Saturday, July 12, 2008

"Yosemite Vacation"


We are back from our vacation. I can honestly say that I have never seen anything as gorgeous as I did in Yosemite National Park. We were on the Valley Floor surrounded by beauty beyond belief. This picture is our view from directly behind our cabin. It was breathtaking.

This is the view from the top of the first picture. It is called Glacier Point. It was directly above our cabin. 3200 ft above. If you look by the grassy field in the middle you can see the swimming pool. It was about 70 yards from our cabin door.

Here are Sarah and Molly playing on a big rock in front of our cabin. There were several rocks bigger than this one around our camp. Every kid in the camp was climbing the rocks.

Here are my three tree huggers, hugging the giant cedar tree. The camp was full of trees like this one. The pictures are kinda hazy because of the smoke from the wild fires in CA. You couldn't smell the smoke but you could see it.

This is the famous "El Capitan" People climb this rock. (crazy people) It is so huge. We took a 4 hour guided tour up to the top of Glacier Point and saw the most beautiful views I have ever seen.

Another famous climbing rock is the "Half Dome" Absolutely stunning. People come from all over the world to climb El Capitan and Half Dome.

This is another picture from the top of Glacier Point. The waterfall on the top right is called Nevada Fall. The lower falls on the left is called Vernal Falls. On the way down the mountain we stopped at a viewing spot that showed Bridalveil Falls with a rainbow going through it. It happens the everyday at the same time and we were lucky enough to see it. It was hard to photograph it but I did get a post card of it for my scrapbook.

Before we did the tour to Glacier Point we went to Yosemite Falls. It was so gorgeous. I can't even describe it. This picture is what we saw from the beginning of the hike to the lower falls. That hike was 30 minutes. 15 there and 15 back. The hike to the upper falls was 6-8 hours. You could go all the way to the bottom of the falls and feel the spray from the water. It was truly awesome.

This is another picture of the falls. It is by far the most spectacular thing I have ever seen. I wish it wouldn't have been so hazy from the fires. I did take quite a few pictures of the falls. We even found a couple that spoke English to take our family picture. Believe me, it was hard.
I have a couple more pictures from the hike to show you. I could have stayed there forever. It was so pretty. We were only there for 4 days but it felt like longer. It was so nice to get away.

The thing I wanted to see the most besides Yosemite Falls was the Giant Sequoias. You know the famous one that you can drive through that you see in all the Yosemite Brochures and on the Internet? That is the one I wanted to see. Turns out that it blew down in 1969. Yes, I said 1969. I felt like a dork when I asked the guy at the info desk and he looked at me like I was stupid and told me it blew down 39 years ago. My question is why is it still in the brochures? The Giant Sequoia forest was about 27 miles south of where we were and we didn't make it there. Yosemite is 4 hours south of Sacramento. I can't believe it was our first time there. But I guess when you live there you don't see the sites like the tourists do.

Oh yeah, I have a foot update. My foot was pain free the day we left. I was careful not to over do anything but the pain was totally gone. When we got home there was a message from my doctor on the answering machine giving me the results for my blood work and x-rays. You're not going to believe it but all my tests came back in the normal range. So I guess not walking and having so much pain you can't put a sock on is totally normal. I wonder what it is called when you can walk and have no pain. LOL
Thanks for sharing my vacation with me. I really need to stamp. I am having serious withdrawals.
*We did rent a cabin. They also have three sided tents, tent cabins, and cabins with bathrooms. There are also several campgrounds that you can tent or RV in.* You have to book your vacation to Yosemite about a year in advance. They sell out super fast. When we booked ours lie 8 or 9 months ago, the only thing we could get was the three nights we got. There was nothing else available.*

14 comments:

Kimberly said...

Wow... those pictures are awesome... looks like such an amazing place. Glad you had a great time :) Did you rent the cabin? If so did you like it? :)

Denise ~ Paper Ponderings said...

Your vacation looks so awesome. Glad it was. The pain sounds like gout. My dad deals with that once in awhile and he said the pain is so bad! He keeps a can of cherries in the pantry because, for some reason, they help.

Doris said...

Thanks for sharing your awesome photos. My brother-in-law lives in Montana, and they're getting smoke from all the fires too. My favorite place in California is the Sequoia National Forest which we did get to on our trip several years ago. You would be totally blown away by it, so do make time to take a trip there!
I've lived near NYC all my life, and still haven't been to the Statue of Liberty; so I can identify with you!

Glad your foot didn't keep you from hiking and taking in the gorgeous views.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful pics. Have always wanted to visit but has always sounded so busy and we couldn't book that far in advance. Glad your foot didn't bother you and yes, it does sound like gout.

Bev J. (Maxell on SCS)

JoAnna Goodman said...

Wow, Rochelle! What beautiful pictures! So glad all of you had a great time! Also glad your foot is better!

Sandra Smart said...

That is God's country for sure....how beautiful! So glad you had a great time and also very happy to hear you are feeling better!

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for sharing the awsesome pictures!! I've never been there, & personally wouldn't care for the heights, but the pictures are just fabulous!!

Linda Larson (meancookie)

Unknown said...

Rochelle, your photos are amazing so very talented you are! Sounds like you had a wonderful time and I am so glad you foot felt better for the trip.

Lauri said...

Wow! What amazing pictures!! Sure looks like you had a great time!!!! Thanks for sharing, I have never been here but hope to one day (although I am not sure I could handle the heights! haha!)

Chris said...

great pictures, thanks for sharing!!!

JenniferL. said...

Those pictures are great!

Latisha said...

Yosemite is very beautiful, it sounds like you had an amazing vacation.
In N.CA there are redwood tree's you can walk/drive through still, they are on the 101 side.
If you ever want to get away for the weekend, go N on 5 go west of Hwy 20 (around Williams) go until you get to the 101, you want to go North on 101, in the town of Willits you will go west again towards Fort Bragg/Mendocino. The drive is so beautiful and once you get to Fort Bragg the rest of your drive is through the Redwoods. From Sacramento it takes around 4 hours.
Big Sur and around Monterey is really pretty too.

Kristine Reynolds said...

Beautiful pictures Rochelle! Sounds like you guys had a great vacation!

CreativeMish said...

Great Photos! I looks like you had a great time playing out in nature!