Yosemite

 

June 26 - 29th

 

 

We woke up to this striking sight this morning.  El Capitan towers over you like a challenge.  In fact, we popped up the camper behind a group of climbers who had travelled a long way to take that rock on.  Their voices trailed off into the brush that surrounds the rock like a fortress.  Indescribably foreign yet  faint enough that we couldn't distinguish where they were from.  We had the most leisurely morning there.  We relaxed in the cool breeze filtering through the camper as the shadows of the morning slowly burned off to reveal that rock in all its magnificence.  My favorite morning of the trip so far.

 

 



They say everything is bigger in Texas.  But we agreed that California might win an arm wrestling battle with Texas.  Trees, boulders, pine cones, dandelions, sky.  Nestled in those National Parks, everything is so impressive! 

Our first adventure of the day was to make it to the base of El Capitan.  Yep folks!  We made it to the BASE.  We stopped every few turns to see if we could find the climbers scaling the vertical walls.  The kids made games of throwing small stones and crushing acorns into paste.  Eventually we spotted the climbers halfway up the rock and we waited around to see each of them reunited with the lead climber up the rock. 

After a day in our self made camp at El Capitan, we made our way to Bridalveil Falls.  We found a quiet place in the creek and hung our hammock over the rocks.  While Dizzy and I played in the stream, Tom and the girls made their way up the slippery rocks to a point where the waterfall created its own private pond.  They took a dip in the ice cold water and remarked on the incredible flowers that grew out of the rocks, quietly out of view from the people below with their cameras. A mischievous Stellar Jay spied on us as we made our way back up the trail.  From there, we left Yosemite Valley and drove up to Glacier Point to see the sunset.   It was a truly incredible thing to see.  At Glacier Point, you can  literally step on the edge of the cliff overlooking all of Yosemite Valley.  There isn't even a guardrail.  The waterfalls, Half Dome and El Capitan were all within view.  Ivy read her book while the rest of us bounced from vantage point to vantage point, intent on seeing every trick of color from every angle.  It did not disappoint.  On the way to the parking lot we spotted a collection of budding astronomers with their equipment, poised to capture something exciting.  A shooting star raced across the sky in that very moment.  Cheers went up all around.  We called it a good night.

After the sunset, we drove down into the valley to find a campsite.  No campsites were available and we weren't big fans of the population density, so we decided to head towards a place called Tuolomne Meadows on the remote side of the park.    We were too tired to make the distance before sleeping, so we pulled into a gas station inside the park and slept sneaky style (no popping up) in the camper.  We woke up early to find several other campers doing the same thing.  Ivy spotted a couple with bicycles that had slept in sleeping bags in the woods next to the parking lot.  We learned they have been biking all over the world for over two years.  They stopped in Yosemite, but are on the long trek back home.  They admitted to taking some pictures of our camper while we slept, so I suspect the next few years might be a new kind of adventure for them!

 

Tuolomne Meadows turned out to be a very restful place.  In fact, we didn't leave the campground for two days.  The kids met a park ranger on horseback and spent the rest of our days following his footprints through the campground.  Ivy followed the sound of drums through the dark and stumbled onto a drum circle led by a sweet girl named Greta.  She let Ivy play the heartbeat drum for awhile.  It totally made her night!  During the days we crossed the river and played in the icy pools.  Tom took the kids fly fishing and they finally stopped counting how many they caught.   It was that easy.  Olive learned how to take the hooks out of their mouths and let them all go.   I took the opportunity to take the longest most luxurious hot water bucket bath I could stand.  Did I mention that California is in a drought and showers are nowhere to be found?  It was a great day.

Yeah.  You should probably go to Yosemite if you get a chance.


Our trip summed up so far: 
Days Remaining:  13
Miles Driven:  4090
Money on Gas:  $1,161
Money on Sleeping:  $241
Money on Eating:  $645
Money on Other:  $227
Total Spent:  $2,273
Goal:  $3,000  
Spoiler alert ...We aren't going to make it : )