Posted by Karen on 11-May-2009
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Our last day here in Yosemite this weekend, so I suggested we hike over to the Vernal Falls footbridge (according to the map, 3/4 of a mile one way) and check out Vernal Falls before heading home because it’s a beautiful waterfall, complete with tons of rainbows. We reach the bridge and ooh and ahh and then decide to climb the granite steps of the Mist Trail to the top of the waterfall. We don our ponchos and get soaked thoroughly on our way up; at this time of the year it should be called the Soaker Trail instead of Mist Trail.. LOL! At the top, we decide to cut over to the John Muir Trail instead of going down the wet granite stairs. While the path on the park map looked relatively short, it didn’t show that it was all uphill, but we made it, hot and tired and then took the JMT trail back down to the car. And that is how you accidentally climb a mountain and turn a 1.5 mile short hike into 5+ miles!
Posted by Karen on 10-May-2009
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The golf course at Wawona had been calling Vic’s name since our visit last year, so he went to play a round of golf this morning and we girls went and checked out the Yosemite Pioneer History Center. I’ve been to the history center before, but can visit it many more times. It’s a really lovely and peaceful setting next to the river and the buildings on display are all in really good condition.
After golf and lunch, we saw a truck drive over a road that cut through the golf course and we wondered where it went, so we went that way too. The road turned out to be the Chowchilla Mountain Road, a former stage coach route, now a rutted, dirt road that takes out out of the park. We followed the road over hill and over dale, next to the flowing river and finally made our way to the summit of Devil’s Peak. Only a couple of tough spots where there was still snow on the road, but we made it. We met a bicyclist at the summit and while we marveled at his strenght to peddle up here, he was surprised we made it in the SUV… LOL! There is a fire watchtower at the summit, but it was still closed and nobody was home. There is also supposed to be a geocache up there, but we all looked and couldn’t find it. 
Back to the valley and pizza at Curry Village (yumm).
Posted by Karen on 09-May-2009
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And it’s a moonbow and waterfalls in Yosemite this weekend. Tersha, Vic, Brianna and I arrived last night and settled into Housekeeping Camp. This was my first time saying at Housekeeping instead of Curry Village and it wins hands-down (if you can get a reservation there). It’s got beds of a sort (bring you own padding and bedding), a firepit and you can cook food there, whereas you can’t at Curry Village. After we settled in, I headed over to Cooks Meadow around 11pm to try and capture a picture of the Yosemite Falls Moonbow. The moonbow is a phenonemon that occurs only under the right conditions of a full moon at the right angle and enough water in the waterfall to produce enough mist for a rainbow. During the day, the naked eye can see the rainbows, but at night they appear silverly and can be seen with time-lapsed photography. So I joined the many dozens of people with their tripods along the path in Cooks Meadow and took a few photos and got one I like. 
This morning we headed up to Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias so that Tersha could get her big tree fix. We stopped at many of the tourist pullout spots on the way because this was Brianna’s first trip to Yosemite and we had to show her all the wonderful postcard views that we could. We took the open-air tram tour of the grove this time and enjoyed it quite well. Afterwards, on the way back to camp, we stopped at Bridalveil Falls, donned our rain ponchos, walked to the base of the 620 foot waterfall and took a shower! At this time of year with the waterfall at peak flow, there is no way to get near the base without getting drenched and we enjoyed evey minute of it!
Posted by Karen on 24-Apr-2009
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A while back, I’d heard about the Castles & Kites Celebration in Bodega Bay, so I booked a campsite on the beach at Doran Regional Park for this weekend. I invited Tersha and Vic and they came up with Brianna and their new tent trailer, which was really great because it was so windy I don’t think my tent would have stood upright. Friday night was spent cozily out of the wind inside the trailer playing cards and hanging out. Early Saturday morning I took a walk along the beach and enjoyed photographing some sand textures. On the harbor side I met some guys digging for clams and they showed me how to spot where the clams were buried–look for a little hole and them stomp and watch for the water to spurt out; very neat. We then all headed back down the beach to watch people fly kites and build sandcastles. We set up our chairs near the roped off area used by the pros and watched them launch some huge kites. Another gentleman we met had plenty of kites and explained the difference between sport kites and beer kites to us. Sport kites require constant handling, while beer kites just need to be launched and then you have a beer while it flies.. LOL! We took a little drive over to the other side of the bay, but it was really too windy to enjoy much time outside, so back to the calm of the trailer for dinner and some relaxation. Sunday was an enjoyable drive home along Highway 1.
GPS Stats: • Odometer: 3.80 miles • Total Time: 6:04 • Moving Time: 1:41 • Moving Average: 2.2 mph • Overall Average: 0.6 mph
