Is there any better indication that a place is awesome than the fact you want to visit it again and again? We've just left Yosemite for the second time and are now imagining the things we're going to do on our NEXT visit!
Let's back it up a little bit...
We drove into the park in the late afternoon and found the site we'd booked for 3 nights at the Lower Pines Campground on the Valley floor (one of the rare times we book anything - and it's lucky we did because it was the only site left!)
It was an awesome site too - 10 meters to the river and 20 meters to the shuttle stop with great bike riding/scooting space to boot.
Come morning, I downed a coffee before setting out on foot walking/jogging my way upstream along the Merced River to Happy Isles and then following the horse trail up Tenaya Creek to Mirror Lake and back home again (about 6.5km).
On the way out I was clapping and whooping every now and again to warn bears of my approach but soon stopped it on the mirror lake section when I realized how busy a trail it was. There's nothing cooler than yelling out and then rounding a bend to find a school group!
On the way out I was clapping and whooping every now and again to warn bears of my approach but soon stopped it on the mirror lake section when I realized how busy a trail it was. There's nothing cooler than yelling out and then rounding a bend to find a school group!
Later we caught the shuttle bus to check out the visitor centre and lower yosemite falls. Spectacular falls but a real circus (fantastic people-watching).
That afternoon, knowing what Nath had planned for himself the next day, I set out to explore the Merced River heading west and ended up following trails for almost 11km. I stood very still watching deer extremely close up for some of the time which was nice.
But I was unfortunately way too far from Bessie and nowhere near shuttle stops when a freak hail storm pelted down on me and so I did a lot more sprinting than I'd intended!! But all's well that ends well (that is, me getting back safe and sound).
But I was unfortunately way too far from Bessie and nowhere near shuttle stops when a freak hail storm pelted down on me and so I did a lot more sprinting than I'd intended!! But all's well that ends well (that is, me getting back safe and sound).