Yosemite Fun

I went to Yosemite National Park this past weekend, and it was B-E-A-UTIFUL!! I went with 3 of my new travel nurse friends. We took the scenic route on the way there, so that added about an hour longer to the trip out than it should have. There was one point where we were going up a mountain, round and round the whole way... Not great for us car-sick peeps! Yuck! Once we got into a little down called Groveland we stopped for a barf break  some fresh air. It was a cute little town that reminded me a lot of Gatlinburg, TN... just a much smaller Gatlinburg! Here is a pic of Groveland, CA!





Then we jumped back in the car and made it to Yosemite about 45 minutes later. Since we were just there for one day, we went to Yosemite Valley because that's where the locals said to go. It did not disappoint! First we went to the tallest waterfall in North America! It was beautiful, but I can only imagine how beautiful it is when California isn't having a drought! Here it is:





Then we decided to hike up to the top of Vernal Fall. We worked for that view! It is the steepest hike I've done! Even though the temperature was in the 50's, I was wishing I had on shorts and a tank top! And I was glad it wasn't mid-summer!! Another perk of going in the winter is the bears are hibernating!! So I didn't have to worry about stopping to eat my sandwich while I was hiking. :) Here is a pic of Vernal Fall! Again, I wish it would have been much more full, but you can tell by the black part of the rock how big it normally is!





Lastly, we went to the place that I was looking the most forward to!! Mirror Lake!! Thank goodness we didn't have to hike to see this one, we just had to walk 1.5 miles to get there. The blisters on my heels wouldn't have allowed for another hike! The reason I was so excited about Mirror Lake is because I had seen it on Sunrise Earth. I used to watch Sunrise Earth on DiscoveryHD all the time when I was up early studying for nursing school! It is just one hour of nature.. so I more so listened to it than watched it. My cat Jojo however, LOVED this show! He would jump up on the TV stand and stare at this show until it went off! Cute memories! :) Here is a picture of Mirror Lake!!


 


Breathtaking!! We got to Mirror Lake at dusk, so we had to hurry back to catch the shuttle before it got too dark to find our cars! And right when we got to the cars, 12 deer walked by us! It was so cool! And they weren't afraid of us at all! They all had big antlers so I think this makes them stags...?? Not 100% sure! But they were definitely male deer! And I didn't get a picture of them because my phone died! Oh well, atleast I got to see it!


Here is a pic of Jojo watching Sunrise Earth from years ago... :)








Haha! Too cute! Right? Anyways... here are some more pics of my trip to Yosemite!


The trees were so tall and so big around they almost looked fake!! Gorgeous!!






Here is the famous Half Dome.







You can get a better idea of how big the trees are by how small I look in front of them!





I just thought this creek was pretty! :)





Well that was my most recent adventure!! This starts week 4 of my assignment, so 9 more to go! I think I can, I think I can!! I'll be home sweet home with my family in Alabama before I know it! Until next time....











Dream Big!!!!