Yosemite National Park 2016
Recently two more college friends, Jan and Czarina, have transplanted into the Bay Area for work. Even though I’m meeting some great people and making all kinds of new friends here in the Bay, it’s been really nice having some fellow Texans around. They make me feel a little bit more at home; no one here understands how good Whataburger is at 3AM, or what real BBQ tastes like, or knows that there are different types of beer out there other than IPAs! That’s a little bit of sarcasm, but there is definitely truth behind it.
This past weekend one of our fellow Longhorns, JR, flew into town due to a ridiculously affordable round trip ticket from Southwest ($100!), and asked if we wanted to go camping in Yosemite. If you read my Personal Goals post, you’ll know that I’ve been wanting to travel a lot more this year, so I jumped at the opportunity to go. I hit up Sports Basement, and immediately walked out because who in their right mind pays $300 for a sleeping bag?? Jan ended up renting our gear from a great little spot for cheap.
Growing up in Texas, I had never really seen actual mountains; the closest thing I’d ever really seen was the hill country in Austin. Not to detract from Austin, but as we drove into the Sierras, I was amazed by the sheer size of everything surrounding us. We drove past a sign that informed us we were about 6,000 feet in elevation; over a mile above San Francisco, which is only 52 ft above sea level! This was also my first time driving on winding mountain roads, and seeing that there weren’t many guard rails around made me a little uneasy at time…not to mention going around blind corners/hills.
Bridalveil Falls; Slippery When Wet All the Time
Once we got into the park (for free thanks to JR being an American Hero with his active military ID), we made our first stop at the Bridalveil Falls. The park has a nice little platform where you can stand and safely take some photos of the falls, but we decided to hike in to get a better look. The rocks were pretty slippery, but the views were well worth the careful trek up toward the falls.
We had some lunch and eventually got a camp spot in Park 4, an area where you just setup a tent where you can find some open ground. With our tent pitched, sleeping bags unpacked and set up, Camp Booger (dubbed by Czarina) was broken in with an inagural 30 minute nap before hitting the trails.
Two hours later (oops), we decided to look at what hike to do. The best ones were closed due to ice, so we decided to hike the Mirror Lake trail before the sun went down to get a nice view of Half Dome. When the water on the lake is calm and not moving, you can see a perfect reflection of Half Dome on the surface of the lake. Unfortunately, the water was moving pretty quickly on our visit, and Mirror Lake wasn’t so mirror-y. No worries though, because…
Half Dome Didn't Disappoint
With the peak of Half Dome at 8,839 feet, and Mirror Lake at 4,098, it is ~0.9 miles above your head!
You really should view these photos on a big screen to appreciate the beauty! These photos were taken with my iPhone 6S, and I was very pleased with the results. I couldn’t help but awe at the power of Mother Nature to have formed these amazing mountains and rock formations; it really is a sight to behold.
We got some amazing pictures while at Mirror Lake, and just took our time to soak in the view. These photos don’t do the majesty and sheer size of the area justice; you really have to go experience it all for yourself. We decided to head back up the trail while we still had a little bit of sun light left as to not hike in the dark. We got back to camp, drove to the park store (which has literally everything you could possibly want/need) and grabbed some steaks, potatoes, whiskey, Buzzballs, s’mores kit and some firewood. After cooking dinner and enjoying the night by the fire with whiskey and s’mores, we all turned in and went to sleep.
In the morning, we woke up, tore down camp, grabbed some breakfast and headed back to the City to shower, get changed and meet another Texan who flew in with her boyfriend to visit/interview to move out here from New York. We met up at Ghirardelli Square for some hot cocoa and hung out for a bit.
No More Marshmallows...
It was so refreshing to have this little weekend getaway with old friends. It really let me clear my mind of everything going on in my own life back home, and let me just enjoy being the moment for the first time in a very long time. Life out here seems to be much faster paced than it was back home in Texas, which is a good and bad thing. I hope I can make more trips like this with friends, both new and old, soon! And with more Texans moving into the Bay Area, that seems more likely now than not.
