Our warm and inviting apartment located inside the park gates within 30 minutes of Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point and the Mariposa Grove. Finished in 2010, Alpine Escape is an 760sf (70m^2), one-bedroom apartment with the comforts of home. This apartment makes up the ground floor of our duplex home. You enter from the front of the home and we have a completely separate entrance to our floor in the back.
The space
Need a relaxing refuge to retreat to after a day of adventuring among the natural wonders of Yosemite National Park? Our warm and inviting home is located inside the park gates equidistant from the celebrated features of Yosemite: the namesake Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point, the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias and 800 miles of hiking trails. Over and over guests tell us that when they come back at the end of the day, they feel like they are coming home.
Alpine Escape is a 760 square foot (70 square meter), one-bedroom apartment. You will enjoy a fully-equipped kitchen with full-size, quality appliances, granite countertops and a full complement of cooking equipment (pots, pans, coffee maker, blender, and so on). Knotty alder cabinets in the kitchen, bath and bedroom and knotty alder doors and trim throughout give a warm feel to the home. We live upstairs in our own apartment while you have the ground floor with a completely separate entrance.
For your comfort, we have central heat (propane) and a gas fireplace to keep you warm in winter and air conditioning (Fujitsu mini-split) to keep you cool on hot days.
The living/dining area has a table for four, a large sofa and a 47" flat-screen television for watching movies from our DVD collection. The bedroom features a queen bed with a built-in knotty alder closet. An alcove off the living room provides bedding for up to two additional guests on a daybed and pullout trundle with memory foam mattresses. The trundle is at floor level, so it is great for younger kids, but perhaps not so great for older adults! Alpine Escape is the perfect size for a couple or a family with one or two children. It can work for four adults if the bedding is acceptable, but we don't recommend it for two couples traveling together.
Outside you have a small, covered patio and a sitting area with a pergola and a sunshade where guests often enjoy breakfast or an afternoon glass of wine.
We are near the end of a quiet street, the perfect starting point for an evening stroll. Some winter mornings, we've woken to the laughter of young kids happily sledding down the road in front of our house (and observant parents keeping their eyes open for the occasional vehicle). There are places nearby to go for walks with excellent birding and wildflowers, including what may be the best display of Evening Primroses in the entire park right in our front yard (in the early 1900s the Evening Primroses were a major attraction in Yosemite Valley and the subject of some of the first hand-tinted color photos ever taken, but there are now only a handful scattered around the Valley). There are some good, flat and steep running and walking trails at the top of the neighborhood, about a five-minute drive away.
But of course, you are coming to Yosemite for the soaring granite cliffs, massive sequoia trees and tremendous views. Yosemite West is located inside the park entrance, and sits near an intersection of the roads leading to the park's most famous features: Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point and Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. These popular park destinations are all within 15-18 miles (30-35 minutes) from Yosemite West in three different directions. The Badger Pass ski area is only seven miles away providing access to Yosemite's winter wonders, including XC ski and snowshoe trails, as well as lift-served skiing and snowboarding. If you're looking to eat out, the restaurants of Yosemite Valley are about 30 minutes away, while the Wawona Hotel, which welcomed Theodore Roosevelt on his 1903 trip to Yosemite, is about 30 minutes in the opposite direction.
We also pride ourselves on our depth of knowledge of the park and our willingness to share that knowledge. Since 1985, we have been coming to the park for the world-class rock climbing and have been living here full time since April 2003. We're hikers, climbers, backcountry skiers and wildflower enthusiasts and general naturalists. In past years, we have worked as Assistant Manager of the Yosemite Mountaineering School running the hiking program (Theresa), a park ranger (Tom), ski instructors (both). Through those experiences, and through helping our guests over the years, we have wealth of information that we are willing to share to help you make the most of your time in Yosemite whether it's a couple of days or a couple of weeks!
Guest access
Guests have their own separate entrance to the apartment in our home. We provide a key code and you can let yourself in (and out!) any time.
Other things to note
Please note that we have a strict limit of four guests. We generally feel that our place works great for one adult or a couple with up to two kids. It works okay for three friends or a couple and two friends. Basically, there are three beds and two of those are in the shared space in the living room. So not great for a romantic two-couple getaway.
Internet
We have Starlink internet which works well for email, streaming and most things, but does have momentary dropouts when a satellite goes behind a tree. This doesn't affect streaming because the streaming service buffer, but it does affect real-time conversations like FaceTime and Zoom which can lock up for a few seconds.
Television
42" flatscreen TV with Roku, Netflix and Paramount Plus (currently), plus over 100 classic DVDs including some focused on Yosemite.
Planning
Finally, we are usually home and we love helping people plan their trips and get the most out of their visit. However, sometimes we take our own vacations, so we don't guarantee that we will be there to provide our "concierge" service. We are, however, always happy to help plan in advance over the phone or by email. We love to share our knowledge of the park, but sometimes we have to do it remotely!
