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| 3 Brothers Granite Rock Formation |
Yosemite Valley gets busy pretty quickly so my husband and I
decided to get an early start to the day on Wednesday. We left Wawona around 8
and arrived in time to take an early morning tram tour out of Yosemite Lodge.
The pro side of the tram tour: I saw a lot of neat places
and learned a lot about Yosemite. The con? Even though the heat was in the
80's, there was no cover so it got hot fast.
We traveled past the Merced and saw a ton of people sunning, swimming, and even tube rafting.
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| The Merced |
El Captian is one of the world's largest granite rock faces
in the world. It's incredibly steep. To my surprise, a lot of people rock climb
up the steep façade. Those are some daredevils! We drove past the different
campgrounds, Curry Village, upper and lower pines and checked out the Awanhnee
Hotel – lots of early 1900's Americana decked out the main areas, but it's
$499.00 a night. I could never afford it.
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| El Captian |
We ate lunch at the Yosemite Lodge grill and out of all the
places we tried, it was my favorite. They offered a nice variety. It was still
pricey though.
That evening, back in Wawona, Andrew and I went to Campfire
with a Ranger. The topic was: "What is Camping?" Does camping allow
for DS/IPhones/IPads? Should camping offer shower facitities? Tents? Food? Just
what is the attraction for people to go camping? We all pretty much decided
camping involved a desire to be outdoors and to enjoy nature, but we differed
on the extent.
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| At the Ahwanhnee Hotel |
So I have to ask – what is camping for you? I'd love to hear
your thoughts.
Smiles
Steph
loved your pictures. We're planning on stopping in Yosemite on our 'big' trip and I'm noting all your special spots.
ReplyDeleteBarbara, I'm very excited for you. You'll enjoy Yosemite for sure.
Deletesmiles
Steph
Such beautiful pictures. So glad you had a wonderful family vacation. Maybe one day I'll be able to visit the Yosemite.
ReplyDeleteMona,
DeleteIt's a nice place to visit. We're going back in October when the kids are on fall break to see what the park looks like then. Hopefully, it will be less crowds. We got a spot camping at the Upper Pines on the Valley floor which will be nice.
Smiles
Steph
Beautiful pics. Yosemite is wonderful!
ReplyDeleteMy gosh, it's gorgeous. While color is nice on the eyes, I learned that black and white really do make the best pictures because they capture shadows and depth much better.
DeleteSmiles
Steph
I agree with your thoughts on camping. So many people like different extents to it. I still love my little trailer and while it's a home, I feel like I'm camping. I can't do the whole tent, no electricity or bathroom part, but I enjoy being outdoors in nature.
ReplyDeleteThere can be many different versions of camping. To John, you can only bring what you can carry on your back up a mountain. To his sister, it's a huge camper with all the amenities of home, and their camp is only 15 minutes from home. My ideal camping would be a cabin on a lake, maybe on an island in the lake. I would want to be fairly unplugged to get away from it all. I certainly wouldn't mind staying at a hotel at a national park either though, that would sort of give me the best of both worlds. I guess I like it all!
DeleteMelissa, a lot of people like having a little trailer. My husband would like to get something like that but we have to save up. If anything, the no bathroom part is what icks me out, but I can deal with it. My boys have a hard time giving up the Nintendos and Kindle Fires and ipods but we've limited their time on them so that helps.
DeleteSmiles
Steph
Aly,
DeleteJohn is a hard core camper! I would need a little more than that, but I wouldn't want to do what his sister does - bring a huge RV. I think that takes away from the ambience from being in nature in "roughing" it. I think a tent or a small trailer would be fine. A cabin on the lake would be ideal for me, too. I would want to be around water, having grown up around it. One of these days we'll get to stay at that hotel in Yosemite, but we have to save up a little bit.
Smiles
Steph