Yosemite..........

After leaving Tahoe, I headed to Sacramento to stay a night at the KOA.  Lori's flight was delayed by 2 hrs but it all worked out.  Having a happy and tearful reunion, we headed to the Yosemite area to find a campsite.  We found a beautiful campground right outside the park and set up camp!  MORE SQUIRRELS!! The campground was really spacious & a small river ran through the property so the boys had wonderful walks daily.  We hit the National Park on Sunday and were amazed at the beauty of it. The hotel shown is the Awahnee Hotel which was built in 1912.  An architectural dream. The main part of the park is where El Capitan and Half Dome. Sheer vertical mountains where many climbers strike out to reach the top.  We took a hike to Yosemite Falls, which was dry!  The boys were able to hike there since the trail was paved. We made a day of it and back to the campsite at 5ish where the boys got to take a nice swim in the river.  The next day we drove through the second portion of the park, Tioga Road.  The road goes to 9500 ft and is the way to Mammoth Lakes, our next destination.  Many mountain lakes along the way with beautiful sunny skies made it a nice drive. We had decided to not make reservations so we could keep the trip flexible and go where ever the road would lead us.  We arrived in Mammoth and finally found a place that was dog friendly, the Edelweiss Lodge.  We thought we would stay one night but being flexible and spontaneous! we decided to stay another.  Very cool mountain town situated at 7500 feet having the best of both summer and winter activities.  Along with many lakes, The Devils Postpile National Monument is there.  It is a unique basalt rock formation.  We also hiked to Rainbow Falls--both pictures are below.  It was around 4.5 miles of hiking so we all got some great exercise.  Originally we were only going to explore Yosemite and Mammoth in a week but quickly found out we could see much more in our time.  So with that we have arrived in Lake Tahoe for a few days then through Truckee and start the drive home through Park City, UT.  We should arrive home on Sunday which at this point feels weird for me to say!