Yosemite Camping Trip

The Green's and the Cottle's got together again.  This time we met in the middle, at Yosemite Valley.  It was no small feat to get camp site tickets on the valley floor.  We booked 6 months in advance, tried to get 2 spots, but was only able to get one.  We were there from 7/28-31.  Plenty of time for hiking, swimming, S'mores and just about every outdoor activity you could want. 

Here's a picture of Mirror lake, named after the reflection that appears in the water below.  HalfDome is on the right, not really visible, the centerpiece is Mt. Watkins.

Nate and Chloe spent a great deal of time playing in the little stream behind our campsite.  

Maria and Lilia on the other hand spent a great deal of time drinking.

The magnificent Halfdome.  Even Nate was excited to see it.

Nate and I on the bridge between Upper and Lower Pines campground.  That's Yosemite falls in the background.

Nate and Chloe.  Have I mentioned that this is one of the 7 girls Nate plans to Marry?  He does like older women, I guess he gets that from me.

What would camping be without good food.  I'm BBQ'ing  Flap meat that we brought here.  We also cooked chicken and Tri-Tip over the weekend.  The corn on the cob was fantastic, as was the chips and salsa.  

Shayne ready to try his hand at a bottle of Scotch Mike bought.

Mike takes his turn at roasting marshmallows.

Now here's something that may never be caught on film again, Mike eating a S'more.  So much sugar, more than he could handle, but he was licking his fingers it was so good.

Nate loves S'mores.

Here's Nate as we're waiting for our open air bus tour of the Yosemite valley floor.  Very interesting, but the two hours, hot sun, was a little too long for my boy.  By the time it ended, he couldn't wait to cool off.

Here we are at one of the tour stops.  That's El Capitan on the left and Yosemite falls on the right.

Same location, but a group shot with everyone.

Bridalveil falls.

At tunnel view, Nate wanted to make some silly faces, while pretending to be a bear with sharp teeth.

Yosemite valley in all its glory, El Capitan, Half Dome, Bridalveil Falls and the Cottle's/Greens. 

After our valley floor tour, we hiked towards lower Yosemite falls.

Nate really got into the rock climbing portion.

Hard to get a shot with all three of the kids together, as they were busy running all over the place.  Whatever you do, don't call it hiking, or the kids won't like it.  They were just playing on the rocks while moving up hill closer to the falls.

My little mountain man.

Nate showing off his Karate moves.

Cooling off in the water at Yosemite falls.  Maria yelling at Nate, where's your hat, put it on!!!!

Had to go out and grab the boy, Maria was too nervous with him being that close to the water.  

Nate loves being outdoors, but not wearing the hat.

Nate got a kick out of walking on the fallen logs.  Of course this made Maria nervous, and to be honest, I think even Nate was a little spooked.

The trick was how to get off the logs.

At home in the outdoors.  It was great to see all three kids spend so much time away from the electronics.  Did I say just the kids?  we were all pretty much without.  Minimal signal, no data service.  It was perfect.  Really felt unplugged for a little while.

Chloe working on keeping her youthful appearance, couldn't wait to get into a mud bath.

Not sure if this was part of getting clean or getting dirty.

Pyro boy loved lighting the grill that was already lit,a s well as trying to get the fire pit to have the biggest flames he could, usually by throwing pine needles on it.

And once we had the fire going, they could make S'Mores or roasted marshmallows.

Nate had a great time.  When pressed, he couldn't rally name his favorite part, camping, swimming, Chloe, S'Mores or something else.  He liked it all.

In this photo, he clearly liked the S'Mores the best.

As did Chloe.

Yosemite Hiking

Mike Cottle and I took off on Sat around noon for a hike up the Mist Trail in Yosemite.  Below are some of the photos we took along the way.  The trail begins from the valley floor and is roughly 7 miles round trip and starts at an elevation of 4,000 feet.  It's about 1,000 feet up to Vernal falls, and 1,900 feet to Nevada falls, which is where we peaked.  The trail is a popular one, especially for those wishing to hike up to Halfdome.  We weren't ready for Halfdome, but plan to do it on our next trip.

Here's the first and only water stop on the trail, at the Vernal falls foot bridge.

Here's Mike at the same bridge, but looking up river towards Vernal falls. 

We've started the stair master portion of the Mist trail hike, lot's of stairs carved out of the rocks, with wet misty spray making everything a bit slippery.

You can see the stairs and the falls there in the background.  These are the falls that had the recently heavily publiced three hikers go over, when they crossed over the fenced boundaries.

Feeling misty before the last big push up the trail to Vernal falls.

The mist really helps cool you off on a warm summer day.

All the sun and water made for some amazing rainbows.

Vernal falls.

Here's the top of Vernal falls, looking back down at our hiking path.  

Might be hard to see, but the path is there on the left, with lots of people coming up.  Very crowded hike.

As you can see you can get very close tot he edge of the falls, without crossing the boundary. Not sure why the hikers would feel a need to get even closer.

Moving past Vernal falls, we kept heading up to Nevada falls.

Looking back down towards the top of Vernal falls.  Hard to describe how fast that water is moving.

At the base of Nevada falls.

Amazing the work that goes into making these trails.  The boulders are laid out well for a nice path, but who had the gusto to create it?

Moving up the path to Nevada Falls.

At the top of Nevada falls.  Quite a spectacular view.  It was a great hike and such amazing scenery.

While we took the mist trail up, it was recommended to take the John Muir trail back down.  It's a bit longer, not as steep, not as crowded and a bit farther from the water.

That's Nevada falls in the background.

Might need to zoom in to see Mike claiming to be King of the World.