I’m going to go ahead and declare this was my favorite day. It was a pretty crazy early morning drive winding into the mountains in California. There was a border crossing thing where they grilled me on having fruit or veggies or firewood but otherwise I almost never saw another person or vehicle. It seemed like hours of my drive were slowly winding my way across the park. It was still really dark when I got into the valley and I was struggling to figure out where I wanted to be and park. Eventually found a spot I liked and the sun started to come up.
Even before I could see much I was really excited by what I could see.
I grabbed the camera and ran a mile or so checking out the hike I wanted to take the family on when they got up. It looked great.
I ran back to the car and a photographer was setting up to catch the sunrise on half dome so I decidd to hike around the valley so I could see it rise. I saw some deer in the distance and started sneaking toward them, I rounded a corner and came face to face with a bobcat. It was only 15-20 feet from me and just as surprised as I was. We stared at each other for a few seconds then he turned and stalked off and I grabbed the camera and fired a few shots.
At the time I thought it was a Lynx and felt fairly safe and actually headed somewhat the same direction. I was really excited about the siting and everything was so pretty.
The family slept for a few hours and I walked, hiked and jogged around in all directions checking out everything I could.
The light was constant changing making different features stick out .
Eventually the sun was totally up blasting the valley and the family woke and needed to pee. We packed up some breakfast supplies and left the van.
Our first detestation was the waterfalls.
We really liked Zion and Byrce but the shade from giant trees was really nice.
And the wildlife was everywhere.
We found a nice quiet spot off the trail to eat poptarts and fruit. Then we explored more of the valley.
We mostly followed a little stream.
And let the kids play.
Yosemite is a crowded park but we had such an early start we had most of our adventures done before most people got there. The kids got jr ranger badges and worked hard on them during lunch and we had done so many hikes and seen so many animals they got sworn in later that afternoon.
The valley started getting crowded and we had a campsite to setup so we headed towards our campsite.
It was a nice place but on the outskirts of the park. We had a really fun night in camp.
Picnic Dance Party!
Hikes!
Campfire popcorn!
and Smores!
It was a big day and after dinner, popcorn and Smores we were ready for bed and called it a night.