Over the weekend, Shawn and I headed over to Yosemite National Park. It is a huge park and is booked well into October, but he was able to get us a campsite. Though it was car camping and we had an annoying family next to us, we made the best of it and had a great time. We arrived late in the afternoon and eagerly made our way to one of the trails in the valley. Being a national park, it was much more developed than we had anticipated. They had buses that looped through the valley, stopping at various trailheads and scenic areas.

After exiting the bus, we started hiking on a trail that would give us a good view of Half Dome. Half Dome is a large structure composed of one piece of granite. On the left side of the photograph are two other structures called Achilles Heel. Mirror Lake is located between them and was a popular recreation area. However, today it appears rather small and unavigatable.

That afternoon we hiked around five and a half miles. For dinner we had brought lots of veggies and a few potatoes to grill on the fire, in addition to some bananas and pineapples for desert. Dinner that night was the best camping dinner I have ever had, and that isn't because of my appetite that evening. The vegetables came out so good, mm... it makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

After a good nights sleep, we decided to do a short hike up to some waterfalls in the southwestern portion of the park. The falls were beautiful; so powerful, roaring over the precariously piled rocks, smoothing them. The water was very cold and the wind coming off the falls was dry and brisk. We sat on one of the smoothed stones lying horizontal and took in the beauty of the area. I was amazed at how the power and roar of the waterfall was greater than that of the ocean.



Before heading back to San Bruno, we drove farther south to check out a Sequoia grove. The trees were amazing. They are in the same family as the Redwoods and are very similar. The sequoias were used for timber and were over exploited. This has to do with their reproduction needs. To start with, these trees need bare mineral soil to germinate with an open canopy above. If the tree does germinate it grows rapidly and does not bear cones until it is mature at an age of 150 to 200 years. These cones can stay on the tree for 20 to 30 years and are then only dropped from the tree by external forces, such as storms. Fire is also a necessity, to keep ground cover down and also as an agent of releasing seeds from the cones.

We hiked until mid afternoon and then headed back towards the house. The roads are extremely steep with switchbacks one after another. I was so happy I was not driving, because it would have taken us two days to return home. We drove through these fields of windmills, generating energy. The windmills were so large and beautiful turning on the hills. Shawn was telling me that there has been some controversy over them because they can actually change the wind pattern and migrating birds become confused.