After Glacier Point we headed back to the village.  I asked D to pull over at one point because the scenery was so pretty and fall-ish.

We tried to find parking around the village, but it was packed with people and cars.  Frustrated and tired, we ended up parking the car at our campsite and took the shuttle.  In hindsight, we should have done this the day before as well.

I had to take a picture of the kids with this phone booth at the campsite since they are so rare these days.  They were quite surprised when they heard an actual dial tone!

Shuttle Shenanigans

I saw this woman outside of our shuttle sorting her climbing gear.  I was so impressed I had to take a picture!

The kids completed their junior ranger packets and were sworn in.  At Yosemite, you have to pay a little over $3 per packet, but it is worth it because you get a patch and wooden pin (as opposed to plastic).

We bought this reversible jacket for n from Target right before our trip.  Not sure what the face is about.

Watching the kids try to catch the falling leaves were some of my favorite moments from our trip.  When there was a little gust of wind there were some many leaves falling at once–it felt magical!

We checked out Curry Village (now known as Half Dome Village) and agreed we would rather sleep in our own tent than risk Hantavirus.

We ate dinner at Pizza Patio in Half Dome Village.

We split a garden salad and a medium pepperoni pizza.

We also split this soda that we had bought earlier in the day to keep our sandwiches cold.  This orange mango flavor was really good!

D was wearing his hat really high to avoid a headache.

After dinner we returned to our campsite and made s’mores.

The next morning we headed out fairly early because k had to be back home for a girl scout meeting.  We went through the Wawona tunnel one last time.

‘Twas nice to visit you in the fall.  Maybe next time we will visit in the spring!

Once we made it out of the park we stopped at a nearby McDonald’s for breakfast.  It was neat that there were all of these cool photos of Yosemite on the walls.  D said that he did not even notice–haha!

The drive to Glacier Point from Yosemite Village is nearly an hour, closer to the entrance of the park.  I felt kind of bad that my plan to see it on Saturday had us backtracking, but I also know that we would not have had enough energy after driving for six hours.

I was also glad that we saved it until Saturday because the earlier you can arrive, the better.  By the time we left, the parking lot was jammed–and this was the off-season!

We were trying to take Christmas pictures, which is why I have so many shots with these two paired up.  You will have to wait to see the one we chose!

We had a little trouble finding our campsite with all of the roadwork going on.  It was pretty dark by the time we set up camp and cooked our hot dogs.  The overnight temperatures were in the 40’s, but the kids and I enjoy the challenge of bundling up and keeping warm (D, not so much).

We were looking forward to having a hot breakfast from Degnan’s Deli, but alas, it was closed for remodeling.  Big sad face.  We ended up having to buy yogurt for breakfast and sandwiches for our lunch later at the village market, which was not too impressive.

We were able to see this early morning rainbow in Upper Yosemite Falls though, so that was cool.

Our first hike of the day was to Sentinel Dome, on the way to Glacier Point.  This ended up being our favorite hike of the trip. I believe it was 1.8 miles round trip.

The dome is in the background.

The kids had fun scrambling up the rock to get to the top of the dome.

We made it!

The winds were a lot gustier up on top.

This raven was making crazy sounds in trying to get our attention for some snacks, but we did not share.

The ranger ended his talk right by the start of the hike to Lower Yosemite Falls.  It was late afternoon by then, but since we were right there, we decided to go.

The trail is not too long and quite accessible.

Lower Yosemite Falls

Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls together!

This little bonsai-type tree growing off the side of a huge rock was funny.

After our hike we watched the last showing of the Yosemite movie at the visitor center.

Posing with John Muir.

D graciously volunteered to run to the car and picked us up.  While we waited I snapped some pics.

Loved this stand of trees with one big tree surrounded by smaller ones.

Next we took a short hike to Bridal Veil Falls, which I believe is .5 miles round trip.  We first ate lunch in the car since we did not see any picnic facilities.

Being that it was October, the flow was pretty low, but I was grateful that there was at least some water left.

View of Bridal Veil Falls from the parking lot.

Our next stop was the Visitors Center…only problem was that the parking lot was under construction, so we had to park in a makeshift lot pretty far away.

We had our first view of Upper Yosemite Falls on our way to the Visitors Center.

We were just in time for a ranger talk/walk, so we joined in.  This picture is kind of funny because everyone is actually looking at an airplane that flew overhead, not nature.  Our ranger shared his passion for microfauna.

I couldn’t help it!

This guy was just hanging out nearby.

We learned from the ranger that we were actually really fortunate to see Yosemite Falls like this, as it had been dry since July!  There was a rainstorm just the weekend before our arrival (which I had been nervously tracking, since we were camping), which turned the falls back “on”.

The kids had last Friday off for a staff development day.  Back in June I fortuitously checked the camping reservation site on the very day that reservations opened up for October and was able to snag a site in the Upper Pines campground.  Checking the weather leading up to our trip I was nervous that there would be snow and that the roads would be closed.  Luckily, the weather cooperated and it was a beautiful weekend!

As I mentioned before, D is into taking pictures with his iPhone now, so our blog has a second shooter!  He wanted to take a picture of the freeway signs to tell the whole story.

We passed by the city of McFarland, which was made famous in that movie, McFarland, USA.

Our ride for the weekend was a CX-9 that D was able to borrow from work.  With the amount of stuff needed to camp in cold weather, I would say this was a necessity.

It was so nice to open the moon roof and let some fresh mountain air in.

There was a backup of cars once we hit the entrance gate.  It took us about five hours from our house to the entrance, and then another hour from the entrance to our campsite near Yosemite Village.

Since k is in fourth grade, we were able to obtain a year pass through the Every Kid In A Park program, saving us the $30 entrance fee–score!

We made a quick stop for the bathroom at the Pioneer Yosemite History Center and stretched our legs a bit.

We followed this bus into the Wawona Tunnel.

n was sleeping by this point, so I tried to wake him up so he could experience it.  However, we also went through it the next day and on our way out of the park so he did not miss out.

As soon as we went through the tunnel, there is a parking lot, so we pulled over for the photo opp.

We also broke out the selfie stick for a family shot.