On Sunday all the family split up.
Mark and Scott and I were the only ones that stayed in California and everyone else went back home.
We headed out to Yosemite National Park to start our camp trip.
Can I just say how much I hate driving in California.
The freeways are always so crazy crowded, no matter the hour.
If the other roads aren't busy then it can get to be boring.
I did most of the driving on this half of the trip and Mark did a lot of sleeping.
I just wanted to talk on the phone like I do when I'm bored but I couldn't because there is no phones while driving.
I guess I was a little tired from the night before and the lack of sleep.
Anyway, we got to Yosemite about midday and we were blown away.
It was absolutely amazing.
The granite peaks were incredible and the water falls were spectacular.
The trees were so tall.
We new that Yosemite had Sequioa trees and we thought all the tall trees were them.
There just aren't enough adjectives to describe it all.
Here we are at our camp site.
We have really good luck with dear walking through where ever we go, it seems and these came the closest.
And, of course, our stamp picture in front of the Yosemite sign.
I really get excited to take the sign picture, Mark likes to tease me about how excited I get but I don't even care.
I treasure each one we get.
It's my own mini high of checking another one off our list.
Once we got settled in our site we couldn't sit still for long.
We had to go explore.
Thanks to Mark who picked out our camp site at Upper Pines there was a nice easy walk right from it that went to Mirror Lake.
It only has water in the early spring and it was to nice and clear, a perfect mirror.
It gave us a great view of Half Dome.
This was the only clear day we got in Yosemite Valley.
It was very wet and over cast the rest of the time.
Oh well, we got to see the Valley in a way very few people get to since the vast majority of visitors come in the late spring and summer when it's nice and hot.
We decided that we will just have to come back during tourist season and try to go places where few go.
Here is Bridalveil Falls.
We made this short and extremely wet hike that evening.
It was beautiful.
I think it's my favorite water fall in the park.
You can get pretty close to the base which is why it's so wet.
So on Tuesday, with it still being so wet we decided to get in the car and go see the Wawona end of the park.
If we had thought it through we would have done this on the last day since it is on the south end of the park and that's where we were leaving from but oh well, it was a good day to go.
We walked through the Mariposa Grove of sequoia trees.
HOLY COW!!!!!!
What we thought were sequoia trees before were less then half the size of what a real sequoia is.
We were blown away!
They are HUGE!
I'm telling you, think of a really tall tree and try to realize that what you're thinking of isn't even close.
It was amazingly humbling.
First off on our way there we past the most photographed spot in the world so we pulled over and added our pictures to the count.
What you are supposed to see is a panorama of El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridalveil Falls along with other points of interest.
We got the falls but pretty much everything else was covered in clouds.
Oh well, it was still beautiful, just in a different way.
The next two pictures are of the Grizzly Giant which is the oldest tree in the park, which happens to be about 1,800 years old.
It is also the second largest tree in the park with measurements of 96 feet in circumference and 27.6 feet in dynamiter at the base.
You might be able to see Mark at the base with his arms open wind showing the magnificence of the tree.
One of the branches extending from the tree is wider the the trunks of many of the trees that I'm used to seeing.
The picture on the bottom left is of me under the tunnel tree.
The tree was carved out in 1895 for coaches to pass through it and is the only living tree with a tunnel still in it.
Presidents have taken pictures under this tunnel as well as countless others.
It was kinda a big deal for me to get this shot.
The middle bottom pic is of the Bachelor and the Three Graces.
They rarely grow so tall so close together, they were probably "planted" at about the same time.
The last picture is also an awesome historical spot.
It is Mark and Scott in front of the Fallen Monarch.
It is believed that it has been fallen for centuries.
Many amazing historic figures have taken pictures where they are standing.
I love standing in history.
Well come Wednesday we were so sick of all the excuses we made why we couldn't do a good hike.
We also finally got a touch of blue skis and decided to just tough it up and take Scott on a hard hike.
So we did the hike up to Vernal Falls which was about three miles.
As you can see Scott did quite a bit of walking to begin with but eventually the pavement went away, there's was less gradual climb and a whole lot of steep tall stairs and it got really wet from the mist of the falls.
This was when we put him on our shoulders and treadged on up.
It was hard even without Scott but we were determined.
And as hard as it was it felt even better to be not just walking but hiking and breathing heavy and needing to drink water.
We loved having our nice newish hiking boots.
When we got to the top we had lunch and enjoyed the feeling of success.
We walked a bit of the John Muir Trail and that was pretty cool too.
While visiting with my California relatives I found out that my Aunt Vickie and Uncle Steve have made it there goal to hike the entire John Muir Trail and Mark and I couldn't help but think what an amazing feat that would be.
I don't know if it's an official goal to do it all like them but we both agree that we want to backpack some of it.
It was a great hike and a great day that we needed to lift our spirits.
Come Thursday it was time to head south to Sequoia National Park.
But I really wanted to see the Hetch Hetchy Valley.
It was pretty high north.
Remember what I said about going to Wawona?
We really should have visited Hetch Hetchy Valley on Tuesday and then done Wawona on our way out on Thursday day but oh well.
I'm really glad we came when we did because something amazing happened.
We went up and saw the beautiful valley that John Muir faught so hard to protect and lost.
The city of San Francisco damned the valley in 1923 for drinking water.
Being there was quite strange.
While putting a damn in a National Park went against what they stood for, I do believe that the country then after saw the problem with it and has stood as a monument on how we need to protect the National Parks from ourselves.
Can't help but think there could have been another way.
On our way out we got to see a bear cross the road.
Mark and I had been joking the whole stay at Yosemite that they made up all the bears to scare people into coming.
We took every precaution to keep the bears away but really just wanted to see them.
Well it happened on our way out.
Did you know that there are no longer any brown bears in the state of California?
And that black bears aren't just black.
This is a brown black bear.
It was so close to us that it was almost scary.
Mark was sitting out the window taking pictures when he noticed a movement above him.
Right above him on a tree were two cubs.
It was incredible seeing them like three feet away climbing down a tree.
They were so little and fluffy.
I so wanted Mark to snatch the black one out of the tree so I could take it home and cuddle with it.
It was an amazing ending to and amazing trip.
Anyway, we got to Yosemite about midday and we were blown away.
It was absolutely amazing.
The granite peaks were incredible and the water falls were spectacular.
The trees were so tall.
We new that Yosemite had Sequioa trees and we thought all the tall trees were them.
There just aren't enough adjectives to describe it all.
We have really good luck with dear walking through where ever we go, it seems and these came the closest.
And, of course, our stamp picture in front of the Yosemite sign.
I really get excited to take the sign picture, Mark likes to tease me about how excited I get but I don't even care.
I treasure each one we get.
It's my own mini high of checking another one off our list.
We had to go explore.
Thanks to Mark who picked out our camp site at Upper Pines there was a nice easy walk right from it that went to Mirror Lake.
It only has water in the early spring and it was to nice and clear, a perfect mirror.
It gave us a great view of Half Dome.
This was the only clear day we got in Yosemite Valley.
It was very wet and over cast the rest of the time.
Oh well, we got to see the Valley in a way very few people get to since the vast majority of visitors come in the late spring and summer when it's nice and hot.
We decided that we will just have to come back during tourist season and try to go places where few go.
On Monday we went to Yosemite Falls.
Like I said it was very wet and going to a place that is always wet made it less annoying.
There is upper, middle and lower falls.
This is another reason to come back.
But we decided when we do come we wont be taking Scott.
We really wanted to hike the strenuous hike to the top of upper falls but knew we couldn't do it with Scott.
Scott has never seen so much water falling and I think it scared him at first.
But it didn't last long, he really wanted to go past the blocked off area and go play.
We made this short and extremely wet hike that evening.
It was beautiful.
I think it's my favorite water fall in the park.
You can get pretty close to the base which is why it's so wet.
If we had thought it through we would have done this on the last day since it is on the south end of the park and that's where we were leaving from but oh well, it was a good day to go.
We walked through the Mariposa Grove of sequoia trees.
HOLY COW!!!!!!
What we thought were sequoia trees before were less then half the size of what a real sequoia is.
We were blown away!
They are HUGE!
I'm telling you, think of a really tall tree and try to realize that what you're thinking of isn't even close.
It was amazingly humbling.
First off on our way there we past the most photographed spot in the world so we pulled over and added our pictures to the count.
What you are supposed to see is a panorama of El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridalveil Falls along with other points of interest.
We got the falls but pretty much everything else was covered in clouds.
Oh well, it was still beautiful, just in a different way.
The next two pictures are of the Grizzly Giant which is the oldest tree in the park, which happens to be about 1,800 years old.
It is also the second largest tree in the park with measurements of 96 feet in circumference and 27.6 feet in dynamiter at the base.
You might be able to see Mark at the base with his arms open wind showing the magnificence of the tree.
One of the branches extending from the tree is wider the the trunks of many of the trees that I'm used to seeing.
The picture on the bottom left is of me under the tunnel tree.
The tree was carved out in 1895 for coaches to pass through it and is the only living tree with a tunnel still in it.
Presidents have taken pictures under this tunnel as well as countless others.
It was kinda a big deal for me to get this shot.
The middle bottom pic is of the Bachelor and the Three Graces.
They rarely grow so tall so close together, they were probably "planted" at about the same time.
The last picture is also an awesome historical spot.
It is Mark and Scott in front of the Fallen Monarch.
It is believed that it has been fallen for centuries.
Many amazing historic figures have taken pictures where they are standing.
I love standing in history.
We also finally got a touch of blue skis and decided to just tough it up and take Scott on a hard hike.
So we did the hike up to Vernal Falls which was about three miles.
As you can see Scott did quite a bit of walking to begin with but eventually the pavement went away, there's was less gradual climb and a whole lot of steep tall stairs and it got really wet from the mist of the falls.
This was when we put him on our shoulders and treadged on up.
It was hard even without Scott but we were determined.
And as hard as it was it felt even better to be not just walking but hiking and breathing heavy and needing to drink water.
We loved having our nice newish hiking boots.
When we got to the top we had lunch and enjoyed the feeling of success.
We walked a bit of the John Muir Trail and that was pretty cool too.
While visiting with my California relatives I found out that my Aunt Vickie and Uncle Steve have made it there goal to hike the entire John Muir Trail and Mark and I couldn't help but think what an amazing feat that would be.
I don't know if it's an official goal to do it all like them but we both agree that we want to backpack some of it.
It was a great hike and a great day that we needed to lift our spirits.
But I really wanted to see the Hetch Hetchy Valley.
It was pretty high north.
Remember what I said about going to Wawona?
We really should have visited Hetch Hetchy Valley on Tuesday and then done Wawona on our way out on Thursday day but oh well.
I'm really glad we came when we did because something amazing happened.
We went up and saw the beautiful valley that John Muir faught so hard to protect and lost.
The city of San Francisco damned the valley in 1923 for drinking water.
Being there was quite strange.
While putting a damn in a National Park went against what they stood for, I do believe that the country then after saw the problem with it and has stood as a monument on how we need to protect the National Parks from ourselves.
Can't help but think there could have been another way.
On our way out we got to see a bear cross the road.
Mark and I had been joking the whole stay at Yosemite that they made up all the bears to scare people into coming.
We took every precaution to keep the bears away but really just wanted to see them.
Well it happened on our way out.
Did you know that there are no longer any brown bears in the state of California?
And that black bears aren't just black.
This is a brown black bear.
It was so close to us that it was almost scary.
Mark was sitting out the window taking pictures when he noticed a movement above him.
Right above him on a tree were two cubs.
It was incredible seeing them like three feet away climbing down a tree.
They were so little and fluffy.
I so wanted Mark to snatch the black one out of the tree so I could take it home and cuddle with it.
It was an amazing ending to and amazing trip.
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