Yosemite National Park

Yosemite is magnificent.  I'd been there a couple of years ago but really for only 24 hours.  Just long enough to hike to the top of Half Dome.  The view from up there is amazing, however the view from Yosemite Valley floor is something else entirely.  The valley is completely surrounded by steep granite out croppings  that just shoot straight up from the valley floor.  In every direction, everywhere you look, the view is just as spectacular as the last.  While hiking I felt like like the best way to take it all in would be to lie and the ground.  We were hiking along with tall trees on both side of the trail and I kept having to stop and look straight up in order to see the granite cliffs above me because the trees are so tall.  On that same hike we made our way to Mirror Lake...it was really quite spectacular.  I could see the tiny lip off of Half Dome that Joey-Linn waved a Steeler flag from when we hiked it.  Also on that hike we spotted a bear.  Thankfully it was a good distance away from us.  It was pretty unbelievable that Paul looked behind him when he did or we would have missed it entirely.  The bear was headed in the direction of a rather large campground that we had just passed, full of campers eating dinner at their picnic tables.  We were to far away to warn them.

That afternoon, Ty and Libby spent a good deal of time talking with a native american man whose ancestors lived in Yosemite Valley.  He's a fifth generation Ahwaneechee Indian.  They were completely enthralled as he showed them how to use juniper berries to make necklaces and pumice stones to polish pine needles to make jewelry with.  He was wonderful and so patient.

After dinner, we were headed to our car and heard what at first sounded like thunder and lightning or fireworks.  It was really loud and it went on long enough for us to realize that it was neither.  I looked around and everyone in the parking lot was frozen and looking toward the sound.  It was so loud and sounded near buy.  Right about the same time that I thought it, someone yelled, "Rock fall"!  I thought if the tops of the trees start moving we've got to run.  Thankfully the trees didn't start moving and the rocks stopped falling.  Right about then 2 guys came flying by on their bikes.  We heard them say that they were going to go see if anyone got hurt.  I wasn't sure if there was a trail up there or not.  Then came the dust.  A massive plume of dust.  It was slowly making it's way toward us and we got in the car just in time.  We were headed in the opposite direction of the dust thank goodness.  Pictures to follow at some point.