Some of the students on the De Anza Outdoor Club winter quarter 2025 trip stayed at the Yosemite Valley Lodge, or in a Curry Village cabin without a bath,
or they camped:
and had fine dining outdoors:
and watched a coyote near the campground getting his meal:
The Yosemite overnight accommodation for some of the students was
the Ahwahnee Hotel Presidential Suite with a balcony
that has a view of Half Dome:
and in the center of this panorama, Glacier Point:
and a view of upper Yosemite falls from the parlor:
You can “tour” the Ahwahnee Presidential Suite parlor, main bedroom (one of two bedrooms) and balcony by clicking around at this page:
https://discover.matterport.com/space/LypxxzpcBUK
Two of the ladies residing in the suite went swimming in the open-year-round pool. It was easy to get into the warm water, (heated to 85 degrees) but cold to get out. As they hurried back to their bedroom, they decided that one of them would get into the bathtub to warm up and one would get in the separate stall shower.
Fine dining at the Ahwahnee included a last-morning-of-the-trip brunch
with items students brought to share and some food provided by club funds,
including three kinds of juice (one of coffee), tangerines, raw vegies (baby carrot, pea pods and three colors of sweet pepper), a couple of vegan spreads for people to taste-test, garlic stuffed green olives, rosemary ham, bagels and 2 flavors of smears,
as usual on Outdoor Club trips, marshmallows to roast and press between graham crackers and chocolate bar pieces. It turned out that the “complete” kit of ingredients a student purchased did not include sticks to put the marshmallows on to roast them. But the ever-inventive club used coffee stirring sticks from the coffee maker supplies the Ahwahnee provides each room.
and . . . more pastries/donuts, chocolate and sliced cheese selections (at least ten varieties of cheese), with more crackers (five varieties) than the group could finish, so there were more-than-adequate leftover snacks for the drive home.
After brunch we posed a group photo at the south end of the Ahwahnee Hotel
with the most of the students along the balcony railing:
Part of the group got together Saturday morning at 6:45 a.m.
(or a bit later for some late-awakening people), at the Yosemite Valley Lodge
to discuss which hike seemed the best for that day, get a multitude of snacks for the hike (provided by the club), and have their gear checked by the faculty advisor. No one goes on any hikes on club adventures (or on kayaking in Grand Teton Park) without their waterproof (not just water-resistant) hooded rain jacket and rain pants, and a flashlight or headlamp.
A group photo next to a trailhead sign is always appropriate:
Wearing the water-proof jackets got a bit warm for some of the hike and they were taken off for awhile and attached to daypacks:
On the Yosemite Falls hike the group found low clouds at the railing at Columbia Rock obscuring part of the view:
but when they went further up the trail, they found the full view of upper Yosemite Fall:
and the clouds cleared enough for a great photo of the snow cone that builds up from ice at the base of the fall all winter:
(You can find more pictures of, and details about the hike to upper Yosemite Fall here.)
On a hike the previous day to Mirror Lake, photos were taken without
the usual people-standing-lined-up-in-a-row:
Photos at this webpage were taken by Thuy Tien Nguyen, Saba Naqvi, Majid Khan, Ruby Chen, Alan Ahlstrand, and as published in the campus newspaper, by Sarah Atito.
You can find more photos from this trip in a La Voz (De Anza campus newspaper) photo essay page
at: https://lavozdeanza.com/multimedia/photography/2025/02/20/falling-for-the-trees/
where a trip member is quoted as saying:
“I really wish, when I first left high school . . .
I had joined this club, that would have probably helped me a lot.”