Pictures from around the House

Reflection of the Sierra Mountains in Mono Lake

Rainbow at sunset

Sunset over the desert

Rare desert storm blowing in

Sore from head to toe...

We hiked 11.4 miles yesterday from Tuolumne Meadows down the Tuolumne River to the head of Yosemite's Grand Canyon in preparation for next week's backpacking trip deep into the Ansel Adams Wilderness. It was our longest day hike ever by more than a mile.

When we take new trails, there is always a surprise awaiting us. On this trip, we had no idea we would be fording one river and several creeks along the way. In fact, the one river involved a 100 foot crossing in thigh deep, freezing cold water. It left us both with squishy boots for the remainder of the hike, but aside from one blister, and two tired bodies, we made it just fine.

This concluded our three days of hiking in Yosemite. We're going to take it easy over the weekend, eat out at some resturants, listen to some live music, hang out at the house, and make sure we have everything packed for our 20 mile journey to the base of Mount Ritter and Banner Peak starting early Monday morning.

To summarize Yosemite, it has the most varied landscape of any National Park we have yet to visit. From the insanely crowded Yosemite Valley, to the numerous high meadows, innumerable rivers, creeks, and high alpine mountains of the relatively quiet eastern side of the Park, it struck me as a combination of The Tetons, Yellowstone, and Olympic Mountains all rolled into one.

I'll add on some more photos of the past week's hikes, as well as some photos from around the house, over the weekend.

That's all for now. I'm headed back to the couch.

Ben

Now THIS is the Yosemite we love!

Star standing at the top of Gaylor Lakes Basin pass. Yes, we hiked down thru the snow!

Our picnic location at Granite Lake

The Gaylor Lakes hike starts from a little parking lot just inside the East Gate of Yosemite off of the Tioga Pass Road at about 9,900 feet. As advertised by the "Yosemite Hikes" website, everybody in their rush to reach the valley passes right by it. We saw absolutely nobody from the top of the pass to Granite Lake. It was the most snow we have ever crossed in our years of hiking, and the highest (10,500 ft.) we have ever been on the trail. The temperatures stayed around 50 degrees for the entire hike. We've never reached such an incredible destination in a 5+ mile hike with only 1,100 feet of total elevation gain.

I have linked a short video. Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwljmSqJZyw

Ben

Yosemite

It was a challenge to take pictures of our day at Yosemite that weren't crowded with hundreds or even thousands of people, but we feel successful about these. They show some of the most famous spots in Yosemite: Half Dome, the Merced River, Yosemite Falls, and the meadows. Two other positives were an excellent lunch at Ahwanee Hotel and the fact that we managed to walk about six miles without getting run over by the bicyclists. (That was close; one errant cyclist screeched to a halt inches from us.) The day over, we've decided to stay on the less populated, eastern, side of the park from now on. Star

Greetings from Wild Rose Station

It's Sunday morning here on Mono Lake in the Eastern Sierra, home of the Clint Eastwood movie "High Plains Drifter". After a 16 hour journey yesterday, we finally made it to our home for the next two weeks. I am convinced we will never stay in a more picturesque and peaceful vacation home again in our lifetime. There is no traffic noise, and there appears to be only one other house within 3-4 miles of us. Star immediately fell in love with the influence of Ansel Adams and the voice of art that speaks throughout the house.

Today, we are heading out to either Lee Vining or June Lake for lunch and to check out the area more closely.

Keep checking back with us, as we are sure to have much to share with everybody back home in the coming days. I've included some pictures, but there is absolutely no way to capture this place with a camera.

Ben and Star

March 12th...Athens!!!

Here go some pictures of our temporary home away from home. Star looks tired because she IS tired. We just finished a marathon shopping trip at Wally World. The place doesn't look like much from the outside, but is really nice inside. We've already made a trip to Star's favorite food store, Earth Fare, which is right around the corner.

Sunday Afternoon...

After two tries, we finally found Lee Falls. The trail gets smaller and harder to follow and finally just disappears.

Alex found plenty of rocks to climb on. We forgot the camera and took these with the cell phone. Not too bad.