Yosemite 2011 part 2

In the temporarily-drier morning of our second day, we stopped by Tunnel View to view things. It was almost boringly spectacular, the Paganini of scenery. But is was beautiful and we went there a total of five times on the trip to enjoy the ever-changing lighting.




We decided to take a hike to Mirror lake and ran into the Barches on the way. It was glorious, heavenly, lush and majestic with perfect lighting and great weather [in Daddy's opinion at least]. It even felt pretty wild compared to the rest of the valley. We took the loop trail to avoid the crush of people and the kids all walked for the two-point-something miles of the loop.




The dogwood was magical.








Little was absolutely obsessed with snow, as she has been for a couple years.The lack of suitable snow-wear didn't seem to deter her.




Epic snowfight with maybe an under-epic amount of snow to work with:





We ended up in a beautiful meadow directly below half-dome:


After hiking back, we drove around for a bit until we found this handsome young black bear:


We went back to Swinging Bridge for a late lunch and because it's just so darn awesome.


Buddy was one happy dude in the hiking backpack but otherwise he merely tolerated all the fuss and cold.










A[u]nt Chisnap took the girls exploring all over the meadow. They ended up making light-sabers out of sticks, which they didn't necessarily need to be in Yosemite for. Nevertheless, so much classic majesticness all around has got to have some benefits, right?








Our last stop was a drive up to Tuolumne Grove. It snowed a lot, so Daddy and Little just ran out and played in the thigh-deep snow for a bit.


Little loves lots of things but there is little she loves more than snow.




A view up Yosemite valley on the way back from Tuolumne:


Tunnel view, again:


At night, Daddy went with his friend J "Excessively-[and-wastefully]-tall-for-a-non-basketball-player" Tahlbow to shoot some pictures under moonlight. Lots of low-lying clouds and fog, coupled with short battery life and a late moon rising [a few days past full] made the job challenging but we each we able to salvage a couple decent pictures from the night:


Upper Yosemite fall with a moonbow:


Tunnel view again, El Capitan is on the left, Half Dome is in the distance and Bridalveil is on the right.


Another hotel night then one last day of fun before heading home: stay tuned for part 3...