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Yosemite and Back
Jul. 11th, 2010 09:32 pmWell, we just got back from our annual Yosemite trip. We were up there a bit longer this time; my dad and I went up early on Thursday and the two of us hung out down in the valley until Saturday. I've never spent much time in the valley, but it's actually quite nice, aside from all the tourists and FREAKING MOSQUITOES. Bugs aren't usually a problem at Yosemite, but I guess I'm too used to being up on the rim.
Anyway, we checked Yosemite Falls first, the tallest waterfall in North America for the first night. After that we kind of just tooled around the valley till nightfall, when we went to this ridiculous premade tent-cabin area for the night. At least they had showers and food, but the whole set-up was just silly. Second day we went out Hetch Hetchy, which is a park/reservoir/dam, but it was too hot to do much aside from walk across the dam. Came back at night and just hung around again; saw a bear getting chased by a park ranger on the way back to camp
Next day we did a photo walk early in the morning and walked around some of the meadows taking pictures (saw a deer and her fawn!), then headed up to the proper campground to meet mom and Ben and his girlfriend. That was also the first night for the star party, though it wasn't much this year. Half of what remains of our group didn't go due to various issues, so there were literally four of us with scopes up there. The skies were the best I've ever seen them though, so it was nice all the same. Saturn was up and super clear with the rings edge on, and I could find galaxies and open and globular clusters just with my binoculars. It was cold, but awesome as all hell.
Dad left early Saturday cause he had work, but the rest of us spent the rest of the day there. We hiked Sentinel Dome, which is a smallish dome which has a view of the whole park basically. It's a super steep hike though, so we basically napped the rest of the day until going up again that night.
All in all a pretty damn awesome Yosemite visit, and seriously the best two nights of stargazing I've ever seen. I head back to Ithaca tomorrow night on a red eye, and on Friday I go in for job training at Borders. I'll also have new shoes waiting for me. And my mom who is awesome let me buy some DVDs. All in all this has been a freaking awesome vacation.
I'm exhausted now, so I'm gonna veg for the rest of the day. AKA watch Supernatural :)
Anyway, we checked Yosemite Falls first, the tallest waterfall in North America for the first night. After that we kind of just tooled around the valley till nightfall, when we went to this ridiculous premade tent-cabin area for the night. At least they had showers and food, but the whole set-up was just silly. Second day we went out Hetch Hetchy, which is a park/reservoir/dam, but it was too hot to do much aside from walk across the dam. Came back at night and just hung around again; saw a bear getting chased by a park ranger on the way back to camp
Next day we did a photo walk early in the morning and walked around some of the meadows taking pictures (saw a deer and her fawn!), then headed up to the proper campground to meet mom and Ben and his girlfriend. That was also the first night for the star party, though it wasn't much this year. Half of what remains of our group didn't go due to various issues, so there were literally four of us with scopes up there. The skies were the best I've ever seen them though, so it was nice all the same. Saturn was up and super clear with the rings edge on, and I could find galaxies and open and globular clusters just with my binoculars. It was cold, but awesome as all hell.
Dad left early Saturday cause he had work, but the rest of us spent the rest of the day there. We hiked Sentinel Dome, which is a smallish dome which has a view of the whole park basically. It's a super steep hike though, so we basically napped the rest of the day until going up again that night.
All in all a pretty damn awesome Yosemite visit, and seriously the best two nights of stargazing I've ever seen. I head back to Ithaca tomorrow night on a red eye, and on Friday I go in for job training at Borders. I'll also have new shoes waiting for me. And my mom who is awesome let me buy some DVDs. All in all this has been a freaking awesome vacation.
I'm exhausted now, so I'm gonna veg for the rest of the day. AKA watch Supernatural :)
