We saw this very patriotic building on the drive out there.
The first breathtaking view of Yosemite Valley. On the left, kind of behind the green trees is El Capitan. In the middle of the picture is Half Dome.
El Capitan. Such an enormous flat rock. People climb up that thing, right on the face of it. It's so GIGANTIC!
Just hanging out in the valley!
We met up with the boy scouts at a general store in Yosemite Valley. It was packed full of people from all over the world.
We went to a place above the valley called Glacier Point. This is such a spectacular view of Half Dome. There are no words to describe how amazing it is.
Just getting ready to start the hike.
The entire group. We all did really well!
So gorgeous.
Greg climbed onto a bunch of rocks when we got to the place where we camped the first night.
Trying to find a good place to put our tents!
The first night, we camped right next to this beautiful stream called Illilouette Creek
I had MAJOR blisters after 3 miles of hiking. We hadn't really even started the hard stuff yet! In this picture, you can only really see one of the bad ones, on the left. I also had one toward my toes on the left foot, and also got another one on the other side of my left foot a couple days later. My right foot did alright. My shoes were just terrible. Luckily one of the guys we were with was carrying some extra shoes and I used those, which helped!
Doesn't his shirt just explain it all? Haha! Gotta love Dad.
Camp the first night. Our tent is on the right.
The next morning, Greg tried to catch some fish with his hands. He was scoping it out.
On our way to some water slides just above a waterfall (safe, huh?)
On our hike the second day, we found these crazy looking trees!
Here's Illilouette Falls, just below where the water slides are. It's just a sheer cliff from where we were standing.
The group, all ready to slide!
Gorgeous Half Dome. Oh, and Greg too :]
Here was another little dome near Half Dome. It was HUGE, but honestly, nothing compared to Half Dome.
Here is where Nevada Falls is. It's about a 600 foot waterfall. These pictures don't do it justice.
This is right next to Nevada Falls. What a crazy rock! Look at what the weathering has done to it.
We hiked on into Little Yosemite Valley. This is the Merced River, which runs through the valley.
The next morning, we got up at 5am and got on the trail at about 6:20am. It was a hard hike, all uphill. This is the view from a point on the trail.
There is a little dome called Sub Dome that you have to climb right before you reach Half Dome. It's basically stair steps all the way up. It is a KILLER on your legs. But this is the view once you are up there!
This is what Half Dome looks like when you are on the top of Sub Dome. Looks pretty intimidating!
We reached the cables at the base of Half Dome and this is the view we saw- straight up!
After a long 900 feet of just pulling yourself up on those cables, we made it to the top! What a view!
Theres this section on top of the dome that everyone calls the "diving board" because that's exactly what it looks like. It's right out on the edge of the cliff and it's a great place to take pictures. Here's Dad, right on the edge!
There were these rocks all over the top of the dome, where people just piled them on top of each other over the years. It looked cool.
Greg and I were so scared to be on the diving board!
Coming down, we just had an amazing view.
We were exhausted after hiking back down from Half Dome, but we sure were happy!
After we came down from the dome, we swam and ate and rested, and then we had to hike back out another 6 miles. It was not easy. But look how beautiful it is!
We found a tree that looked like it was burnt on the inside, but totally fine on the outside. Weird.
Such a gigantic tree.
We saw a black bear on our hike! In this picture, it's the dark spot kind of toward the middle-left of the picture. We were about 100 yards away from it. It was amazing.
We got back, and our bodies were just so sore.
We really had SO much fun! Even though it was hard, it was all worth it. These pictures don't really do it justice, but we did see some amazing things. We can't wait until the next time we go back!
