Yosemite – Part I

A friend threw over the opportunity to head up to Yosemite for the weekend when a campground reservation opened up.

I started joking with my buddy, Hui over IM that he should fly out here from DC and head up to Yosemite with us.  A long pause on IM had me wondering if he was actually checking air prices.

Ten minutes later, the flight was booked and Hui was joining us.  The more, the merrier, I say.

Of course, we ran into horrible traffic leaving the Bay Area and barely made it to the treacherous switchbacks of Priest Grade on 120 with the sun fast fading into night.  The moon rose from the horizon, very nearly full.

By the time we arrived at the campground, darkness had fallen and Gabe set about procuring dinner while we got the campfire going.

The conversation was dotted with long pauses of silence as the fire roared away and the silver moon hung low and fat in the sky.

Next morning found us doing a bit of bouldering in the morning, then a mid-day lunch break at the beach of a small lake nested in between the bare granite peaks of Tuolumne Meadows.

After lunch, we decided to head out to the ghost town of Bodie, which was just over the Tioga Pass.  We crossed the back of the Pass at 9,990 feet and quickly descended over 3000 feet into the Mono Basin.  Bishop was only sixty miles south of us.  I joked to my friends that I was gonna turn south and head into Bishop.

But we went north instead, towards Bodie.

Check back tmrw for more pictures!