Yosemite

Well the roads in and out of Yosemite are the silliest up and down mountain roads ever. We climbed up then slipped down only to climb back up and then down again. At one point the car over heated and we were a bit worried but we were able to pull over and cool it down before continuing at a much slower pace. We went to the Valley, which is where we were supposed to stay the night before as well. They have the nicest village / store of any of the parks we have been to. We were able to pass half dome and El Cap. It was so wonderful to finally see peaks that I have wanted to see for so long. Everything was so beautiful. The next day we meandered up to Tuolomne Meadows to pick a campsite for the following nights. We were asked what we wanted in a sight and we said pick us a nice one not right next to a bathroom, so we were given the furthest sight from the entrance. This was both good and bad. In retrospect we wish we would have stayed near the entrance so the walks to trailheads and the store would have not been a mile each way, but we were away from most of the noise. The first night while we were eating dinner a cinnamon colored black bear walked right beside our campsite in the forest. It was pretty crazy. As I was putting the fork in my mouth Brad gasps and his eyes widened so you could see so much of the white of his eye. Before I could ask him what was up he said, "Bear!" I only half believed him until I looked over my shoulder and there was a bear just moseying on past our campsite. He took slow frumpy steps and looked less like a threat and more like a cuddly bear, but this is only because he was steadily walking past and not towards us with his big heavy paws. Welcome to bear country. From this point on we made extra are to keep everything with a scent in the bear box when we were not using it. The stars at Yosemite were so wonderful and bright and we were lucky enough to be here around a new moon. Luckily there were absolutely no clouds so we were able to keep the rainfly off the tent so we had an unobstructed view of the night sky. One night we were lucky enough to see a few shooting stars as we were looking up. There is always something magical about shooting stars. By chance an old friend of mine from high school happened to be in Yosemite at the same time that we were. We were able to meet up with Gray and meet some of his climbing buddies. He was become quite the climber and he has made some good friends through the sport. Brad and Gray played the guitar and the mandolin together and it was all in all a really nice night. Poor Gray walked all they way to our campsite not knowing how far it was so we gave him a ride back to his site near the campground entrance. We walked around a little at night. I found this hard to do because the stars were so awesome overhead that I kept looking up, this caused me to walk sideways or crooked and the ground was not always flat so I stumbled a few times. The view was worth it though. Nights here were really chilly which made a campfire even more enjoyable. We had to snuggle up in layers and when one of us drifted too far from the fire we quickly came back to it.
We hiked around the area the following day; this is when we most wished for more time at this park. Everything was beautiful here and we could not have asked for better weather and prettier skies. We went to Elizabeth Lake. The entire walk was pretty and the lake at the end was clear and reflected the mountains and the cloudless sky. There was enough wind to cause waves in the water there were rocks along the bank large enough for sitting on. Brad started to feel a little sick so we headed back to the campground. Once he started to feel better, which was really quickly, we hiked to the store and got s’more fixings and beer, what else do you need? We followed the line of the river for a while and checked out some beach like banks along the riverside. Then we went back to the campsite for dinner. We were blessed with the best weather for the entirety of our stay here. The only downside was our neighbors were really noisy. All three of the guys snored and they each had a different loud snore, varying from throaty to breathy to nasally. One of the guys had turrets and shouted whatever came to his mind and one of the guys had crowzy gas. He farted so loudly that Brad and I both got scared and thought it was a bear, because it did not seem humanly possible. The made all sorts of bear noises so it was hard for us to sleep. We are for sure coming back to Yosemite and we are hoping to be able to spend a couple of weeks just at Yosemite. This is one of those places that you could spend your entire life and never get tired of it. So far, this is probably my favorite place in the country.