My fiance’ David has been wanting to go to Yosemite and I have been dragging my feet because the weather has been less than fantastic in California this year.  He took Tuesday after Memorial Day off and we finally made the trip. We got up early, dressed in layers, and packed a picnic lunch with Diestel’s (a past design client…love their stuff) smoked turkey sandwiches, cherries, and some type of orange fleshed melon.

It took us about an hour and a half to get to the valley floor and as we were coming into the park we saw two big bears, or is it bear, in one of the meadows. It was a first for me…seeing a bear in the wild that is. I was pretty excited! To say they’re powerful is an understatement. We all know the damage they can do to cars and ice chests.

David thought hiking to Vernal Falls would be the most realistic hike for us that day. It turned out to be quite a workout as it’s uphill all the way. I was surprised to see how many people were braving it. A lot of them were resting along side the trail.  I have been going to Yosemite since I was seventeen and had never hiked in to Vernal. You could feel the spray I am guessing a football field distance away from the falls. The sound was tremendous. I shutter to think I let Christian go on this hike on a school field trip without Jim or me along. So many hazards! I can’t remember when the field trip was exactly. Maybe it was in high school when he was older and and wiser (ffmmmph)! Teasing.

David has more energy than two twenty somethings together. Put a camera in his hand, and you have what my mother likes to call a “buzz saw”. I posed for pictures literally every 40 feet. He doesn’t like to miss even one photo op and Yosemite is nothing but! He always reminds me “you will love having them later, trust me.”  And of course he is right, but I did have to put a limit on the amount of pictures with me in them.

 

Seeing how huge the water was, I kept wondering what Jim would have said. My husband was the foremost authority on white water training in the world.  A lofty claim, but true. He developed the first swift water rescue technician program (and coined the phrase) from which all others have evolved. Google Jim to find out more.  Our companies, Rescue 3 International and Special Rescue Services Group trained quite a few Yosemite park employees and search and rescue team members.

I don’t know about you but I get a good, strong feeling when I go hiking. It elevates my mood and feelings of healthiness. It makes me want to eat, or take a nice long ninety minute nap in the car while David does all the driving. Sorry Babe. It must have been a blood sugar drop from those M & M’s you made me eat.

The canyon is one of the many beautiful photo ops in Yosemite.

This is as close as we got to Vernal Falls. The rest of the hike, about another 400 feet required rain gear.

http://www.yosemite.org/

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