Yosemite Trip: Day Three
Tuesday, January 9
This morning we are headed off to neighboring Curry Village here in the Yosemite Valley. For those of you who don’t know, curry village is a unique collection of rustic wooden cabins, a dozen or so lodge rooms, and several hundred tent cabins right at the foot of Glacier Point.
Curry Village is one of the oldest lodging providers in the park. Established in 1899 by David and Jenny Curry, the village, originally named Camp Curry, was advertised as a place where you could find a good bed and a clean napkin with every meal for just $2.00 per day.
I was pleasantly surprised by the Specialty Cabins and the Stoneman Cottages at Curry Village, the rooms are much more spacious and modern than I had envisioned. Both offer guests a private bath and heat throughout the year.
Most of the rustic wood cabins offer heating of some sort both those with private bath and those without.
The canvas tent cabins are nice clean and comfortable as well. Most of the tent cabins will accommodate up to 5 people and come equipped with linens for the bed, however you might want to bring your sleeping bag along as well if you tend to get cold easily. Some of the tent cabins offer heating, but not all, and I can’t say for sure just how warm the heaters keep the tent cabins during the cooler nights, as I have never spent the night in one of them personally.
The tent cabins and rustic cabins without bath all share a communal bathroom and shower area which is actually pretty nice. There are ample showers available as well as a number of sinks mirrors and commodes.
Curry Village also includes several community areas for dining, recreation and entertainment. There is a very nice dining pavilion right at the edge of camp which serves up all-you-can-eat buffet style meals throughout the day. There is also a Taqueria, a Pizza Deck and Bar, and a Coffee shop and Ice Cream Stand where you can get your favorite drink or frozen delight made to order.
Directly adjacent to the food pavilion is the old post office and game room where families and friends can meet around the large river rock fireplace to play games, tell stories or just relax and enjoy each others company.
The thing that impressed me most about Curry Village was its location, right at the foot of 7214 foot Glacier Point. It is a humbling experience to be standing that close to such a magnificent natural edifice of earth and granite.
The summer evening campfire program at Curry Village used to climax with the spectacle of “Firefall†when one of the program performers would call out to the top of Glacier Point “Let the Fire Fall!”, and a great bonfire of red fir bark would be pushed evenly over the edge of the cliff, appearing to the onlookers below to be a glowing waterfall of sparks and fire.
Unfortunately the shows climax was discontinued in 1968 when park officials decided to reduce the amount of artificial attractions within Yosemite’s borders. I’m sorry I missed it. I have seen photos of the old tradition and now having seen Glacier Point in person I can only imagine how spectacular it must have been as the glowing embers would come cascading down over the sheer granite wall.
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