So after an amazing and completely stuffed day in SF (blog here) we had driven halfway to Yosemite park the night before and still had 2-3 hours left to get to our next site. I knew leaving really early in the am was out of the question, as I do value my marriage, even though I was dreaming of the sites to come. We left much later than I expected, due to meeting our awesome host at the Airb&b that we stayed at. The location was in the middle of seemingly nowhere (but perfect for what we were looking for) and the women was very friendly and we enjoyed our time there! It happened to be one of the cheapest places we stayed, too, and had snacks and drinks for us as well!
The drive was pretty uneventful and boring (besides being able to talk to my precious littles) until we started to get the the mountains.
Once we got there it was hard not to want to pull over constantly to take a look and some pictures!
One reason that I wanted to leave earlier that morning was due to the limited parking at the valley floor, where we were headed. Being a Sunday in the summer, it was no joke that the parking was a stretch. It was pretty stressful and after much prayer and searching around, we found a spot!
Fortunately I had a great book I had borrowed from the library about the park and it was a handy guide throughout our time. I decided on the closest trail to our parking area, as I was dying to get going.
A beautiful trail near a couple of waterfalls was also pretty crowded due to it being paved, shorter, level and very beautiful. You can tell Beach loved taking a selfie with me here!
Crowds are not our thing, and while it was really nice, we would have enjoyed it even more had it been less populated.
The next closest thing was a small museum of sorts speaking of the indigentist people.
As well as early trail discorvies.
They also had an Ansel Adams Gallery where we enjoyed seeing many of his works (and I gaucked at the prices). We were both ready to get going on another adventure, though. In that you can't move your car (I mean unless you are crazy or ready to leave the park), they do provide a free shuttle service. Which we figured out and hopped on for our next trail.
We explored another very lame nature center (thanks book). After talking to a staff member, I was convinced that I wanted to try out Mist Trail! It started out pretty busy but with more amazing views!
It would thin out quite a bit the higher we went. I was beyond excited to get to the namesake of the trail!
There is a huge staircase that goes along a waterfall, creating beautiful rainbows and a ton of mist all over! At the base ready to climb...
I'll admit I was just a bit nervous due to the water drenched stairs and took a lot of precautions (see me holding the wall here).
The trail was breathtaking! You can almost see the rainbow above me here!
The steps were no joke and I was thankful that they were there!
I took shelter several times to attempt to dry my phone (again) so to take this picture of Beach (and a rainbow).
We were pretty soaked by the end of that section....but lots more to go. Thankfully it was a warm day and it felt great!
We continued to climb...you can barely make out the trail below with someone in red climbing below us.
The top of the falls makes an awesome spot to take some pictures....
and enjoy a little snack break as you dry a bit from the falls.
We continued to climb a bit more and saw another waterfall but realized that there was not enough time to hike those several more miles to make it there.
So we took a few more pictures and began our decent.
Except it wasn't...we actually ended up climbing quite a bit more. Here is the thing....the tails are very poorly marked and there wasn't anyone really on this trail that I thought was supposed to circle on down. So I spent at least another mile of climbing worried that we were going the wrong way. I talked myself into believing that most of the people must have just turned around at the top of the falls instead of circling around.
Luckily I do believe this was the case and we enjoyed a longer hike back up and then down having it more to ourselves. I was a bit confused, though, on the milage. While I thought we were going on a 3 mile hike, I believe it was about twice that when all was said and done.
That meant we needed to figure out about dinner? Hum.....Beach did not want to be stuck on the top of the mountain in the dark, wise, so we opted to find our hotel and then hunt down a late dinner.
Turns out the views down from the valley had some spatular stops, which we had to stop and see. The setting sun made it that much more spectacular!
The inn we were staying at was located in the park, though still a bit of a drive from the valley and we didn't get there till after nine. After checking in, the only option was to drive out of the park to the nearest town and open restaurant. We were pretty wiped and starving when we ate at 10pm that night for our first real full meal of the day.
The beauty of our Creator's work left me with such awe that day and night and I couldn't wait to see more the next day!
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