The Beauties of Yosemite

Yosemite has been said to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. People come from all around the world to visit. I've been to Yosemite only four times. My first time was in 1995 before I had any kids. I didn't go back until 2007. In 2008, I hiked Half Dome for the first time and knew I had to do it again. We were so lucky to have been able to camp in Yosemite this year from June 8-11. It's funny that Yosemite is basically in our backyard, compared to most people, and we haven't gone there more often. As our children are getting older, we would like to visit more frequently. Here are just some of the beauties we experienced on our trip this year.We got to see four waterfalls. Spring is an awesome time to see the waterfalls because the snow is still melting and the falls are very strong. Here is Lower Yosemite Falls.
Here is a picture of Upper Yosemite and Lower Yosemite Falls together.

Here is Vernal Falls on the Mist Trail. I think this waterfall is my favorite. I love to feel the mist as you hike right next to it.

Here is Nevada Falls which is further up the mist trail. Lloyd and I got this picture on our Half Dome hike.Here is Bridalveil Falls. We took the whole family to see this one.
Lloyd got this picture of Cloud's Rest while we were hiking Half Dome. He said he's like to climb it some day.Here's El Capitan. Our entire family was fascinated by the rock climbers who climb to the top. We looked at them through telescopes. They actually sleep in cots attached to the rock. It can take them anywhere from three days to a week to climb to the top of El Capitan. Here's the view of Half Dome from the valley. It's hard to believe we climbed to the top. No wonder it takes so long!

Here's Mirror Lake. If it wasn't so cold we would have gone swimming. We also got to see a lot of wildlife in Yosemite. We saw this bear on our hike to Yosemite Falls. We saw a couple other bears too. There are lots of bears in Yosemite and you have to be really careful that you keep all food in the bear lockers.
My brother got this picture of some deer. They were pretty tame and he was able to get fairly close to them.We saw this mother duck and her ducklings on our last day in Yosemite. Very sweet!
Finally, we did not see this long horn bull in Yosemite, but on our way back. Some of my friends pointed him out when we went scrapbooking at the cabin. His horns are humongous. The poor guy can't even hold his head up!

We feel so grateful we got to experience the beauty of Yosemite this year. The Lord has truly blessed us with an amazing world to enjoy!