Yosemite

I remember hearing about Yosemite from my sophomore year roommate Jenn Gray. She had a poster hanging above her part of the bunk bed, as I recall. Well, many years later, I finally made it, thanks to a friend who got us a coveted spot at the Upper Pines campground for 6 nights.


We took our bikes and rode them around the valley. Colin packed up our chairs and books so that we could get set up with our feet in the river to read all afternoon.




We went with our friends Raymond and Cathy, split up the meal planning, and ate all but one of our meals either on the trail or at our campground. I borrowed a dutch oven and we made veggie lasagna over the fire. Yum!

The one non-camping experience - yummy Sunday brunch at the Ahwahnee.


Huge Sequoias at Wawona.

Cooking dinner on Glacier Point with Half Dome behind us!

Our last day at Yosemite, Colin and I hiked Half Dome. After an early morning trip to the Clinic in the valley and getting lost trying to find the trail up, we were on our way.

After stopping at the base of the rock for lunch, this is what we faced. I almost told Colin I'd wait for him here. That line of people on the left side of the picture are going up holding on to cables. Going up was pretty hard, but I was glad I didn't stay at the bottom once I got to the top.

At the top of the cables.

Colin at the top with the valley below!

Going back down the cables is a lot easier, so I was able to smile some while we waited for others to come up around us.So happy to be off those cables!

The mist trail going back down from Half Dome is really beautiful! We would have taken more pictures here, but we were pretty ready to get back to camp after a 19 mile roundtrip hike!

And really happy that Ray and Cathy had curry for us to eat. As soon as we started eating it, though, we found out that there was bear in Curry Village, so we took our curry with us to get a glimpse. Colin made me take a picture of him eating curry in Curry Village before I took a picture of the bear. I think he was pretty delirious at this point.

So, we did see the bear - eating apples out of a tree. You can't really see him in the pics, but this completed our Yosemite trip!

Oh, and a last use of the dutch oven for campfire peach cobbler! Yeah!
A great trip!