Yosemite 2010, Part I

We got to spend last week at Yosemite. It was an entry on our list of things to do while we live in Northern California and we finally got to check it off. I had been a number of times while growing up, but this was the first time for Amy and the boys.

I ended up taking lots of pictures, so I'll divide them up across multiple entries. I'm not exactly sure how to organize them yet. I'll start off temporally, but I may switch to do some photos by geographic feature.

We drove in along the 140 which goes through the El Portal entrance. Along the way we drove along the Merced River as it exited Yosemite Valley. It was running very fast and wild in the narrow canyon fed by the spring run off.


We also drove past the Ferguson rock slide that covered the old road in 2006. I didn't get any pictures since I was driving at the time, but it's a pretty impressive sight--the old road just runs into the new side of the mountain and doesn't reappear for about 100 yards.

We hopped out to see the first water fall we passed; I didn't get the name of this one. It's before the main part of the park and I wasn't able to find a map online that showed this one. William has taken to doing random "poses" for the camera, which he hopes tells a story. In the sequence of photos this came from, he was pretending to be a monster making the sound of the waterfall.


Next we passed El Capitan and Bridalveil Fall. These photos are taken from the side of the highway. We had the good fortune of having very variable weather over the 4 days we were there, leading a variety of conditions for photographs. Here we see the low clouds and overcast sky that occurred on our first night in the valley.



We arrived at our campground in Housekeeping. Our three-walled, canvas-covered hut was quite comfortable--much more spacious than a tent and it had electricity. The beds weren't that comfortable, but they were better than sleeping on the ground. Our hut, J38, was just behind the huts shown in the link above. We were quite close to the river, which meant we had to keep a close eye on Lucas who isn't as naturally cautious as our other boys.


This picture looks like a Dad teaching his boys how to start a fire, but it isn't. I actually failed to get the fire going for any substantial length of time and Amy was subsequently assigned fire duty for the rest of trip.


Next time I'll cover our hike to Lower Yosemite Fall; the thing everyone does in Yosemite.