After spending Friday morning in Sequoia, we drove to Yosemite where we stayed Friday night through Sunday. This was our first late-summer visit to Yosemite National Park. The valley seemed greener than I remembered it. Most striking though, was to see the granite wall of Yosemite Falls dry.
We stayed at Yosemite View Lodge, in Merced, CA-- just two miles from the park entrance. Our suite had a pristine view of the Merced River (the same that runs through Yosemite valley).
At night, E and I stepped out onto the balcony to gape at the night sky (unlike anything we can ever see at home). The stars, … plentiful. In some spots so small and clustered that they looked like streaks of foam across the sky. I tried to take in the dark silhouettes that the tall conifers cast onto the mountains and then that the mountains cast onto the sky, as E pointed them out. All the while I wondered if I should ask E if he remembered what day it would be Sunday. It would be our sweet Ava’s 4th birthday. I think he knew.
On Saturday, our party of 13 went to the visitor center and rode the valley shuttle to the foot of John Muir Trail. From there, we hiked it to Vernal Falls. Not for the faint of heart! A large portion of the trail consists of steep, haphazardly arranged, stone steps. We were rewarded with beautiful sights, including the one of the rainbow, at the top of this post. When we reached Vernal Falls the boys and men swam and slid down a massive rock into a large pool below the falls. Despite the warm day, the water was cold-cold.
