Saturday April 24, 2021 - Yosemite National Park - In the Valley

I LOVE this picture.  

It shows a wonderful day of fun doesn't it!!  Those are Taj's feet after today and before his shower.  Miles of exploration and time playing in Mother Earth.  

Going into the park we had a very long line.  There were way too many people in the park today.  I hear that it's like that most of the time.  Yosemite will start requiring Timed Entry as of May 1. That might be the best time to go to Yosemite so that there aren't as many people in the park. 

Once we got passed the long entry line, we drove about a half an hour in, then stopped to make breakfast.  Scotty and I brought eggs, bacon and cereal to make.  We brought the stove to make the eggs and bacon. It's kind of fun to make breakfast on the tail gate of Doug!!! 

After breakfast, we finished driving down to the valley.  We had a very hard time finding a parking place for Doug.  Doug is a long dually and can't  park in any vacant spot (which we didn't even find any vacant  spots).  After circling around the valley without seeing even one spot vacant, we decided to drive down the road and find a spot farther away.  A mile out of the valley, we found a spot for Doug.  

Then we ate a snack before heading out.  

The tunnel to Yosemite

The Tunnel View!!!

Our walk into the park was along this river.  It was about a mile to get to Yosemite Falls.  

Our biggest adventure of today was to hike up to the Upper Yosemite Falls.  This hike is very hard.  You climb about 3,000 feet in elevation in about 4 miles.  It's insane.  Asher and Graham hiked all the way up to the top of the falls.  Their total mileage today was 10 miles!!!   Taj and Scotty hike to where they were almost up to the top.  Pepper and I hiked to the bottom of the falls then we waited for the boys there.  Our walkie-talkies really came in handy today.  Tons of people were there hiking so we did our best to not trip and to take turns on all the switch backs we hiked up.  

Yosemite Falls!!!

Half Dome!!  Look at that view!!  It's incredible.  

I love my family!!

Taj found a centipede.  

Lucky boy.  His dad is the best!!

The hike up to Yosemite Falls took a long time.  We got back to Doug around 5 PM.  We were all tired and hungry but still feeling a bit adventurous.  El Capitan was literally so close to us so we HAD to stop to see the wall and pretend to be Free Solo!!!

There he is, El Capitan himself.  Can you believe that the Free Solo dude climbed up this thing without any ropes???  We most certainly can't, especially after actually seeing the wall.  

The kids had to climb up and pretend to be crazy rock climbers.  Taj joined in on the fun like always!!

I climbed it too!! Well, pretend to climb, my feet were on the ground;)

Grahams new vehicle!!!  Our first idea for dinner was to eat at a cute restaurant in the valley. They were so booked that we decided to drive out and back to Oakhurst.  There we made a stop and ate an amazing dinner at McDonalds;)).  Everyone was exhausted so they stayed up and watched a movie.  I know right??!!  Do they ever get tired?  I didn't watch the movie, I went right to bed:)). I love adventurous days!!!