Yosemite!

Yosemite National Park

9.24.16

Yosemite is breathtaking majesty.  What an amazing day.

Easy to see why our friend John Muir loved this place.

We arrived at Half Dome Village late on Friday night, and all we knew of our surroundings was that the stars were mind-boggling! Who knew there were that many stars up there?  ;) Ellie pointed out that something was blocking out the stars and making a huge completely black area...

We awoke on Saturday morning to see that we were surrounded by towering mountains unlike anything we'd ever seen.  Tim brought the kids out to the parking lot and told them not to look up until he told them to...It was great to share in their (literally) breathtaking experience.  :)

We had just survived what Jadan described as the worst night of his life in the "tent cabins" there, so we were glad they were at least impressed with the view.  ;)  It really was horrible.  We got the tent cabin right next to the bathroom, where we got to listen in on every conversation going on in the restroom, and the light shone on us all night.  We were warned repeatedly about the bears that would destroy our cars if there was even a scrap of food in there that they could smell, so we better get every bit of food into the bear box by the tent... which meant carting bags of groceries (we live on the road, remember?) quite a distance from the car into the midst of the 400 (!!!) tent cabins.  Oh, and if you see mouse poop, be warned that they are carrying disease & don't touch it.  The worst part, however, was that we froze.  We were just not prepared for how cold it got, and it really did feel like we just needed to survive the night.

But...survive we did!  And being surrounded by this majestic scenery all day made it all worth it.

Just look at how beautiful it is...

Cool contrails, Mom!  ...always makes us think of you.  <3

Can you see where Yosemite Falls is... sometimes?

Gorgeous view of Half Dome

This is El Capitan

...and this is a man climbing El Capitan, as seen through a telescope! 

Yikes!  It takes them 3-5 days to climb "El Cap."

 We saw pictures of the hammocks they hang from the rock face to sleep in.

Can you imagine?

 Can you find El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridal Falls?

 Our rock climbers... No ropes required.

We were up at Glacier Point as the sun was setting...

 This park ranger has been working at Yosemite for 30 years.

  She started out working with Ansel Adams!

She gave a great presentation about the park in which we learned history of the park...

"Let the fire fall!"

 ...and why park rangers have these pine cones on the bands of their hats.

Oops... not pine cones, but Sequoia cones, for Yosemite NP and Sequoia NP (I think).

Brie can straighten us all out on the correct details later...  ;)

We love Yosemite!

Beautiful day with beautiful people.