Yosemite in a Day

What do you do when you and one of your best friends both have work off for 2 weekdays? Plan a trip to Yosemite, of course.

 

What we didn't expect was how much we were going to end up doing in a day

We started out at the Refinery at Saddleback (of course) right after H48, leaving around 9:30PM. You know how we always get rolled on our trips? Well 10 minutes into our trip, Luke gets pulled over for speeding. But somehow, he miraculously gets off with a warning. Playing off our good luck, we continued on. Gregor, who was up in Oregon for his sister's graduation, was a little butt toasty that he couldn't come on the trip. But on the day we were leaving, he realized that he could catch a ride with his dad who was driving down from Oregon. So we timed it perfectly and met him in Fresno at 1:30am, had some Denny's and we were on our way. We arrived at our campground at 4am

We decided to stay at Nelder Grove Campground south of the park because its around peak season and all the campgrounds were already full. It's kinda on this really beaten forest service road but we got a campsite so we didn't mind. After getting a solid 4 hours of sleep, we headed into the Valley for the day. 

No Yosemite trip is complete without stopping by Tunnel View. We took in the view for a bit, snapped a couple pics then bailed because it felt like 6 million degrees (to me)

Left to right: token photographer, token girl, token business owner, token hot single guy with cute dimples, token heat from the middle east, and James

 

(me, Shea, Luke, Tim, Gregor, and James)

 

The famous El Capitan. Still can't believe someone free climbed this in 4 hours

One of the most underrated views in Yosemite in my opinion, the view of Yosemite Falls from Swinging Bridge

 

After stopping in the Village for lunch and some groceries, we did the Vernal Falls hike via the Mist Trail, and boy I did not expect it to be as wet as it would be. On our way up, it literally looked like we took showers. It did feel really nice though because this Seattelite was dying from the heat (I also have a gnarly watch tan now)

We totally hopped a fence for this pic but other people did it so we're ok right?

I honestly don't remember what this spot was called but it had an amazing view of both upper and lower Yosemite Falls. I liked how the grass looked and how the Falls were in the back so I decided to do a little mini shoot

 

 

Shea was wearing work-out/OC hiking clothes (Lululemon everything) and wasn't super into the way her hair was looking so I thought hey, I have a blanket and my hat so let's use that, and I'm pretty stoked about the photos that turned out and loving how my new preset is looking. M5 forever (I hope you know I'm kidding)

And why not? Get a photo of myself for once right?

Sisters for life!!!!!!!! @theta @chandler

Who's man is this (McKenna Yeskin's amirite)

We decided we'd stop by Tunnel View one more time on the way out to get it in better lighting. But as we were about to leave Tunnel View, we were like "hey, why don't we just go to Glacier Point because what else are we gonna do". So off to Glacier Point we went

 And man, were we treated to a good sunset. Some of my favorite people, one of my favorite places in the world, and an incredible sunset. What more can you ask for?  

So glad Gregor got to come on this trip. If you don't know Gregor, I'm sorry for your loss. He is one of my favorite people in the world. Gregor, thank you for your kind heart, your friendship, and your ridiculousness. I don't know how I would've made it through SM without you. Glad we met on a bus on the way back from HSM camp

Per usual, this trip wouldn't be complete without us doing stupid things. So why not hang off a cliff that has a sheer 3,200 foot drop? Gotta do it for the 'gram right?

My partner in crime. James, none of these trips would be complete without you. Well, other than the fact that we haven't done a big trip without each other. Keep dreaming big man. Can't wait for the next trip. See you in the office tomorrow

I had to continue the hat and blanket pics, they just fit so well with the rest of the colors. Thanks for dealing with my photo ideas Shea (it was her first time going to Yosemite!)

Hey Brixton, you wanna send me free hats? K thanks

Don't try this at home. I'm definitely not a professional. Shoutout to my new Ultraboosts as well

One of the best views I've ever seen for sure. Sunset made it so much better. So when we left Glacier Point, we were originally planning on going back to Nelder Grove to camp, but we stopped in Wawona and tried to see if we could stay in some of the open spots even though it was reservation only. We didn't have any luck, so we decided just to go back to Nelder Grove. But about 10 minutes away from the campsite, Luke says "what if we just booked it home right now" and nobody said anything. I kinda just went "Huh. That wouldn't be bad. We pretty much did everything besides Taft that we wanted to do". And nobody objected to it. So at 9:30pm, we decided we'd call the trip early to spend Wednesday to relax and for James to do homework. And with that, we did Yosemite in one day.

 

To Shea, Luke, Tim, Gregor, and James, thanks for making this trip so much fun. I could go to the most incredible place in the world but it just wouldn't be the same without you guys. You guys are what made the trip. Yosemite was just the destination. Until the next one

                                                                          fin