadows and mountains

Two-hour valley floor tour is perfect with little kids – gives you some great views and there is still energy for a hike afterwards

There are clear and cold mountain rivers and lakes

Miss A. checking the temperature of the river – and whether there are any fish in it

A trivia question – how many deer can you spot in this picture?

Pretty cool to be driving at 10 000 ft and enjoying the breathtaking views

Amazing views in the Tuolumne area of Yosemite

These snow-capped mountains are ancient glaciers

(Cold) Lakes in high altitude

One could have easily hiked to the snow-covered patches around the lake

If you go up, you have to come down too. Lesson learned – when ascending do NOT open any liquid containers (they will explode their contents all over the car)

Views of the Mono Lake (which has cool tufas) on the way to Mammoth Lakes

Desert-like landscapes down at the valley

Approaching the mountains of the Mammoth Lakes region (a popular skiing destination)