Chubby Diary: Yosemite- Day 3

Our first day of hiking through Yosemite was so much fun, that I could not wait to get back in the National Park on Day 3 of vacation!

One thing I forgot to mention about Day 2 (our first day of hiking in Yosemite):

Everyones attitudes/stamina...

I did great, duh ;0)...

Beatrice was pretty weak, but fortunately (for her and I) she is just a little one, and so I carried her on my shoulders 90% of the day...

Wyatt was pretty weak, (which I was dissappointed about), but unfortuantely (for him) he is NOT a "little one", and so he was forced to walk/hike 100% of the time (which resulted in him being not only weak, but whiney also...no bueno!)...

Rick had a GREAT attitude, and he started off the day super sporty, but at the end of our day, when we decided to take a 2 mile hike up a significant mountain to see some *flowing* waterfalls, Rick (and Wyatt, of course, lol) couldn't hack it, and so we had to turn back. On one hand I was a little dissappointed that we missed out on our only opportunity to see flowing waterfalls, but on the other hand, I was so relieved that Rick was realistic about his capabilities! I had seen him struggling quite a bit, and I just kept invisioning the worst-case-scenario in my head if he let pride take over.

I am convinced that we would have all (well, not Beatrice, but she was sitting pretty on my shoulders), been able to do this particular hike if it was at the beginning of our day but after several hours of walking/hiking before this hike, yeah, it just wasn't gonna happen.

So on Day 3, we decided to put Yosemite Valley behind us, and instead, once we were in Yosemite National Park, we ventured to Mariposa Grove, which is home to the GIANT Sequioas! We were all looking forward to this!!!

A.nice.easy.trail.through.the.forest. :0)

Oh the things we saw...

The "2 become 1" Tree(s)...

A giant tree root...

The "Grizzly Giant"...

A tree that you could walk through...

And too many squirrels to count...

We had been on this trail for a couple of hours, slowly taking in all of the beautiful sights and scenery. Occasionally you would see a wooden marker/arrow directing you towards a particular tree/destination. We just kept moving on to the next tree, to the next destination, to the next whatever. Eventually markers started mentioning a museum up ahead. We were game for a museum...so we pressed on. But before we knew it, the easy-going-trail-walk turned into a full-on-hike! And the signs got a bit shotty...one minute a sign said we had 1.3 miles to the museum, and then after 15 minutes of hiking, a new sign said we had 1.7 miles to go??? How was that possible!?!? Wyatt was already starting to complain that he was tired, but as long as Rick was strong, we were pressing forward!...and he was, and so we did. :0) We just kept going up, up, and up. And for an hour there weren't any more signs, and there were no other people around us. The no-sign thing was a bit concerning, but the no-people thing was actually kind of cool!! Until...a big fat deer ran in between Rick and I, and then I got to thinking..."we are alone...ALL ALONE!" The prior small talk of "bears" and the forest seeming something like the movie "The Blair Witch Project", all started to play over and over in my head. But I just kept one foot in front of the other...

Never mind Wyatt's whining...

...and never mind that Rick was apparently fine with falling to his death, and leaving me a widow in the middle of NOWHERE...

...I was determined to get all 4 of us to this (stupid) museum!!! (If only there was a sign confirming that we were going the right way???)

The trail up the mountain seemed very obvious, so I felt pretty confident that even despite there not being any markers/signs, that we were going in the right direction. And sure enough, eventually we found the museum in the middle of no-mans-land!...

To say that this building was a "museum" is a bit of a stretch, as there were like 2 artifacts inside of it, BUT it didn't REALLY matter...1. After the prior day's turn-around-hike-experience, the competitor in me was THRILLED to have reached the finish line to our destination!!!, and...2. There were chairs!...

Fortunately, what goes UP, must come DOWN, and the way down the mountain was far easier/quicker than going up (duh!)! There were even SMILES in our group!...