YOSEMITE

A few things we learned... #1 Dramamine apparently actually works and we made it into the valley with no sickness - YAY, #2 - it can snow in California in June too, #3 we can certainly have bad luck but know how to make the most of it.

The weather report for Saturday was 50% chance of showers and for Sunday 70% chance of thunderstorms so we decided to make the most of our day Saturday despite the constant drizzle before the storms rolled in.

It had snowed in the ridge the night before we arrived and we had heard that the waterfalls were flowing the most they have in 50 years due to the amount of snow in the mountains. Just past the tunnel of the ride in, we made it to one of the first viewing areas of the valley. Madi and Drew were AMAZED and COLD! I really thought San Francisco would be the coolest portion of our trip and packed according to that. Yosemite was warm each time we went the summer we lived in California... who knew it would be 46 degrees -- add the constant rain and dampness to that and we were downright chilled!

Our first stop was a very short hike to Bridalveil Falls. As we neared the Falls, you couldn't see anything, the water coming off of it was so heavy, we were getting soaked and couldn't see. The pictures we took do not do this waterfall justice but we know it is there!

Madi, Drew and Marty as close to the Falls as they could get...

All of us wih the Falls in the background... it is really hard to see as we are off the base of it quite a bit.

Further into the valley, we were able to see Upper Yosemite Falls... we told the kids we went to the top of that one the last time we were here. They were glad we weren't planning to go again!

A view back in the other direction.

After lunch, we were in the area where you could see both Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls... Upper Yosemite is hidden behind a cloud in this picture but it is behind there somewhere!

The big one for the day... Mist Trail to the top of Vernal Falls. 3 miles round trip with a climb of 1000 feet!

At the bridge about half way up... we were already slightly tired and the hard part was yet to come... After this bridge came over 600 uneven, steep, and very wet steps...

Making our way up some of the easier steps when my attention could be diverted for a few kodak moments!

We were pretty soaked by this point! The waterfall was spraying so much, it put the constant rain shower to shame!

We made it!!!!! Madi hiked the entire way up by herself without being carried. Drew had to do the hard part by himself as the rocks are not safe to be carried on! Seriously very proud of both of the for sticking it out -- so many people told them how impressed they were on the way back down! The total trip took up two and a half hours which seemed like really good time!

Coming back down was quite challenging as the rocks were extremely slippery... We made it with very few minor slips while being completely drenched while walking that was -- for some reason when we went to wring out Drew's socks a bit, I had a problem not slipping while standing still! Leave it to me!

Since we were already soaked, we decided to catch the shuttle at the base of the trail and head to the Mirror Lake trail... a much less intensive 2 mile hike to a place we thought would look beautiful. We tredged our sopping wet, freezing cold selves all the way to this....

DISAPPOINTMENT!

There was nothing exciting about Mirror Lake... maybe it was just the weather but it was so not worth the hour hike to it in the misting rain... Most people kept standing there asking if that was the spot -- apparently we were not the only disappointed ones.

After the way back... we ventured back to the gift shop to buy dry sweatshirts. As much as we wanted to continue on, we were completely chilled and ready to get into the heat of the car and soak ourselves in the hot tub back at the hotel!