We arrived mid-day on Monday, August 28th. We got settled in our wood cabin in Curry Village, went for a swim in the cold pool and then took a ride around the valley in the free shuttle. We got off and hiked to the foot of Yosemite Falls
only to be shocked at the lack of water. We have only been to Yosemite twice and both times were in May when there is water everywhere. There are waterfalls on every cliff in the valley, but at the end of the summer, it is a different story. That evening I got this shot of Half Dome at sunset. That was our view from Curry Village. Pretty awesome, huh?
Tuesday was our day to hike the Mist Trail (without the mist) up to Nevada Falls. Joshua and I have hiked to these falls twice before but always on the John Muir Trail which is longer but not as steep. The Mist Trail has many, many granite steps that seem to go straight up the side of the cliff. But Joshua and I have discovered that if we make up stories together (one of us starts and then we take turns adding to the story), we can distract ourselves into climbing much further than we thought we could. Here we are on that trail half way to Vernal Falls, which are the lower set of falls.
Tuesday evening after the climb the pool at Curry Village felt very refreshing. And amazingly
enough we ran into friends from Joshua's school. They had been inner tubing on the Merced River that day and were preparing to hike the Mist Trail on Wednesday. So I gave them a little advice and they loaned us their tubes.Wednesday Joshua and I started off with a little shopping in the village and then a bike ride. Of course I had to get the shot of him with Half Dome in the background. But the topper for the ride was right at the end. We had about 5 minutes to get our bikes back and as we buzzed past one of the meadows we saw one of the tour groups stopped and everyone pointing to the grass. We screeched our brakes and there were two stags relaxing in the shade. They just sat and allowed us to take our pictures. It was a wonderful treat for us.
I don't have pictures documenting our afternoon float down the Merced, but I promise you we did it. I think the water was just a few degrees above freezing. My legs and hands finally got numb enough to kick and paddle. The river was quite shallow in places and there was a breeze blowing up the valley, so at times we floated up stream. After a couple hours we had floated about half a mile and met our friends who had arrived back from their day of hiking.
All in all, it was a fabulous vacation. Of course we missed Jon a lot, since the outdoors is such a huge part of who he is. But I was proud of myself for taking Joshua on this adventure by myself and for having a great time. Our return trip wasn't nearly as fun as the train ride up the coast. We took a small van ride from Yosemite to Merced, following the river, which was a beautiful ride. Then we caught the train to Bakersfield. But there is no train over the Grapevine, so we got packed into a bus with less leg room than a airline coach seat for a two hour ride to LA Union Station. We had an hour and a half wait at Union Station, which was an interesting experience in itself. Finally caught the Surfliner back to San Juan, where we arrived at about 9:30 p.m. Thanks to our friends Pam and Cory, our car was waiting for us and we were home and in bed at a decent hour.
So now you are all caught up on our trip and I'll go back to posting current news.
Sheryl
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