My husband and I went to SFO (on Virgin America - great flight, thank you!) and booked a 14 hour bus tour to Yosemite. The hotel pick up bus came to our hotel at 6:15 am, but because of a delay in the real bus, road construction, and the multitudes of visitors to Yosemite, our trip ended 16 hours later. Phew.

However, the trip was well worth it. The waterfalls are all spectacular because of the unusually large snowpack. There was water everywhere! We didn't see any wildlife, although another tourist claimed to see a baby bear.

Overhead Bin - Epic snowpack brings stunning scenery, hazards to national parks

Here is a Bear and The Atheist joke from the bus driver (paraphrasing is mine).

One day, the Atheist was at Yosemite looking around when a Bear approached him. He was so frightened that he called out "Dear God, save me from this bear!" God's voice boomed "Are you saying you believe in me now?" The Atheist said "no, I am not converting, but I was hoping you would convert the Bear." God then asked the Bear if it was converting. The Bear then clasped its paws together, closed its eyes, and said "Thank you God for this delicious meal that I am about to have!"

Its great to hear about the Yosemite National Park. Have you seen our Victoria Falls while flying in Africa? We had our small aviation club close by, just for helicopters flying.
And at latter one could get a training further on in a capital for the future commercial flying at that time.