Yosemite: Day 2

Yes it has seriously taken me this freaking long to get to just day 2 of the Yosemite trip.
I'm blaming a lot of random happenings through the week and me getting very sick.
I think those are two legit reasons, but I'm still a little annoyed with myself for not being better about this.

Granted it's the only day left, but I wanted to get some more pictures out there. 

Then of course I still have San Fran =/ Clearly blogging is not taking the front burner in my life so I apologies for any lulls or just completely random crap that comes up in the next week or so until I get my life back to normal.

Anyway!

On the second day in Yosemite Kev really wanted to hike this trail, called Half Dome.
Ok well technically Half Dome is mountain top you reach, but you get my point.
If you know what Half Dome is you are probably saying "oh my".
If you don't Half Dome is a hike that is about 14-16 mile round trip depending on the route you take.
A lot of people do this hike in two days since it's "very sternous"
And it was, and we did this in a day!
Yosemite Valley is already 5000 ft above sea level, and on the Half Dome hike alone you climb up another 5000 ft!
That's a lot of elevation for a girl from Ohio!
We started at 5AM - in the pitch dark of the Yosemite mountain wilderness (it was cool and a little scary, won't lie), and ended at like 5PM.
That's right 12 hours of up hill and down hill walking.
Killer!
I did not make it all the way to the top, it was just to much for me, but Kevin did!
I will note I was almost there, that last mile is like straight up so a mile off, and next time I'm doing it all!

The pictures can give you the rest :)

 The first pictures of the morning.
Aka the first light!
This was about an hour or so into the hike for us.

 I'm still looking fairly happy here.
I didn't feel the greatest thanks to the elevation so I had a bit of a rough morning.

 This is area is called Little Yosemite and it's the place where the folks who do a two/three day hike would stay for the night.
It was the most beautiful "campsite" I've ever seen.
The only water you could get was from the river!

 Only 2 more miles, after we'd already hiked about 4.5

 About a mile after this is when I stopped, at a nice view point.
The pictures going forward are all from Kev as he continued up!

 Bottom of Half Dome in sight!
The "bottom" of Half Dome is called Sub Dome.
Many people stop here because 1) you have to have a permit to go to the top and 2) the cables (see below)

 These are the granite "steps" you have to climb up for the last mile or so!
As you can see they aren't that clear and there is no hand rails or anything.
Kev said this part was almost the worst because of how uneasy you felt with just a cliff at your side.

These are the cables that take you to the very top of Half Dome.
They are just a set of cables on either sight of you and the climb is at about a 60 degree angle on smooth granite!
To get down you have to walk down backwards, almost like you are repelling yourself down.

Kev at the very top!

Some amazing views!

The top is actually pretty wide across, but all those little tiny people are the other side, so not that big.

 I was there in spirit :)

 These are just some pictures of nature on the way down.

We have a gazillion pictures from this hike, but there is only so much of nature that I can show you.
This hike was probably one of the hardest physical things I've had to do.
If you go to Yosemite I say give this a try!
If you are active you can do it in a day, if you aren't or have elevation problems do it in two!
You wouldn't regret it.

Happy Thursday!

Yosemite: Day 1

I think I should start by saying the Yosemite was probably my favorite part of this trip!

I wouldn't consider myself the outdoorsy type, not that I don't go outside or I'm not active, but Yosemite was easily one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. 

No picture you see will ever do the place justice.
It gives you a great idea, but when you are standing there with the massive trees and mountains, the bluest sky you've probably ever seen, and a nice cool breeze you would swear you were in Heaven.

Being the discount site junkie that I am I had found Kev and I a cabin deal for the Redwoods in Yosemite.
They rent out all different kinds of cabins, based on the number of people staying, some you can have pets in, some are more...rustic than others, etc. 

Kev and I picked out this cute little studio cabin and it was perfect.

The scenery was even better.
 

The first day Kev and I decided to kind of take it easy since we knew we were going to attempt to do the Half Dome hike in a day.
So we headed for Mariposa Grove, where all the Redwoods & Sequiaos are.
It has to be one of my favorite places. The sight of the trees and the smell. It was amazing!
 

 

 

The Fallen Tunnel Tree.

 

You can barely even see Kev in there!

 

Kev clearing our path lol.

 

This tree is called Faithful Couple.
It's two trees that fused together.
We thought it appropriate to get a picture since it was our anniversary trip!

 

Next we decided to drive it a bit and hit up Tunnel View.
It's just what it says it is. It's a Tunney View to some of the bigger sights in the park.
The mountains: El Capitan, Half Dome, the Cathedrals.
 

 

We decided to keep going into Yosemite Valley to figure out where we would be starting out hike the next day!
It would be pitch black so the more we knew ahead of time the better. 

 

Lastly we decided to catch the sunset at Glacier Point. 

We realized that it wasn't the true sunset, but it was the sun going behind some mountains so it was casts some great shadows into the valley, where we had just come from, below.

 

Quite the view of Half Dome.

Happy Monday!