Amazing, Gorgegous, Spectacluar, Wonderful ...

these words don't even begin to describe Yosemite National Park as you will see by all the pics we are posting below. We based our trip out of Groveland, CA, about 24 miles from Yosemite, seemed to take forever to get to the park, next trip we will stay inside the park. The Yosemite Pines RV Park was extremely cheesy however it did have a petting zoo which Troy took the dogs to daily to tease them with the llama and goats behind the fence, Copper really wanted to play with them, it was a funny sight to see.

Yosemite is Lisa's new favorite park, go figure with all the waterfalls - wow! (Lisa is a sucker for a good waterfall!) The first day in Yosemite we took in Bridalveil falls our first fall of the park, talking about gushing, we got soaked visiting this fall!
Look closely at the picture below, there is a Bear Cub in the woods, our first bear sighting of the the trip. Not sure where mama bear was so we kept our distance (Not like the dumb tourists who thought it would be a good idea to see how close to the baby bear they could get!)

We then explored Yosemite Valley, a mini town within Yosemite and grabbed lunch. Afterwards we drove around a bit and hiked to Mirror Lake which had great views of El Captain and Half Dome. When we got back from our hike we noticed all the signs in the parking lot indicating that Bears are in the area and to put all your food in the lock boxes provided, oops, we will make sure to do that in the future, luckily the bears in the area did not find the food in our cooler appeal ling!

Day 2 in the park we decided to hike to the top of Upper Yosemite Falls, what a hike, not sure what we were thinking but talk about gorgeous! We have stolen the following description of the hike from http://www.yosemitehikes.com/ as we could not have said it any better:

• Why hike to the top of Yosemite Falls? It's the mother of all StairMaster workouts, but with one-of-a-kind payoffs you won't get in a gym: panoramic views of Yosemite Valley


• Distance: 7.6 miles round trip from the Lower Yosemite Falls trailhead (Add another 1/2 mile on for us due to our parking location)


• Elevation at trailhead: 3,967 feet, Elevation at top of Yosemite Falls: 6,526 feet Elevation gain: 2,600 feet


• Hiking Time: 7ish hours.


• Difficulty: High. It's a long, steep climb from the valley floor to the valley rim, and was rated an 8 out of 10. Consider this question: would you climb the stairs all the way to the top of the Empire State Building? Well, in the course of our hike to Upper Yosemite Falls, we climbed the equivalent of just over two Empire State Buildings.

That night we rewarded ourselves with a night out on the town in Groveland which has the oldest continuously run bar in California, The Iron Door Salon, great Buffalo Burgers however really crappy service.

Day 3, our last day, at Yosemite we hiked to Vernal Fall Vista. Lisa's question over and over again on the mile hike to the falls, why does every hike have to be straight up, seriously, after Yosemite Falls we were a bit sore but glad we made it to the Vernal Falls Vista, another wonderful view in Yosemite. Another animal sighting on the way back to the Jeep was a bobcat, much smaller than we thought they would be but we will still keep our distance, as we don't think they would make a good house cat.

We then took the drive to Tunnel View, the most photographed spot in Yosemite and from this picture you can see why, it almost looks fake but trust us, it is real and oh so beautiful!

We ended the day with a drive to Glacier Point, tons of snow was still on the ground and the temperature was about 20 degrees chillier than the valley. Amazing views of the entire park, Vernal Falls, Mirror Lake, Half dome, El Captain and Yosemite Falls. We were sad to leave this park but we know that we will make it back someday!