Yosemite Day Three

Debi was still sick on Thursday morning and this time, she decided to just stay home instead of having to endure the long, twisty ride in and out of the park just to stay in the car the whole day.  But the rest of us enjoyed a beautiful, bright, and sunny day in Yosemite.  We decided to split up in the morning, allowing each person/group to do what they wanted until early afternoon when we would meet back up at the Lower Yosemite Falls trail.

Our family headed into the park, taking time to stop at lots of the places that kept grabbing our attention each time we drove past but didn't have time to stop for before. 

We made our way down to the valley floor and the girls and I dropped Ryan off at Yosemite Falls so he could hike the Upper Falls trail before we all went to Lower Falls.  He knew he wouldn't have time to make it all the way to the top before having to turn around to come down and meet us, but he wanted to get as far as he could, hopefully making it to the base of the upper falls.  While he hiked, the girls and I drove the loop around again, stopping to take pictures along the way.

We stopped in one of the meadows to have our lunch, then circled around to Cooks Meadow to park the car and take a walk.  The view from the meadows are spectacular, especially on such a beautiful day!



Turns out, Ryan did make it to the base of Upper Falls and since he had the camcorder with him, we have some pics of his hike.

As the family gathered to head towards Lower Yosemite Falls, I began to worry that Ryan wouldn't make it back in time.  Since they are completely seperate trails, I knew that if we left before he got there, we weren't going to see him until we got back.  But as it turned out, just as we were leaving, I saw him making his way toward us - Perfect timing! :)

I was surprised to find out that the "hike" to Lower Yosmite Falls is really just a nice walk.  But it was still a nice walk and of course, beautiful.

The trail loops around, so you can go back a totally different way than you came, which we did, and got to see even more beautiful scenery.

We all decided to head up to Glacier Point because we knew it was the perfect day to take in such a great view of Yosemite.  It meant getting home really late, but it was SO worth it!  See for yourself!  The first group of photos is from Washburn Point, just before Glacier Point.

The rest are from Glacier Point, but this first group was taken near the parking lot, which is not quite all the way to the point.

And finally, the view from Glacier Point:

On the way back to our cars, we stopped at this little lookout.  Rori had fun pretending she was Rapunzel up in her tower, while Cadi had fun playing with Half Dome. lol

We headed home excited about the gorgeous day we had just experienced and looking forward to coming back in the morning, but sad that when we did, it would be our last day in Yosemite.