Yosemite September 18-24, 2008

[slosurfer]

First of all, huge thanks to Jenn and Justin for setting this up and for giving us the opportunity to have a condo. It was pretty nice to be able to come back dusty and take a shower.

I finally sorted through the pics and got them uploaded to photobucket. I don't have time to do a narrative w/ pics (I'll do that later today), but for those that are interested:

Bass Lake/Yosemite Trip Album

I'll post the better ones on here tonight with a day to day account. For now here are a couple teasers:

[RobG]

Wow!!! That looks like a great trip, awesome pictures. I think I see a few calendar winners.

The kid's school and sports schedule really eats into our vacation opportunities.

Thanks for sharing.

[slosurfer]

Wow!!! That looks like a great trip, awesome pictures. I think I see a few calendar winners.

The kid's school and sports schedule really eats into our vacation opportunities.

Thanks for sharing.

It was a great trip! I know, I'm taking advantage of the fact that my kids are young, Jack starts kindergarten next year.

Haha, I was thinking of the calendar as well, too bad they are of my wife's tacoma and not my 4runner.

[Seanz0rz]

here are all 325 pictures i have:


http://s103.photobucket.com/albums/m...mite%209-2008/

[corax]

Looking at all those good pics, I'm starting to regret leaving Sunday morning . . .

[YotaFun]

I am wishing I could have been therew it looks like an awesome trip! Maybe some time in the future!

[AutoShop]

Im still waiting on Sean to show the picture of me promoting health, and the video Keith took of me sleeping..

[slosurfer]

Okay, I guess better late than never.

Friday we headed up and got to Bass Lake condos a little before dark. Everyone was gracious enough to help us unload (it's amazing what you have to bring for two little ones ). We then headed back to Oakhurst and had pizza at Me-N-Ed's, great pizza and was an awesome place for the kids to run around. Sorry, no pics. Then back to the condos to figure out what to do the next day.

Saturday we got up and headed out in search of Iron Lakes Trail. After many miles of dusty but beautiful scenery we figured out that we had passed the trail by just a little bit. We decided to head to the end of the road we were on (can't remember the name) and then hit up Iron Lakes on the way back. At the turn around for the road we were on, we got out to stretch our legs, make some lunch, etc.. Soon the place was buzzing with yellowjackets and Jenn got stung and then Jack got stung. We loaded up and headed down to find the turnoff for Iron Lakes trail. This was really fun with a screaming 4yr old, damn bees! The trail ended up being a nice little short trail with some tight squeezes between trees (especially for the tacoma). After we headed back to the condo and Jenn was cool enough to go get cake/ice cream and we had a little bday party for Jack.

Heading up the road (this was a really nice vista)


Pit stop for eating and getting stung by bees


Iron Lakes Trailhead






Look at all the dust on the tacoma and 4runner


Party!!!

[slosurfer]

Sunday- Keith left us that morning so he could go get ready for the big move. The rest of us lounged around and we ended up getting a later start, but that was fine as it was really relaxing. We headed for Yosemite. First stop was the Mariposa Grove, where it was crowded and took awhile before parking spots were found for everyone. We headed out on the hike through the grove, we didn't make the whole loop due to the kids but we did make it to the tunnel tree for pics.

Roots of a fallen redwood


Same roots: That's Dan standing up against the roots and he's probably close to 6' tall, so you can see just how big they really are.


Jack and Caity next to one of the trees the trail is cut through


Tunnel Tree


Dan in the tunnel tree


I got some funny looks pushing a baby in a stroller through parts of that trail. The BOB strollers rock! When Jack was 6 months old, April and I snowshoed the road into Mariposa grove and part of the trail with the same BOB stroller. This trip, Jack even hopped on the front for the return trip to the cars. Definately one of our better kid purchases.

From the grove, we headed down to the actual Yosemite Valley. On the way we stopped at the tunnel view parking lot for some pics. We even lined up for a group vehicle shot here that Sean and others have pics of.

The tunnel:


The view: (hence "Tunnel View"


Then we had a stop at Bridalveil Falls which still had a trickle of water going. Then it was on to the valley where we parked. We looked through the store and then got some food at one of the places. Then we rode the free bus through the valley and got off at the Awhanee Hotel. There Jenn led us through the meadow and to a nice spot to take pics of Half Dome as the sun was setting. We then hopped back on the bus, had a little mix up and got off at the wrong stop where it was really dark, luckily another bus came right away and then we got off on the correct stop. We got to the vehicles and took the long drive home after a long day. Oh and Sean ran over a baby raccoon on the way home.

Half Dome sunset


our own personal Jedi warrior


Monday we went to the Yosemite Mtn. Sugar Pine Railroad where we road the old narrow gauge steam train. It was really fun, about an hour long and 4miles of track with a stop halfway to add water. Then we went to Todd's BBQ in Oakhurst for lunch which was really good. This was cool because we did two things that I have always wanted to do while driving through that area. Then it was back to the condo's for pool time and naps.

The train (this kind had a really cool running gear that was completely different than what you normally see on old steam trains)


Basically a "driveshaft" that ran down one side of the engine


Jedi warriors can stop trains

[slosurfer]

Tuesday, Jenn and Sean had to leave. So Justin, Dan, and us went to check out Shuteye Pk. This ended up being a really cool trail with some actual terrain to drive over and awesome scenery. It wasn't super hard, but was interesting to drive a stock dcab tacoma through that my wife really does not want damaged. I did rip the front driver mud flap off though. Honestly, who puts a hard non-flexible mudflap that sits 3" off the ground on a 4wd truck. It scrapes just going out the driveway. I still need to rip the other one off.

The lookout was still manned and I think he was pretty glad to have visitors. He gave us the full tour and explained what all we were able to see from up there. I think we even got his full autobiography. He was really cool and he does 10 days on 4 days off by himself up there. I don't think he gets too many visitors as the trail has become hard enough to weed out a lot of people. We spent close to 2 hours up at the summit and headed back.

Wednesday we left.

cool rock formations








The lookout


Cool pic April took


Some wheeling

Justin






The taco








Thanks Jenn for setting this up! Oh yeah, we had perfect weather. The day we left it started to heat up and it was 94* when we left Oakhurst. It was a great trip.

It was hard to pick which pics to post as there are many good ones, the rest can be seen here.