Here’s a confession that’s likely to earn me a few rude comments (if not outright death threats): I don’t like Yosemite. Or at least I didn’t, until very recently. Hot, crowded, and dusty, it always held all the charm of a refugee camp for me.

I could see that it was magnificent, I just couldn’t transcend the tour buses and carbon monoxide.

In fact only about 5% of Yosemite’s 3.2 million annual visitors ever leave the valley floor.