Yosemite National Park

When planning a trip to Yosemite, make sure you know that there are only a few ways to get in and out of the park, both of which require you to backtrack about thirty miles. The highlights of the trip included seeing two waterfalls, Bridalveil Falls and Yosemite Falls.

Bridalveil Falls

We entered the park on the eastern side and planned to drive through the park and exit on the western side. On our venture out, we decided to stop at the Tuolomne Grove, which houses seven living giant sequoia trees. They are absolutely massive and volume wise are the largest living thing on the planet. Pictures really do not do justice for these 2000 year old trees that have a diameter of 8 feet. Unbelievable. On our walk to and from the trees, we were able to see a mother bear and her cub munching. The cub was really cute, dangling/balancing in a tree.

Cute bear cub

Giant Sequoia Tree Tunnel

On the drive out, we got up to 10,000 feet in elevation and have now coined the new term: “blame it on the elevation change.” We passed two beautiful mountain lakes and the remnants of a forest fire. Overall, the mountain views were breathtaking. Weirdly enough, after exiting the park Jackie got a voicemail from her parents warning us about a child who was killed by a bear in his sleeping bag. Which also happened to be after we decided not to camp, but rather get a hotel at the next closet town. The next closet town with lodging being 3 hours away. On this drive and in the park we saw a lot of different animals: jackrabbits, woodpeckers, deer, squirrels, chipmunks, horses, and other various birds.