Yosemite Falls

This year it was decided that we were going to have the First Annual Adult High Adventure Hike ... or something like that.  We planned in October to hike Half Dome in June.  It was going to be awesome.  I wasn't pregnant and haven't been in a while.  I was in really good shape.  

Then we had the worst winter EVER.  

It rained and snowed until June!  JUNE people!  We live in California for crying out loud.  

You also have to purchase Half Dome tickets 7 days a week, so we bought the tickets a few months in advance and June  21st was the day.  Unfortunately, due to some crazy snow pack on Half Dome they didn't put the cables up in time for our hike.  They ended up doing it that Thursday.  We just barely missed it.  I was disappointed, I kinda felt like I missed my chance.  With the more kids we have it gets harder to get someone to watch them over night.  Hopefully, sometime in the future though.  We ended up hiking Yosemite Falls, which is nothing to snub your nose at.  Yosemite Falls is the 5th highest waterfall in the world!  And with all the rain and snow run off that we have been having, it did not disappoint.

Here we go!  

Taking a little stroll to Lower Yosemite Falls.

Our brother in law, Bill 

 A shot a Lower Yosemite Falls

 My mom and I.  Notice how happy she is now...it didn't last.  

I think she thought I was trying to kill her off.

 Our warning that we didn't pay attention to.  However, here I will mention that my mom kept asking me as she was looking to the top of the falls.  "Are we going ALL the way to the top?"  I kept saying yes, not really getting that she didn't quite believe me or understand that we were going up something like 60 switchbacks. 

 Overlooking Yosemite Valley.  

You can't really see in this picture, but it was flooded.  Stinks for the people that had camping reservations.

 My mom's picture with Half Dome

 Mom, Rachel and I somewhere in the middle

 Bill and Joe, rocking their awesome hats!

 US!

We also decided on this trip that the best view of waterfalls are from the middle to the bottom.  Climbing to the top is a fun challenge, but for views of the falls, not the best.

 At the top

 I think my mom wanted to kill me here.  This is also where I found out that she didn't really get that we were actually climbing to the top.  She's also a little competitive and kept us with the rest of us who are 15-20 years younger than her.  She did it though.  She told me she was sore for a week, but she had fun.  I'm not going to act like it wasn't hard for me either.  Talk about a test of endurance.  I had just ran 10 miles in Sacramento, but this was completely different.

 We were going to keep circling the valley and come down at another outlet, but the rangers we contacted said there were still snow drifts and some of us weren't willing to risk it, so we headed back the way we came.

 The hike is all over.  We figured we went around 12 miles or so.  

Here's to next time!