Yosemite 2010 - Day 1 - July 29

Yosemite Falls - Upper and Lower Falls

Day One - July 29, 2010

We got up early to catch a flight out of Orlando. We actually flew over Disney World in the early morning hours. It was so cool to see the Magic Kingdom from overhead. We also flew right along the Florida gulf coast so I'm sure I could have seen our house in Crawfordville. I actually DID see Apalachicola, St. George Island and St. Joe's Peninsula. Very cool. It was like looking down at a huge map. Poor Matt had the middle seat and he slept most of the way. After a layover in Dallas we headed farther west to San Jose, CA.

Once we landed in San Jose, we met up with Martin and Maggie and started the 4 hour drive out to Yosemite. We had fun talking and listening to music. We were so excited when we finally started seeing mountains. After a little detour when the navigation lead us to a closed road, we made it into the park. We stopped at the first pull-off we saw and headed down to enjoy the mountain stream and fresh mountain air. It was so exciting to finally be there and experience the hugeness of the mountains and the trees. It is an incredibly beautiful place.

Me, enjoying the first stream and finally being out of a car or plane after about 9 hours of traveling.

We headed farther into the park and we finally came up to Yosemite Falls. This is what we were climbing the next day. I got a real sense of how far up we were going to have to go.

Click on this photo so you can see my comments.

You can see the line of tiny cars at the bottom of the screen. (Between the green grass and the darker green trees.) That sort of puts the size and height of the falls into perspective. We were already at 4,000 above sea level inside Yosemite Valley. We were going to climb another 4,000 feet the next day to the top of the falls which is at approx. 8,000 feet. Pretty wild.

We also got our first glimpse of Half Dome. This mountain was so beautiful. We had great views of Half Dome our entire hike, but I have to say that this first image with the afternoon sun practically glaring off the rocks really took my breath away. Absolutely gorgeous.

There is a special campsite for backpackers to use on the night before and after their actual hike. We were right underneath Half Dome. The camp was kind of hidden behind another camping area and with the sun going down it was difficult to find. We finally found it and set up our camp. We headed over to Yosemite's Camp Curry for our "last supper". It was late and our only choice was pizza which was fine by us. We filled up on pizza and headed back to camp.

Home Sweet Home

We were super excited to finally be in the park. I think this excitement was a good thing as I found out the next day that I really needed that extra adrenaline.

Day 2 - starting our hike up the Falls starts tomorrow!

Finally...Yosemite 2010

So I have been a terrible blogger this month. I missed a week of work to be home for Grandpa's funeral and just as I was finally feeling caught up with all the work last week, I was called in for a meeting on Friday and was told the company was taking a different direction they did not foresee when they hired me and now my position was being cut. Effective immediately. So now I'm once again looking for employment in Tampa. Not at all how I would like to be spending my time.

Anyways, now I actually have the time to blog about our trip to Yosemite. About 2 months later.

Matt loves to be outdoors. He's an Eagle Scout and has been camping and backpacking around the country for years. He spent 3 months during the summer in college working for a youth corp. that built trails for hikers in the 4 corners area of Colorado. He's spent WEEKS living out of a tent and eating camp food. He has all the equipment for wilderness survival: the subzero sleeping bag, the tent, the water filter, the camp stove and tons of other stuff. He's one of the most fastidious people I know normally, but when he gets out in the woods he's totally OK with dirt, sweat and not showering for days.

Matt, breathing in the fresh Yosemite air. Mmmmm, pine-scented.

I, on the other hand, am not really ANY of those things. But I adapt well. My family went to the beach for vacations. We did not sleep on sleeping bags on the floor or eat outdoors unless you count the patio at Sea N' Suds in Gulf Shores. The first time I ever went camping or slept outdoors was with Matt.

Me in Yosemite.

Matt has wanted to spend a vacation in the wilderness for years. So about this time last year he started planning and looking at different hiking options. At most National Parks, you have to apply for a back country permit before you are allowed to hike. You can't just show up with your backpack at the park and expect to park your tent wherever you please. In order to apply for these permit, you have to detail your entire trip including what trails you plan to take and how many days you will be camping. Matt worked for hours and hours on a schedule for each park and put in our applications for several different parks. Our trip was accepted at Yosemite National Park in CA. Martin and Maggie joined us and our team was set. We were California bound!

Day 1 to follow tomorrow.....