Yosemite

We had the opportunity to go to Yosemite with our friends, Joe and Kacy, a few weeks ago. My wonderful mom came and stayed with the kids, so it was just the 4 of us for 5 days. A ten hour car trip seems like nothing without kids.
We stayed in a motel the first night about an hour out of the park so that we could get to our camping spot bright and early the next morning. There are no reservations at Camp 4, so you have to arrive early to get in line and hope for a spot. The guys really wanted to camp at Camp 4 because of the climbing history. Many famous climbers pretty much lived there back in the day.
Anyway, we did get a spot, luckily. Because if we'd of had to drive in and out of that park every day, I may have gone home. It's a beautiful drive, but it's about an hour of tight winding roads. I was SO sick on the way in and the way home.


We were all blown away by the beauty of Yosemite. Huge granite walls, huge waterfalls from the spring runoff. It really is so amazing.
We spent most of the time hiking or climbing. Too bad I wasn't in better shape. I could have got a lot more hikes in. The hike up to Upper Yosemite Falls about killed me.

Here I am hiking up one of the five million (give or take) switchbacks. It was like climbing a granite staircase for 3 hours straight.

Here's the view of Yosemite valley from the top of the falls.


Here's a view of the upper falls from halfway up the hike. Two and a half million switchbacks down, two and a half million to go.
The falls sounded like a jet plane from here. It was amazing.


Finally at the top. Such an amazing hike, but I was pretty much ready to collapse.



Jason and Joe after one of the climbs. They did most of the climbing, but even I did a few.


Here's a bear we spotted. She had 2 cubs with her. We had to get out of the car and get a picture. Apparently there are a lot of bears and they're not too shy. In our camp we had bear lockers to keep all of our food in. The rule is-if your food is out, it must be within arms reach of you at all times. The bears aren't interested in us, just our food. Jason chased one out of the camp parking lot early one morning. Another morning we could hear one sniffing around right outside our tent and our car had paw and lick marks all over the windows. I guess we should have taken them seriously when they told us not to leave food in the car, not even grocery bags or wrappers.


Here's some safer wildlife. I found him on the rock that the guys were climbing up. He didn't even try to run from me. Cute little guy, I probably would've taken him home if I thought we could keep him alive.

Well, it was an amazing trip. Well worth it. We'd like to come back with the kids someday.
I even missed the kids, though they didn't miss me too much. Grandma is much funner than I am. Thanks mom, for coming to stay with the kids. I think I'll plan a trip for next month if you're up for it.