We woke up to a gorgeous morning and I forced the kids to do a photo shoot for me. I can understand why they say this is the best time to visit Yosemite; the Dogwood trees are in bloom, the waterfalls are in full force and the crowds haven't yet descended.
Even Shaun and Riley were kind enough to pose for me.
You can see Half Dome in the background. We were heading up the same trail, but only going 4.5 miles of the eight to the top, making it a nine mile hike instead of 16.
After our fabulous breakfast of sausage, egg and cheese English muffins, we packed up and headed out for a real hiking adventure. Here we are at the base of Vernal Falls. Keith and I couldn't help but laugh as we remembered that this was the end of our all day hike when we had the kids in tow.
Up to this point, there is a paved trail that we use to push the stroller up, with a pack on Keith's back and two or three cute little kids either needing encouragement to keep trudging forward or caution not to run too far ahead of the rest of us. It was always a fun and sometimes nail biting challenge. Now everyone comes along without any effort on our part, which makes for a really fun hike.
Here we are going up the Mist Trail, which really wasn't too misty. Riley and Jenna broke into a Lord of the Rings "Misty Mountain" song which made the climb more fun.
Here is Shaun next to Vernal Falls where the trail is so narrow that you have to wait your turn to go up. Riley and Shaun made it to the top of Vernal Falls first, where we enjoyed the view, ate our snacks and rested before the next "stair-master" accent to Nevada.
Hiking in Yosemite is so amazing. Where else can you hike right next to waterfall after water fall. The last time we hiked Nevada, Jarrett distracted Connor all the way to the top with conversations and stories. It is a hard hike and couldn't have been easy on Connor's feet. It wasn't easy on ours. We needed Jarrett for some laughs and entertainment.
We made it!
Now instead of running around and worrying me that they might fall over the edge, the kids are more than happy to take a nap with Keith and I. "Things can't get much better than this."
On second thought, if Haley, Connor and Jarrett where with us it would have been much better.
We missed them!
As you can tell, we had a great time on the top and weren't even envious of those heading on to Half Dome. We stayed until Riley was rudely pooped on by a large black raven. I think that it was on purpose since the bird kept flying over head cawing while Riley yelled back at him.
"Where is your slingshot when you need it."
