Yosemite: The Valley

Monday, June 24, we headed over to Yosemite. We had to time the drive just right because the pass between Mammoth and Yosemite had been closed; just that weekend, they started opening it to traffic for one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon. We were incredibly lucky. Without the pass, the drive takes something like seven hours. Anyway, we made it up before the pass opened and stopped on the way to enjoy a beautiful lake surrounded by snowy mountains.

Jim initiated some snowball throwing - mostly at the van.

A little farther up the road, we sat for a while in the line of cars waiting to get through the pass. Fortunately we were next to an ice-covered lake that made for a delightful view.

A majestic view on the way into the park. Note that little bonus waterfall in the background.

Traffic in the valley was hideous. We just needed to get to a wilderness office to get a backpacking permit. Traffic was so bad that it took hours. It was nearly impossible to get to the wilderness office, and there was no parking anywhere. Jim was later told that the visitor's center parking lots get full in the eight o'clock hour, and they just close them off at that point for the rest of the day. At long last, Jim was able to pull into a totally full parking lot by a market, and I hopped out with the girls to head to the wilderness office on foot while Jim went to find parking. We had to wait for a long time in the wilderness office, and Tiny was not super cooperative. When Jim arrived, Ever was outside supervising Tiny in a time-out, and I was at the counter talking to a ranger. Jim's top choice for the backpacking trip was not available (which we expected), so we got a permit for the next best option. We planned to go for just one night but got a permit for two nights in case we couldn't make it back in just two days.

After we got the permit, we went to get some lunch and were very excited to see a deer right outside.

Waiting for food:

Tiny's face was still a little jacked from when she whacked it onto the wooden bed frame.

Enjoying ice cream:

We made our way slowly down toward Yosemite Falls. The girls and I stopped off for bathrooms and time-killing while Jim ran back to the car for sunscreen at my insistence. The girls ended up enjoying a little map-reading lesson from a ranger for a while. When Jim caught up to us, we continued on.

Jim stopped to take a picture when the falls came into view. Then one of the children asked if she could take a picture, and then they all had to take a picture.

At first the girls tried to walk on the rocks and stay out of the water. For Tiny, however, that effort lasted about half a minute. Then she started just tromping right through and splashing around, and Wrenzy quickly followed suit.

We warned the littles they would be cold and wet, but they didn't listen. There was some major regret later.

When one climbs a tree, they all have to climb the tree.

Daddy and his girls.

Outside the market/restaurant area, they all had to take turns getting into this forked tree and posing for a picture.

When Tiny got in, she wanted to take a picture, herself. Not sure if she was trying to take a selfie or capture the view from up there.

We headed to a campground outside the park that night, as it was the closet site we could get. A number of the campgrounds in Yosemite were not open yet, and the rest were full. Jim had promised s'mores. We didn't get to the campsite until late, and the girls were exhausted, but he delivered.