Curry Village

Having mentioned my plans to visit Yosemite while at work a time or two, I discovered a coworker grew up in the Yosemite area. She insisted I stay at Curry Village. I had previously been looking at some hotels just outside Yosemite. Due to the size of the park though, Google was telling me I would have at least a 45 minute drive into the park daily. This isn't how I wanted to spend my vacation, so I took my coworkers advice.

Welcome to Curry Village, located directly in the Yosemite valley.

Here's what I stayed. They call it a tent cabin. It's a wooden frame with with a canvas covering. There is no heat, AC, nor outlets* in the tents. I believe they do have some that have AC/heat, but those ones being nicer, are more expensive. This one by itself was $115 a night.

Here's a little tour showing you what is inside. **Be sure to watch in HD**

Here's a little shot showing you the view from the tent cabins.

Here are the rules to follow:

They are being serious about bears in the area...I'll get to that in a bit. You can not have ANY scented items in your car nor tent. This means not only food, but shampoo, toothpaste, etc. If it smells, it goes in the bear box out in front of your tent, as scene here.

Here's a shot of mine all loaded up with anything I brought that may smell.

With this being 2011, here's the most single important item you need on a trip to Curry Village.

It's the item behind my charging camera battery, a light socket extender or call it what you want. They are all of $3 at Lowes or Home Depot. You unscrew the light bulb, screw in this extension, and then reinstall the bulb into it. It only gives you the two of the two prong plug options, not the 3 prong you would need for a laptop. Still though, with this little $3 piece, you can keep your cell phone charged, charge your camera batteries, plug in a heating pad or fan, and I'm sure many other options. I just happen to google "charging at curry village" the day before leaving on my trip, and found a link saying to buy one of these. I did just that, and then when I got to my tent, I found someone had left their own one behind.

Now, what to do around Curry Village? Well there are tons of things.

First off, there is a general store, which I didn't take pictures of. It looks a little weird taking pictures of people shopping. They have everything from merchandise(tshirt, sweatshirts, key chains, posters, hats, etc) to food items(full fozen food area with a microwave in the store, chips, salsa, sodas, beer, wine, bread, crackers, granola bars, and tons of other health food items), to all the small basic items you may need here at Yosemite like cameras, batteries, Tylenol, etc. It's like the nicest 7-11 you've been to, but a bigger selection. Next door to that is a full on outdoors store with tents, hiking poles, boots, backpacks, hiking attire, ropes, clips, harnesses, ponchos, etc.

Here's a list of some of the times other places are open:

I'll start with the Pizza Patio. It's pretty simple. You wait in line, order, get a pager, and come grab your food when they page you.

Here are the prices as of 8/26/11

All the tables have these little reminders to not feed the wildlife.

They mean business!

Here's a sample of the personal pizza. I think I ate 3 of these on my trip. They are VERY good, not some frozen food quality junk.

You'll see these little guys anywhere and everywhere. Despite the park's attempt to stop they being so friendly, they still are. They will climb up onto your backpack and attempt to look inside when it's sitting next to you. In this case, they will quickly attack a spill in front of the condiment table.

Onto the buffet. I'm a little disappointed I didn't get to try their dinner buffet, but I did manage to hit up the buffet for breakfast twice.

The prices and a sample of what they will probably have on average.

The rules.

The food in straight in, right past all those plates.

More of the seating area.

Here's a majority of the breakfast items. I'm not a breakfast person, but I know I needed fuel to hike, and the price was VERY reasonable in my opinion.

Milk, soda, and juice machines:

Here's what my first round look like.

Inside the same building that houses the buffet is also the Coffee Corner/Ice Cream Corner.

The Coffee Corner pricing.

The Ice Cream pricing.

Here's the breakfast I picked up at the Coffee Corner one day. It was a little over $5 if I remember correctly. Here's a little tip. That carton of milk was $2.XX, but for within $0.60 or so the general store sells a half gallon. I wish I would have realized this earlier as on my second time to the buffet, I mainly went simply because I want at least 2 big glasses of milk. That would have been over $5, so I might as well just pay $11 for the buffet.

Here's the bar. It seats about 8 or so, and then off to the right of this picture, indoors, there is seating for another 20 or so. A lot of people would just grab a 6 pack at the general store and sit around on the benches outside drinking and enjoying the views.

Here's the lounge building/area. I overheard someone say at least part of this building use to be the post office. Now the entire building it just tables, chairs, and couches, so one can relax, read a book, or do whatever. Being 2011 though, most of the people inside are huddled around the many outlets charging cmaera, phones, laptops, etc.

Here's a quick inside picture. I tried taking a picture of a squirrel that was up on the chair, but je jumped as I took the pic. This building doesn't have AC, so the windows open, and people often leave the doors open despite signs saying not to. This causes the friendly squirrels to wonder in hoping to steal food some people's backpacks or the garbage cans.

Here's a shot of the pool area. It closes at 5pm, which I find a little odd. I never got to use it during my stay.

Here's a shot of it while I was off to get lunch one day. It gets busy there.

Swimming pool history:

If you don't make it back to camp before 10pm when everything closes, they still have you covered for drinks.

Here's the amphitheatre. They have several performances/shows/movies throughout the day. This is perfect for families with kids. I know I walked by towards dusk at one point and they had a projection system showing some movie about the history of Yosemite. Had I not been going for a late dinner, I would have sat down(if I could have found an open seat).

There are also several options for fun over at the Recreation Center.

They rent out bikes by the hour or by the day. They also rent rafts, so you can raft/float down the Merced River. The river is only a 3-5 minute walk from the Rec Center. You jump in, float away, and get off at a set end point. They then take care of bring you and the raft back to the beginning point. I hear it about 1-2 hours depending on the water speed, if you paddle, etc.

Now hopefully seeing how nice Curry Village is, hasn't made anything think you are far separate from the actual park. Here's several pictures taken no more than a minute walk from the shops/restaurants/tents.