July 15, 2013
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Yosemite trip! Given how close we live, it might be surprising to hear that this was the first time we took the kids. My sister Sophie set up the 3-day trip, and we rented a cabin right outside Yosemite’s entrance (note: it still takes ~40 min to get to the valley) Unfortunately, they only stayed one night/day, as it wasn’t a very newborn friendly trip (Dylan is only 2 months).
We did get in a game of Munchkins, a trip to the Yosemite visitor’s center museum, and a walk to Lower Yosemite falls together before they left. Then we went to Bridalveil Falls on our own.
My kids love exploring … they can climb rocks and wade streams for hours. I think it’s because living in suburbia, we’re usually so deprived of nature!
Day 2, James and Zach hiked Clouds Rest (didn’t win the lottery for Half Dome tickets) … which is actually a longer distance and bigger elevation gain hike compared to Half Dome. James estimate that with their detour (ie. Mist trail up, John Muir trail down), they hiked about 25 miles. The trail was considerably more empty than James recalled it used to be, perhaps because it was mid-week. Calista and I stayed back and the cabin … drawing, workbook, and iPad games for us!
The last day, we took pictures at El Capitan before heading to Mirror Lake. We had expected it to be a 2 mile roundtrip, paved walk since that was what was advertised in the Yosemite newspaper. But somehow we got onto a parallel path, and ended up trail hiking (dirt, rocks, horse feces) for 4-5 miles! The kids enjoyed playing in the freezing, shallow waters, but by the time we got back, poor Calista had 2 blisters. Water shoes really aren’t the best for hikes.
We’ll have to come again to scale Half Dome and hike the 4 Mile Trail to Glacier Point! Three days really wasn’t enough … you could get through all the major sites if you rushed through it (we saw a guy lean out his car window to snap a photo), but for us, that’s really not the point of visiting a grand national park like Yosemite.
