Yosemite Part IV

Monday was our last day in Yosemite. We packed up camp and headed back to Yosemite Valley to go rock climbing one last time. We first stop by to take some last shots of Half Dome.

 

Me and Danny in front of Half Dome. He was really excited and couldn't decide what to point at.

Danny Picking his nose in front of Half Dome



Slack Line being set up on Lost Arrow Spire (click to enlarge). The line will go between the tower over to the main mountain on the right.  Yes, someone is going to walk across that!

We headed to a place called Swan Slab to go climbing. I liked this area much better than the first place.


Kenny climbing



Me climbing



...again...



My first trad lead!



Danny napping - apparently he's going to rot out his teeth, becauase that is a bottle of juice he is sucking on while sleeping.


Here we are leaving Yosemite. We wanted to document Danny's dirty face. It looked much worse in person!

Danny's dirty face in the care on the way home


Here is a really fun video from our ride home. My boy loves to sing. I love it!

Yosemite Part III

Our third day in Yosemite was on Sunday. We started out by driving by El Capital on our way out to Tuolumne Meadows. The drive out was about 1 1/2 hours, during which time we took lots of photos at pull offs, and also listened to some nice, mellow church music.

Photo in El Capital (El Cap) Meadows

In front of El Cap

Butterfly

Here we are in front of some lake...that is turning into a marsh...and that will someday become part of the forest

Half Dome - they set up a telescope so you can watch the people hiking up

Loved this lake! It was beautiful.

 

Cathedral Peak (1 of them)

After our visit to the meadows, we headed back to Yosemite Valley.  We didn't want to do any hiking on Sunday, but we decided the nature walk to the Bridalveil Falls would be alright.  There was hardly any water at all!

Here I am scrabbling on a rock.  In case you can't read the sign, it reads, "DANGER: Climbing and scrambling rocks and cliffs is dangerous.  They are slick wet or dry.  Many injuries and fatalities have occurred." 

Kenneth & Danny with the water-drizzle behind them

Afterward, Kenneth took me back over to the mountain El Cap and we walked up to the famous climbing route, The Nose.  The climb is 3,000 ft. and a typical climber takes anywhere from 3 to 4 days to complete it.  It is definitely on our to-do list.  When we got there, there were 4 climbers preparing to make the initial climb.

Danny playing at the base of The Nose

A non-hazing picture of the tunnel view of Yosemite Valley

After our day, we headed back to camp, and there was a very nice man who brought us some firewood.  We typically don't make a fire when we camp (though we love them) because we often go to bed early.  That night ended up being a little cold though anyway, so we were all grateful for our fire that night.

Danny was captivated by his first campfire

Kenneth has been working on long exposure photos to capture the rotation of the stars.  This picture had an exposure time of 4 minutes.

Don't worry.  We found out by the end that in Yosemite Valley there is a church, and there is even an LDS services meeting.  Oh great! At least we know for next time!

Yosemite Part II

Our second day in Yosemite was really fun! We drove into Yosemite Valley and took a picture at the famous "picture taking spot".

Main entrance to Yosemite Valley

Afterward, we did some rock-climbing at a place called Royal Arches. We did a couple of different climbs that were really fun - although we forgot to take a lot of pictures...go figure! Danny was getting really fussy so we didn't stay too long there. Luckily there was a very nice lady who tried to keep him entertained with Kenneth and I did a climb. Thanks Lady!

Kenny climbing

After we were finished climbing, we decided to do a hike! I mean, seriously, you can't NOT hike while in Yosemite! We decided to hike up to Vernal Falls.

Me & Danny resting on a rock

Photo from the bridge

More Water

Getting Closer

Vernal Falls! There wasn't a ton of water, but it was beautiful nonetheless!

Here is a photo from the top of Vernal Falls - Kenneth made me REALLY nervous getting this photo!

Emerald Pool - The Nevada Falls in the background feed into the Emerald Pools, which then feed into the Vernal Falls.

Nevada Falls (we'll save that hike for another day)

All along the hike, Danny was staring at the squirrels. He especially laughed when he saw two of them kiss! It was adorable! We didn't manage to get a picture of the kissing squirrels, but here is one for good measure.

Little Squirrel

After our hike, we were heading to the main food court area. On our way, we turned to our left and saw THIS:

A BEAR! There were lots of people on the road where we were, and of course, people were a little nervous and were backing away - not my Kenny!! He of course, ran towards the bear to get some photos. I was only nervous for a few seconds when the bear started running our way, but then he quickly turned around, trying to find an escape route from all the people. It was awesome! My first bear sighting! And of course, Danny's too! It was hilarious because Kenneth and I had been talked just moments before about how I hoped we would see a bear on our trip...though not too close. Well, I got my wish!

Our second day was definitely full of fun and surprising experiences!!

Yosemite Part I

For Labor Day weekend, we decided to make a trip down to Yosemite National Park for 4 days. I grew up in Northern California, and have NEVER been there! Needless to say, it was one of the first things we had to do here.

On our first day, we made the 6 hours drive which went well. We sang along to lots of songs (Danny took part in this too) and chatted. Once we got there, we headed to Glacier Point, which is a main lookout of Yosemite Valley.

Half Dome

Me & Danny

Kenneth & Danny

Family Photo

Another BEAUTIFUL Half Dome Shot

I want to go back during the spring to see all these waterfalls when they're really big!

I love the night sky!

Silly Danny photos

I'm waiting for Kenneth to edit our Yosemite pictures so I can blog about our Labor day trip, but we just moved and have been a little busy lately! So, here are a few random (badly taken/unedited) photos of some of Danny's mattest mischief...