4 National Park Adventures

By Kristin Harrison
Women's Running Magazine

You don't have to spend big bucks to go on an active vacation--these U.S. National Parks offer heart-pounding thrills close to home.

Yosemite National Park, California

"No temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite. Every rock seems to glow with life," said naturalist and the "father of conservation" John Muir. Ansel Adams was so enchanted by this nearly 1,200-square-mile park he returned every year for nearly seven decades to photograph Yosemite's main attractions: Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, one of the world's tallest waterfalls, and the 3,000-foot-high El Capitan. You could spend weeks hiking and backpacking through this park full of waterfalls, forests, mountains and towering tree groves.

Don't miss: Hiking Half Dome, which towers some 5,000 feet above Yosemite Valley. The 14- to 16-mile round-trip hike is not for those afraid of heights: The last 400 feet of the trail includes a series of cables hikers must use to get to the top.

Get a thrill: Take the six-day O.A.R.S. adventure trip "Wild & Scenic Tuolumne Hiker," which includes two days of white water rafting on Class III and IV rapids on the Tuolumne River, just outside the park, and three days of hiking in Yosemite to destinations including a giant sequoia grove, with some of the tallest trees in the world, the glacier-carved Tuolumne Meadows and Half Dome.

Ellen McCabe, a 55-year-old multisport athlete from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, went on the trip in July. She says the adrenaline rush of plunging through rapids aptly named "Nemesis," "Hell's Kitchen" and "Thread the Needle" was thrilling, and she loved the spontaneous activities like climbing from the campsite to jump off a rock into the river and cool off.

Info: To learn more about Yosemite National Park, visit nps.gov/yose. O.A.R.S. offers rafting and multisport trips in and around Yosemite, as well as to numerous other destinations in the U.S. and abroad. For more info, call (209) 736-4677 or visit oars.com.

Camp at Tuolumne Meadows.

Three More National Park Adventures.

Comments

[Jane Kastner]

Yosemite is fantastic! Here are more tips on how to score a campsite at the 10 most popular National Parks: http://www.campingroadtrip.com/getting-a-campsite-at-the-top-ten-national-parks

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My husband and I travelled to Yosemite, when we were on a trip from the UK. Can you believe it, we missed the signs for the turn off and went about 100k round trip the wrong way.

When we were lost my husband said, "Yosemite is the size of Wales, how could we miss it?". I just don't know.

It was so well worth the wait, totally awe inspiring. Would dearly love to back again (if we could find it this time).

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[Jerry Frankes]

We stayed at Yosemite Pines RV Resort & Family Lodging http://www.yosemitepinesrv.com/ in Groveland, California about a halh hour drive from the western entrance to the park. Yosemite Pines is great for kids as they have a pool, playground, volleyball, gold mine tour, petting zoo. In addition to campsites they also have cabins and yurts.

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wow.. This is really a vacation blowout! Just by reading the description of activities, it already gives me an adrenaline rush.. Nice. :) really worth visiting.

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Yosemite is one of the largest and least fragmented habitat blocks in the Sierra Nevada, and the park supports a diversity of plants and animals. perfect!!

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