Yosemite

My brother Matt convinced Jess and me to drop by Yosemite on the way home from Newport. The thought of driving 6-7 extra hours with the kids made us think twice (or about 30 times to be honest) about committing to the stop, but it ended up being well worth it. We pulled in late Friday night and set up the tent. I awoke at 3:45 Saturday morning and Matt and I headed up the mountain to begin a 14 mile (round-trip) hike to the top of half dome. The hike was incredible - one of the coolest things I have ever done (although it kicked my butt...but we will get to that later). The hike begins with a 2.5 mile ascent up Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls. This first 2.5 miles is brutal - you basically climb straight up the steep hills/cliffs surrounding the waterfalls using thousands of granite stairs. The next 4.5 miles is a beautiful hike through some groves and up a hill covered with huge pines and redwoods. After 7 miles, you reach another set of brutal granite steps to reach the backside of the dome. The backside of the dome is extremely steep, but doable. They have two cables going up the dome that help you not die (although as you can imagine, some have...9 according to the authoritative wikipedia). The way up was difficult, but we managed to do it relatively fast - 3 hours, 45 minutes. I was fine the entire way up. The way down killed me. By the time we reached Vernal Falls, I was dreading the last 1.5 mile or so. My knees decided that they were done for the day. In that last 1.5 mile, I decided that I would never do the hike again. A few hours later, I was already thinking about coming back and going back up. It was such an awesome experience. I'm glad Matt convinced us to come.

Anyway, while we were hiking, Jess and Becky were hanging out at the camp spot...which, by all that I saw, was the best one in the valley. Matt booked a sweet spot that abutted the forest and a small creek. Beck and Ben (Matt's kid) loved playing in the water. Matt and I got back around 1:30 and shortly after that we headed up to Mariposa Grove to see the sequoias. It was a bit of a drive (about an hour), but I am also glad we did that. Those trees are awesome - out of this world.

The rest of the trip was occupied by a bear, a bear cub (which was rad), some waterfalls, and El Capitan. If you can't already tell, I loved Yosemite. I really can't describe how amazing that place is. I can't wait to go back. In some other life, I will have to turn into a hippie and spend a few years hanging out in Yosemite.

On other thing of note...if you ever go to Yosemite from Utah, take the 6 rather than I-15 or I-80. We took the 6 all the way from California to Santiquin, Utah. It turns out that nobody uses that highway...the speed limit is 70 most of the way and it is pretty much an open, straight, highway with no cops. We honestly went about 35 - 50 miles at one point without seeing another car. You could probably do the trip in just over 10 hours.