Our camping adventure to Yosemite was great fun! The highlights were as follows:
- Spending time with the family that didn’t involve the standard comforts of our day to day.
- The challenge of camping in tents, cooking our outdoors, and trying to keep warm as the temps really dropped.
- Connecting with our fellow co-campers (parents and kids from Maya’s Girl Scout troop).
- A tough hike to the top of Vernal falls.Â
- Food, drinks, and great conversations by the fire the night after the hike.
We couldn’t find our digital camera, so we bought a film camera at the store but haven’t gotten the film developed yet. But I found some pictures of Vernal falls off of Google images that will have to do for now.
The picture on the left is Vernal falls in the spring, and the pic on the right is more like what the falls where like when we were there. The problem with these pictures is that it doesn’t capture how high this water fall is. According to the park’s website, it’s a 317 foot drop. When you’re faced with a drop of that depth, you don’t want to do this:
Last year three people fell to their deaths in Yosemite from taking risks like this. The other risk is swimming upstream from a waterfall where the water looks calm, but is anything but during the spring run off.
At the top of Vernal falls is Emerald Pool — which is very pretty. There’s a natural water slide between a small water fall and the pond that was not as swollen or flowing as fast you see in this picture.Â
In fact, there was a place where the water pooled in a semi-enclosed space on the rock slide.  It was there that the girls in the troop decided this was a great place to get rid of their pants and run around in just their underware and t-shirts. Did I tell you the water was cold? I took my shoes off and put my feet in the water and lost a good amount of feeling very quickly. But kids being kids, they didn’t really care how cold it was. After all, they just climbed about 1000 feet and were looking for some cool relief. Some were threatening to jump into the pool (and remember, this was semi-enclosed pool, so no real danger of them getting swept into what little gushing water was on the slide). So I offered a cash prize to the first kid who totally submerged herself in the water. While many in the group were thinking about it, one kid tossed her t-shirt, walked into the knee-deep water and went right in! She ran right out and her parents were there with a sweater to warm her up. She got $15 and a good story to tell! However, I got a bit of grief from her parents. They weren’t so worried about her jumping into the water, but they were concerned that she would do a “dare for cash” so quickly. Here’s a snapshot of our post-dunk conversation:
Me:Â Um, sorry but I didn’t think any of the girls would take the bait.
Mom: I have visions of my daughter in college drinking too much booze for $50.
Me: Again, sorry about that. I’m a bad person.
Mom: No, it’s okay. It just I learned something about my daughter that I didn’t know before.Â
Me: I still feel bad…
Mom: Don’t worry about it. She has your fifteen bucks!
🙂
By far, the worst part of camping at Yosemite is the bears. They are out in full force this time of the year looking for food. The campsites have “bear boxes” where you put anything that has a strong odor (including soap) inside them and they lock. Well, night after night, the bears would come into our site to look for goodies. What happens when a bear comes into your site? You’re supposed to make a lot of noise to scare it off. The park rangers set off explosives that sounds like fireworks, but campers have to resort to using their voices, banging on pots and pans, or setting off their car alarms. The problem is that bears, like the sandpeople in Star Wars, scare easily, but they usually come back.Â
The last night we were there, a bear broke into the bear locker next to our campsite and was chowing on the food it found. A car alarm and some guy yelling “Git! Git! Get outta here!” scared the bear off, but it came back 3 more times. And each time, the bear was greeted with yelling and car alarms. Good christ what an endless night.Â
When we finally got home, we were just dopey tired….I think we slept about 12 hours.
And if you’ve read this far, you’re probably ready for a nap, too!
Lalapunci
October 2, 2007 at 8:49 amGlad you had fun. I heard that the bears learned how to open the bear boxes. Smart bears. I saw some home videos of bears pulling the window frames on car doors to get to a cooler inside.
ML
October 2, 2007 at 9:02 amI’m glad you’re all back home safe and sound! Get some sleep, man! 🙂
If a bear came within three miles of me, I would shit my pants, let alone say “Git” or set the car alarm off.
J
October 2, 2007 at 9:16 amThey ARE like sandpeople! HA!
I also had a GREAT time, but boy, I was tired by the time we got home. I wonder how people do that for a week or two? What with the not sleeping part, I mean.
Cherry
October 2, 2007 at 10:39 amOh Py! Daring little girls!
It sounds like you guys had a great trip and have some good stories to tell! I think it’s kinda cool that you have a bear story to tell.
Welcome home! Remember, no dirt in the house!
Gina
October 2, 2007 at 2:34 pmThe sandpeople comparison made me laugh.
I think I shall stick with my current resolution to never camp.
But, we would love to go to Yosemite. I mean, it’s all nature, even if you’re at a hotel, right?
J
October 2, 2007 at 2:55 pmGina, I agree totally. The advantages to NOT being in a hotel are: hanging out with the other campers, which only applies if you go up in a group; and no TV or computers. That’s pretty nice, actually…much more down time and time with all of us together. The advantages of a hotel are that you can sleep at night. So it’s a tradeoff, I guess. Maybe the best solution is to rent a camper, with no TV. 🙂 Warm beds, still in nature in other ways.
Maya
October 2, 2007 at 8:10 pmThey ARE like the sandpeople, aren’t they? We’re such Star Wars geeks. 😀
That was almost SLEEPLESS for me! I hated that night. 🙁
You left out the part where Maya (not me) followed Emmy right into the water. 😀
Hey, look, Dado! I’m POSTING on your BLOG!!! You must be very happy. 😛
(Typed completely by me. I’m a good speller, huh? :))
Maya's Granny
October 3, 2007 at 12:52 amIt sounds like you had a lot of fun. At my age I think I’d do the hotel — it could be fun to sit around the fireplace at night and chat.
Thinking About… » (Not) Wordless Wednesday…Vernal Falls Edition
October 3, 2007 at 4:53 am[…] but Ted beat me to it. He did such an awesome job, you can read all about the bears, etc., here. I got our pictures developed…since we THOUGHT we had forgotten our camera (it was in a side […]
Dot
October 3, 2007 at 9:12 amYay Maya!!! For commenting 🙂
I love yosemitee but I will stick to the hotels/cabins. The bears/sandpeople scare the crap out of me. I’m glad you all had a great time 🙂
lalunas
October 3, 2007 at 9:18 amOh those darn bears, All I kept thinking of was Yogi and Booboo. Glad you guys had fun, that will be a memory keeper to talk about in years to come.