Ockey Family Adventures: Yosemite Day 4

We are early risers!!

Since we're staying all the way on the other side of the park from Yosemite Valley, we decided to get up early and drive over the Tioga Pass. Early for us was 5:10 am, but the boys were real troopers. We were able to eat breakfast and leave town by around quarter to six, but since the drive is over two and a half hours, we were worried about arriving after all the parking was taken. He also hoped to see some animals in the early morning, which would slow us down even more.

We zipped across the pass, though, only stopping twice, both times to see deer. Right at the Tuolumne Meadows, we saw several large bucks. There were actually a few dozen far out on the grass, but three or four big ones that weren't too far from the road. Farther up the road, we came across a doe and her two fawns that couldn't have been more than a few weeks old. There were so pretty. Seth declared, "I could hold one of those!"

The morning light was beautiful on these deer.

By driving fast, we arrived at our first stop, Bridal Veil Falls, and there was plenty of parking. We did the short hike, and the boys literally ran up the entire trail to the base of the falls. There were amazed that it was so huge, plunging off the granite cliff at a height of over 600 feet! We didn't spend too long, though, because we were still worried about parking in Yosemite Valley. If we could just get the van in a stall, we could ride the shuttle for the rest of the day.

Bridal Veil Falls was beautiful. We love when we get a family picture.

We needn't have worried, as there was tons of parking at the Visitor's Center. Unfortunately, it wouldn't open until 9 o'clock. Mom made lunch and packed it away, and we said goodbye to the van around 8:30. Then we headed for our first hike, which was to be Lower Yosemite Falls.

They call it Lower Falls because you hike to the base of it, but you can see Upper and Lower Falls together. In fact, you can see them from almost anywhere in the valley. Upper Falls plunges more than a quarter of a mile off the cliff! It's height is listed at 1430 feet. It pools at the bottom and then drops a few smaller cascades that you can't view without a long hike. Then Lower Falls drops another 320 feet. From top to bottom, the water drops well over 2000 feet. We loved the short hike, and at the end there is a beautiful bridge to view the falls. Dad insisted on heading back the way we'd come, even though everyone else wanted to loop around, and we were glad we turned around. Just a little ways down the road Mom spotted a bobcat! He was slinking along the trail looking for a place to lay down. Luckily, he stopped about 25 yards from the trail. We watched him for a half hour while hundreds of people hiked obliviously past. Only a few stopped to see what we were so excited about. Dax said that this was the greatest sighting of his entire life. We were all thrilled to have seen something so unique, not to mention so nearby and for so long.

Seeing these two waterfalls together was amazing!

We hiked closer to Lower Falls. Mark hates looking into the sun.

Seth was mesmerized by the beauty of this waterfall!

Mom stopped to see what people were looking at and she spotted the bobcat!

We watched him move around the rocks until he finally settled down.

It was amazing to see this magnificent cat so close.

He/She was so beautiful.

The trail was beautiful heading back, too.

After the bobcat finally got tired of us we danced back down to the shuttle stop. We decided to take another short hike called Cooke's Meadow. This one was very short and ran across a small meadow to an adjacent shuttle stop. We were met with plenty of things to see on this hike, too. We kept hearing a keening cry from the towering pine trees, so we went to check it out. There was a hawk, which Mark declared was a red-shouldered hawk (the ranger later confirmed this), so we watched him for a while. We also saw a tarantula hawk lugging a paralyzed wolf spider, some really cool blue milkweed beetles, and a few monarch butterflies. There were also countless squirrels and Stellar's Jays hoping around. Though we didn't see anythings as exciting as a bobcat, we were still having a fabulous time.

Half Dome can be seen from almost anywhere in the park.

The hawk let us get pretty close.

What are those blue beetles on the milkweeds? Obviously blue milkweed beetles.

This picture is taken from Cooke's Meadow with Upper Falls in the background.

Seth saw a penny and really wanted it!

We decided to take a little longer hike to a large waterfall called Vernal Falls. After a short shuttle ride, we got off at the trailhead with another hundred or so people. This trail was slightly less busy than Disneyland, which was surprising because it was the hardest trail we've ever done. It started out climbing almost straight up like a staircase, and it continued doing that for the first mile until it came to an actual staircase for the last half mile. Mom had the divorce papers all written up by the end of the first quarter mile. But then we saw a cute little bear cub tearing bark off a tree and looking for grubs. He was only about 30 yards down the hill, and he'd stick his claws under the bark and rock back and forth against the trunk trying to rip off large portions of bark. The boys laughed pretty hard as he'd climb up, bounce back and forth, and then sift around for food. We watched for a long time and then continued up the trail. Eventually, we came to a bridge and took some great pictures, but the waterfall was still pretty far away, and everyone had been worn out for awhile. The boys were awesome, though, and we continued up the a little farther. When we reached the staircase almost no one groaned because we could hear the massive roar and see the mist of it rising up the mountainside. We climbed a little farther up and saw the huge 250 foot cascade. The mist was so heavy that it was difficult to even get a picture, and we were very wet by the time we started back down the trail. Everyone agreed that it was a good hike, though. About halfway down Seth found a nice rock, and we all sat down and had lunch. That gave us just enough energy to get back to the trailhead. We were at the shuttle stop right near the bathroom when a coyote ran out of the trees just a few yards away. The volunteer ranger shouted, "Stay back 100 feet!" but we would have to run 85 feet in the opposite direction in order to do that, so we just watched him slink away into the trees again.

The bear cub was so cute, but no mama bear appeared.

He clung to the tree for quite a while.

He was working hard to find grubs.

We almost stopped at the bridge overlook.

On the way back, the trail cleared a little.

There was a pretty rainbow at the foot of the falls.

Vernal Falls was as nice as any waterfall we've ever seen.

It was so misty along mist trail!

The boys dipped their hats in this tiny reservoir.

The coyote quickly crossed the parking lot.

The camera wasn't even zoomed in for this one.

There was one last hike we wanted to do, but no one was ready for it. Instead, we rode the shuttle back around to the Visitor's Center. We got Junior Ranger booklets and found out that there was a nature walk that the boys could attend starting at two o'clock, which was just minutes away. Mom and Dad weren't thrilled to find out that we'd be walking back through Cooke's Meadow, but the boys didn't seem to mind. In fact, they had the time of their lives. They were assigned an animal and had to look for habitats, food, and water so it could survive. The ranger was really good with them, and the hour went by quickly. She showed them a wild raspberry bush and instructed everyone to look for the darkest raspberry they could find, as that would be the sweetest one. Each child picked one to try, and we had to drag Seth away from the bush by the wrist! Just before she signed the books at the last stop, we spotted another doe with two tiny fawns. The kids were all excited, but suddenly, another bobcat ran out of the meadow grass. It was carrying something in its mouth, and everyone was stunned that we saw a bobcat! Dax had been lamenting that it would be years until he saw another, so he was the most excited of all.

Mom was skeptical about Yosemite, but she loved it most of all!

The raspberries were very purple.

We saw a whole bunch of monarch butterflies.

At thend of the hike we saw these deer.

We were reasonably close to where we saw the first bobcat about 5 hours early,
and we wondered it it could be the same one.

The deer were pretty worried about the bobcat.

The National Parks have the best Rangers!

The boys received a Junior Ranger badge on the spot, but they were still working on their books because they wanted a patch, too. They'd been so good on that nasty, steep hike, and done the Junior Ranger hike with gusto, so we decided it was time for ice cream. We hopped back on the shuttle and made the quick trip to cafeteria. We'd read that they had really good ice cream there, and we weren't disappointed. Mom and Mark could have their daily chocolate, Dax got mint chocolate chip, and Seth finished almost all of his raspberry sorbet. It was nice to rest in the air conditioned building for a few minutes, too.

Ice cream is always a good stop!

Riding the shuttles wasn't so bad, even when they were crowded.

It had been a long, perfect day, but Mom still had her eye on the Mirror Lake hike. This trail was not quite as busy as Vernal Falls, but there were still plenty of people. Seth was fixated on seeing a mountain lion (apparently two bobcats wasn't good enough for him), so that's all he talked about the entire way. Mirror Lake wasn't much of a lake, but more like a wide spot in the river. There were quite a few swimmers and waders, though, and we decided to join them. We put our shoes in our backpacks and ventured out into the ice cold water. It felt wonderful on our aching feet. We walked down the river for a little ways with the boys looking for fish (and mountain lions). They did spot two fish before we climbed out of the river and dried our feet.

We got them all dried up and put shoes back on.

Seth posed in a dead stump.

Even though it was mid summer, we saw tiny baby deer.

Mirror Lake is not really a lake.

"Don't get wet! Don't get wet!" (They got wet.)

Ankle deep water is thigh deep for some.

It was such a great way to end the day, though.

The entire valley is really beautiful.

The drive back to Mammoth Lake was really long, and we stopped for a few overlooks at high alpine lakes, but no one even noticed that we didn't eat dinner. Only Seth fell asleep, and he made it through most of the two plus hours. When we finally got to the hotel it was nearly nine, but it had been a very memorable day.