Camping in Yosemite National Park (Part 2)

Where were we?
Awe, yes... Lee Vining, California a sleepy town only 13 miles away from our anticipated destination - Yosemite National Park. The last time I camped in Yosemite was over 10 years ago, needless to say I was extremely excited to be there.

As we climbed Tioga Road's winding two lane path, which has few guard rails, I was greeted by the image captured in what you now see as my 'blog photo.'

Wow! These were all taken from the car window while we were driving so they may not, quite yet, be ready for National Geographics.

Knowing unrestricted camping in Yosemite is no longer allowed, we kept our eyes open at several campsites, even prior to the entrance of the Park. We found an amazing location and hoped it would still be available later that evening.

My mom agreed - Tioga Lake was the perfect camping spot.

There were several people already at the campsite, and one particular family was already having dinner. They had several large canopy tents prepared with picnic tables and multiple camping stoves serving a feast. My dad could smell the steaks they were making and he got so hungry, he thought we'd be ready to cook up our own steaks when we returned from our drive. Awe, I'll return to this topic in a bit. :-/

I was aware that a recent wind had redirected a controlled burn and had burned much of Yosemite's forest at an alarming rate. The last I knew it had been over 50% contained, so I did not see it as a problem. The night before we left, I verified the roads into Yosemite were still open. Confirmed! As we slowly approached the National Park entrance we heard the Ranger tell the car in front of us that the road was only open 30 miles into the park. Huh? This would not allow us to go any further than White Wolf, which basically meant we would have to stay in the Tuolumne Meadows area. My heart was immediately crushed. This would mean we would not be able to access Yosemite Valley or any of the amazing waterfalls Yosemite is known for. My dad pulled over on the other side of the entrance to 'decide' what we wanted to do. Well, knowing we couldn't spare 7 hours to drive around the park to get to the other entrance, we decided we should make the best of it. And boy was I glad we did!

One of the first things we saw after entering the Park was Lembert Dome at 9,450 ft.

It is a granite dome which can be hiked or climbed.

The minute we pulled into the parking lot beside Lembert Dome, I told my parents I'd be right back. I started heading towards the dome and my dad said, "Are you crazy, you are not going to climb that are you?" I quickly respoded, "Yes!" and turned and went on my way. He didn't have any way to stop me because he was heading just as fast, except the other direction to the restrooms. Haha!! By the time he came out, I was already a quarter of the way up and had stopped several times to coax my mom and nephew to come with me.

This gives you an idea of my gradual ascent. Wow, the views were getting better.

Ok, now we're getting somewhere. It looks like they're gonna' come along afterall.

Great!

OK, well, maybe not. See the little dots, center bottom to the left of the pic, yep, that's my family.
Haha!

My mom and nephew finally made it almost half way up, so I walked down to where they were and laid down and took in the great weather and the spectacular views.

My dad remained at the base of the Dome encouraging us and yelling such words as:

"Are you crazy?

Do you WANT to die?

You're going to kill yourself!

Ok, enough, stop acting so tough and get down from there.

It's going to start raining and your going to slip and fall and kill yourself and then there'll be no way to save you.

Uh-Oh, did you see that lightning, hurry up come down from there.

You're crazy... ok, now I know you wanna' die!"

Well, with this kind of encouragement who would attempt to defy anything?! Haha! :)

We spent some time at a lower altitude on the dome, to appease someone whom I will not name here. haha!

My mom and dad.

The brave group subtract 1. Hehe!

We continued our drive through Tuolumne Meadows passing several lakes, pastures, creeks and peaks. The following are pictures of some of the highlights. Sheesh, I don't think I'll be able to tell as much about each one, otherwise we'll be here all night! :)

We saw over 40 'Buck' Mule Deer.

We could not tear my dad away from this pasture, he was wishing it were deer season and that we were not in the middle of a National Park.

Spectacular views surrounded us, no matter where we went.

My adventurous mom and nephew Rueben.

We briefly stopped at Tenaya Lake to wash my shoes off.

What a gorgeous lake. The sun was beginning to set and the temperature had dropped to a delicious 45 degrees. I don't know how cold the water was, but for some reason, it did not seem that cold to me.

We then stopped at Olmsted Point to get an evening view of Half Dome from a distance.

This was also where my dad and I practiced our night shots. Practice to be continued! Hehe!

By this point we had all started getting queues from our belly's that we were hungreeee!

My dad said, "Why don't you hand me a sub sandwich or should we wait to cook the steaks?"
Uh, hmmm, this was the time to pretend like I was asleep and that I didn't here him, right?! Yikes!!
My mom said, "Well, actually we don't have steaks."
My dad said, "Ok, well then give me a sandwich."
She replied with, "Well, we don't have sandwiches either."
She was desperately trying not to laugh, and I on the other hand was wondering if now woulda' been a good time to crawl under the seat.
Frustrated my dad said, "Well then, what are we going to eat?"
I sheepishly said, "Well, we have jerky, granola bars, apples, oranges, crackers, string cheese, some chex mix and some Gatorade, oh or water."
He said, "WHAT?!?! This is what we're going to eat? No, no... I just smelled all that food those people were cooking and I'm not going to eat any of it? Are you kidding me?!"
Well, the sad part was that, NO, we were not kidding him. Haha!!
Then my mom said, "This is Janet's trip and she said we didn't need all that kind of food." Hmmm, thanks mom!!
My dad again emphatically said, "WHAT!?!?"
I then attempted to provide him a profound explanation of 'why' we did not have such delicacies. First, I explained Food was Fuel and that it's for ENERGY not for ENTERTAINMENT. He was NOT buying it.
He said, "No way, if I woulda' known this I woulda' never come."
I then told him that WE are not MADE FOR FOOD but that FOOD IS MADE FOR US!! Haha!! It was not working.
On our way back to the campsite I decided to stop at the local 'mart,' you know those overpriced, tourist stores that could fit in your back pocket, but make a fortune anyway so it doesn't matter what size they are. Well, I guess it was my fault that I'd forgotten that my dad was MADE FOR FOOD, so I had to buy some REAL food. Haha!! The laugh was worth the 45 bucks we (my mom and I) had to spend to have a mediocre meal.

Yikes, this leads me to my next topic.

When we got back to camp most everyone was already turning in, except for that party family and they weren't planning on it either. So my dad hooked up a generator... seriously... no joke, here's this loud semi sounding machine contaminating the peace and quite of the beautiful Sierras. I was so embarrassed. I began to quickly unpack the tent and try to set everything up so my dad could shut the stupid thing off. The site keeper came over to our area and just stood their and looked at us. Of course, I was the only one brave enough to go talk to him. His silhoutte was all I could see because the lights my dad had set up were like stage lights preparing for an ampitheatre performance. He just said, "Are you planning on turning that off sometime?" Ugh! Gulp! I just said, "Yes Sir! We will shut it off as quickly as we can, let us just put the tent up and get the fire going." He somberly walked away without saying another word.

Which leads me to my next, VERY IMPORTANT, point.

We don't know how to put up a tent!!
Well, at least I don't anyway, I've never had to do it on my own and have always traveled with others that have set them up. (REI here I come, tent lessons, just say when!)
Besides, the tent wasn't even ours, it was my brothers, so none of us had even seen it before until this light show. Grrr!! So I told my dad to just shut the generator off and that we could figure out how to set it up by the fire light. He said he knew how and that it wasn't hard, well about 4 people and an hour later we sorta' got it up. I mean it somewhat resembled a tent-looking structure. I didn't care at that point and determined I could sleep under the stars.

My dad finally turned the generator off and APPLAUSE and HOORAYs errupted from multiple tents at the campsite. Ok, now I was really embarrassed! It was so funny!

I call this making memories!!

Several years ago, the park began to require all visitors to the park to store their food items in secure scent free, metal compartments provided. In effort to minimize bear encounters. I guess you can google a bear pealing a car like a banana to reach a loaf of Wonder Bread. Hmmm, hope that guy thought it was worth it.We put our food away in the BEAR SAFE storage facility and sat by the fire for a few minutes.
(It's said the smoke of a fire follows the beauty in a person... this explains my mom
covering her face. She's beautiful!)

This was the end of our Friday night!
I can guarantee you'll wanna' check back for Saturday's adventures.

THE BEST IS YET TO COME!!!!