Yosemite June 2010 day 3 Service project and the Valley

Day 3 was the day I had been waiting for. Not because it was day 3 and I have some crazy thing about the number 3, but because it was the day we were planning on participating in a service project in the valley with some Yosemite rangers. If you recall my Lake Natoma Cleanup post, you know how much I love to volunteer my family for outdoor service projects (especially when free t shirts are involved). The day started out pretty stressfully. Due to getting a slightly late start and having the construction going on from the south entrance up to the valley, and then having to walk from the parking lot to where we were supposed to meet with the rangers, we were a little late. But we made it. The rangers explained our job: we were going to be removing invasive plant species. Then we got to work.

It was cool spending time with the rangers, although I don't really remember too much of what we talked about. I guess I should have blogged about this earlier. I do remember that the main invasive species that we targeted was a plant called Goat's Beard, and I think I could identify it if I were to see it. Later we targeted some type of thistle--Bull Thistle, maybe.

I used this picture for my mormon.org profile picture. It's my favorite.

As we were getting to the chapel, we came across a Yosemite local:

Yosemite black bear

I took that as a payment for our good deed.

pretty good family shot

Nanna the worker

After our service project, we did a bike tour of the valley. I was a little apprehensive, thinking that it would be too crowded to enjoy, but it turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. We stopped at the Merced River for a little swimming, but the water was FREEZING!

Then we dried off and continued the bike tour and made our way to Yosemite Falls.

On our way out from the falls, we decided to explore this cool boulder.

The left side (looking at the picture above) had a built in slide.

Then we took a little breather

Before going back to the bikes

We saw this deer below the bridge next to Yosemite Creek

After we returned to the car, we made one last stop before we left the Valley: Bridalveil Falls. The waterfall was impressive, and so was the rainbow it was creating.