Yosemite Spring Break

We've lived in CA now for almost 8 years and still have so much to see and experience.

Although I lived here as a child, I don't remember much and certainly my kids

haven't seen it.  So we took a short trip to Yosemite National Park (about

5-6 hours away). Since the girls couldn't remember going on a road trip,

I felt we needed to drive for the experience and to see the countryside.

There's just something intriguing about seeing the landscape change, 

and how other people live.  

If anyone is wondering, most of it was farmland filled with fruit trees and vines.

One place I have never been before was the exact center of California, in North Fork.

The most exciting thing in the town was the sign, haha.

As we turned off the freeway and towards the mountains, beautiful lime green grass was everywhere dotted with yellow and white flowers.  Each little farm looked like they had professionally landscaped the grass and trees with rocks strategically placed.  The girls and I oohed and aahed the whole way.

Driving into Yosemite, we saw acres and acres of devastation from the fires.  

It will take quite some time till it is reclaimed.

Nothing beats the majesty of Yosemite Valley (Half Dome is covered by clouds)

Cloudy but still too bright, I guess

 Clouds cleared to see Half Dome

 Joseph was even so impressed with what we saw that he took pictures too.

Spring time is the time to see the waterfalls made by the snow melt.  We saw three major ones and smaller ones all through the park.  Summer is for the wildflowers and fall is for the color change.  I want to see both of those!

Although you can't see it here, this waterfall actually has another one just below it.

The park has museums, food, gift shop, cabins, and other educational experiences.

We are standing in front of a cross-cut of a really old sequoia.  

 They've dated it back to A.D 923!!!  That's old!!

There is an Indian village with old homes and replicas of their housing.  Needless to say, these teepees didn't keep out all the rain so they would have to rebuild quite often.  

 There was a cemetery with graves of the early settlers.  Some didn't even have names because they were just passing through.  This interesting moss covered wall surrounded it.

 We saw deer!!

 And this beautiful blue bird called a Steller's jay.

Our resident tree hugger and saver of all life, even spiders! 

 We rented a cabin for the same cost it would have been for two hotel rooms.

I just love when we can be all together, even if it means there's not a room fairy that makes my bed every day and a chef to cook our meals.  It's kind of fun to shop the local market/gift shop for our supplies and make simple meals.

Esther and I loved the beautiful artwork, and that fireplace!!

The only drawback was that we miscalculated the distance to the park.  Because of rain, it took close to 2 hours to get there.  Next time, we're definitely staying closer.

Our second day was to see the giant sequoias.  Because of the snow and rain, the shuttles weren't working, so we walked 2 miles to the starting point.  We soon realized that we were ill equipped for this adventure.  We had sweatshirts and tennis shoes when we really needed boots, gloves and parkas.

The girls were real troopers, especially Esther who only had a sweater and my flannel shirt.

 The roots of this fallen giant were magical.  They looked like an art sculpture.

 The biggest tree we saw was the Grizzly Giant.  You can see where he had been burned before, but we learned its thick bark protects it from being destroyed.  And their branches are high up so that fire rarely reaches them.  Also, if there weren't fires, the trees wouldn't be able to germinate.  Periodic fires clear out the underbrush and other trees, allowing the sequoia to grow.

Beautiful bright green moss

If you zoom in you can see the snow.  The trails were also covered in at least 2 feet of snow.  We almost biffed it with our wimpy shoes.

The early settlers carved walkways through the trees.  There was a giant that they carved a hole big enough for a wagon to get through but over time it weakened and fell in 1969.  This one, luckily is holding up quite well.

We loved our little trip to see the wonders of Yosemite.  It's God's goodness

that has blessed us with awe inspiring views and tiny miracles of nature.

What do ya know, we have those things right in our back yard!!  Literally!

Just of a different variety.

I'll share with you soon the beautiful views we enjoy at home everyday.

Now back to real life.