Paradise

It's hard to say everything about our 7 days in Paradise, so I'll hit the highlights. First of all, we found a section of the Tuolumne River that we had not seen before which is fairly isolated and absolutely stunning. We made several trips there to enjoy the scenery and solitude.

The most memorable part of the trip, though, was the 3-day family backpacking adventure. We covered over 20 miles, hiking from Tuolumne Meadows down to the Valley. The first day we hiked and hiked uphill, past the lovely Cathedral Lake and made it to this high point you see in the picture. The first night we spent in the Sunrise High Sierra Camp (the backpacker's section). Day two found us hiking downhill toward Half Dome. We reached our camp (just off the main trail) by 3:30, and Hal, Liesl and Claire decided to go the extra 4-mile roundtrip to summit Half Dome. That's two miles straight up, then two miles straight down. I stayed in the camp to protect our food from bears. I ended up protecting our gear from the small rain shower. They made it up and down in 3 1/2 hours - amazingly enough - after having hiked all day. Day Three brought us all the way down into the Valley via Nevada and Vernal Falls. I think the descending switchbacks between the two falls was just as dastardly as the hike up out of Tuolumne. My calves still ache!

I have put 28 pictures of the 250 we took on my Picasa Web Album. Take a look!