Views: 0 As we rounded the final switchback, we looked toward the path ahead, or what we could make of it. It was something these boulders, and their usual crowds, rarely experience: complete isolation. About two weeks before winter break, I bought a ticket to visit my roommate in her hometown of Pleasanton, Calif. While touring the small town was a plus, the real draw of the trip lay two and a half hours beyond it. A place I’ve called “my dreamland” for years: Yosemite National Park.