About a year ago, some friends in our ward, the Stevensons, invited us to join them on a camping trip to Yosemite. Since we have never been there and had no big summer plans yet, we jumped at the chance to go. We have been looking forward to this trip all year and the time has finally come. Tara is the ultimate planner and she loves to have a good time so we had a BBQ and swim party a few days before with all the families going on the trip to meet each other, discuss meals, make shopping and packing lists, and talk about how many U-hauls we would actually need to pack all of our supplies! There would be 6 families going on the trip--Stevensons, Ritchies (Chad's sister's family), Bybees (Chad's cousin's family), Allreds, Shakespears, and us. It is going to be fun!
SATURDAY
We left Saturday morning around 9:40 and hurried to catch up to the Allreds that were about 30 minutes ahead of us. We met them in Beatty, Nevada for lunch, snacks and ice cream, and switching of kids to happily ride together. We followed 95 North to NV-266 which turns into CA-266 and then turns back into NV-264. We were teasing the kids about how we were just going in circles from Nevada to California and back to Nevada. They were very confused about where we were actually headed. We then turned onto Highway 6 in California and followed the signs for 120, Tioga Road, which led us into Yosemite National Park. It was an adventurous drive with twists, turns, woop-dee-doos, squealing, old abandoned buildings and towns, and car sickness but we made it there safely in just under 8 hours.
Packed, loaded, and ready to go! Yosemite, here we come!
The wide loads of the Stuarts and Allreds in Beatty, Nevada
Carlee and Aliyah singing along in the car
When we unpacked and finished setting up in the "Housekeeping Camp", it was getting dark so instead of breaking out all the dinner gear, we headed over to grab pizza. All night long, the kids had a great time exploring around the camp and riding bikes all over between the Stevenson's trio of campsites and ours, Allreds, and Shakespears.
Our camp for the next few days included a picnic table for eating, an outdoor table in our kitchen area for cooking, and a big bear locker for our coolers and food. The "tent" had three concrete walls, a concrete ceiling with a canvas awning, and a canvas curtain that you pulled closed. There was a queen-sized bed, bunkbeds, and dresser shelf for your belongings. We also brought along two cots for the kids. And we brought our mountain bikes to ride along all the trails instead of driving or taking the shuttle (best idea ever!!) Basically, we had to pack everything but the tent!
SUNDAY
Sunday morning the kids got up early and ran to each other's tents to wake each other up for more exploring. We all wandered over to the river and the boys started fishing right away. After ooohing and aaahing over the beautiful scenery, we had a breakfast of pancakes and bacon (everything tastes better when you're camping!) and got ready for the day. The kids had a wonderful time playing near the river, building nests, searching for sticks, and getting dirty in the great outdoors all morning long.
Carlee and Aliyah built nests for the birds and squirrels to live in
The fishermen and women: Clark, Jake, Joe, Lexi, Carlee, Katelyn, Aliyah, and Aspen
After wandering across the bridge and around the river, we came back for lunch and loaded on our bikes to head over to the chapel for sacrament meeting. The kids were completely excited and shocked that we could wear jeans to church and ride our bikes there too. It was a quick and sweet meeting that lasted about 30 minutes and we really enjoyed the testimonies that were given. Then we headed back to float down the lazy river and sit on the beach while the kids played in the water all afternoon. The river was extremely slow-moving and low so everybody was a little frustrated when they got stuck and had to paddle or push themselves out. After floating for a while, we started our delicious Dutch Oven dinner of barbecue chicken, scalloped potatoes, fresh fruit, s'mores and Tara's monkey bread. It was so yummy and we enjoyed visiting around the campfire until late.
The chapel in Yosemite. Services for different religions were held all throughout Sunday. Our meeting was at 1:00 p.m. and was packed with members all the way to the back.
A great view of Bridal Veil Falls from the church
The three camping musketeers: Katelyn, Lexi, and Aspen
Jake and Clark tagged along with Andrew
Aliyah and Carlee went with Joe
Drake opted to go solo
Tara was the lucky one to go with the giggly trio. They got stuck and a lady swam out to push them off the sand because nobody would get out of the boat since it was too cold!
Balancing and performing a kickline on a submerged log was a little difficult and ended with a lot of falling and laughing.
Camping is a lot s'more fun with friends!
These kids were so funny as they ate their s'mores
Carlee, Ammon, and Aliyah
And Darin was showing us how it's done
The wonderful Shakespears: Rex, Paul, Kaydee, and Abby
MONDAY
Monday morning we packed our backpacks with a picnic lunch, ate cereal, yogurt, and fruit for breakfast and headed out on our bikes towards Vernal and Nevada Falls on the way to famous Half Dome. In order to hike Half Dome, you enter a lottery to receive passes to actually climb the chains up the dangerous dome. It is almost 5,000 feet above the valley floor and is about an 8.5 mile hike. We had tried for a few months to get passes but never got them so we just set off on the regular hiking trail that leads up to it so that we could see the amazing waterfalls along the way. The hike was strenuous and somewhat steep in places but we had a wonderful time and the kids did incredibly well without any complaining. They are great little hikers!
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| The Stevenson Family: Chad, Andrew, Drake, Tara, and Lexi |
The first 317-foot waterfall we came to was Vernal Fall along the Mist Trail. The hike to that waterfall is only about 1.3 miles but includes several staircases that can be very wet and slippery if the winds pick up and blow the water from the falls. It was fairly busy with people so there was a lot of stopping and going along the stairs. The views were incredible.
At the top of the falls is a pool of water called Emerald Pool where we
stopped for a break and lunch. There is also a 20 degree slope of rock
with water flowing into the pool called the Silver Apron. Swimming
above a waterfall is against park rules but there were several swimmers
in the water, which really worried my children.
Standing at the top with my beautiful and sweet friend, Kaydee
The boys loved teasing and chasing the squirrels during lunch. They were going crazy!
We continued along the trail to Nevada Fall, which is a 594-foot high
waterfall. The waterfall is widely recognized by its "bent" shape, in
which the
water free-falls for the first third of its length to a steep
slick-rock slope. This mid-fall impact of the water on the cliff face
creates a turbulent, whitewater appearance in the falls and produces a
great deal of mist.
Standing in front of Nevada Fall without Jake, who was hiking elsewhere
The hike to the top of Nevada Fall is 3 miles but
the younger kids were tired at that point so half of the group went on
to the top and the rest turned back to the trailhead with
intentions to meet at the bottom. We followed the Mist Trail back the way we came
and met some of the waterfall group where the John Muir Trail intersects it. We finished the hike to the bottom and waited at our bikes for the rest of the hikers to
finish their trek. Then we rode our bikes back on the paved trails and headed to the
cafeteria buffet for dinner. Cafeteria buffet food is never that delicious (in my opinion) but we were all starving at that point so it tasted fine and was nice to be able to head back to camp and relax after a long day of hiking. Everybody showered and sat around the fire again until people started drifting off to sleep. The girls set up a tent inside the Allreds' campsite so they could sleep together and played UNO until they couldn't stay awake anymore. It was the perfect ending to a long day.
Around 2:30 in the morning, I heard some rustling in our tent. It didn't sound like one of the kids and it was right next to me on the ground. I jerked my sleeping bag to scare it and something moved towards the door. I screamed and it jetted back to our dresser, snatched my camera bag off the shelf, and dragged it towards the door. I sat straight up and watched a furry animal trying to steal my pictures! Luckily it dropped the bag in our kitchen area. I bolted from our bed to get my camera and crawled back into my sleeping bag. A few minutes later, I heard some rustling and our neighbors were opening their bear locker. Joe wouldn't get out of bed to see what was going on so I grabbed a flashlight and stepped into our kitchen looking around. I shined the light through the woods but didn't see anything. I laid in bed for another hour ridiculously listening and waiting for that dang raccoon to come back for my camera but luckily he gave up. We had been so worried about leaving stuff out for the bears that we didn't even think about raccoons! We had some trail mix in the bag earlier during our hike and I had taken it out right when we got back but the raccoon must have still noticed the scent in my camera bag. What a rascal!
TUESDAY
Tuesday morning we slept in a little bit and enjoyed watching some deer that were walking and eating along the river behind our campground. The deer came right up to us and the kids were able to touch their velvety antlers. The kids nor the animals were afraid at all. They were beautiful.
After breakfast we got back on our bikes to ride to Yosemite Falls, the highest measured waterfall in North America. The total of 2,425 feet from the top of the upper falls to the base of the lower falls
qualifies Yosemite Falls as the sixth highest waterfall in the world. Nobody was really excited about hiking to the Upper Falls this day so we just hiked to the Lower Falls.
Lower and Upper Yosemite Falls
The 1,430-foot plunge of the Upper Falls is among the twenty
highest waterfalls in the world. Trails lead to both the top and base
of Upper Yosemite Falls. Between the two obvious main plunges of Upper and Lower Falls are a
series of five smaller plunges collectively referred to as the Middle
Cascades. They cannot be seen from Yosemite Valley. These account for a total drop of 675 feet, more than twice the height of the Lower Falls. The final 320-foot drop of Lower Falls, adjacent to an
accessible viewing area, provides the most-used viewing point for the
waterfalls. Like many areas of Yosemite, the plunge pool at the base of the Lower Falls is surrounded by dangerous jumbles of gigantic broken rock fragments called talus. We climbed all over these for a couple of hours.
Climbing all over the giant rock fragments. The kids had a blast!
After climbing all over the rocks up to the pool at the bottom of the waterfall, the daring and bribery began by my husband, of course. Joe started daring Drake and Andrew to jump into the freezing water. So obviously wanting to show off, Andrew jumped in first, followed by Jacob and Joe. Then Darin, Clark, Aspen and Darin, Ammon and Darin, Katelyn and Joe, Drake, Andrew again, and finally Tara and Lexi followed suit. They were all soaking wet and freezing. The water was extremely cold. Jen, Chad and I were the smart ones taking photos and videos and keeping the clothes dry and warm.
Darin and Joe were trying to shove each other into the freezing water. And yes, that is Darin in his skivvies. Tara is trying not to notice but we all got a pretty good look since Darin isn't very shy. We know him way too well. Joe said it was a "defining moment" for Darin and actually all the boys jumped into the cold water in their skivvies. Crazy boys (and some embarrassing photos to boot)!
Ammon and Darin
Ammon didn't even pause. He just plunged right in.
Andrew is pointing to his spot, lining up for the cannonball and splash!
Here is Drake going for it!
Katelyn and Joe. Luckily she wore a half-tank under her shirt.
I missed the picture of Jake because he was in and out way too quickly.
Lexi and Tara jumping in with some close on-lookers that wouldn't move!
Clark and Jake are tiny compared to those rocks. Half Dome is there in the distance.
We rode back to camp to dry off, eat some lunch, and make a plan for the rest of the afternoon. The kids wanted to try rafting down the river again and play on the beach but Paul, Joe, and Darin really wanted to go fishing again and actually catch something this time so we headed up to Tenaya Lake instead.
The kids spent their spare time making up skits and stories. This is a skit about Bob-skidee-Bob!
When we got up to the lake, it was cold in the air. We all had jackets on and thought the girls were crazy for wanting to get in the water. But the water was very shallow and actually really warm. The kids splashed and played while the guys fished a little distance away.
Yay! Darin caught something!
After hanging out at the lake for a while, the ladies and kids headed to camp to start dinner--Pork Barbacoa Salad, rolls, and fresh fruit. When it was dark, we made s'mores again and had peach cobbler. Tara had planned some skits for each family to perform but she was out-voted by the menfolk in our group so we decided to take the kids snipe hunting across the bridge. Tara put toothpaste on their noses so that the snipes would be able to smell it and come. Jen even told the kids to put their noses to the ground so that the snipes could smell them better. We demonstrated making the noise to attract the snipes and Carlee wouldn't stop making it the whole time we were hunting. It was so funny. Tara heard a snipe in the bushes and exclaimed that one ran across her shoe. Then Andrew and Chad surprised us out of the darkness and said that they had found snipes up the trail. Ammon claimed that he saw Andrew throw something ahead and that this was all a joke. But Tara actually caught one in a sack down by the river. However, it chewed a hole in the bag quickly and all that was left in the bag was a clump of its fur. Hopefully we'll have better luck next time. It was such a fun experience on our last night there. We could not stop giggling at all of the kids' comments.
WEDNESDAY
Wednesday morning we got up early to break down our camp and load up the truck. The Stevensons and family were heading home the way we had come but I wanted to check out Mariposa Grove so we planned to drive back through Fresno on the way home. While we waited for the Allreds and Shakespears to finish packing up, we took our kids into Yosemite Village to see the visitor's center and pick out souvenirs.
They had a really neat diagram of Yosemite National Park with mountains, trails, and rivers to follow.
Clark's Nutcracker is a famous bird found here in Yosemite
Mariposa Grove is a sequoia grove located near Wawona in the southernmost part of Yosemite National Park. It is the largest grove of Giant Sequoias
in the park, and two of
its trees are among the 30 largest Giant Sequoias in the world. I was really hoping to visit Sequoia National Park on this trip but
getting to that park was an additional 4 hours one way so it will have to wait for another trip. But I was very impressed with Mariposa Grove so it was a great last stop on the way home.
The Mariposa Grove was first visited in 1857 when Galen Clark and Milton
Mann found it. The Giant Sequoia named Grizzly Giant is between
probably 1900–2400 years old and is the oldest tree in the grove.
It has a volume of 34,010 cubic feet, and is
counted as the 25th largest tree in the world. It is 210 feet tall, and
has a heavily buttressed base with a diameter of 30 feet. The Wawona
Tree,
had a tunnel cut through it in the nineteenth century that was wide
enough for horse-drawn carriages and early automobiles to drive
through.
Weakened by the large opening at its base, the tree fell down in a
storm in 1969.
We arrived at the grove and decided to take a tram tour that would be fun and different for the kids, rather than
hiking along the trail. The tram ride
took just over an hour with quick stops along the way to see the famous
sequoias. We learned a lot about the sequoia trees and it was very interesting to learn that fires actually help the trees survive and live longer. Some of them, such as the Telescope Tree, even became completely hollow from repeated fires. Giant Sequoias do not require a whole trunk to survive. It is
possible to walk inside the tree and, from there, see the sky. However, this
condition leaves the tree weakened and makes it more difficult for it to
withstand strong winds. In this state, the hollowed trees could topple over any time.
The Faithful Couple:
A rare case in which two trees grew so close together that their trunks have fused together at the base.
The Fallen Tunnel Tree:
It toppled over during a snow storm
in 1969. In 1881, this was the first tree to have a tunnel carved
through its trunk. Its collapse is seen as a turning point in the
preservation program in National Parks in the United States. So grave
was the shock of the tree's collapse that the result was a greater
awareness of the sensitivity of ecosystems, even for a living thing as
massive as the Giant Sequoias.
The Fallen Monarch:
A tree that fell more than three hundred years ago.
Giant sequoias are resistant to decay, so their remains can linger for a
long period of time if undisturbed.
Top left: The Bachelor and Three Graces:
A group of four trees, three of them
growing very close together, with a fourth a little more distant. Their
roots are so intertwined that if one of them were to fall, it would
likely bring the others along with it.
Top right: The Clothespin tree:
Countless fires throughout the decades nearly
severed this tree's trunk, creating a space in it large enough for a
pick-up truck to drive through.
The Fallen Giant:
It was one of the largest trees in the grove, until it fell in 1873.
The California Tunnel Tree:
Cut in 1895 to allow coaches to pass through
it (and as a marketing scheme to attract visitors to the grove), this
is the only living tree with a tunnel in it since the fall of the Wawona
Tunnel Tree in 1969.
After our visit to Mariposa Grove, we drove out of Yosemite National Park, gassed up the vehicles, and planned to meet in Fresno for dinner at Chick-fil-A. This is a vacation requirement if that restaurant is even close to our driving route. I am so bugged that we don't have one in Vegas! The rest of the drive was uneventful and we made it home around 2:00 a.m. Since Joe had to wake up early the next day for work, the truck stayed loaded overnight and I had a nice big day of unpacking and laundry ahead of me. Yosemite was a wonderful trip and I am so thankful to Tara for her invitation and all the planning that was done. We had a wonderful time and made some great memories. I can't wait to go back!
