Yosemite Valley

I'm already 2 and a half weeks into this adventure and exhausted. Time is flying by and we are definitely having fun. My brother made a great comment about our camping for the next four months, "It's like everything you do at home, only outside and harder". Truer words had never been spoken. We hit the road in style:

and camped a lot more than I had anticipated. We've gotten really good at tearing down and setting up camp, but man is it a chore. It eats away much more of our time than I was ready for but there's something special about having everything we need in the car and parsing down even more of our belongings each day.

We hit the road around two weeks ago toward our reservation at Upper Pines Campground in Yosemite Valley. Most people have heard me talk about this non-stop, since I insisted on this being our first stop to take in the waterfalls in full force during the Spring. The valley did not disappoint:

Day 1 we hiked Vernal/Nevada Falls - 6.4 Miles, not too difficult and totally worth the spectacular views and many rainbows. We started early on the trail and we're shocked that we had it mostly to ourselves. During one portion you get totally soaked by the spray coming off of Vernal falls.

Each moment was jaw dropping, including the world's fastest and most dangerous slip 'n' slide (hard to appreciate in this video how fast the water was actually going):

Day 2 we got somewhat of a later start due to having to switch campsites and decided to hike up to Upper Yosemite Falls. We we're totally unprepared by how hard this hike was. Only about 7 miles round-trip, the hike gains around 3000 feet of elevation in switchbacks the whole way. We did not have enough food and we're super grouchy by the end, especially considering we had to walk another mile to the car. It's hard to get the full falls in one shot, but the ants at the top of this will be us in around 3 hours:

The hike is supposed to take 6-8 hours, we we're able to do it in about 4 and a half, mostly because we we're trying to keep pace with this guy who was 69! and kept beating us at every turn. The views we're dizzying and the actual overlook scared the hell out of me:

The down was almost just as hard as the up given the incline. We usually run at this point on trails and couldn't due to the tight turns and numerous boulders. Worth every sore muscle at the end. 

We had the next few days at Wawona campground which is just outside the Yosemite Valley near Mariposa Grove (which was closed :( ). This was inconvenient given that we we're still doing so much in the valley but we made it work and loved that it was right by a river. Friday & Saturday my Mom and Brother joined us and we had our priorities straight:

We thought the valley was busy during the week and man we're we wrong. It took us over an hour each day to find parking, the last time with my brother and I almost kissing the people that backed out and gave us their space. 

We had some wins: getting a campsite last minute on Saturday and parking too. And losses: Never finding parking on Friday where I just circled in the car and having a bolt come out of our shocks that we just replaced (whoops!). Overall nothing but happy memories for the week. 

We left Monday morning after moving to yet another campsite in the valley Sunday night. We cruised around in our bicycles, did a couple of light hikes and just enjoyed ourselves. Monday we were on our way to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park for a few days and then off to Vegas. Universe had different plans for us though...