Yosemite, grrrr.

For our trip down to Onion Valley, I thought it might be nice to come back to the West side of the Sierra through Yosemite. What the heck, it would be a nice drive, and should be easy to organize.

So I went online to Recreation.gov on July 14 and tried to book a Yosemite day pass for July 18. What I got was a message that no day pass was required for July 18 or July 19.

Huh. Cool. Apparently July 18 and 19 were just not going to be busy enough. I thought I was going to be good to go. But I didn't take a screen shot of that message.

So on July 18, when we started driving north on Highway 395, I thought I would check again. Now the rec.gov site simply had both July 18 and 19 as blank on their calendar. Nothing available, nothing saying it was all reserved, just a blank spot on the calendar.

I tried calling them, and got a message that their staff had no knowledge at all beyon what I could see on their website. And as we approached Lee Vining and the turnoff to Tioga Pass, the electronic road sign clearly said: Yosemite National Park: Reservations Required for Entry.

I thought about going up to Tioga Pass and taking my chances, either with a mirable (the info on the website was accurate) or an understanding ranger at the entry station. But if neither of those turned out to be true, it was a lot of driving for an already long day.

Screw it. We headed for Monitor Pass and Echo Summit, which Google Maps tolds us was three minutes shorter, anyway.

But don't you wish you had the idea that someone, anyone, might be flying the damn airplane at recreation.gov?

We do.