Yosemite in Autumn

We arrived at Yosemite Friday night, about 8pm, hauled everything into our tent cabin in Curry village, and got pizza at the cafe. The highlight of the evening were the raccoons, who came right up under the cafe tables, looking for something to scrounge.



Saturday morning was drizzly and misty. The walls of Yosemite Valley were barely visible above us. It reminded me of Portland, and I thought- this is beautiful! I could live in Portland again, I could do this...


Kate and Bridget got raccoons, inspired by the previous evening.


Since it was raining, we (and everyone else) spent the morning riding the shuttle bus around to various indoor exhibits, including the museum, visitor center, Ansel Adams gallery, and the Miwok village replica.

Here is Bridget, waiting for the bus.

One great benefit of the rain was that there was actually water in Yosemite Falls. The last time we were here, in August, I kept pointing to a dark spot on the cliff, and saying, see, in winter, there's a huge waterfall there! Although it wasn't huge, it was lovely to see it, and it only lasted the day.




Apparently the waterfall inspired everyone to stick out their tongues.


It began to clear, a little, and we could finally see Half-dome.

Here are Bridget and Kate waiting for the bus outside the Awanhee.


After a cold night, Sunday was clear and glorious. We took the bus to the road to Mirror Lake.

Much time was spent looking up.


Mirror Lake is becoming Mirror Meadow, turns out.


Requisite group fishbowl photo.

The rest of the day was fabulous and sunny, but I ran out of camera batteries. We had lunch on the river at Housekeeping Camp, and then Ice Cream at Yosemite Lodge. We walked over to the Swinging Bridge (which was dissapointingly stable), and played at the beach there, in the golden meadows below Yosemite falls.