A Week in Yosemite

Before we got into Yosemite, we wanted to grab something to eat. We just happen to come across this cute little cafe. The food was great!

Once we got into Yosemite, we had to drive about 1 hour until we reached our campsite (everything was either booked or closed due to snow). We found that our campsite was right on the river. It was beautiful!

Once we got our site set up and ready for night fall, we walked around to look at the sites. Since we collect shot glasses, we headed straight for the gift shop and played around a little.

Then, we headed for Pioneer Village. I didn't know that they had people that really lived (camped) there and pretended to live in the Pioneer days. It was pretty cool.

By the time we got back, it was time to get dinner ready. Here's our site. It was very cozy.

It got pretty cold at night (below freezing), so we had beer (local, of course) to warm us up.

The next morning (Wednesday), we got up early and got ready to head out. It was so cold, I woke up with 2 blue toes. Yes, I did have socks on while sleeping inside my mummy bag. The first place we had our eyes on was Bridalveil Falls. I was so cold, I couldn't talk my legs into walking to the bottom of the falls (less than a 1/4 mile) where you would get sopping wet. Jason headed down, though and took some pictures. He was so wet when he got back (and he ran, too).

The falls all around us were so beautiful. If you don't know, we both love waterfalls! Everywhere we looked, there was some kind of waterfall.

The next waterfall on the schedule was Vernal Falls. We walked along the Mist Trail and enjoyed every moment.

We made it .6 miles to the foot bridge. This part of the trail was a little steep, but not difficult. I wouldn't push a wheel chair up it, though. The view was amazing!

Because walked along the Mist Trail, we got very wet. There were over 700 stairs to climb up to get to the top and over 700 to get to the foot bridge. I have a very bad history with stairs, so I have to be very careful going up and down. It got a little difficult when the water was pouring in my eyes and making everything blurry.

The next thing we wanted to do was to try to find the Indian Caves. When we spoke to the forest ranger, he said that they took these off the map because too many people had broken bones and just been too stupid when playing around here. The only thing I was slightly afraid was finding an animals' home (which we did not come across).

After about 25-20 miles of hiking (all day long), we were pretty hungry. So many places were closing (at 5pm and we got there at 5:10). There was one place that had just opened, a pizza place. That sounded so good! It was really good pizza, and not just because we were starving.

On our way back, we saw that the sun was setting. This was an awesome view. The picture doesn't do it justice. None of these pictures show exactly how this experience was. You just have to be there.

Every night was so cold. We brought our own fire wood, which I'm so glad we did. The next night, I wore 2 sets of socks (2 sets of wool socks). I was much better. No pain when I woke up and normal color toes!

On Thursday morning, we woke up at the crack of dawn (not exaggerating). We needed to get up, eat and head out of camp as soon as possible, we had a 6-8 hour hike in front of us. It was only a 3.4 mile hike up, but it was very steep, to the Upper Yosemite Falls.

1 mile into the hike, we came to Columbia Rock, where you got an awesome view! At this point, you were starting to get a little tired and hot. It was a good place to take some pictures and eat a snack.

About 1hour later, you got to the bottom of Lower Yosemite Falls. There was a little bit of mist from the falls, which felt so good at his point. It was a little overwhelming thinking that we were about to hike to the top. I couldn't wait to be on the top of this waterfall. We don't have anything like this anywhere around here.

Here's the view from the very top and looking down. It was a great feeling (the breeze and making it to the top).

The Upper Yosemite Falls is the 5th tallest waterfall in the world (or the tallest waterfall in North America). I can officially say that I climbed to the top of the tallest waterfall in North America.

On the way down, you have to be very careful, or you can fall on your butt and have this happen to you. Since I am so careful about going down all the stairs (yes, there were stairs on this trail, too), it took longer to get down than up (3 to get up and 3 1/2 to get down).

I'm so glad we woke up early and hiked up before it got too hot (I know it doesn't look hot in this picture, but it us).

Half Dome was closed due to the snow causing the cables to be closed. This is definitely on my top hikes that I want to do (aka: my bucket list).

I still think that it's amazing that I climbed to the top of this mountain. I rock!!

We were obviously so happy to be at the bottom of this hike (and on flat ground). Just look at Jason's smile!

Big or small, we loved seeing every waterfall that was around us!

After treating our selves to some ice cream, we were really looking forward to our dinner back at camp (which we had every night, but the pizza night). We cooked up some sausage with feta and spinach and ate it like hot dogs over our fire.

The last night was so much warmer than our first night. No numbing toes! Since we were unable to hike on Friday (because we couldn't leave food in our car and had to leave our camp by noon), we took our time getting out (which we hadn't done this entire trip). The deer would come right into empty sites and try to steal food. They wanted to come closer to us, but they got spooked (don't worry, we wouldn't have fed them, we know better!).

On our way home, we stopped in a little town to have lunch. We had this amazing cheese burger and fries and kind of shared the best chocolate shake (I drank the most of it).

It was an amazing trip and a must to go back. There were so many trails we wanted to go on, but couldn't because of the snow.

Now, to try to get back to reality. I always hate this part.

What was the best hike you've ever done?