Yosemite National Park

On Wednesday we headed up to Yosemite from Bishop. We traveled up many a winding road to get to Mono Lake where we stopped for a stretch break and to double check our directions up to the park. Sadly we passed up the sign that pointed the way to the Devil's Post Pile, which I had been looking forward to checking out. When we finally made it in to the park we immediatley parked and went on a hike up to Gaylor Lake. It was a one mile hike up to 10,360 ft. The going was rough but the view from the top was absolutely worth the effort.

We hiked down to the lake and gave our feet a rest with a soak in the freezing cold water. One of the students, Sarah, actually jumped in!

After the not-as-arduos hike back down we drove to a beach and had a nice picnic lunch in the sand. From there we traveled to an overlook and got a good view of Half Dome in the distance.

Arlington got to travel papoose style and has been travelling that way ever since, on the back of my camelback.

We wanted to see Half Dome a little bit closer so we drove down to the valley. It took us quite a while to get down there. On the way down we stopped and got a picture of El Capitan. Apparently people climb this thing... eesh.

I had talked to a girl from Los Angeles, Lexi, about the park and she told me that down in the valley it was like Disney World. When we got there I could see what she meant. Since Yosemite has millions of visitors every year they have had to do some major crowd control. There are shuttles that bus people around the entire park, stopping every so often at the coolest sights. Their museums and visitor's center were absolutely packed! But I did manage to snag a picture with John Muir!

After that a few of us went on a walk up to see the Lower Falls. It was a nicely paved path through the forrest to get to a great vantage point of the falls. People were climbing past the path onto the boulders to get a closer look. We didn't venture that far and decided to turn around so we would be back in time for pizza in the loft.

Bonus: Half Dome a little closer:

Yosemite was a great day, lots of hiking and lakes and ponds!