Yosemite National Park 2012

Todd and I try to make it to Yosemite every year.

 

This trip we stayed in Tuolumne Meadows because it is at a higher elevation and has cooler temperatures this time of year.  It's never as crowded as Yosemite Valley, and the beauty blows me away.  Massive  granite domes and waterfalls everywhere.  We swam in rivers and waterfall pools almost every day.

To get there we drove from Carlsbad, Cali along the east side of the Sierra Nevadas and saw Mount Whitney and other breathtaking mountains.

After the long drive through the hot desert we camped off a dirt road by Lake Mono and were treated to a phenomenal sunset.







And then woke up to a phenomenal sunrise.



That morning we drove into the park to secure a first-come-first-serve camp site in Tuolomne Meadows. We also got a backpacking permit and a bear-proof food canister to use the following day. And then we chased boulders! Todd climbed many of the classic Tuolumne problems including "Reach for a Peach," and "The Booze Bottle." I saw bear prints with massive looking claw prints in the dirt too. (But no bears.)

Baby Hammond loved watching her dad kick butt on those boulders :)

We were very smelly by this time and swam in a cold but refreshing creek to get somewhat clean. That night our camp site neighbors invited us over for s'mores and we talked about life and love with them till we got sleepy and went to bed. :)

In the morning we packed everything up and backpacked the Glen Aulin trail that takes you to the start of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River.  It was about 6 miles (mostly flat) and after the first couple miles of dusty horse-poopy trails it became absolutely gorgeous.

Half way along the trail Todd couldn't help but take a break and swim in the peaceful river because it was so enticing. I of course joined him.

We continued along the trail stopping at beautiful viewpoints.

And of course we swam some more.

We set up camp in an established backpackers' campground then went exploring and found such a great spot that we decided to pack everything up and camp on top of a massive granite slab. It was a little windy, which kept the mosquitoes away and we had the entire area all to ourselves. Forget organized camping!

 

After a delicious dinner of dehydrated mountain house we watched the sun set.

I'll take this view over looking at an outhouse in a group camp site any day:

The next day we hiked back to civilization along the Murphy Creek trail. There were tons of mosquitoes and biting flies, and needless to say in spite of being out of shape and very pregnant I made record time getting out of there. We ended up hiking 14 miles over 2 days which is not hard when it's mostly flat, but it wore me out pretty good. We did see more bear prints along the trail.

Todd bouldered some more at the Kitty and Puppy Dome boulders, and at the Gunks.

Todd an his crash pads:

We swam in a great pool at the Puppy Dome boulders.

I was sooo tired by then, but had left a piece of my tripod on top of the Pothole Dome, so we hiked back up looking for it. I never found it. :(

Here's my 29 weeks prego picture:

Driving home was super cool because we ended up chasing a huge lightning storm! It was getting late so we found a dirt road in Tonopah to camp off after having successfully camped this way a few times.

We got to bed at 11 but woke up to light rain at midnight. So we covered ourselves with a rain fly and weathered the storm. It stopped raining after an hour or so, but then lightning and thunder off in the distance kept waking me up. I timed the thunder claps and swore we'd climb in the car if the storm got closer than two miles away, since we were sleeping on an exposed ridge. But I fell back asleep. Then at 2 a.m. a startling loud dune-buggy came zooming up our hill and shined their lights on us. We bolted upright thinking it was the cops or some type of philandering bad guys, and I was prepared for a fight! But after staring at us they just drove off.

This was not a good night!

Our super awesome (not really) camp site:

Before our alarm even went off we were packed up and on our way out of Tonopah. Besides having to make a 3 hour detour due to landslides blocking Hwy 6, we got home without further events. And our cat was so happy to see us!