Yosemite in the Fall

Bobby: Dude, I'm bored. Wanna go to Yosemite?

Me: Heck ya! I'll book it right now!

....and that's how our latest adventure came about. We have literally not gone anywhere in a month that is blog worthy so we were overdue to say the least. We have been in crazy Bobby Boss Art mode this past month (more on that later) which is really an adventure in itself!

So we packed up and drove up to Yosemite National Park last Friday night and camped in Lower Pines campground in the heart of the valley. We scored an amazing, long exposure shot of the valley from Tunnel View when we arrived at 10:15 PM.

...so we were off to a good start already! Well that night in the tent I just about froze to death and, despite the fact that I was in down sleeping bag, I realized Oh yea, it's almost winter and we are at 5,000 feet= more layers! Well we survived the night (the next night I slept with a hot water bladder=saved my life!) and we started off the morning with oatmeal and hot chocolate by the river that our campsite backed up to. If only every morning was like this...

the fall colors were amazing & Half Dome in the distance made for a great view.

After breakfast we hopped on our bikes and rode over to the trailhead for Yosemite Falls. This was not a walk in the park. We hiked 7.5 miles and climbed 3,000 feet to the top. Needless to say, we were dead tired after we finished. There was no water in the waterfalls this time of year but it was still beautiful. Here are some shots from the hike:

 view from Columbia rock- about halfway through the hike.

been there, done that Half-Dome!

 Fall in Yosemite is amazing.

 green moss.

view from the top of Yosemite Falls. snow on the distant peaks.

When we got done with the hike, we hopped back on our bikes and headed back to camp...and then we saw this:

the sun was hitting Half Dome just right to where it was literally glowing!

We got back to our campsite and promptly scarfed down ate dinner, made a fire and then made banana boats for dessert. Best thing ever! To make a banana boat, cut the banana down the middle (keep the peel on) and scoop out a little bit of the fruit to make it somewhat hollow in the middle. Then stuff it with Reese's peanut butter cups or chocolate squares and marshmallows (and really whatever else you wanna stuff in there) and then wrap the banana in foil and throw in the fire until it all melts and is gooey goodness! Definitely our favorite thing to make around camp fires. 

The next day, we got up, packed up our campsite and set out on a bike ride around the valley. Seriously, bike riding is the best way to see Yosemite because there are paved bike trails everywhere and you can pull off whenever you see something you wanna check out. So we biked 13 miles around the valley and saw some great views.

We had such a wonderful weekend together and Yosemite never ceases to amaze us. On our way out, we snapped one more photo at Tunnel View:

 Thankyou Jesus for creating beautiful places!

And in other news, this week we are in crazy mode getting ready for 2 art shows to feature Bobby's Art! So exciting! I'll definitely be sharing about it on the blog next week! Stay tuned!