Day Nine - Glacier Point

The drive! We had to drive up and see the view from Glacier Point before we left and I'm glad we did. It was amazing! The road up there isn't bad after the crazy road in Sequoia! Or maybe I'm just getting used to riding in the bug.

A piece of the drive up. The sky was beautiful.

Strange looking clouds!

Tom fascinated by the view.

That's where we came from! It looks like a painting.

Dan taking pictures with his phone. We were able to make a couple calls from up here.

More Tom and Jake fooling around for Grandma Shelly. You may not believe it, but there were people standing on these railings for pictures. Really.

Tom explaining "ridge lift" and how you could get a glider up way above us, like the birds.

That's the parking lot we were at on Friday! Tom's thumb in the shot for scale.

Pretty nice huh? The clouds are what made it so pretty to me.

Reading about the glacier theory.

This is the canyon with Mirror Lake in it, that we hiked up on Friday.

I think Dan really likes it up here.

How cute are we!?

The gift shop/cafe that used to be a hotel and restaurant up here.

Tom and Jake examining this very strange device.

And the road back down into the valley. We would have stopped at the place by the tunnel to take a picture, but it was crammed with cars and we couldn't make a safe turn in.

We'd had enough driving after that, so we headed back down to camp.

A piece of the drive down to the KOA.

Here's a story. The road into the park has this crazy one lane bridge across and back with a light. We all sat and wondered about it. We really pissed some people off when the bug wouldn't start when the light turned green and we had to wait another five minutes for the next one!

I was wondering about these rocks next to us.

Looks like the road used to go that way.

That's strange. Looks like a land slide.

It is! Cool.

It turns out there was a landslide in 2006 that closed the road for a long time. The story is here. They haven't been able to clear it without causing more of the mountain to come down, so they built a bridge across to the old train bed and then back to go around it. And that's another story! Driving down the highway, we could see there used to be some other road that when up the canyon. There were old buildings and evidence of bridges. I looked that up and found this! And now we have a whole other reason to go back up that way and explore some more!

Day Nine - Yosemite Falls & Visitor Center

This was our last day at Yosemite. I wanted to see the falls since it would be pretty silly to come here and not see that!

Jake's reaction to "Hey, let's walk to the falls!" He was ok though. It's not THAT far.

This is Tom's "Hanta Virus" face. The signs at these restrooms said they had found rat droppings under this building and that they contained the virus. Tom refused to go in.

We spent a little more time at the visitor center reading signs. Dan caught me with my new boyfriend!

He's so sexy.

 Then we walked to the falls. It's a nice walk even if we did have dodge a few bikes!

This is the upper falls. Pretty nice. I like the rocks!

This is us being cute at the falls!

Jake watching the water.

My adorable babies!

This little tree growing out off the edge of the rock looks like a small island. I think someone should build a tiny house there and make it look like the Storybook ride at Disneyland!

Cool spider web that Tom found up in a tree.

From the lower falls.

I noticed this wire across the top of the falls.

And Tom was able to get a good picture with the zoom on my camera!

Crazy slack line people!

Us! Dan took this one of us relaxing before heading up the Glacier Point next!

Day Eight - Briceburg

We decided to stay in at the KOA here for another day and go to Yosemite tomorrow. Today, we went to do some prospecting on BLM land the guy at the mining shop told us about. We are fully aware that we won't find gold. That's not the point! The point is to spend time together having fun and happen to like gold mining, so we used this time to get some river prospecting practice.

The place is called Briceburg and there are some great $10 a night tent spots here if you're looking for a place to stay and then go visit Yosemite. We had the idea that maybe we could bring the RV here, but if you have anything larger than a van, you might not want to try it.

You have to cross this bridge and make that turn under the cable.

But it is a pretty place. I found out later that it was a part of the old Yosemite Vally Railroad Line. There were lots of people camping here when we arrived. I talked to a ranger guy and he said you can park anywhere and hike, prospect, picnic, or whatever all day. You only have to pay to stay the night. There is a nice little visitor center at the entrance before the bridge. It used to be a little gas station.

Looking for some "virgin ground". Many Gold Rush quotes being thrown around.

I gotta say, this is my favorite kind of gold panning. I could get used to this.

Jake panning in the river.

We're going to be rich, I tell ya!

May attention is drawn to the rocks under water and the way the water flows.

And these cool rocks across the river. I wish I could have gotten over there. Maybe if we had raft...

Figuring out the sluice.

Ok, who's going to stay at our wash plant and who's going to run the dozer?

We're having too much fun.

Jake's found his own hole.

Still working hard.

Pretty. If it weren't moving so fast, I'd have gone in! I did find some nice fishing holes downstream a bit.

We should have planned this better and packed a good lunch and brought some chairs or something, but alas, hindsight...Jake grew weary, but I know Dan and Tom could have been here until sundown. We headed back to the RV around lunchtime. We need to come back here!

Lunch and then some pool time made Jake much happier.

I did some more laundry in preparation for the coming week and when I came back I found this...

These two boys are tired and need some down time!

Dad's getting his down time his own way!

 So another day ends. Tomorrow we'll head back into the park. I want to see Glacier Point!

Day Seven - Mariposa

There aren't many pictures of this day because I forgot my camera! It's Saturday. the park was already crowded yesterday and we were still exhausted from our walking adventure, so we decided to go into Mariposa and see the sights.

We stopped at the California State Mining and Mineral Museum at the Mariposa Fairgrounds. There was a motorcycle rally going on at the fairgrounds, so we got to see some cool Harley's! The boys aren't really interested in that kind of bike, so luckily it didn't suck them in!

The museum was small but very nice. They had loads of cool rocks to look at and a mine tunnel display built through the middle of the building that looked like Knott's Berry Farm. It took us about an hour or so to see it all.

We drove back into town and parked at one end, thinking we would take a walk and see some of the shops. We found a cool miner shop! The guy there was super nice and we talked for a bit. Dan bought a sluice and a shovel. He told us where we could do some prospecting near by, so we decided we would stay an extra day and do that tomorrow.

After that we were ready for lunch, so we stopped for some pizza and took look at the map. We bought some souvenirs at a local shop and then headed to out next stop.

The Mariposa History Museum! We love little museums and this one looked pretty nice. We were not disappointed. The docent there was a super nice guy that was pretty excited to show us around. He talked the boys a long time about California History and homeschooling. I realized how little I know about California history besides Missions! He recommended a couple books to us and we went to check out the museum.

We were done looking at museums and shopping, so we headed back to camp. We played some Pinochle, ate fudge from the RV Park store, and went swimming. It was nice relaxing day.

Tom trying to finish his book.

Jake brushing his teeth. Yes, I take pictures like this. It helps me remember the moments!

Day Six - Bridalveil Falls

On to Yosemite! Our campground is farther from the park, in miles, than our last spot and park, but it's not half as winding and takes about the same amount of time, about an hour. I'm amazed that the boys will ride in the back of the bug for so long. They only complaint they have is that they sometimes hit their head on the roll-bar if we take a corner too fast.

The first place we stopped in Yosemite was Bridalveil Falls. I was ready with my camera this time, and I wasn't disappointed. Check out what happened when we pulled up...

An  Asian tour group was just finishing their walk to the falls when we arrived. They all wanted a picture of the bug!

Some were having their picture taken with it!

Doesn't this look like the perfect entrance to an enchanted forest?

The rock looks like a giant cyclops's head eating a tree.

Check out all that water! And those boys are pretty cute too.

It's just so gorgeous.

I loved standing their and listening to the water. I'm so used to parks that have water, like Disneyland. I didn't realize natural rivers and falls sound so different. They have random splashes that you just don't get in man made ones. These are the things you learn when you step out of the city and into the forest. I won't say wilds though. Nothing very wild about this park! :)

Another fun thing is listening to the people around us. Most of them are so happy and excited to be there. It's a joyous sound and puts everyone around in a good mood. People taking pictures for each other, pointing the way, sharing stories, etc. It's just nice.