Yosemite Day One

We knew that with the holiday weekend, Yosemite would be packed through Monday, so we chose to have fun hanging out at the lake and around town before heading into the park.  But Yosemite IS what we really came to see, so we were all looking forward to Tuesday morning when we'd finally head in.  Unfortunately, on Tuesday morning, Jared woke up sick.  That put a damper on things.  Tom stayed home with him and the rest of us headed to the park.

We began at Mariposa Grove, the largest grove of sequoia trees in the park.  It was a short hike (about a mile or so) to the tunnel tree we were aiming for, and it was beautiful!

Yes, that is a cute little snowman. lol  We were waiting for some of the group and Ben and Miriam decided to create that adorabe little guy.

 
At one point along the trail, there were these five tree stumps in a row, so we decided to put one person on each and had them all do a yoga tree pose.  then we switched it up and had everyone do a different pose - even Rori did one! lol

I don't know if you can read the sign or not, but Ben and the girls are all standing with Bachelor and Three Graces.  Get it?  Ben's a bachelor, and he's also standing with three graceful young ladies... ;)

Finally, we reached the tunnel tree:

The sequoias are beautiful!  And the walk was really nice.  It was a great way to start our visit to Yosmite.

After Mariposa Grove, we drove to Tunnel View, where we stopped for a breathtaking view:

Gorgeous!   El Capitan is on the left, Half Dome is in the center off in the distance, and Bridalveil Falls is on the right.

And after Tunnel View, we headed to Bridalveil Falls.  It was awesome!  This was the PERFECT time of year to go to Yosemite if you like waterfalls.  They were all full and powerful!  There were more waterfalls present than any other time of year.  Later, the big ones will slow to a trickle and the small ones will disappear entirely.  The downside of big, full waterfalls, is that you get DRENCHED whenever you go near them! lol  But that is also fun, so I didn't mind!

After Bridalveil Falls, we went the rest of the way into the valley and just took a shuttle around part of the valley floor. 

When we were in front of the visitor center at Yosemite Village, a deer crossed our path.  He was totally unafraid of humans.  Though, he did show a little concern for the dog that was present. ;)

And then, the day was over!  It went by fast!  Thank goodness we still had the rest of the week, and thank goodness the drive out of the park was just as beautiful as the drive in.