Yosemite - Little Yosemite Valley Camp, past thousands of tourists, to Yosemite Valley and the CAR (day 4)

They say all's well that ends well.  Sadly, day 4 of our trip was probably my least favorite because we had to walk really far down hill (about 2000 feet in elevation) amidst throngs of tourists.  And it was a Friday, not even a weekend.  However, we did get to see the most dramatic waterfalls that day, it makes sense that where we walked are the most popular spots!

There were deer in and out of our campground all night and morning.  I'm finally getting used to seeing the mule deer with the huge ears that live out West...my first sighting of them was in the Grand Canyon and they looked so weird to me then!

On the road again

The first of several lovely huge waterfalls that we saw.

The path was lovely

Several photos of the waterfall...I couldn't decide which one was best.  Neither could B, we had about 30 photos from this spot and one three steps further.

Now this waterfall does not mess around.  Please notice the people standing next to it!

Waterfall was still going when we got down to the bottom

I think we actually walked a little further than this because we didn't take the fastest route down, but it was right around 27.3 miles.

B and H's battle scars.  Guess which one is H's foot!  Sorry I don't have a foot in the photo, I am still yet to get a blister from my hiking boots!  I can't recommend Asolo boots enough!

That's all, folks!

Yosemite - Merced Lake to Little Yosemite Valley Camp (Day 3)

Normally, day 3 is our day to walk out.  We had never been on a 4 day trip carrying all of our own stuff before.  I can list some reasons for this.  One is that day 3 is the day your body starts to say things like "hold on here buddy, this was not part of the deal" and "you think I can't just fall apart?  Watch me!"  At the end of this day I had developed the waddle of my spirit animal, the penguin, and I didn't think it was funny that B and H thought it was funny.  My spirit broke a little near the end of this day, and now that I've been babysitting a one year old for a whole day I can liken it to the whining they do when they know they need to go to sleep but they don't want to.  I'm not proud of it, but this blog is not for boastful half truths.  Truth: I get pretty whiny at the end of Day 3 when it's not the day we get to the car and get to eat a cheeseburger. 

So Hannah got to meet the real me, and I got to meet the real her.  That girl does not complain.  She doesn't tire of taking photos and discovering new things.  She was tired, and sore, but she's got a steel will.  She and her brother have a lot in common.

We continued descending on Day 3 but it was a lot of gentle hills and just a few collections of switchbacks that didn't last an eternity like the day before.  We also got some great waterfall action, saw some deer, and thought we maybe saw bear scat, but maybe that was just our overactive imaginations.  Little Yosemite Valley camp is accessible from a one-day hike from the Valley and is a jumping off point for people doing all kinds of cool things, including hiking Half Dome.  Once we arrived, our seclusion was no more; it was like a village of campers, many of whom were obnoxious youngish men.  We did get a campfire in that night, which was really nice.

Enjoy the photos!

I wasn't kidding about the breaks

This flower reminds me of an alien

We saw probably a total of 6 or 7 horse trains bringing up supplies to the camps.

Grandma Geddes's birthday was June 21st and it was fitting that we saw so many horses and especially so many women leading horse and mule trains.  They are incredible animals.

Here I really had to go to the bathroom.  But my mom could have told you that just looking at the picture.  Crossed legs are totally my tell.

This photo gives you some idea of the scale of the place.  Pictures really don't do it justice.

And this one and the next give you an idea of the steepness at the switchbacks.

B asked H to stand by that boulder just so we could retain an idea of how gargantuan it was.

We knew we were close to camp when we could see half dome this closely (above).  If you look extremely closely at the photo below, you can see people making their way to the top.

Once we arrived at camp, we pumped water for our final day, made dinner, and relaxed by a campfire.  If you want to hear the bear story, please ask one of us!

Yosemite -- Vogelsang to Merced Lake (Day 2)

So we started the day at 10,100 feet and ended at 7,150.  A math teacher might tell you that's a drop of almost 3,000 feet.  Any person will tell you that going down that much is almost as hard as or perhaps even equally hard as going up that much.  Or as I tell my students about their choice between AP Calc and AP Stats, they're both hard, just hard in different ways.

Hard though it was (especially the last two hours, where we just walked switchbacks the whole way), it was a beautiful day and quite fun.  We met the scout group that we ended up camping near the next two nights and leapfrogging...we were more the tortoise and they were more the hare.

We got a stunning view of Merced Lake, where we were camping, from pretty high up, so we knew it was beautiful, but did I mention it was also really far down? :)  Here are some photos from the day!

If you  have to pump water through a filter to drink it, this isn't a bad place to look at while doing it

Also nice: it came with a nice rock for sitting on

Hannah taking a freezing face bath

It comes highly recommended

Some of our provisions for the day

And we're off

Would love to know this tree's story

At this point I have to pause and give a little background.  Not long after we started on day 2, we passed this scout group, who had camped a little ways away from Vogelsang because they had heard how cold it was at camp; they wanted to get out of the wind.  Then they passed us while we were taking photos of the twisted tree.  Then we passed them as they were paused in this meadow.  It went on like this for the next three days.  They were really fun and nice teenagers.

 As you can maybe see, I chose to run through.  I have to say that running with a 30 (?) pound pack on your back is not recommended...I felt nauseous for the next hour.

 Love this progression of photos!

Typical break time pose.  If you lean over like Hannah is, it takes the weight out of your shoulders.  And I was sucking down water.

 This was one of the coolest parts of the stream/waterfall.  It roared down this flat rock for quite a distance.

 B had to "document" all of the flowers/plants

 This is a post-lunch, still optimistic photo.  We paused to look at a marmot, and you guessed it, the scout group passed us and took this photo.  This photo marked the beginning of the insane amount of down we did this day, including a ton of switchbacks.

 B wanted to explore this area more.  Hannah wanted to take photos.  I wanted to lie down.

 These trees grow in the most incredible of places.

All of the signs were made like this; I really liked the style.  This one actually was describing how we could get back to Vogelsang and Tuolumne Meadows...no thanks!

Yet another break time.  A trick I learned in the grand canyon -- find a rock to sit on that you can rest your pack on so it takes the weight off without having to take the pack off, which will then have to be put back on.

 Our first sighting of Merced Lake, where we were headed.  We still had a long way to go...down.

 We were soooo close at this point.  Maybe a half mile.  We were all hoping against hope at this point that there would be a bathroom open at this camp.  Turned out it had just been opened that day!

Humble campsite

We had privacy walls...giant fallen trees. 

And an actual bench which was extremely useful for cooking!

This was from the beginning of the day but I can't figure out how to make it move.  The pack animals that took everything to camp!