Where's the Fly Swatter? And why do I feel so small?

We drove into Yosemite today and explored Yosemite Valley. The drive was scenic and a bit scary (Mother Trucker again, this time driving Miss Fit, thought he was at the Grand Prix). The Oh $#!+ handle was used by Good Buddy on the way down the winding steep road to the valley. 

Once in the valley we were in awe of how HUGE everything is. It is like Paul Bunyun and the Jolly Green Giant's Playground. The trees are tall and wide, the rockscapes are monsterous, and even glacial boulders are ridiculously big. The only thing that wasn't big was the water. At the end of the summer it is pretty dry. 

We managed to hike up to Vernal Falls Lookout Bridge and back (it was a moderate 2 miles to that point and the rest of the way up was much steeper, so we headed back). On the way up, Mother Trucker navigated the empty and peaceful trails - although the gnats were out of control. At the top of what he thought was the trail we saw others down below on clearly a better trail. Turns out, we had used the "stock only" (i.e. horse) trail on the way up - hence no people! That was fine by Good Buddy. On the way back down, the vistas were incredible! 

We also hit up the base area of El Capitan and Brideveil Falls. A solid first day exploring.

A lot of construction going on outside the park. PS. why is her hard hat sooo large?

Massive trees and forests.

Good Buddy' s defensive anti-gnat wardrobe.

Giant boulders are everywhere.

Good Buddy dropped her phone in this hole trying to take a photo. Mother Trucker remained calm and got it out. Crisis averted.

Big trees are everywhere and we haven't even gotten to the Sequoias!

Tiny stop sign for tiny people?

Half Dome.

Before....

After.

Lower Yosemite Falls ( falls sans water)

El Capitan is a beast!

Across the street from our RV park is this church and country road that we walked the dogs by this evening.

They had wild turkeys too.

These two horses were very curious about the Motley Crue. Too bad our mutts were acting like maniacs.

Yes, I am publicly shaming Houdini for eating the napkin that had my peppermint bark crumbs in it.