Yosemite

“The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls. ” - John Muir

I really don't even know where to begin with detailing and describing our weekend trip to Yosemite. It was amazing. There are words and descriptions for our activities but to be able to sum up the feeling of witnessing and being a part of the beauty of Yosemite is almost impossible. But, I will try. And to warn you, this will be a long and photo dense post. 

Saturday we worked an event in Elk Grove and got home around 5pm. We packed in about 40 minutes and hit the road at 5:45pm hoping we didn't forget anything imperative. The directions had us going south on 99 until Merced and then heading east on a couple different highways. We basically live on the road now and 99S is a road we are all too familiar with so I was really excited to be eventually getting on a road that we haven't driven yet. It really heightened the sense of adventure and seeing and experiencing something completely new to me. We could tell as we were driving on CA 140 that the drive would have been beautiful to see in daylight. 

We stopped in Mariposa at Sugar Pine Cafe to grab a cup of coffee since we had been awake and going full speed since 4am that morning. As we were walking out of the cafe a waiter in his 20s commented to us to make sure we stayed awake while driving. Then we had a real quick conversation about being new to the area, going to Yosemite for my first time (Luke had been in summer when he was younger), all the snow that was suppose to be coming and just how beautiful it is. The small interaction with this waiter really made Luke and I even more excited about going to Yosemite and just almost felt like the area was welcoming us in. 

We arrived at Tenaya Lodge around 8:45pm. The lodge is about 4 miles from the entrance to Yosemite. The elevation is around 5000 feet and was covered in snow! The hotel was still completely covered in Christmas decorations which was phenomenal. 

We checked in and then made our way down to one of the restaurants to get a drink before we went to bed. Let me tell you...very weird interactions at this bar. There were about 6 people hanging out and talking super loud and let's just say...they do NOT like our current President. It was hard for Luke and I to even have our own conversation because we couldn't focus on anything besides these people. Very interesting. We decided to just head to bed after that, we had been up since 4am.

Overnight it snowed about 3 or 4 inches and the whole day was very overcast. We decided to do activities around our hotel since they had sledding, ice skating, snowshoeing, a bunch of different things to do. The next day was suppose to be sunny and clear and we thought that would be the better day to go see Yosemite. So we got up and had a great breakfast and then started our day in the snow! Here are a few pictures from our snowshoe nature hike:

After our hike we were hungry so we ate some lunch and then took a nap. I love vacations or getaways because you don't have to follow a schedule. You eat when hungry and you sleep when tired. So nice. After our nap we went sledding! There was an unregulated snow park about a mile from our lodge so we decided to go there to see what kind of runs it had. Well, it was definitely unregulated because a ton of them had a bunch of  icy jumps and went straight past trees. The first run I did...ran straight into a tree. haha At least it was feet first so I just put my feet out and slammed into the tree. I was worried I would break my legs or something but I was good. Then we continued down this long hill, dodging trees like crazy. I ran into a few more and got stuck in low lying branches. But it was beautiful. By the end of our sledding, we both had bruised butts and were ready to just lay down somewhere. Here is the one photo taken though:

After our day in the snow we went out to a steak dinner in a small town not too far from our lodge. We ended our night with drinking wine in our room, playing cards and watching TV movies. A very successful day of fun and relaxation.

The following morning we woke up with the sun, had breakfast, checked out and made our way to the Yosemite Valley. I was SO EXCITED! This is the part of the post where I don't know how to explain my day. Beautiful. Stunning. Eternal. Cozy. Active. Fulfilling. For this part I am just going to post pictures. But one note to make, a guy with a super nice camera at the vista point of Bridalveil Fall asked if we have been here before and we said no. His response. "You are so damn lucky today." We got a one of a kind day in the winter. Started a little overcast and then the sun broke and it was indescribable.

Tunnel View. El Capitan. Horsetail Fall. Clouds Rest. Half Dome. Sentinel Rock. Cathedral Rock. Bridalvail Fall.

Bridalvail Fall. You should hear the ice crashing. Amazing.

Lower and Upper Yosemite Falls.

Lower Yosemite Fall.

Sentinel Rock.

Half Dome.

Upper Yosemite Fall from Cooks Meadow.

Valley View.

Valley View.

Sunset on CA 140.

Sunset on 99N.

The weekend was beautiful in every way. God's beauty is astounding and all encompassing. Never have I felt His love more surrounding and apparent than this weekend.