Road Trip – The Trappes are trippin’.

the Cathedral Peak- on our hike!

Yosemite Valley

Yosemite National Park is full of rock.  It is huge, and the park has many areas.  However, I would say the most distinctive area is the valley where views of El Capitan and Half Dome are quite pronounced.  We had a difficult time getting into the park, because the roads in were closed due to weather.  We finally made it in, and for me, the best part was Todd’s enthusiasm at arriving.  Yosemite is historic for rock climbers.  We visited the famous Camp Four, which is literally an international climbing neighborhood within the park. Everyone appeared to have arrived by hitchhiking into the park OR they lived out of their cars.  They worked in order to climb.  It was intense.  I could not believe how many rock climbers were there and how good they all were at their sport.  In order to climb El Cap, most people have to climb and camp on the side of the sheer cliff overnight.  We learned about how this transpires.  Again, intense.  

Aside from climbing, we hiked through the beautiful meadows to one of the lakes surrounded by rock, and we got to see the Cathedral spires.  

We got to hike through the Giant Sequoias, and we were basically the only Americans.  Yosemite drew a very international crowd.    It was interesting to see the massive trees while listening to German and French.  The trees were truly amazing.  I think we saw all of the ones listed in the brochure including “the Clothes Pin” and “the Grizzly Giant.”  I enjoyed the hike.  We actually saw some sequoias burning.  There are controlled burns to help promote the growth of existing trees and the germination of new trees.  The Giant Sequoias are the largest trees in the world in terms of girth, and they live up to 3,000 years.  CRAZY!

this tree is alive and served as a backup drive-thru tree during snowy months (it is not the most famous drive-thru tree)