Yosemite Part 2

Day 3: Time to hike. We started the day at the Yosemite Valley visitors center and picked up a trail map and a shuttle route map. Then headed Lower Yosemite Fall trail head. The trail was a little crowded but not too bad, we were expecting crowds. Weather is just perfect! The falls are beautiful and seriously the smell! I'm starting to understand why someone invented those pine air fresheners. On our way down from the falls we decided to hike along the Yosemite Valley loop. It was just gorgeous and we felt like we had the park all to ourselves while we were on this trail. Only saw a handful of other people. Most just ride the shuttle these days I guess. I took a lot of pictures during this hike, there was so much beauty all around us I couldn't help it. So I will shut up for a bit and just label the pictures :)

Lower Yosemite Fall

Cool rocks

My loves

Most of the trail was wandering through the forest like in this shot, and then every once in a while there would be this opening in the trees and we would have this glorious view. I got a lot of use out of the panoramic setting on my phone on this trip :)

A little friend we made while stopped for a snack.

Athena loved this view.

Being silly

I could spend the rest of my life in that spot right there.

In awe.

Just for fun

Seemed like a good spot for a picture.

More beauty

This was the payoff for several miles of hiking. We stopped to check our map to decide where to go next and told Athena she could go down from us a bit to look at the river. She yelled up all excited "hurry there are deer!"

Tired and hungry we found our way to a shuttle stop. Rode a very packed shuttle to Currey Village to wait in a long line for cheeseburgers. It sure tasted good though after that long day of hiking. After we were rested and fed we decided to check off a second waterfall so we drove to the Bridalveil Fall parking area and took the short paved 1/4 mile walk to it. It was very busy but another beautiful spot. Shawn and Athena climbed out onto the rocks so I could take their picture, along with several other people. It was difficult to get them and the falls in the same shot.

You can kind of tell there is a fall behind them.

El Capitan

We even stopped on the way out of the park for the day to get a shot of El Capitan. This was a perfect day of vacation, still can't believe how much of the trail we had all to ourselves today. Tomorrow, really big trees!