yosemite

a couple of weeks ago, i had my first weekend at home in ... a really long time.  so i decided to leave again, and absconded myself to yosemite!

truthfully, our camping trip had been planned for months, when my roommate got campsite reservations back in march.  and though i would have been happy with some downtime in my own space, i was equally excited to be somewhere there would be absolutely no cell phone reception. woo hoo!

on thursday night, i headed up to the santa barbara area to meet up with my friend jesse and get our gear and food consolidated and organized.  the two hour drive took three, thanks to la traffic, but as a result, i opted to take an alternate route, up the pacific coast highway to the 101 (also a coastal highway).  it ended up being a great solution, despite it's ineffectiveness in reducing the travel time, as many of the recent stressors and exhausters of the last many weeks melted away while i enjoyed the ocean views along the way.

arriving at jesse's late, with my dog cordy along for the ride (her first camping trip), we quickly commenced the sorting and organizing, before sitting down to chat and get caught up.  in the early hours of the am, we finally called it a night, knowing we wanted to get an early start and had a six hour drive the next day.

morning came too early, but a little later than planned as we both overslept. by the time we finally got ourselves together and got on the road it was nearing 11, and the uneventful (thank heavens) drive landed us in the wawona campgound, site #30 by 5:30.

heather and her friend holly had come up the day before, and seemed to still be out and about, so we evaluated the site and planned tent placement, set up jesse's new camp kitchen, and got a fire started.

heather and holly arrived shortly after, and we learned that heather had twisted her ankle on the way down the glacier point hike.  because i was the only one in the group who had no interest in hiking, i had planned to hang out at the campground during the day, enjoying the sun and the river running behind our site,  chilling out with cordy and a book while the others went out adventuring. but with heather's 'condition', the plans changed quickly, and it looked like saturday would be a tour-by-car day.

i got dinner ready for jesse and i (joking with my roommate about how it was the first time in over two years she had ever seen me cook) while he set up his one man tent...and by one man, i mean, it's a ten man tent, but he set up a cot, and end tables and a chair, and by the time he was done, it was a the waldorf astoria of camping.

i was impressed (and only a little jealous) of his pampered camper tent setup.  but after dinner (blue cheese burgers), and dessert (reese's smores), and some campfire chatting, i settled in comfortably to the 'girls tent' for an early night and enjoyed my air mattress in 'heather's hilton.'

morning came early, as it always seems to when camping, but i'd had a good night's sleep (unusual for camping), and was pleased to find that jesse was getting started on our bacon and eggs.

after breakfast we hung out at the camp waiting for our 5th and final camper.  she had been supposed to arrive the previous night but was a no-show, and with no cell reception, we didn't know where she was or if she was planning on joining us at all. so, we decided we would wait another half hour for her to arrive, and if she hadn't, we would leave her a note at the campsite.  we were still discussing the note when her car pulled up.

she had made it up the night before, and successfully found the campsite, but since we were all ensconced in our tents (just barely as it turns out), instead of coming in and hitting the hay, she headed to a nearby hotel for the night, and had come to the campsite to try and catch us.  but it turned out she hadn't showered or brought her stuff with her, so we twiddled our thumbs for awhile while she went back to the hotel to get herself ready.

our first view of yosemite valley

eventually she made it back and we all piled into heather's car...four girls, a guy, and a dog, and headed towards hetch hetchy reservoir.  since holly wouldn't be able to hike, she wanted to see a part of yosemite she had never seen, and the rest of us were on board.

had we known how bad the traffic in yosemite valley would be, or how far hetch hetchy really was, we might have nixed it, but we didn't, and we made the most of it.

gettin wet at bridalveil falls

since we were snail's pacing it through the valley, we made a couple of stops, first at bridal veil falls, then at the yosemite visitor's center (for my passport stamp), and ended up wandering through the ansel adams gallery, where i was specifically invited to come in by an employee who called me in from off the porch, telling me that i was more than welcome to bring my dog inside.  awe - some.

back in the car, we headed for hetch hetchy, and truthfully, i'm not sure it was worth the drive.  it's a beautiful place, but it doesn't compare to the valley and it is way out of the way on windy roads.  and of course, the fact that i couldn't take cordy on the dam meant my experience was 'less than' what it could have been.

happy puppy

we made the most of it of course, and all of us indulged our inner 10 year olds when we passed the sign below on the way back:

to poop, or naut?

from hetch hetchy, we made our way to glacier point, where heather had hurt her ankle the day before.  unbeknownst to them at the time, you can also drive up to glacier point, and the views were spectacular.

view of half dome from glacier point

the sun was going down, so we decided to head back to camp, where jesse and i enjoyed a chili dinner and we all enjoyed chatting around the campfire before calling it a night.

the next morning i woke up, dare i say it, refreshed!  it was the best camping night's sleep i've ever had.  the temperature was perfect, heather's lent air mattress was comfy, and cordy was a perfect snuggle buddy!

lower yosemite falls

after breakfast, we broke camp and headed back into the valley to see yosemite falls.  it was still crowded, but the weather was so perfect, and the falls were full and beautiful. we enjoyed them for a time before deciding it was time to head home.

with a quick stop to the visitor's center to pick up a stamp, and a passport for jesse (yay, another convert!) we made the six hour drive back to santa barbara safely and uneventfully.

while camping always makes me a little tired, and the laundry was piling up, it was a great way to escape, and we couldn't have asked for a better experience!

as usual, tons of pics, here.