Adventures of Chloe Rue: Yosemite National Park

It’s story time! For those who are new here, I have kept a record of Chloe’s and my adventures during our travels! I write and publish these about a year after they happen, for various reasons, but mostly per my grandma’s advice. I don’t know about you, but you ALWAYS listen to your Grandma’s advice- they know. Here we Go! Brace yourselves, it’s time for an enticing, incredible, thrilling and heart wrenching: A Tail of Chloe Rue (I know it’s tale, I just can’t help it).

Have you ever been SO excited about a shower in a beautiful waterfall, that you just jump right in? It was a hot day, incredibly warm against this midwestern blood that loves negative temperatures. Chloe was hot, choosing to lay down in the cool creek that gently flowed from this beautiful cascade of water. Well, if Chloe thinks it’s safe, she MUST be right. So I take off my shoes and my socks, and step into the falling dream of cool water. The cold soaked my back, my hair and my skin in such a wonderful cool, cold. As I inhaled the water flowed over my face and I caught a whiff of a smell. An awful, putrid smell like old batteries. I noticed my entire body just coated in this hard, rancid scent and it hit me. I was in YOSEMITE. I was next to mammoth lakes. This is volcano country. And I was bathing in sulfur water. Normally, that is totally fine and great; we Oregonian transplants LOVE us some sulfur hot springs. Until your entire body smells like a demon fresh from the gates of Hades, your hair becomes as hard and tough as crusted carrots and you’re in the most photogenic national park in the United States.

This, my friends, began my trip to Yosemite.

Yosemite Dreams Inspired by Ansel Adams

I have a long list of hiking trails that I consider “bucket list” hikes. One of which lays in the Ansel Adam’s Wilderness and first caught my attention because of the name of the wilderness. Ansel Adams was a huge inspiration to my love of photography, including the only class I ever took; which was black and white photography. I was heavily inspired by a photo of Half Dome during a winter storm that hung up in my Harry Potter themed room for a solid decade.

So when it was the summer of 2021, and time for a solo adventure with my favorite furry co pilot, Chloe Rue, we savored a 4 day weekend traveling down to Yosemite, planning this bucketlist hike.

I found a dream campground. 30 minutes from my dog friendly bucketlist trail head, 30 minutes from the East Entrance to Yosemite- It was simply unmatched. Especially since I enjoyed an Elk encounter right off the bat, and Chloe and I found the whispering pines shade lovely and cool. Not to mention, it was steps away from an amazing Volcanic Caldera. It’s called Obsidian Dome and if you’re ever in the area it makes for an insane sunset view!

Unfortunately, Chloe’s health had taken a sudden decline directly before this trip. Chloe had tested positive for lymes disease since she was a baby but had remained symptom free (which happens in dogs frequently). Shortly before this trip her symptoms began to show. Our bucketlist hike was out of the picture and our trails would be very limited while her body recovered from its illness.

Therefore, Chloe and I rested in our Hammock in the shade, before finding a short walk to a mammoth lake adventure.

That’s where our favorite sulfur shower scene occurred and set the scene for an incredible adventure, where I maintained some pretty tough hair. On the bright side, sulfur is supposed to be great for your skin and hair! On the downside, I didn’t have an actual shower to rinse out the water and smell. I guess that adds to the list solo adventure perks. Noone has to smell you!

Yosemite Valley at Sunrise

After a hot and smelly hike around Mammoth Lakes, savoring some incredible views and driving around to beautiful scenes; Chloe and I rested in our whispering pines campground with a huge smile on our faces. Sunday was the day I was able to enter the National Park (that had limited entry due to COVID). I planned to wake up early to catch the sunrise. While I was SO excited to be just 30 minutes from the East Park entrance. I did not realize I was a solid 3 hours from Yosemite Valley, until I added the location I wanted to watch the sunrise from to my GPS. Whoops. I did end up waking up at 3am to attempt to catch the sunrise and while I JUST made it to the valley in time, it was absolutely WORTH IT. But word of advice for all Yosemite Dog Travelers- it does take 3 hours to cross the park.

Chloe and I caught the sunrise in the valley with some coffee, enjoying the way the sun played over the rocks in such a stunning way.

I love sunrises. It gives a chance for animals to sing and dance around, while all human noise is quiet. Sunrises make for such amazing patterns of light that change in every single location in the world. It’s such a great reminder that every day contains beauty, if we just take a moment (or wake up at 3am) to embrace it. Yosemite was a grand reminder to me of how much I love sunrises, and how staggeringly beautiful they can be.

Gentle Dog Friendly Hikes

Chloe LOVED the dog friendly path to Yosemite Falls that was completely deserted so early in the morning. We explored:

Yosemite Falls trail
Glacier Point Trail
Cooks Meadow

The drive between the Valley, up to Glacier Point was absolutely unreal. Chloe and I took our time, stopping at almost every pull out. We wanted to capture the same photo as Ansel Adams and kept pulling off to try to find the shot. In hindsight, this is totally google-able. I didn’t realize that, naturally, but if you’re like me, looking to capture the same view from the infamous “Winter Storm” Half Dome shot, it’s a pull-off called New Inspiration Point, directly before (below?) Old Inspiration Point.

All of the pull-offs and many of the paved trails are pet friendly at Yosemite. I was so excited that Chloe got to enjoy her time at the National Park too. She even enjoyed a doggy version of an icecream sandwich before our day ended, and we meandered back to our campground for a nice, peaceful nap.

Homeward Bound

I know most people would never drive 24 hours in a 4 day weekend to explore a beautiful national park like Yosemite, with their dog. Personally, I wouldn’t have changed it for anything. We saw such incredible views, enjoyed an amazing campsite that was free, we even explored the INSIDE of a volcano caldera, and learned we could camp inside it in the future if we so desire!

It is funny to think about this last part of the story today when diesel prices are JUST coming below 6 dollars a gallon. But last summer in California diesel was 5$ per gallon and I had never seen those kinds of prices before! In my stubbornness, I opted to wait to fill up until I got to Oregon. Since I was hot, smelly, wide awake and just so uncomfortable I was set on driving through the night to make it home for a shower.

Therefore it was just after midnight when I crossed the California/Oregon border to arrive at a gas station where I had just 3 miles left to empty according to my truck. The gas station looked to have just closed for the night, and I started to panic a bit. I always keep an extra can of diesel in my truck, but it had been in there for an extended period of time and I didn’t trust it. So if I couldn’t find diesel somewhere, I would be sleeping in the parking lot until morning. That would have been fine, but the sulfur hair situation was very uncomfortable and a warm shower at home sounded like the best thing ever imaginable.

I pulled into the gas station, where an Attendant was outside with a clipboard. I used Chloe to my advantage, putting her in the front seat and reminding her to be as cute as humanly possible. When I told the Attendant I had just 3 miles left until empty, she was SO understanding! I could not believe it when she let me add fuel to my truck despite the station closing at midnight. I wish I had written down the address, or even my location to send a thank you note. That girl was saving my stubborn, fuel-less behind!

At last, it was early, early in the morning and I pulled into my home with Chloe, where we pranced inside and I finally washed my hair until it turned from hard as a rock to manageable! We were thrilled to be home in our bed once more; but more than anything Chloe and I were thrilled to have savored yet another incredible, tantalizing, dog friendly adventure together.

Have you ever been to Yosemite National Park? How about taken a shower in a waterfall? Maybe you’ve had the opportunity to explore the heart of a volcano? If not, go to Yosemite! Truly, Chloe and I loved every minute of this adventure, no matter how smelly I was as a human! Wishing you all many happy trails and happy tails until next week.

Barking Embarkers