Yosemite June 2010 Day 4

Every morning on the way to Yosemite, we passed a sign for Lewis Creek. My mom, the queen of Geocaching, found out that there was a geocache on the trail for Lewis Creek, so we had a mission. (I also had a mission--to catch a fish, and I read that Lewis Creek had trout).

One of the few plants I can identify is Lupine. Here's a couple shots of it.

The creek was pretty and it had a few different waterfalls. When we made it to the main waterfall--and were closing in on the geocache, we found a wooden platform with a bench to sit on and enjoy the waterfall, but we wanted a closer look.

The hike was cool, we found the geocache--it was hidden in a rock crevice next to the bench. And although I hooked a few small trout, I didn't land any of them.

Then we headed over to Glacier Point.

The view from Glacier Point

Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls

the Ahwahnee hotel is to the left of the meadow above the Merced River

another view of the falls

with the binoculars we could see hikers on half dome

The girls are standing in a rock crevice

The rest of this post will be devoted to me. I had two objectives on this trip. The first was to hike Half Dome for the first time. When we got there though, I decided that this trip wouldn't be the right time to accomplish this objective because it would mean spending a day of family vacation away from my, uh, family. Of course I realized that when I was planning, but when it came right down to it, I decided I would try to restrain myself--this time. (Happily, Joe and his father in law, Wes, helped me make my Half Dome summit goal later in the year--potential future post.)

Objective number 2 was to boulder in Yosemite National Park, one of the premier climbing destinations in the world. This objective shouldn't be too hard to accomplish, except for two problems: 1. I don't really know very much about bouldering. Where exactly are these famous Yosemite boulders that everyone is climbing? and 2. since I don't really know what I'm doing, I'm even less inclined to do it in front of other people. So, although I had my climbing shoes with me every day we were in Yosemite, I either couldn't find climbable looking boulders or else there were too many people around for me to try climbing the boulders.

I was getting pretty desperate on this, the last day of the trip, so when I saw this perfect boulder right next to the walkway at Glacier Point, I couldn't resist:

Actually, I didn't get much higher than I am in the picture because I was just wearing my Sanuks and because my self consciousness overcame my bouldering desire.

But then, when we were getting back into the car to leave I saw some boulders on the opposite side of the tourist area (the right of the parking lot if you're facing the direction of the falls and Half Dome). I told Rachel to grab the camera and I went to live out my dream.

My first Yosemite bouldering summit

After I climbed my first boulder a few different ways, I went to tackle my next problem (that's bouldering lingo for climbing route up a boulder--I'm getting there). I think Rachel took some impressive shots:

When I solved this more challenging boulder problem, I realized I had another problem to solve: how to get down.

not getting down this way

not this way either

and that's why I didn't want to do this in front of people

They actually had to call in a rescue helicopter to get me down.

Just kidding. I was probably up there for a good few minutes, but I was able to get down myself. 

And with this post, our summer trips have been documented. What am I going to do now?