The Last Stop or So We Thought. . .

One of the things I really wanted to do was to go to the spot I remember from the first time I went to Yosemite (on a high school geology trip).  The view took my breath away!
It’s a bit tricky to get to from where we live.  Our point of entry is the wrong direction.  But returning from the redwoods provide the opportunity. 
I was ready!  I had my camera in hand.  Too bad I didn’t think of cleaning the windshield!


As soon as we through the tunnel I began snapping. My super intelligent hubby suggested we park.  Duh!  Not sure why I thought I could only take photos from the car as we were driving by





It’s one of those places that it so beautiful that you can’t help take great photos.  So I consented to having one of me taken (okay, by me) since I figured the focus would be on the background, right?

An awesome view. . . it takes my breath away and is everything I remembered.

We were not alone in our quest to take in one of Heavenly Father’s best efforts.
From there we headed out.  We had to go through the valley to get to the other side of the park and our way home.
The traffic was really backed up and we didn’t know why. . . so I, along with about a million other people (or the passengers of just about every car in front of us) jumped out to find out what was going on.


There was a helicopter taking off from the side of the road.. . . someone was stuck and it was getting late.  You can pick them out below, right?  (I couldn’t)

By this point the road had opened back up, I had hopped in the car and we were on our way.  But that didn’t keep me from snapping photos!

We don’t know what happened or what the end result was.  We presume the rescue was a success.  There was no news to be found of the incident.  I guess it’s not out of the norm.
We headed for home after gassing up.  We were so pooped that our dinner consisted of gas station snack food!
We had a such great time on our adventure.  What could be better than spending the day with your best-est friend in the world?  

The Never-ending Story? (Part 3)

While both of us had been to Yosemite before, neither of us had ever been to the grove of Redwood Trees.  We decided there was no time like the present
So we abandoned our parking spot (which was quickly filled) and headed out.  The directions said 36 miles. . .

It was a long drive. . . lots of winding roads and slow vehicles, but we made it to the tram stop (it was suggested  to take the tram do to there no being enough room for all the cars at the grove.)

There was a stowaway!

but other than that, the tram was nearly empty.

We didn’t have a lot of time before the last tram left for our parking spot.  For some reason, we weren’t too keen to take a 2 mile hike after exploring what we could of the grove.
It was more crowded there than we expected.  We bypassed the tours and headed to the map to make our plan.

We headed up the trail.  (One thing we discovered was that while we were happy to not go to Yosemite during the height of tourist season, we presumed that would be summer time.  We did not count on all the foreigners that would take advantage of the same situation.  Let’s just say we didn’t hear much English!)
Notice how little people look walking by that uprooted tree trunk! 

The trails were really well marked and were filled with people.

These trees have a way of putting things in perspective. . . truly awe-inspiring!

We kept seeing deer that seems to be pretty tame but were probably just so hungry that they didn’t care if anyone was around. . . so thin, so sad

We stopped by Grizzly Giant and waited for our turn for photos.  It is one of the largest trees in the world (and the oldest in the grove.)  How are you supposed to fit that in a picture?

We continued up the trail to get to our end goal, the California Tunnel Tree.  This is where we ran into some trouble.  *sigh*  I suppose it was a collision of different cultures.  We waited for our turn to take photos, but a group of three ladies were bothered by it.  They had taken their photos and had moved so we started our turn. . . but they were not happy.  No clue what the problem was, but we (meaning I) snapped quickly and we headed down the hill.

After irritating those ladies, I changed my picture taking plans.  I kept my camera by my side and snapped photos with no one knowing.  Sneaky, huh?  (and all at an angle too!)

We headed to the tram stop where we would not enjoy a nearly empty tram. 

Even though there was supposed to be a limit of how many people could ride the tram, this fellow in front of me (European) decided everyone would fit on.  We became sardines.  He was really aggressive and pushy.  It was not a comfortable two mile ride by any means, but it was so much better than walking two miles!

Yosemite (Part 2)

While eating lunch, we planned the rest of our day.  You gotta have a plan so you have something to stray from!
We selected an easy hike to Mirror Lake to start off the afternoon.  The name in itself sounds so inviting.  Yosemite is so beautiful and I love mirrored images in water. 

Note to self: when taking photos of signs, consider reading them at that time.
We hopped aboard a shuttle bus which took us to the closet stop to the trailhead.  A bunch of other people had the same idea.  We trekked up a hill to find that the trail had some issues. . .

so we followed everyone who chose to take the less treacherous route (the street).  We saw the river that fed Mirror Lake. . .

And we were still surrounded by awe-some scenery.


There were a bunch of families that were enjoying a beach along the way.

We finally reached the smaller trail. . . . right next to the handicapped parking area, but others were taking advantage of it!  We were getting so close!

After wandering around a bit, we discovered that there was nothing to see.  If you go back and read the first sign above, it would explain why we had this problem.
We headed back down the hill which was much quicker than going up, but much harder on aging knees!

And waited at the shuttle stop for transportation back to our car.


We had more plans but needed to get to a different spot in the park. (to be continued)