Yosemite in April

I got my nature fill this past Saturday. Friday night we got all packed up so we could leave early(ish) Saturday morning. We even turned Luna's car seat to forward facing for the occasion. (They say you're supposed to wait until they're two but she's almost there. Happy early birthday, Luna. Lol.) She actually threw up in the car when we were half way there. This child never throws up so I'm thinking the views might have affected her a bit. The Comfort Inn we pulled over near was nice enough to donate a towel to us for Luna to sit on. (Note to mommy self: pack car with paper towels and some sort of cleaner for next trip.)

By the time we reached Mariposa (a cute little foothill town), Luna was feeling much better. We had  to stop in Mariposa because there's always a taco truck at one of their parks and Mr. 246 was determined to have some taco truck. Lol.

It was about that point Luna took a really early morning nap. Hey there little sleepy Bean.

Driving near the park there were fields of poppies everywhere! The above picture isn't the greatest, but it's the best I could do with my little point-and-shoot while driving in super bright sunshine. So many of the hills just had almost completely orange sides. It was awesome! I've never been early enough in the year to see that.

Driving into the park is always nuts. You almost break your neck looking from one view to another. It's just so awesome. We actually ended up buying a 12 month pass (which I'm super excited about). If we go at least one more time it was worth the deal.

Once we were in the park, Luna woke up. I think instinctively she knew awesomeness was going on. The above picture is when we told her to "smile," lol. What a silly face.

Hey Bridalviel Falls! I see you up there!

Hey Upper Yosemite Falls! I see you too! I know it's prime waterfall time because of the snow melt but I was a little worried there wouldn't really be any since we've been in a drought but I have a feeling there may not be too many waterfalls later this summer.

We had an early lunch at the car before setting out, then it was off to the Lower Yosemite Falls trail. We picked this one for Luna because it's short, there's a pretty waterfall, and there are huge boulders that Mr. 246 loves to climb. Lol.

Here we are in front of Lower Yosemite Falls. There's a bridge that crosses the river so you get a pretty unobstructed view. In past years there has been so much water if you stand on the bridge you will get soaked from the spray but this year you only felt a teeny tiny bit of spray when the wind blew really hard.

Above is another view of the falls. If you can see where the arrow is pointing...that's a person. (If you look super close you can see lots of people.) That gives you some sort of scale of just how huge this waterfall is. Amazing, isn't it?

Luna wanted to go "smimming!" and it scared me how willing she would have been to go swimming in that water. Haha. Ahh, to be a reckless almost two year old.

There was obligatory rock climbing on the hike back. Luna thought rock climbing meant daddy holds her and she just walks up the side of rocks. It was pretty funny. She went as high as Ryan could lift her and she still wanted to walk higher. Haha.

Once she got the hang of it, Luna wanted to climb on everything. She found that slanted rock above and instantly decided it was a slide and would sit at the top of it and scoot her butt down saying "weeee!" as she did it.

The last time I was in Yosemite I was 8 months pregnant. I knew I probably wouldn't go that year once Luna was born so I was determined to go before she was born. As we were walking back to the trail head I remembered taking a picture in this spot and even though I didn't get the exact spot it was pretty cool to take a picture in the same-ish spot as last time. Once with me be pregnant, and then again with Luna herself.

There were more pictures throughout the day, most of it scenery. Truth be told once we got our "official" hike done with I didn't take as many pictures. This was my 6th trip to Yosemite and Mr. 246's 7th and since we were doing trails and areas we'd already been I didn't feel as inclined to take a lot of pictures. I think the next couple of times we'll venture out more but since it was Luna's first time. We wanted to go places that we knew would be easy and fun (and not stressful and scary) to take Luna too.

I was on a Yosemite kick yesterday after I had gotten home and I decided to see if maybe there was a random campsite available (they're pretty much booked solid already for the whole summer by this time of year) and there was!!! I won the lottery and we will be spending a night camping in the Yosemite Valley two weeks from now! Yay!!!!!! It'll be Luna's first camping trip so I'm really excited. (And a little nervous. There's two streams/rivers surrounding the particular camp ground we're staying in. Am I allowed to put my child on a leash? Can I be that parent?)

I even got a field guide at the gift shop and had fun looking up some trees. I think next time we'll go I'm going to spend a while trying to identify things. I always wanted to be that person who goes hiking and says, "See that plant? That's a blah blah blah. It only grows the last two weeks of this month at an elevation of between 2500 and 4500 feet. You can tell it's a blah blah blah because there are clusters of 3 leaves that grow together and the branches grow in multiples of 5. Native American's used to use this plant for..." and so on. Haha. I don't think I'll ever be that good but it's fun to do when you're looking at stuff and try to figure out what it is.

I can't wait to go on more day trips this summer. As much as I don't like the immediate area we live in, I love the fact that there are so many amazing places you can go for just a day or two. We're very lucky. :)

Has anyone else been someplace neat lately? Where do you plan on going this summer?

-Mrs. 246