Yosemite

  Yosemite National Park, California, United States
Friday, June 20, 2008

The birthday boy

Today was Paul's birthday...Yosemite's not a bad place to spend it.
 
In the morning, we made our way to the Yosemite Falls.  This is actually a pairing of upper and lower falls dropping over 2400 feet.  On our way to the falls, my mom saw a black bear.  More accurately, she saw it just as it ran off into the brush, so technically she saw a bear butt.  (Not to be confused with a bare butt, which probably wouldn't be legal in public.)

Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls

We had a relatively leisurely walk up to the base of the lower falls where we were sprayed with mist.  Emily and I climbed up some rocks to get closer to the falls themselves.  We could have gone farther, but stopped when the rocks were too wet to safely traverse.

Emily at Lower Yosemite Falls

 
After a sandwich lunch, we headed on over to Mirror Lake.  This involved a shuttle ride and a mile-plus walk.

Mom and Dad

Mirror Lake is a small lake that is named for its clear reflection of the surrounding landscape.  We managed to get a nice picture of this.  Some people were actually swimming in this lake.  That may not seem unusual, but the water in Yosemite is all snowmelt and extremely cold.

Mirror Lake

 
After relaxing in the room for a while, Paul, Emily, and I went for a walk along the Merced River.  We found an area with very few people, amazingly.  All of us waded in the frigid water...Emily actually made it to thigh-deep.

Emily in the Merced River

There was a momma duck with her ducklings that Paul tried to get pictures of, but momma kept moving the babies away from the three scary people.
 
Other than the bear that we didn't get to see, we are enjoying the wildlife here.   The deer seem to congregate in the meadows by Curry Village, where we are staying.  There also are a lot of squirrels. 

squirrel

They apparently are California Ground Squirrels-they have lighter fur around their necks and are almost spotted.  We actually saw some baby ones today...we're definitely suckers for baby animals.  We've seen a number of red-winged blackbirds and Steller's Jays, which are an amazingly deep blue color.
 

Half Dome

We ended the evening with ice cream and mosquitoes, although not at the same time.  Tomorrow we're hoping to rent bicycles to roam further on.