Everybody who has been to Yosemite remembers their first visit. Lesli, Savannah, Charlotte & I all made our first visit toYosemite National Park over Labor Day weekend...
We rented a very comfy, 1-bedroom cabin in the village of Foresta, located in the western end of the park...
It had a tiny loft that was the perfect sleeping and playing room for the girls. Here is Charlotte looking over the railing on the first morning...
Outside our window is a stump that looks like a bear sitting in the bushes and waving to us. Charlotte liked it so much she took a picture...
We didn't see any bears, but we saw plenty of wildlife. Here is a montage of animal pics, many of which were taken by Savannah & Charlotte
Our first day was very busy - we drove into Yosemite Valley. This late in the summer, very few of the famous waterfalls are still flowing, but Bridalveil Fall still managed a lacy, lazy show...
Unexpectedly there was a little rain our first morning - it was welcomed as it cooled off the otherwise hot, dry park. Here are the girls with their foul-weather gear at Bridalveil Fall...
In late summer, the Merced river is a gentle stream. Here we are on Swinging Bridge in the center of the valley...
Our first hike was a doozy to Vernal Fall. Charlotte was cranky and all of us were hot & tired. Here are the girls on a water break...
The hike was fun - here the girls look over a 300 foot shear-drop cliff...
Our reward was a cool breeze funneled through the scenic valley where Vernal Fall lives...
Still on our first day, we drove to Glacier Point, the 7,200 foot overlook with incredible vistas of Half-Dome...
The Stellar Jays are the pranksters of the park with calls that sound like Bronx-cheers and opportunistically swooping down on unwatched picnics. Here one lands on the fake hat on this sign...
Savannah snapped this shot of Lesli and me in front of Half-Dome...
This might be the most photographed dead tree in the world - a Jeffery Pine on Glacier Point, right in front of Half-Dome...
The girls enjoyed the boulders and the nice mix of cool air and sunshine. Here is Charlotte and her wild-girl locks...
Savannah is always posing!
Savannah took this one...
With her long blond hair, doesn't Savannah look like Rapunzel?
On our way back to our cabin we stopped at a campground just in time for a Ranger presentation at a campfire. The pictures can't quite capture the smell of pines and the crackle of the roaring fire...
On our second day, we hiked around our cabin and found Foresta Falls - a small but lovely stream with icy-cold water running over huge boulders...
and then Charlotte fell in. She didn't fall into a calm pool, she fell in right under the waterfall! Here Lesli gives CCK a police escort away from the culprit (the waterfall). Charlotte is NOT happy at this point...
We dried off our cliff-diver and spent the afternoon relaxing. First at the classic, 1927 Ahwahnee Lodge...
And then a picnic at Cathedral Beach on the Merced. Here are the girls, dwarfed by the undisputed king of Yosemite, El Capitan - one of the world's largest granite monoliths...
Summer fun. Here Savannah leaps from the log into the crystal-clear river...
Charlotte's leap uses an altogether different technique...
Goofy walking...
On our third day we headed for some altitude, driving up Tioga road and spending the day at almost 8,000 feet. Here are Lesli & Savannah at Olmstead Overlook, named after Fredrick Law Olmstead, who drew inspiration from Yosemite when he designed other great outdoor spaces like Central Park and Prospect Park in NYC...
Right down Tioga road from Olmstead Point is Tenaya Lake - very clear, and with almost no soil to cloud it, the lake was unbelievably blue...
We had another picnic lunch at the lake. Here the girls hike along the shore....
A little further down the road is Toulumne Meadows, a place the guidebooks describe as one of the few spots in the lower-48 that is a true Alpine wilderness. The tiny village of Tuolumne is only here for 4 months out of the year. The rest of the year Tioga Road is impassable due to snow. But oh is it pretty in summer....
Lesli suggested an awesome hike that started at the stables. Most of the 'rides' were mules, not horses. Here is a picture of stubborn-squared as Mule meets Charlotte in a stare-down...
SBK and CCK at Pastor's Cabin - a stop on our hike along the Tuolumne river...
Charlotte took this picture of us on a footbridge over the Tuolumne river. The camera doesn't do justice to the sound of the breeze & burbling water and the crisp, clean air...
The next day was Sunday and we zipped through Yosemite Valley on our way out. The crowds, which were non-existent on Thursday, were overwhelming by now. Here is a picture of the valley from a famous location called Tunnel View...
and here is the crowd that was mobbing the overlook...
On our way out of the park we stopped at Mariposa Grove - one of 3 forests with giant Sequoia trees.
One last hike in the park was through this incredible grove - it was like nothing I've ever seen. Here are the girls in front of the roots of at "The Fallen Giant" - which actually fell over 300 years ago!
Here my 3 girls pose in front of three trees called the Three Muses...
Goofing around on some Ponderosa Pine logs
This is Grizzly Giant - the largest Sequoia in the park, and estimated to be over 3,000 years old!
In an earlier generation it was okay to carve these beauties up. Here is the family inside one of the giants.
On our way out, Charlotte found her own home in a Lodgepole pine...
The last stop in the park was the lovely Victorian Wawona Hotel...
This is an antique, working waterfountain, but it looks like another porcelain fixture that isn't for drinking!
On our way home I was thinking of Lesli's and my next trip - to the hill-towns of Provence, France. As I was daydreaming in the car, I saw this butte and imagined we were already there!
Until Provence, au revoir!
