hiking in Yosemite.

One of my favorite activities is hiking in beautiful places. If there was a profession in this I would gladly do it.....unfortunately, I am not sure anyone would pay me to hike. Amy and I both really love to hike. Our first day in Yosemite we didn't think we had enough time to do a long hike so we chose one that went to a point a little less than halfway up the Yosemite falls trail. It supposedly took 6-9 hours to hike the whole trail up to the top of the falls. We hiked for a while and got the "point" we were going to stop at and it was sort of a lame little overlook into the valley. We asked several people how much further it was to the top...I might have gotten a big smile on my face and a crazy look in my eye and that was it....we weren't stopping...we were going to try and hike the whole thing. Well...we did it....over 9000 feet in several hours less than they said it would take. Some would contribute it to gravity. Here is a picture of Yosemite Falls. We hiked all the way to the top of that...

About 30 minutes or so past the first point where we had planned on stopping, we turned the corner and saw this...

There was also a beautiful rainbow at the bottom of the falls at this viewpoint.

We both agreed that it was strange that they would map out a hike that stopped where the one we started did....I mean it was a really lame little look-out not close to the waterfall and only a short little bit later was this glorious sight. We were super glad that we didn't stop, but it even got better after this.

My favorite tree...Amy's favorite tree...

The top of this hike was the highlight of the trip. The entire trip was absolutely amazing, but this part was favorite! It was a great hike with amazing views of the Valley from the top as well as an amazing view of the waterfall. It was glorious.

At the top...

Amy has these really nifty zip off pants. She wore them as shorts that day, but decided to bring her pants legs along in case it was cold later. It was pretty chilly at the top, so she decided to put them on. I snapped a picture and it came out looking like she was an amputee. Pretty funny.

The flowing water at the top of the waterfall...

Maybe we are both looking out trying to comprehend the beauty and depth of this amazing sight.....I really could have stayed up there all day long....in fact, I could still be up there right now.

More random candid shots.....they are favorite....