The Croslands: Yosemite and the ATFF's

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Yosemite and the ATFF's

YOSEMITE

Such a whirlwind of a trip, and so memorable!

Yosemite is breathtaking. Definitely worth seeing.

This is half dome.

Yosemite Valley is where we spent all of our time. It's where the majority of the "famous" stuff is.

Surprisingly it was smoggy. I finally asked and it's because of the Bay area - the smog gets trapped in this valley from way over there!

Our first day we made three stops with two smaller hikes.

We went to Yosemite Falls, Mirror Lake, and the Majestic Hotel.

(This is where I would stay if we came without kids!)

I think this is El Capitan!

I think this is Bridal Veil Falls!

This is the foyer in the Majestic Hotel. I just loved this hotel. It's right in the heart of Yosemite and has gorgeous views.

The kids love it because they got ice cream there.

On our way to the Falls.

More George Washington.

Yosemite Falls

Our hike to Mirror Lake brought us to this,

a "Meer Lake" if you will.

But, it's August - not the peak season for waterfalls and lakes.

So pretty and a fun hike, and fun to dip our feet in for a minute!

Then while we were waiting for a shuttle, some deer came strolling through!

The drawback to staying outside of the park was the traffic. Yosemite is CROWDED! And the traffic is pretty bad. I'm really glad we stayed in the place we did, because it's my favorite place ever!, but it made getting in and out of the park a long event.

We stayed in the cutest little house!!

It was so hard to find and nearly impossible without gps as my parents can attest to.

We left on Friday night after Ben's work and Cody's basketball game to get there and rolled in at 4 am. It's really in the middle of nowhere and a mile down a small hidden dirt road.

I had told the kids they would be able to see the stars really clear, and it did not disappoint that night! There was a meteor shower and even at 4 am the kids were animatedly watching the sky for shooting stars, not wanting to go to bed.

The next morning we looked out our window onto the porch and saw a friend sleeping there.

There were beautiful peacock feathers all over the property.

And right above our front door was a family of baby birds!

And a little river about 50 feet away where Ben and the kids took an early morning trip to see if he could catch some fish.

The next day we did a more ambitious hike to some falls.

It was straight up a mountain with jagged stairs the entire 4 miles up.

The kids and my parents went to the first waterfall, and then they were going to go down a less steep way for a four mile round trip hike, so they broke off at the halfway.

But the break off trail took them straight up another mile before they came down! With my dad's arthritic knees and the little ones medium stamina we all got down around the same time. I kinda feel bad because they definitely had the harder end of the bargain!

It's the Mist Trail because waterfall mist blows on you on the side of the trail tucked on the side of the mountain.

And about the ATFF's.

This is what we lovingly called Ben's All Terrain Flip Flops that he wore the entire trip.

Here he is on the 8 mile hike up the mountain.

He remembered that he forgot shoes about halfway into our drive in the middle of the night.

We would have gotten him some new shoes, and almost did. It's just so ironic. After 5 years of the same old grungy gym shoes taking him through school he finally broke down and bought some last month. And then FINALLY broke down and bought some nicer flip flops. This was the first time he had worn them! Luckily, they are super durable and comfy:) And really, so convenient for just kicking off and jumping in a freezing mountain lake at the top of a waterfall.