National Park Palooza: Yosemite

Sorry this post has lots of pictures but I don't know how else to show you the awesomeness of our trip. So without further ado...... Pictures of our trip to Yosemite....


Brian's first look at Half Dome.

My "Heh, Heh, you really think I'm climbing that?"

Brian scattering sunshine in the woods

Getting our crap put together

My bag was a lot heavier than I thought it was going to be

This is what most of day one looked like.... Stairs
























More stairs

Waterfall

Waterfall and......Stairs!!

Me on the stairs

After we made it to the top of the first waterfall we weren't even half way...... So the second half of our hike looked like this...... 

Top of the second waterfall

Cooling down in the river

 My awesome blister

Purifying our drinking water... This was one of my favorite parts because it meant we were real woods camping!

 
 Brian in his Indian Woman pose

The double decker!!!

After Brian almost started the woods on fire, we finally got the stove under control and heated our water.....I was starving....

People climbing the chains and the subdome

Hey look day two and there are more stairs!

 Half Dome Cables

I freaked myself out a little bit

Ready to climb

If you zoom in you can see Brian and me sitting on the ledge. He wouldn't let me stand because he thought I would trip and fall to my death.

On top of the world.....Sorta

Pondering Life

Half Dome wildlife

Descending the cables

Made it up and down alive!!

2 Days of backwoodsy goodnes!! Mmmmm

Olmstead view of the waterfalls

These birds are so annoying!!

After two days in the car, and frying our brains in Death Valley, we arrived in Yosemite Valley. On the way in we saw a sign that said "Speeding kills bears" I laughed for a good ten minutes about that sign.....Why.... I think it was sleeping in an oven that ruined my brain!

Leaving Yosemite we had to stop and get one last look at the beast. I decided to gloat a little bit...

 Brian has already planned our next hike....  Cathedral Peak

National Park Palooza: Death Valley

Brian and I made it out of our adventure alive! I don't know how we managed it but we did.  Our first adventure required surviving Death Valley.

















 Death Valley is the lowest point in the United States. It's also the hottest and driest place in the United States.





















This is our little campground with no one around.  The bathroom was a billion degrees, the water to wash your hands and drink was a billion degrees, and there was no respite from the heat. We did learn that Death Valley is like a convection oven... it cooks you from all sides.

The next morning when I woke up, Brian was leaning over me, his eyes were wide as saucers and he kept repeating " IT'S COMING!!!" I realized he was talking about the sun. I also realized that it was 5:00 AM. So with nothing better to do, and for the sake of Brian's sanity we packed up our stuff and headed out to cooler temperatures.


But not before stopping to view the......






















And ........

  


















We also stopped to take some pictures of the sand dunes.  Brian did his his bedouin war cry, I sang Arabian Nights from Aladdin.

All in all Death Valley was interesting but  not interesting enough to visit during the summer time again!

Insanity Factor: 9 out of 10.

A week from Saturday I will be headed to Yosemite National Park to tackle Half Dome.  Fun facts about Half Dome, it’s 16.5 miles round trip. You gain 4,800 feet in elevation.  This is one hike you can’t die without doing, and the one you’re most likely to die while doing (sounds fun huh!?!) On a traditional 1-10 scale, this one rates and 11 and the insanity Factor is 9 out of 10 thanks to the cables at the end of the hike.

Luckily Brian knows there is know way I can drag my body up and down this mountain in one day. So we get to stay at Little Yosemite Valley.  This map shows our hike for Day 1.

Day one is all up hill, but don't worry so is day two. Which you can see in the picture below.

But don't be alarmed that is the easy part. This next picture depicts where the insanity factor comes in.  These are called the cables, and this is the part where you could potenially die.

It should be fun, and hopefully we make it back alive!!!

DONE!!!

 I have finished another semester of school!!! I  feel like I have been going to school for like elevenity billion years. But there is a little sunshine at the end of that tunnel......I only have two semesters left before I am all edamacated. =D


I don't know how I pulled it off but I didn't have one final this semester.  I had final projects and an "opportunity" but they were all due last week or the week before.  It feels really strange not being stressed and my body doesn't know how to respond. One minute I'm full of joy because I'm done and the next minute my body panics and decides that I need to be studying something because it's final week.

 So to celebrate no finals, (and to give me something to do at work) I have found some funny pictures on Pintrest......Enjoy!