Yosemite National Park

Wherever Michael and I have lived, we've tried to take road trips to nearby destinations so that not only can we take vacations but also experience what each part of the country has to offer. Living in LA has been great. We've been to Big Sur for our anniversary this past year, which was amazing, and now we can check Yosemite off of our list.

We had the opportunity to go with some friends from our ward, Rachel and Austin Robinson and we had such a great time!!! We left Wednesday after Michael finished work and after taking the past two days to plan and buy supplies, we headed north for our 5.5 hour car trip up to Yosemite. We arrived at our first campground stop just south of the park entrance at midnight where we set up our tent in close to 20 minutes, changed, brushed our teeth and slept for 5 hours before packing up our belongings to head into the park and hopefully snag a spot in one of the few and always full campgrounds. After getting to Bridalveil campground we were able to get an awesome campsite from some people who were leaving, which was very lucky on our part!

After setting up camp we took a nap for a couple of hours and then headed out for our hike to Vernal and Nevada waterfalls.

It was such a spectacular hike! I was dead tired almost the entire way up (at one point we had to climb some 1,500+ stairs to reach the first waterfall, as well as another 1,500+ to reach the second, and if you look closely in the next pic, you can see the stairs at the bottom) but the scenery was to die for and the waterfalls were so majestic that the hike was beyond worth it.

At one point at the top we decided to go swimming in the FREEZING cold water. It was so refreshing after the difficult hike up, but I was only able to stand it for about 10 minutes before I had to get out. What was so cool about it was that it was at the very top of the waterfall! This next picture is of where we went swimming in the the calm area at the top. So, fun!

This was the edge of the waterfall. Such a gorgeous view!

The hike down was tolerable and we really enjoyed the day.

We all ended it with getting back to camp and cooking in the campfire the hobo dinners that Rachel, Austin and I prepared the day before. Michael did a great job cooking them and they ended up being so yummy, especially since we were so hungry. We really had a great time relaxing around the campfire eating s'mores and drinking hot chocolate, even though Rachel and I were kinda freaked out about the possibility of a bear walking into our camp!! That night we were all so exhausted that we actually slept pretty well, even though it was beyond FREEZING cold outside!

The next morning we decided to take a drive to Glacier point to see Half-dome from a distance as well as the waterfalls that we had hiked the day before.

Afterward we took a leisurely hike to Taft Point and the Fissures which was absolutely beautiful! We were in awe at the sheer cliffs that the trail ended at and we had a great lunch near the edge of one of the cliffs.

Afterward we decided to make a stop to see the Sequoia grove before leaving the park. The trees were amazing and absolutely gigantic!

All in all we had a really amazing trip, even though we got a flat tire about 200 miles from LA and had to drive the rest of the way home on a spare at 55 miles per hour because all of the tire stores were closed. We arrived home Friday night close to midnight, but we really had such a great road trip with the Robinson's and Michael and I can't wait to go back to Yosemite.