VALLEY TRANSPORTATION: There are so many iconic ways to get around and up and over inside Yosemite Valley that whole sections of travel books are devoted to transportation. Yep, visitors famously enter by cars -- many, many cars -- but once inside the national park they make for horseback and ice skates and boats on the Merced and the open-air trams and even carabiners on the way up El Capitan. There isn't a bad mode of transport around the stunning setting, in short, though bicycles are one tried-and-true way to roll. There are rental shops for both BMX cycles and road rollers, and lots of ways to see the park while pedaling. But one rather unusual way that only comes every so often is the Full Moon Bike Ride.
CYCLE BY STARRY SKY: Naturalists from Delaware North lead the tour, which is coming up on the nights of Saturday, Aug. 17 through Wednesday, Aug. 21. If you have your own bike it's just five bucks and fifty cents to join -- a deal for sure -- but you can join *and* rent a bike for $20.50. You'll take a "leisurely" roll for two hours by the light of the moon. ("By the light of the moon" are about the six prettiest words ever, it's true, but apply them to a bike ride through Yosemite National Park and the pretty factor goes way, way up.)
MORE NIGHTTIME ADVENTURES: The National Park Foundation has info on the bike tours as well as a host of other things to do in the valley in the evening. One other one we've got our eye on? The nighttime ice skating at Curry Village Ice Rink come winter. That is gosh darn magical, what with Half Dome and Glacier Point providing the glistening backdrops.
