In February, when it was my birthday, I wanted to celebrate it in Yosemite National Park. I thought it will never happen, but one day my mom told me that we were going to Yosemite in June. She said that it will be the third Saturday of June.
When the day before that event came, we packed and our clothes and shoes. I was so excited to got to Yosemite and live there for three days! It took us about five hours to arrive at a inn in Fresno that was not that close to Yosemite. We spent our night there and tomorrow morning we were going to leave to Yosemite!
We finally got to Yosemite and it looked like we were going to live in a forest. I forgot what the entrance said, but through the entrance you would pay. Then we saw Tunnel View which was a very long tunnel and stopped. The mountains were very high and beautiful. We drove another long time until we stopped at Curry Village. That is where our tent was going to be. It looked like a mini house a with water-proof outside made with fabric. You can also see a Bear Box that you store your food in. If you don't, you will attract bears and they will lift up the flap and look through the window to see if there are any foods that humans eat. If you are holding it, they will ignore you and go away because they do not like humans.
Photo by Echo (my mom)
We left Curry Village and stopped at Visitor Center that was like a museum. It had very interesting things like a rock that was once part of Half Dome and facts about John Muir, a preservation of wilderness in the United States. There was also a gift shop and I bought a pin that represented Half Dome.
Then we took the shuttle to the trail to the Yosemite Falls. There are two falls, the upper and the lower. We climbed the lower because the upper is much too hard for us. My mom, dad, and I climbed together and my brother climbed himself. He ended up with us too. We together climbed all the way to the top, and when we went back down, my brother and I played in clean but cold water. It was very clean and cold because it was water that used to be snow! I accidentally fell in the water and it was very cold, but it was worth it.
Photo by Echo
The third monument we went to is Mirror Lake. We could see a side of Half Dome, reflected down on Mirror Lake. I tried sculpting Half Dome with sand and water, and I discovered that it took more than thirty minutes!
Photo by Echo
Finally, all of us walked to the shuttle stop and took a ride to Curry Village. There, my dad ordered pizza and ate a happy meal. Then we walked back to our tent and rested. Today was a extremely pleasant day and that was only the first day!
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Today was the second day and I was ready for another exhausting day! We were going to Glacier Point! There were two choices, you could drive, or walk. If you walk, it will take you about four and a half hours. If you drive, it you will be in the car for about one hour. We chose to walk and first I have to tell you that all of us were really burned out! The walk was 4.6 miles up and 4.6 miles down too! From the bottom of Glacier Point all the way to the top, the height is 3,200 feet. There were not a lot of people there on that trail probably because most people took the easy way. Driving! When we were going to the top, we ran out of water!
When we got to the top, which was already about 3:30, my family took a long rest and took some pictures. Here is some of the pictures:
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| An amazing view of Half Dome from Glacier Point! |
Photo by Heather
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| Taking a closer look of Half Dome with binoculars. |
Photo by Echo
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After all of those relaxing events, my mom, my dad, my brother, and I all walked down the mountain. It was easier than going up, but you had to control your feet from sliding. This time, we did not run out of water but no one wanted water! When we finally got to the bottom of the mountain, it was already dark, but good thing that we had flashlights and our phones could give off light too. It was so dark that we got lost at one point, but then we saw the shuttle going towards something that looked like a shuttle stop. We rushed to the stop, but we weren't fast enough so we waited about twenty more minutes for the next shuttle to come. |
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Today was the third day and we were ready to pack up and leave Yosemite!
We were all wanting to stay here forever because the trip was so fun we haven't gone to every trail. There is a Half Dome trail and that trail is really hard and dangerous. We are never going to that trail for sure! Today we were only going to a waterfall called Vernal Falls. You would follow a trail called Mist Trail because you will feel some mist at the end of the trail. It is much easier than Glacier Point and much shorter. It is only 1.5 miles to Vernal Falls. The trail is a little slippery and muddy, so you might want to wear hiking boots so you don't slip of the trail. At the end of the trail, there are lots of stairs and mist. We went on a hot day so the mist cooled us down. I went ahead by myself and I made it to the top. One part of the stairs has a handrail so you can hold it. Here is a picture of the fall:
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| Different from the Yosemite falls, this fall is wider. |
Photo by Echo
Now I was at the top and it was a beautiful looking down at the fall and the people looked like ants!
The water behind this tree is the water from Nevada Falls. That is a fall that is above Vernal Falls. The water comes down from the Nevada Falls and goes to the Vernal Falls. Next time we were going to go to the Nevada Falls.
Now we were going to leave Yosemite and now we were going to Napa Valley, the world famous wine growing region and were stopping at the Jelly Belly factory first!
I said one last goodbye to Yosemite and wondered when we were going there again. Hopefully, we will go to Yosemite soon!
Have you ever been to Yosemite?
If you had, what trails did you go on?
If you haven't, are you interested to going?
