We had hoped to get out early Friday morning and head down to Yosemite. Like always, we left about an hour later than planned, but got on the road at 8:30. We had a 3-4 hour drive ahead of us. We had a very pretty drive through the mountain pass as we left Tahoe. I was anxious to keep going, but David kept wanting to stop and get pictures because “we will never be back here again.” I think those words cursed us.
We faithfully followed our GPS. As we came near to one of the turnoffs, there was a “Road C'losed” sign. Awesome. In doing our research, we knew one of the roads out of Tahoe was closed, and also the main road through Yosemite was closed, so we made sure to avoid them. This one came by a bit of a surprise. We hit the “alternate route” and kept going. No big deal. Well, not too far into that “alternate route,” we came across another road closure. Every road that we needed to take to cross back through the mountains was closed for the winter (even though it was the middle of May). We were about an hour and a half into our drive at this point. We decided to turn around and go back through one of the small towns and buy a map. GPS wasn’t helping us anymore. From what it was looking like to us, we were going to have to almost COMPLETELY retrace our steps, and go around a completely different way. There weren’t many places to stop and ask directions (basically nowhere). We finally saw DPS on the side of the road and pulled over to ask them. They confirmed our suspicions. Ugh. So, about two hours into the trip, we headed back to where we started. Back through the windy mountain pass that David said we would never see again. Ha.
So, what was supposed to be a 3-4 hour drive, ended up being about 8. We checked into our hotel, and decided to make a short trip to Yosemite before it got dark. We headed to the Tuolumne Groves. It was supposed to be a grove of sequoia trees.
Someone had built this snowman near the beginning of the trail. There was a lot of snow there still.
This was the trail. Muddy and wet. Who knew we needed to bring snow boots?
This walkway through the tree was cut out way back when (1895). They don’t tell you the top of the tree was destroyed. Hmm…as I’m looking at the postcard of it, it’s not missing the top half. Maybe this happened recently, although it really didn’t look recent.
We could have kept going further along the trail, but it was really just more of the same. Kinda disappointing if you’ve ever been to Sequoia Nat’l Park, and really the sequoias are scattered all throughout Yosemite.
The next morning we headed out to Yosemite Valley, which is the most widely known area of the park. We had to stop and get a picture by the sign on our way in.
The first view area we stopped at gave us a view of Half Dome (the pointy rock at the very back), and El Capitan, which is the flat rock just to the left of it.
Shayla was more interested in all the “ruff, ruff’s” (dogs) walking around.
A view of the valley. I’m not sure what waterfall that is, but it may be Bridal Veil Falls, because that’s the first one we came to.
We got started at a decent time that morning, and Bridal Veil Falls was our second stop. Already there was a line of cars waiting to get in to the parking lot. This was the weekend before Memorial Day. The place just got more crowded as the day went on. I can’t imagine what it would be like in the middle of the summer.
As we hiked up the trail and got closer to the falls, it began to get very wet from the mist coming off the falls. Shayla wasn’t so sure about that.
This is a closer view of El Capitan. Supposedly there were people climbing, but we sure couldn’t see them. 
Lots of deer that didn’t seem to care about all the people around. 
That’s Half Dome behind us.
A closer view of Half Dome.
Next up, we took the trail to Lower Yosemite Falls. Didn’t get quite as wet on this one.
This is a view of both Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls. They’re really actually the same waterfall.
Pretty sure this was the most exciting part of the day for Shayla. Running around, climbing, picking up/throwing sticks.
That afternoon, we decided to do the hike to Vernal Falls. We couldn’t get there by car, so we had to take the park buses. Earlier in the day, we had parked our car by the main store (and got a really good spot). Shayla took a short nap, we ate lunch, and then went to Lower Yosemite Falls. We were originally going to go back to the car to get some snacks and water, but we had walked pretty far at that point, and decided to just head out to the Falls.
After the bus ride jam-packed with people (again, I have no idea how you would do this in the summer), we headed out on the hike. We decided to buy some water, since we had left everything in the car. I was getting hungry, but we only had enough cash for water.
When they (the brochure) say the hike is a little steep, they aren’t kidding. It was only supposed to be a quarter mile to the base of the waterfall, but it just kept going and going. We passed a couple waterfalls on the way and thought that maybe we had missed it. I was STARVING at this point. Like pregnant woman starving. I felt like I hadn’t eaten in days. Had we actually brought our food along, I would have been just fine on the hike, but I knew we still had a ways before we got back to the car. We finally asked someone coming back, and she said it was just around the corner. Okay, I can do that.
A view along the way.
There it is. Vernal Falls way back there.
Well, the sign said it was only 0.3 miles to the top. Everyone said we should do it. I wanted to, but I was SO HUNGRY. Not feeling well hungry. David convinced me, so on we went. Up, up we went. We got really wet on this one. Soaked through your clothes wet. Basically the whole 0.3 miles (which felt more like a whole mile), was just stair steps carved out of the rock. We survived.
At the top.
Looking down from the top of Vernal Falls.
And that was pretty much it. We had a twelve hour drive home the next day. Shayla actually took two naps, totaling almost 5 hours. That never happens, so it’s a good thing we got her nice and tired. It made for a much more relaxing trip for mommy and daddy.
Vacation is always nice, but so is getting back home and sleeping in your own bed.
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