For our third day of hiking, we took a quick 5 mile stroll around Mariposa Grove–home of Giant Sequioa Trees! A sign to show the scale of and endurance of the Grizzly Giant. Naturally occurring (or carefully prescribed) forest fires are good for the Sequioas.  The fires burn off weaker species, create rich soil, and cause pine cones to burst and release Sequoia seeds. I was pretty tired of walking, so Ryan was tempting me along with cocoa-roasted almonds.  Shaking the container like I was an animal.  Oh and at this time we saw a coyote! so we started yelling and waving our arms so he would run away. The…

Day 2 in Yosemite took us on a long one-way bus ride to Glacier Point and an even longer hike down the Panorama Trail.  From Glacier Point to the trail head is 8.4 miles (plus at least 2 miles back to our car) and -4,000 ft of elevation change.  Ryan tricked me into this hike, but I loved it.  Thankfully we were prepared for the 6 hour tour. Isn’t this moon supposed to be over Half Dome? View from Glacier Point. Starting our hike to the Valley Floor. Seriously,  I was so glad to be traveling DOWN these granite “stairs.” This time we are going down the “Mist Trail” again. …

Greetings from California! I’m so lucky to have two amazing trips within two months.  Before we even knew we would be going to Hawaii for Laura and Donnie’s wedding, Ryan and I planned to travel this week.  Ryan and I are taking our vacation this year during “plant shutdown” while he is unable to go to work. Since his work is basically closed, we’re spending our time visiting Yosemite National Park, San Francisco, and Sonoma and Napa Valley. We’ll be back soon to photograph Sarah and Sam’s wedding in Pittsburgh on July 10th, but please enjoy this week of posts. First up was our nearly four hour drive from the…