Monday Tuesday Wednesday at Yosemite Valley with my kids. We met at Amtrak station in Merced and drove in after Mexican food dinner. We stayed in a Curry Village heated tent (wood skeleton frame, canvas walls, and a propane heater) and it was not as cold as I feared it might be (wearing all my ski underwear, of course). There had been 4" of snow in the Valley Sunday, but the only residue on the road was the "Chains Required" signs, which we ignored because we didn't want to tear up the nice NPS roads. The parking lots were icy, but not a big problem. Hiking around on the trails meant exposure to a mix of rock, ice, snow and mud - and I fear that is all the winter I will get this year.